Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1920 — COUNTY EDUCATIONAL NOTES. [ARTICLE]

COUNTY EDUCATIONAL NOTES.

A very successful as well as novel joint township institute was held in the auditorium of the new high school building at DeMotte last Saturday. The school corporations participating were Keener, Kankakee, Wheatfield and Wheatfield town. Miss Margaret Marshall, principal of the DeMotte schools, presided. AH teachers were present except Mis Rosa Feldman, who is a Keener township teacher. The County Superintendent, Trustee C. E. Fairchild and the local minister were present also. The forenoon work was given over to discussions of paints relative to problems that confront the teachers in their daily work as suggested from the institute outline. The vigorous discussions kept the institute alive from the’ time it opened until the noon hour arrived. The dinner had been previously planned by Miss Addie Harris, domestic science teacher at De Motte, and Miss Marshall. The teachers retired from the auditorium to the dining room where they found a table—superbly decorated. The place cards revealed the fact that St Valentine had not been forgotten. The walls of the room were decorated with portraits wof Washington and Lincoln, both of which were draped with American nags. The entire room decorations were expressions of plain and appropriate recognitions of America’s two greatest patriots. There were also samples of domestic science sewing and agricultural collections thus linking patriotism and industry as twin subjects taughts in the schools. After each teacher had found her place at the two tables announcement was made that all should remain standing to sing the first stanza of America. A chorus of high school boys and girls lead in the singing in an adjoining room. This* furnished an excellent patriotis setting for the many after dinner speeches that followed the superbly prepared and served dinner. Miss Margaret Marshall acted as toastmaster and started the speaking off by announcing that an attempt would be made to do triple honor to St. Valentine, Washington and Lincoln in the after dinner speeches. Ransom Halleck, a junior in the DeMotte high school, was introduced by the toast master and he responded—tby~~readmg Jefferson’s “Character of Washington,” after which he spoke Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” The young man stood under the portrait of the pa-' triot whom he was eulogizing, in 1 each rendering. Miss Marshall called upon a number of the teachers who gave appropriate tales and stories in memory of either Lincoln or Washington. Those who responded were Mrs. Fred W olf, Grace Poole, Margaret Delahanty, Lottie

Porter, Lila Delahanty, Supt. L. J.' Arend, William May, Grace Knapp, Nina Yeager, Paul W. Ashby, Margaret Yeager, Mrs. Huntington. After the eulogies from these teachers were given the toastmaster presented the local minister at De Motte, who paid some excellent tributes to Abraham Lincoln. This’ program was closed <by Opal Hal-1 Teck, another junior in the DeMotte high school, who recited an ode on the life of Washington and Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Cap-_ tain.” The patriotic 'thrill that as a stimulus to when -nfime from this program will ’ serve they resume their work so that the. spirits of these two greatest of America’s leaders will be imparted to the children under their supervision, thus serving as a guide towards making our young people in northern Jasper one hundred per cent American.