Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1912 — To Patrons of the Public Schools. [ARTICLE]

To Patrons of th e Public Schools.

With the high school in a building of its own, the old building, formerly occupied by the high school, is now available for the use of the grades below the high school. Grades six, seven and eight have been assigned to this building. These grades have been organized into a department and are in charge of four teachers. Miss Mildred Vanderburg, who will be principal of the building; Miss Clara Holmes, who has charge of the seventh grade: Miss Bessie Wiley, who has Charge of the sixth grade, and Miss Edith Easthman, who has just been &ddsd to the Rensselaer corps hf teachers. Miss Easthman comes from Terre Haute, Ind., and is a graduate of the state normal school there. The work in these grades now will be largely departmental. Miss Vanderburg will teach reading and geography; Miss HolmeS. will teach arithmetic and English; Miss Wiley, geography and history, and Miss Easthrnam will teach grammar, reading and writing. This plan Oif organization will make it easier to introduce such special subjects as sewing, manual training, etc. Provisions have been made for work in these

subjects to begin in a few days. Mr. Hopkins will have the boys in maniual training. Anew room for this work has been provided in the new high school building. A complete equipment in the way of benches, tools, etc., has been purchased and will be used in this department. The work in sewing will be in charge of Miss Wiley. A special room has been provided for this puri>ose. In both the manual training and the sewing the system provided by the Progressive Industrial Education

Company, of Indianapolis, will be used. This system has been in use im some of the good schools of the state for several- years. Wabash, for example, iw making use of this system. The plan is for the company to furnish all the material needed and aTso furnish each child with printed Instructions how to proceed with the making of each separate article, both in the sewing and the manual training. The work of the teacher will be to see to it that these instructions are carried out. The lessons furnished have been prepared by three of the most prominent teachers in industrial work and are very clear and explicit in their instructions.

The three grades have been distributed in four rooms. Room one will have grades six and seven, room two will have grades seven* and eight, room three grades eight, and room four grade six. The pupils have been been divided so as to have about the same number in each room, but there will be no difference in the work* done by the different divisions of any grade. For example, the portion of the seventh grade who are in room two will do just the same work and have just the same instructors as the portion' of the seventh grade who are in room one. Eadh teachei* will have general charge over a certain room, but she will not be in this room at all hours of the day. At certain periods she will be teaching her particular subject in some other room. It will thus be seen that the new department will be in some respects like the high school. It will serve as a sort of transition school between' the grades and the high school, yet it will be complete la itself. One of the objects in organizing the school in this manner is to lessen the break now existing between the grades and the high school. There are many advantages in this for® of organization, and the hearty co-operation of the parents is earnestly requested to the end that it may be made highly successful. W. F. CLARKE, Superintendent.