The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-10-17
TEACHERS GROUPS
ATTENDED BY 397,
OFFICERS CONFER
Deputy Supt. W. E. Parsons Ad-
dresses Board Representa-
tives on School Topics

State Education association split into
group meetings at the VIII school
building this morning and continued
activities on that basis throughout
the day. The forenoon attendance
at these meetings was 1877.
In addition to the teachers meet.
ing, the school officers of the Slope
area also held sessions at which
problems pertaining to school board
functions were considered. H. O.
Pippin, superintendent of Stark coun-
ty, presided at the officers meeting.
w. E. Parsons, deputy state super
intendent Of schools, addressed the
officers session. Talks also were
given by representatives from var
louS counties. Parsons called atten-
ton to strides in the enrolment and
attendance in the last Is years, say
ing he believed that the gain was not
entirely due to enactment of a com-
pulsory attendance law. Rather, he
was inclined to think, 1t was due to
the increasing respect in which the
people hold the matter of education.
Deputy Parsons cited an enumera-
ton OF 100000 In 1905, with q record
ed enrolment of approximately 95,-
600 and an approximate attendance
OF $4,000, the equivalent Of 81 per
cent, while the latest figures for the
state public schools are 100000 enum-
Grafton. $4,000 enrolment and 49,
600 attendance, or 81 per cent. For
high schools the attendance IS years
Il nOn gfNnG Of A mn n@v,, ~ 49,
times that, or $4,000, he said. The
annual cost Of the state school sys-
TEN, he added, IS SIS, 900 900. This
was not what the state should spend.
it was what it was possible for It to
gather together for support of edu-
cation. For high school support
North Dakota is paying only about
half of the limit set by law for STAN
dardized schools.
Would Raise Requirements
Mr.. Parsops said requirements for
teaching in this state are not strict
enough. Teachers are coming In to
teach in North Dakota because it re-
quires only IL weeks normal train
ing In addition to a high school edu-
cation, while the adjoining states re-
Quire Sc months of normal training.
He also felt voters do not appre-
ciate the election of school board
members as they should. In the last
election in Bismarck, he suggested as
an example, only about 80 votes were
cast out of the enrolment of several
thousand. !
F. w. Petchell, president of the
Sioux county school officers organi-
cation, spoke on his idea of q school
officers convention. It was to not
overdo the speakers list nor to skimp
it. He also favored luncheons to-
gether, to promote willingness to
speak. This idea was Endorsed by
Deputy Parsons, who suggested that
county meetings should put on BAN
| quets.
President Pippin added q number
ct points, stressing the desirability Of
getting practical talks and results out
of the meetings.
Mrs. L. r. Woolery, Of Dunn county,
was assigned the subject Of state
school officers organization.
Hebr0n's Methods Outlined
The high school group met with
Lloyd G. Thompson, principal Of
Mandan high school, as chairman.
Miss Elizabeth Jones spoke of the
increasing use Of fiction for creating
interest in history and fixing its facts
and philosophy In the minds of the
students by the added romanticism
thus given to the subject.
The matter of modification Of the
Dalton plan, as adopted in the Heb
ron schools, was discussed in q paper
by Superintendent Shrum Of that
city. This is of the several ways
resorted to by educators to get away
from the Comenian idea that the
mouth Of the teacher Is q spring,
while the minds of the students are
cisterns into which the spoutings of
the school head must be allowed to
flow, or that the minds Of the stu
dents are jugs which must be gagged
from time to- time to see how much
Of the flow OF knowledge poured In
has escaped.
Hebron, he said, has adopted the
unit idea Of instruction from the
fourth grade on through the high
school. It consists Of four parts, SUI
pervised individual study, discussions,
testing and retesting. The units Of
work consist OF specific questions In
detail, part of the objective type and
part on the essay type. The work is
so laid out that not all of the facts
can be obtained from the basic tests
but must be sought in supplementary
sources and from encyclopedias. In
the ~discussional phase, observations
| taken in field work are brought In.
In the tests, true and false questions
are used, to eliminate the factor Of
guessing.
Harry Atwood spoke to the high