THE ALASKA FISHERMAN
Published the 15th of each month at Ketchikan, Alaska
WILLIAM L. PAUL, ATTORNEY FOR THE
ALASKA NATIVE BROTHERHOOD
Entered as second - class matter at the Post Olhce at
KETCHIKAN, ALASKA
SUBSCRPTION PRICE $2.00 FOR TWELVE ISSUES
OUR PLATFORM:
ALASKA FOR ALASKANS.
FULL TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
ABOLISHMENT OF ALL TRAPS.
COMPETENT CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.
WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH THE PUBLIC
SCHOOL 07 ALASKA
By DAN A SUTHERLAND.
The article in the September issue of The
TISHERMAN on “Standard Schools1’ lias brought
me considerable correspondence and several Alas
kans who have rec ntly vii.ted Washington "nave
made inquiry regarding the facts in connection
with the hopeless failure of four Alaska h.gh
school senior hoys to pass the entrance examina
tions for the Naval Academy at Annapolis. My re
ply has been to submit the report of the examin
ing beard as printed in the September number of
FISHERMAN, which is abrolutely correct and
which I here incorporate once more in order that
these who are interested in our Alaska schools
may study it closely and then decide whether the
boys or the school system was at fault:
1st Bey:
Geometry 0.2; Algebra 1.0; English abandoned; U.
S. History 2.1; Anc. Hist. 1.6; Physics 2.4.
2nd Boy:
Geometry 2.4; Algebra 1.3; English 1.2; U. S. H st.
2.9; Anc. Hist. 1.0; Fhysics 1.1.
3rd Boy:
Geometry 0.0; Algebra 0.0; English 2.0; U. S. Hist.
1.1; Anc. Hist. 1.8; Phys. 0,9.
4th Boy:
Geometry 0.5; Algebra 0.9; English 2.2; U. S. H;$t.
1.3; Anc. Hist. 1.8; Phys, 1.9.
The passing mark is 2.5. The highest possible
mark is 4.
Criticism of an educational system, or educa
tional methods, or of instructors, is not a pleasant
undertaking for any one, but as I have never yet
seen a word printed or uttered in public to indi
pate that the Alaska school system is not of the
very highest standard,—in fact, I have never
heard anything but glittering laudation of our
schools until the FISHERMAN article appeared.—
I am going to jar the sensibilities of the many Al
askans and the Alaskan press that is so well satis
fied with the past management of our schools.
My information is that the four boys who fail
ed to pass the Annapolis examination were bright
young men. That is to say, theye were somewhat
above the average person in intelligence and
would compare well with graduates of high
schools who are mentally qualified to enter uni
versities for classical courses.
I understand that most universities admit
high school graduates on certificate from high
schools, and one may well wonder if the boys who
failed so hopelessly in the Naval Academy exam
inations, as well as others who graduate from Al
askan high schools, have the proper training to
enter upon a college course.
The Alaska public school system has been so
long extolled in the Commissioner’s publication
and in the press of the Territory, which has al
ways taken its cue from the Ccm nissioner, that
any critical opinion is likely to be resented, but
the writer is quite impervitus to resentment of
the Alaska press or school superintendents and
therefore he makes the assertion that there is
something radically wrong with a system that
turns out frem its higher grades pupi’s so woefully
lacking in knowledge of the subjects they have
been taught through a per'ed of four years, as
evidenced in the case of the candidates for An
napolis. Perhaps the primary and grammar grades
are all right; my opin’on is that they compare fa
vorably with country schoo’s throughout the
United States. Without particular investigation
in the past, X have had the same assumption re
garding the If gh schools.
I believe I ?m now warranted in assuming
that pupils in at least some of the Alaska high
sThco.'s are not being properly taught. This as
sumption is not a reflest cn on the intelligence of
the pupils, but on the system under which they
are being taught.
Surely a Commiss’oner of Education should
take pride in the product of his work. The same
may be said of teachers. Doubtless the well edu
cated men and women who teach in our Alaska
high schools have the necessary knowledge, but if
the system by which they try to impart such
knowledge is of the hit or miss variety, their pupils
cannot reach a very high educational standard.
The Alaska Commissioner of Education obvi
ously cannot compel rigid, systematic methods of
teaching in the elementary grades throughout the