Evening star., 1933-09-10

system will have, in actual doll;
had with which to instruct som
year. This reduction in teaching
stiffest blow dealt the schools by
was eliminated by Congress frol
salaries in 1928.
The school authorities, with no al
Tentative, set about planning for the
coming season last Spring just as soon
as the appropriation figures were made
available. DR.. Frank w. Ballou, super
intendent of schools, and his staff of
officers sized up the problems, conceived
solutions, and laid the entire situation
with their recommendations. before the
Board of Education. A series of EXecu-
tive Committee meetings were held and
almost by the time the school doors
were closed for the Summer vacation
the school authorities and school per-
sonnel knew what they would do.
Now, those plans are about to be put
into effect. Teachers, who last year
and on previous years, taught moder
ately small classes this year. will find
themselves with much larger classes to
handle on their return to work. With
more children to be taught and fewer
only solution lay in dividing the total
enrolment into fewer and larger groups.
Whether efficiency will suffer materially
must be determined.
In the past, large classes have been
condemned as contrary to the modern
philosophy of education which calls for
closer contact between teacher and
pupil to promote individualism in the
student Conditions which are certain
to confront teacher and taught this
year. under which one woman will be
required to handle upwards of 40 chill
dren in a class tend to revert to the
old survival of the f1ttest" principle, it
has been argued.
Lesser tests to Which the local schools
will be put include such things as get
ting along on less supplies; prolonging
the use of badly worn text books; and
mics.
Three New Structures.
So far as buildings 60, only three new
structures will be opened next Monday
and one of these is merely replace
ment. The largest and perhaps most
important building addition this year Is
the new Rose Lees Hardy Elementary
School on Foxhall road at @ street:
Popularity referred to as the "Foxhall
Village School," this new building will
house the children not only of adjacent
Foxhall Village but those of much OF
the territory lying south to the Chesa,
peake & Ohio Canal and westward
toward Potomac Heights. In the past
the children of this thickly populated
section have had to go nearly mile
eastward to the Fillmore and Jackson
Schools in Georgetown, to the new
Horace Mann School in Wesley Heights,
a mile to the north, or to the Reservoir
and Key Schools, far to the west.
Named for Miss Hardy, the assistant
superintendent of schools who died
more than a year ago after brilliant
educational career which won her Ma.
tion-wide distinction in the educational
profession, the Hardy School is OF
Colonial design created for the District
of Columbia by the late Albert L. Har-
ris, municipal architect. The present
structure is only the first unit of, what
will be 16-class room and assembly
hall building.
The new Kenilworth School is the re-
placement Two years ago the original
KenilWorth buildings, many years old,
was abandoned as unsafe when the
front wall of the structure cracked.
That building was raZed and the stu
dents who formerly attended classes IN
it were housed in frame portable schools:
The new building takes the place OF
these frail units and is modern one
story brick structure.
The only other new school building
Is the addition to the Bancroft School,
at Eighteenth and Newton streets. This
school had been congested for several
years and the addition OF new rooms
will increase its facilities to a point
where they can more nearly adequately
cope with the burden the building
carries.
The William Howard Taft School,
which was to have been opened on the
first day of school, will not be COM
pleted until October Is, according to
the latest date set by the municipal
architects office This means that the
school will not be available for oc-
cupancy until the middle of November.
This building is sorely needed in the
great Northeast Washington area,
through which Rhode Island avenue
cuts as the main thoroughfare. This
is the school which attained consid-
cradle fame through the fight OF the
citizens of the section it will serve for
the restoration Of the cupola which
was an integral part of the structures S
design. The cupola was Topped of at
the instigation of Engineer Commis-
SlOQer JONI ~. NIOIWdlS, WlO, tA1Ou6AA
once overruled by his two fellow Com
missioners, took the fight to the sub
committee of the House Appropriations
Committee, where definite instructions
were given to omit the establishment.
The Phelps Vocational School, for
which colored pupils have waited while
they carried on their work in an
antiQuated elementary school building
at Vermont avenue and u streets, also
is being delayed This is the public
school building over which the Cata-
iafio Construction Co. has become en-
broiled with the Commissioners through
the companys failure to comply with
wage rate requirements.
The proposed woodrow wilson High
School, the new institution which is
to be erected in the Fort Reno Sec
ton Of Chevy Chase to relieve severe
congestion at Western High School,
appears, on the eve Of the opening OF
schools, even more ethereal. Although
: Congress appropriated funds for the
preparation of plans for this school
more than q year ago, delays have re-
suited while District officials bicker over
the simplification of the design.
Meanwhile, Western High School l.
faced with the continuation Of the
stagger plan Of student attendance
Under this plan q section Of the student
body Is deprived of all the educational
privileges which are part OF high
school life. The ban on NONRESIDENT