Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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in the machinery of government, has a good background for his career as a citizen. Francis Morong. THE COST OF EDUCATION Before we can talk about the cost of education we must first know what education is. Thomas Henry Huxley, a scientist, has given us perhaps the best definition obtainable. He says that “the chief purpose of education is to train the mind and will to do the work you have to do when that work is to be done, whether you want to do it or not.” If this is an accurate defini- tion of education and if training in school helps a person to do a specified task at the moment it should be done, then you and I and all of us should give the cause of education our whole- hearted support. We need more peo- ple in the world who can settle down to a task at a definite time and. stick to it until it is accomplished. It is not an easy thing to do ; in fact it is about the hardest thing which we have to learn to do. This is where the cost comes in, cost in time and effort as well as in money to the town and to the pupil. Comparisons are perhaps the best ways of showing the cost of education and also the manner in which the citi- zens respond when asked to donate to a cause helping education. We shall see, I think; that the cost of education in every case is exceeded by the return. Let us consider first the cost to the town to educate its future citizens. The town has to supply books and necessities to educate the pupil accord- ing to modern ideas and modern meth- ods which are constantly replacing the old. From the year 1916 to the year 1920 the average expense for educat- ing the pupils of the schools of Ips- wich was $50,772.80. The expense for the same work from 1920-1925 was $59,560.32, a difference of $8,787.52 which shows that modern times call for better and more extensive equip- ment and also shows that there are more children in the public schools to benefit by an education. Now let us consider the individual. From 1916 to 1920 the average cost per pupil was $47.40 and from 1920 to 1925 the aver- age was $55.56, an average increase of $8.16 per pupil. Besides the cost for the pupil is the cost for buildings and their upkeep. Modern times demand modern schools and modern schools de- mand money. We do not think any- thing of going to a store and spending a dollar or two, but if we are asked to give a dollar towards a new school we are insulted and we do not give the money. Statistics show that in 1925, we spent $27 for joy riding, pleasure resorts, and races, and only $1.29 for religious work. We spent $5.00 for jewelry and $0.08 for professors’ sal- aries. We spent $45 for luxurious foods and $10 on public schools. We spent $0.51 for firearms and $0.18 for foun- tain pens. We spent $2.58 on diamonds and $0.57 for typewriters. We spent $4.15 on near beer and $1.10 on edu- cational books. We need no more con- vincing proof than these figures of our short sightedness and of our willing- ness to spend lavishly on things which can yield us only temporary pleasure, at the same time begrudging a suffi- cient sum for those things of lasting and permanent worth. We are greatly indebted to R. H. Manning for the high school which we 28

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two which seem to us most important: obedience and honor, both of which will have a direct bearing upon the child’s later life. The child cannot be taught too soon to obey. If he cannot obey the commands of his parents, it is inevitable that he will fail to obey the laws of his country later on. Why do we have so many youthful criminals today ? According to most authorities on the subject, it is because they have not been taught to respect law in the home and it is, therefore, not strange that they fail to obey and respect a higher law. “The recent crime wave and all its disastrous effects” says John Howard, “are the result of a disorderly home govern- ment.” I wonder if every parent in this town knows where his child is every night, and sees to it that he is at home at a seasonable hour. Chil- dren not yet of high school age, cer- tainly not of an age to be beyond pa- rental control, have been known to be out late at night, and to have gone be- yond the bounds of committing merely mischievous acts. Next in importance to obedience in the home training for citizenship is, perhaps, honor. A country could no exist without honorable citizens. It isn’t even necessary to dwell upon the importance of honor as a necessary quality of a good citizen, for everybody realizes the value of being a person whose word and act can be trusted. The School and Church, if it has the chance, can supplement training in honor, but they can only supplement, and their work is much simplified if the child has been taught from infancy the true meaning of honor. A man trained to obey and to respect law, and who possesses a high sense of personal honor can never go far wrong in life and ought to be a credit to his coun- try. Passing on to the third institution which furnishes very valuable training in citizenship, we find that the School provides a more extensive training than we can conceive. The school is like a nation. It has its own government and its leaders. The leaders of the school will become the leaders of the com- munity, state, and perhaps the repub- lic. At school they learn that they must control themselves. It would be a tumultuous school-room if everyone did as he pleased. The teachers must maintain order or it would be impos- sible to accomplish anything. It is the same in the world. If the country is peaceful and law abiding, there will be much prosperity; but when the people become riotous and discontented, they are destroying the serenity of the na- tion and consequently its prosperity. Not only is the pupil taught these principles of good citizenship, but he is taught and comes to understand the different branches of his government which are varied and complex. He is taught to believe that the representa- tives of the people are working for the good of the country and not for any political end. The entire school popu- lation of today will be the citizens of tomorrow and it will be their duty to uphold the principles for which our fathers have lived and fought and so nobly died. And now we may say that the child who has been taught the true meaning of obedience and honor in the home, and of self control and cooperation in the school, and who has been instructed 27

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now occupy, but we feel it has served its purpose and outlived its period of usefulness. The building is not mod- ern, it is not large enough for the num- ber of pupils which occupy it: it has no recreation room; its laboratory is poorly equipped ; the assembly hall has to be used for a classroom; and the school library is about one-fifth as large as it should be. With a new building the principal and the faculty would be able to work more efficiently and to produce better graduates. With a gymnasium and equipment, better athletes would constitute the teams, and there would be greater competition between our school and outside schools. It is in the high school that the young people really begin their career; it is in the high school that we learn how to live and to get along with others ; it is there that we learn to cooperate with and to be guided by others so that we may succeed; and it is there that we get our background for a start in life. How important it is then that we get the best start pos- sible by being provided with a modern building and equipment, which are regarded in educational circles today as necessities. Nor is it all a matter of paying out, for although the town does get a money return later in the form of taxes paid by prosperous citizens it has helped to educate, there is a greater return that cannot be reckoned in terms of mone- tary value, but which is of much greater and permanent value to the town. Its greatest assets and reward are the loyal citizens who have been trained- for leadership in its schools. It is in this way that the town is repaid with inter- est for the cost of educating its youth. But on the other hand, if it costs the town something to educate the pupils, it costs the pupil something to be edu- cated. The greater share of the burden of the expense of supporting the pupil during the school years rests primarily, of course, upon the parents, most of whom do not hesitate to make personal sacrifices to keep their children in school. However, among the boys especially, ' there are very many who have already learned how to work out- side of school hours and to help sup- port themselves. It is not difficult for these boys who have thus learned something of the value of money and who help to defray their own expenses during the educational period to realize something of the cost of education. Many of them, too, are sacrificing (for the present) regularly paying positions because they realize that the extra years spent in school will increase their earning capacity later. The pupil, however, has to sacrifice more than money in order to secure an education. Time and effort are no small items of expenditure on his part. There are so many occasions when sports and the great outdoor world ara calling and when books, seem deadly dull. But if he has learned the valu3 of an education (which brings us back again to Huxley’s definition) he will stick to the books until the lesson is learned, and in so doing he has learned one of the greatest lessons in life. In a very true sense, of course, one’s educa- tion is never completed. However, when one has finished his formal school- ing whether it be terminated by high school, normal school, college, or uni- versity, he has something which no other person nor any mischance can ever take away from him. And it is the knowledge that he possesses some- 29