Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1907 — SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

Schoolmasters in. Paris and other large cities of France have been forming themselves info “syndicates" or unions, which are affiliated with the general labor federation. The movement was instigated by the socialists, and the teachers do not conceal that their purpose is to spread socialistic doctrines. Thus, the problem is presented of schools supported by the whole people becoming the instrument of one political party. Special legislation may be necessary. Supt. John F. Riggs of lowa, in his annual report, urges legislation to suppress fraternities and secret societies among public school pupils. He regards such organizations as a standing menace to discipline, and as promoters of clannishness and snobbery, while they place allegiance to the fraternity above that due the school. He says, also, that they lead to extravagance, and sometimes to dissipation, anti militate against the democratic spirit of the public school. The latest annual report of United States Commissioner of Education Elmer E. Brown, covering the year 1905. shows a total of 18,896.213 pupils in public and private schools. The length of the school term in days averaged 150.3. There were at~wofk 111,195 male teachers and 348.532 female teachers. The cost of public

education was $3.19 per capita^.. Commissioner Brown notes the rapid increase in the number of students receiving secondary instruction. Educational leaders will be watching with great interest the experiment about to be undertaken by the Philadelphia board of education in fitting up a public school house as a sort of public or neighborhood duty for the boys and girls. There will be a reading room, a play room and a place for lectures or entertainments, while provision will be made for manual training, the entire expense to be borne by the city. The building will be open two evenings a week from 7 to 9 and the attendance will be voluntary. A prize offered in New York for the best school room game for girls has been awarded to Max Liebgold for a game which he calls balloon ball. Instead of balls, small balloons are used, the object of opposing t<Ams being to project them through the air over elevated tape lines representing goals. The lightness of the balloons makes it difficult to direct their course, but only adds to the interest, while the exercise of looking upward and raising the arms above the head is thought to be beneficial, especially after periods of study, during which students are bending ovqr their books.

THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE