Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1923-05-17
County Normal commencement

Much interest was manifested in
the County Normal commencement
exercises held Monday evening in
the high school auditorium, every
seat being filled. The invocation
was made by Rev. Frank Gillian,
who also pronounced the benedic-
ton. The program included a talk
by Miss Mary White on the subject,
industrial Arts in the Elementary
School" Miss White discussed the
importance of such, in very capa-
BILE manner, her delivery being
splendid VIM. Embree, whose fame
as a poet had preceded him, gave a
short original poem. No name was
given it, but we would suggest that
it be called "The life worth while. ="
Miss Gertrude Anderson beautifully
sang "The four leaf clover" The
vaIedictory was by Mr.. Roy Apple
man. His subject was Political
Morals" 1t was a sound sincere
practical discussion forcibly deliv-
>ered, and dealt with moral indie
pendence in politics. Among the
many excellent points he brought
cut was that he would make pOliti-
cal trickery, high treason. We re-
gret that our space is too limited to
go into a fuller discussion of the ad-
dress.
George nj Morris, who is supervis-
or of the rural schools of the state,
made the class address. He said
that there were l, 800 county normal
graduates this year, and Morgan
county with her 26 furnished her
full quota. He then recited some
interesting school figures showing
that there are over 10000
pupils in the state in our high
schools; and all the pupils in our
schools number over one and a half
million. In the United States there
are twenty million school pupils,
and 100000 teachers. These figures
were given to show what big thing
our educational system is. The num-
her of illiterates in the state who
can neither read nor write. he said,
is $4,000. The removal of this black
spot he stated is part of the duty
our teachers have to perform. While
we have made wonderful progress
in our schools in the past few years,
the speaker declared it would take
several more years, before we have
top notch" schools. He strongly
defended the present school system,
though aware of the fact that it has
been severely criticised in different
parts of the state, this county in
cluded! He emphasized the point
that education is the greatest field
in the world in which to work. He
believes that we have better teachers
now than ever before, and the future
will see still better ones. Speaking
of our own school, he passed the
compliment that there is not a high
school in the state doing better work
than the one here, and his remarks
were based upon facts as he finds
them as a school inspector, which
position he has held for number
of years, during which he has in
spected hundreds of schools from all
over the state.
County Superintendent F. A. Dav-
is was on the program for the pre-
sentation' of diplomas. However he
said he was in prdicament, since
there were no diplomas to present
explaining that after the students
graduate from the county normal,
they are given trial certificates good
for one year, at which time if they
make good as teachers, diplomas
will be given them. Mr.. Davis took
occasion to speak a few appropriate
words to the graduates
The instrumental music was fur
nished by Mrs. Justus Alderman,
piano; Carl Ross, saxophone; Har-
old Savage, cornet; Eleanor Erwin,
violin; John Stahl, drums, and AL
bert Miller, clarinet.