Lacon High School - Tickler Yearbook (Lacon, IL)

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L THE VIEWPOINT OF THE DIRECTORS The public school is the bulwark of Americanismg the little red school has been the slogan for advancement and civilization in the Ynited States for many years: from every hill and vale the youth of America have gone forth from these institutions to become better men and women, not along educational lines alone, but in a moral way. The success of the school is not always due to perfect attendance, nor to the ability of the teacher, for these may be 100 per cent perfect and yet the school would not be a suc- cess: there must be, on the part of the teacher. the faculty to impart. and on the part of the scholar the power or gift to receive or grasp. The director of the board of education has some part to perform-to see that the school is in the highest state of efficiency. The question then evolves itself into how this can best be done-what province has the direc- tor or the board of education in this work? They are the immediate agents in their communities for making proper provisions in that those who attend school may receive a good education. This means good buildings. fine ac- commodations, well ventilated rooms, and good instructors: but school trus- tees cannot do these things alone: they must have the co-operation and unity of action by those who are interested in up-to-date educational institutions and, especially, by those who have children. Co-operation and unity of action are needed in school work far more than in any other one thing. llere it is that the boy and girl spend the greater part of their first fifteen years: here it is that character and morals are moulded for the boys and girls that are to become the future men and women. The greatest problem and the most difiicult task that confronts not only the parent, but society. is the rearing of the boy and girl: they are plants. plants that need attention all of the time. They must be cared for and cultivated, they must be given the best surroundings that money can obtain, not alone in the home. but in the community. XVhat does it matter if we do spend a few more dollars to give them that which cannot be taken from them, namely, an education? ls it not an asset that can be realized upon at any time and under almost all circumstances? Even if these boys and girls are not our own. why not be interested in the welfare of others? VVhat would our beautiful little city

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L be if our forefathers had not planted trees. watered and protected them? They were looking ahead, not alone for their own pleasure. but for those to come after. So it is with us. Let us look ahead along educational lines, pre- pare for those who are to come after, and with all of us helping those who are chosen as ministerial officers ltrustees and board of educationl, make our community the very center of learning and the best place to live and rear our children HOMER BARNEY. GEORGE SMITH, FRANK BARR, GEORGE CONV.-KN. HARRY HEXTER. LEVVIS ALLEN, Board of Education, Lacon L'nion Schools. THE V IEWPOINT OF THE FACULTY OUR AIM The writer does not claim the following ideas as orig- inal with him. He has drawn freely from two books, The lluman Factor in Education, by james Monroe, and Com- munity Organization, by joseph Kinmont Hart. These books are to be highly recommended to those interested in the social view of education. The writer hopes that in some sniall degree he will set Lacon people to thinking along these lines. Education is a word found in the everyday vocabulary of a great ma- jority of people and yet there are so few that really perceive all that the word implies. The ordinary layman associates the word only with the activities of the school proper. All children labor under the delusion that education is going to school. XYith hundreds of people education has lost the most important part of its true significance. and legion are those who associate it with but one of the true phases of human development, that of the mind. Men seem to have temporarily forgotten that human nature is threefoldg that every child has a body to properly care for and develop as well as a character to develop for good or bad.