An Open Letter to
riargaret Keenan Harris
Of McCarthy
SUBJECT—SCHOOLS AND HENDERSON
Dear Mrs. Harris:
June 20, 1929
I have read with some surprise
your commendation of Senator
Dimond for his support of L. D.
Henderson for reelection as
Commissioner of Education.
I note that you assert that
“politically” you have not al
ways agreed with Mr. Hender
son. How could you and be loy
al to the W. C. T. U?
If the candidates favored by
Mr. Henderson had been elected
in either 1925 or 1927, the Alas
ka Legislature would have re
pealed the Alaska Bone Dry Act
and for no other purpose than
to muddle the prohibition ques
tion.
His moral level is made plain
when he said he would have no
hesitation in inviting Tom Mar
quam and wife to take dinner
at his (Henderson’s) home.
“But that does not blind me to
the fact that our schools have
outstripped those of the states,
measured by any and all avail
able comparisons,” so you state.
Such a statement causes every
well informed person on our
schools to wonder just what in
formation you have on that sub
ject. I have a keen interest in
our public schools, with personal
experience in our two leading
cities—Juneau and Ketchikan.
My personal observation is that
there is no school in Alaska that
could be called “standard.” They
are all handicapped, first by
1 ^k of money, second, by an i">
ferior average teaching st iff
third, by the blight of tourist
teachers, and fourth by school
boards of inferior educational
standards, knowing little of
school methods or school history.
As to the inferior average
teaching stall, few of the capable
teachers come to Alaska, and if
they come, with few exceptions
they soon depart.
As to the lack of money, this
fact need not be argued, as a
hesitation in inviting Tom Mar
Alaska with those “outside” ob
viates that, especially when the
added cost of living is taken in
to consideration.
The blight of tourist teachers
is also a self-evident fact.
The fact of an inlc rior educa
tional standard of our school
boards is rather our misfortune,
it is due to the fact that we
simply do not have an educated
class of people from which to fill
these positions. The people of
Alaska are doing the best they
can from the material they
have. It is not possible to have
a good school system with school
boards of second or fourth
graders.
I do not mean to decry their
efforts. Rather, I am proud of
our high school graduates on at
tempting to enter West Point
and Annapolis. It is my informa
tion that not a single student
from Alaska but has failed to
make passing grades, and those
who have finally entered had to
spend at least one year jh a spe
cial preparatory school in which
their entire time was spent in
CORRECTING THE MISTAKE?,
OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM.
In the Ketchikan High School,
we have the spectacle of tlia
supposedly standard high schoc
giving only three years of En
g'lish. During the year 1927-192
and Lie next, Latin was and i ;
not even OFFERED, and the be
who wishes to enter a professic
is thereby handicapped in h
college entrance requirement
And in previous years, the teach
or who was employed by oi *
school board to teach Latin ha !
had ardy TWO years of Lati
herself, and was ignorant c
the modern method of teachir
Latin.
Our laboratories for Chemist1 -
and Physics are very inferior, ;
our science teachers readily a<
mit. And the curricula are lj
arranged that many studen ;
during the four-year course a 1
not able to get in both chemist /
and physics. The idea of a E •
olegy course in this day and a. ?
when not even one flower is an
alvzed, or not even a demonstr: -
lion experiment performed Ly
the teacher?
In the field of public speaking,
we seem to depend on the kic 1
natural ability and luck. Ce •
fainly no one is ever engaged be
cause of any special training i 1
that line. One result is this -
that literary societies, so cor.. -
mon in the States, are either un
known in our public schools or
flourish for a day or two cl
or- ling upon the patriotic zc 1
of seme sacrificing teacher.
T will refrain from going ii
the subject of manual train j