Great Falls High School - Roundup Yearbook (Great Falls, MT)

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THE ROUNDUP S. D. Largent Superintendent of Schools »9 2 3

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THE ROUNDUP

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THE ROUNDUP % THE PRINCIPAL ' S MESSAGE OUR SCHOOL INCREASED school enrollment is perhaps a better index of the present demand for education than any other, yet figures are difficult to interpret. The increased size of educational institutions is amazing and the problems of administration are becoming more and more complex, yet the general public — and even those in attendance — find this difficult to appreciate. A few facts concerning the size of our own high school may prove illuminating. The enrollment in the Great Falls High School is twelve hundred and fifty. No auditorium in the city is large enough to seat the school com- fortably. Extended in a line, hand to hand at arm ' s length, its members would span over a mile. Two abreast and each couple ten feet behind the preceding, the pupils and faculty would form a procession a mile and a quarter long. The head of such a procession would be well through the business district of the city when the tail would still be in the high school. Were each member of the faculty teaching continuously throughout the school day successive classes of twenty-five pupils, at all times there would be a surplus of one hundred and fifty pupils. Classes actually enroll about thirty pupils each. Class periods are forty minutes in dura- tion. Allowing one fourth of that time to the teacher, thirty pupils par- ticipate in class work in as many minutes — one minute of recitation for each pupil. How is a school of over twelve hundred administered? This question was recently put to me by a resident of one of our county seats. My reply was somewhat as follows : Your town has a population of six hun- dred. You have a mayor and a city council, a marshal with the power of arrest, and a court with the power of compelling the truth, of calling upon the aid of a jury, and of fining and imprisoning. Our high school enrolls a civic body of more than twice the size of your whole town. It has none of your administrative officers and none of their powers, yet with but comparatively few rules and regulations teachers and pupils work together very peaceably. In general, our pupils are above the average in education and are capable of appreciating the democratic principles of doing only that in which all may reasonably participate. % 9 2 3 elfiht