Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1920 — COUNTY EDUCATIONAL NOTES [ARTICLE]

COUNTY EDUCATIONAL NOTES

A very successful as well as novel joint townAip institute was held in the auditorium of the new iigh 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. All teachers were present except Miss 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 points 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 tiinie it opened until the noon hour arrived. The dinner had been previously planned by Miss Addie Harris, domestic science teacher at Demotte, and Miss Marshall. teachers retired from the auditorium to the dining room where they found a table superbly decoratedThe place cards revealed the fact that St.- A>alentine had not been forgotten,, The walls of the room

were decorated with portraits of Washington and Lincoln, both of which were draped with American flags. 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 taught in the schools. After each teacher had found her place at the two tables announcement was made that all should remain standing to sing thu first stanza of America. A chorus of high school boys and girls lead in the singjng in an adjoining room. This furnished an excellent patriotic setting for the many afterdinner 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 imiade to do triple honor to St. Valentine, Washington and Lincoln in the after-dinner speeches. Ransom Hr Heck, a junior in the Demotte high school, was introduced by the toastmaster and he responded by reading Jefferson’s " “Character of Washington,” after which he spoke Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” The young man stood under the portrait of the patriot whom -he was eulogizing in 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 Wolf, 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 Demotte, who paid some excellent tributes to Abraham Lincoln. This program was closed by Opal Halleck, another junior in the Demotte high school, who recited an ode on the life Of Washington and Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain.” The patriotic thrill that came from this program will serve as a stiynulus to the teachers when they resume thetr 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 100% American.