Granite City High School - Warrior Yearbook (Granite City, IL)

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all his work outside of school hours. Now the big question is. “What can be done to relieve the situation? One way to relieve it would be to build a Junior High School, or to transform this building into a Junior High School and build a new High School. This, of cou rse, takes money but it is absolutely necessary. A Junior High School would aid the situation in several ways. First, it would accommodate all the students of the seventh and eighth grades and the first year of High School, relieving pressure on the grade buildings as well. Secondly, it would probably solve the problem of Freshmen failures. Now if we had a Junior High School the students would be- come acquainted with the system of study in that school so that by the time they reached High School they would be thoroughly familiar with its workings and so less apt to fail Junior High Schools have proven successful wherever they have been established. In St. Louis they have their Junior High and it is very successful and 1 believe if such a school were built here it could never be built too large, for a town of this size. Many people object to sending their children to High School on the ground that we are too crowded to ac- complish good work, so you see that the problems of education are becoming greater every day. There is one more factor which in my opinion is very great and that is the Kindergarten. In St. Louis it has proven greatly successful, for it gives the small child a year of preliminary training before starting out on actual school work. In this city a child starts school at six years of age. Why not lower the age limit and give him a year of preliminary training? In Kindergarten the child learns the first principle of order. In many of our schools the child receives only a half day of schooling. Now isn ' t this wasted time? With the Kindergarten we would gain in the long run. for after starting school the child could settle right down to school work without wasting time on these preliminaries. Now. people of Granite City, we have tried to put before you some of Granite City ' s educational problems as they ap- pear to the students in the schools. Do you feel that they need attention? Do you realize that these are your problems wheth- er you have children in your home or not? Your problems because Granite City is your city and a part of the great coun- try which depends on the education of the masses for its security and prosperity? 1 leave for you to consider. ERNEST VEIHL, Valedictorian. Russell Moore: “He doesn ' t let study interfere with his good time.’’ Page Nineteen

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month. As you all know the teachers of our city have formed a union and have been admitted into the American Fed- eration of Teachers. Now. if this bill passes it will be very easy to eliminate the poor teacher. A teacher who receives a very low wage cannot really be qualified for a position. With this new wage scale a teacher will have to fulfill all re- quirements before being given a position. The eliminating of the poor teacher will greatly increase the efficiency of the schools and raise the standard of education a great deal. Another bill that is before the national Senate at this time provides for the increasing from $4,000,000 the present amount of money for education to $10,000,000. which would make It possible for schools to better themselves in equip- ment of all kinds. In Illinois there is one great missing factor which makes it difficult to have unified education thruout the state, and that is the matter of text books. Thruout the state the parents of the children must buy all text books used by their children. There is the question of free text books coming up thruout the state. If free texts were furnished bv the state, in all probabilities there would be one standard thruout. which would make it possible for unified education. In Missouri free text books are furnished and it is a great advantage. h ree text books would make it possible for the poor people to educate their children to a higher degree. Many families in our city take their children out of school at an early age and start them to work In the factories, because they cannot afford to pay for the text books which are very high, altho now the price is regulated bv law. Now if free text books were furnished it is very probable that these same people would keep their children in school much longer rath- er than see them go to work. This brings up another problem and that is the keeping of children in school until they are sixteen. In this city the factories make it very easy for a child of thirteen or fourteen to get a job” at a fair wage and rather than go to school he takes this job and nine chances of ten he stays right there and his education goes no farther. Of course, there are ex- ceptions but this is generally the case. All children ought to at least finish the eight grades, in fact, go two years in High School or elsewhere. In this district there are quite a number of students attending our High School that live out in the rural districts and have to pay a certain fee annually. There is a plan being worked upon by which our schools would become a township high school. This would greatly increase our district and make it possible for students to come in from the country at a low cost, while also lowering the city tax. Everywhere one hears of our crowded condition but it is impossible to realize how crowded we really are unless you have seen all the students packed in this auditorium some morning before sessions begin. We have 300 students attending here and only 240seats in which to accommodate them. For the last three years a great majority of our students have had to sit two in a seat, and certainly such condit ions are not conducive to the best re- sults. Next term your students will be more crowded than ever before. A census of the eighth grade shows there will be approximately 400 students attending High School. Now. in order to admit all these students it will be necessary to run two shifts. The first will be from 7:45 until 12:30, composed of upper classmen and the next shift will be from 1 p. m. to 5:30 o clock in the afternoon. This will make it necessary to employ more teachers and the student will have to get Page Eighteen

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KIH TATION ANI RECONSTRUCTION. (Condensed). Tonight we meet together for the last time as a class. This evening we have reached the crest of the foot-hills. We have encountered many obstacles in our upward climb and now at the top of these hills we again see confronting us diffi- culties far greater than before. The problems of today are difficult ones indeed. Right now we have the problems of reconstruction which are divided into two classes, foreign and domestic. France. Belgium and Armenia and all the war-stricken territories devastated by the Huns must be rebuilt. Rebuilding not only means the rebuilding of the beautiful palaces and buildings which were erected thru generations of unremitting toil but also the establishment of self-government and all that it stands for. We must show them the real meaning of self-government in order to develop their resources and raise their ideals and standards of living. This great task will depend largely upon the t ' nited States. boremost, among our domestic problems, we must consider the returning soldier. He has sacrificed everything just to save his country. Give him back his job. If he had no job when he left find him one now. He was ready to do anything, to give his time, his life, his all. Can we do less than find him employment? Another large problem at present, is the distribution of food, but underlying all these problems are the educational conditions. The actual necessity for a betterment of educational facilities in the Cnited States was not felt until the recent war A large per cent of the men were found to be illiterate when the great drafts took place and with the reconstruction work under way the value of education is becoming greater every day. We have reached the point where skilled labor and education are practically essential. Thus, vocational guidance demands its place in the educational system. It enables men and women to take as their life’s work that occupation for which they are best fitted. Lack of efficiency is another great problem in our educational institutions, highest efficiency but in order to obtain such trained men they must receive a in study and preparation. These institutions demand men of the salary in comparison to the years spent The basis of reconstruction, therefore, lies in the schools, for the demand of today is for college-trained men and wom- en. Thus the higher the efficiency of the schools the higher will be the standard of skilled labor and statesmanship. o secure efficiency in this matter of food-distribution, we must have managers of ability, intelligence and thoro pre- paration. Another question is that of reforestration. Ships, aeroplanes, and other war materials have made heavy demands upon our rapidly diminishing supply of timber and here again there is a call for experienced men of ability to take over the work in hand. Edward Moschell: “The world knows nothing of its greatest men.” Page Twenty