Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 238, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1916 — EDUCATING YOUR BOYS AND YOUR GIRLS [ARTICLE]

EDUCATING YOUR BOYS AND YOUR GIRLS

Terms of Rural Districts Short —Regular Attendance Vital—Visit Your School. Mt. Ayr Tribune. School has commenced and the year’s work is now under way. Every parent knows this and in most cases their knowledge of the situation ends with this fact. 1 *' There are many other things that you should know about our schools and I want to talk to you about two or three of them. First, are you going to see to it that your children attend regularly through the school year? This is of extreme importance. Irregular attendance robs a pupil of his or her rightful advantages. • The average daily attendance of pupils in the rural schools of the country is only 67.6 per cent. Think of it, country children are out of school, on the average, nearly onethird of the time. Are your boys and girls being robbed of their life prepintfcfe way Is their abseflee* due to your selfishness or carelessness?

Second, how long is the school year in your district? Do you know that the average city school year is 184.3 days, while the average country school year is only 137.7 days? In some states there are a few districts with only a4O day school term. On the average the city child gets 46.6 days more school per year than his country cousin. Is this fair? What are we in the rural districts going to do about it? Edward Everett said: “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standingarmy.”Benjamin H. Hill declared: No nation ever yet paid too much for. the education of its people? and the more it pays for this purpose the richer and more powerful it will become.” See to it that your boys and girls get their share. And see to it that they get their share in live interest as well as their share in time. Everybody knows that the child accomplishes more when the interest is keen than when allowed to grow lax. Visit your school, your visits will not only be welcomed by the teacher, but will be an inspiration to your .boys and girls. True, their studies may be beyond you, you may have been deprived of the higher branches, if indeed your boy or girl has reached the high school studies, but they will not be so far beyond you but that you will be able to comprehend something of the progress they are making and your very presence will create the necessary impetus that causes them to spur onward to the very best m them.