SCHOOLS
-x
The Bureau of Education, ac
cording to the last available re
port, sustains 97 schools in Alas
ka with 3,775 pupils and 177
teachers. In addition there are
three industrial schools with 279
pupils and 27 teachers or a
grand total of 100 schools, 4054
pupils and 204 teachers. To the
latter should be added six dis
trict superintendents. To this
provision for native education is
to be added the schools for
white children sustained by the
Territory, municipal and out
side of incorporated towns.
And there are also the schools
maintained by the missionary
organizations and the College of
Mines and Agricultaure at Fair
banks. In the matter of educa
tional opportunities the young
people of the Territory are lib
erally provided for.
A second deduction is that the
native people are improving the
facilities offered for their edu
cation. There has been encour
aging cooperation on the part of
parents in the native villages.
Truant officers have been zeal
ous, and the children have gen
erally been required to be in
school. All this indicates a grow
ing appreciation of the meaning
and purpose of education. The
day has passed in which native
parents must be urged to place
their children in school. Even
those who have been denied the
advantages of education them
selves are eager to have their
children trained for the respons
ibilities of the citizenship which
has been thrust upon all—pre
pared or otherwise.
It also seems evident that the
natives of Alaska are more and
more intent upon higher educa
tion. “Readin and Ritin and
Eit.hmetic” no longer suffice.
The seeds of ambition are devel
• > the minds of native
young men and women. Very
properly they are aspiring to fill
professional positions and to
(.ualify for business responsibili
ties. To this end it is essen
tial that facilities be offered in
Alaska not only for High School
but also more advanced courses
and for those who qualify for
coilegte and university. With
the ambition for meeting the re
sponsibilities of civilized life
there must be coupled the op
portunity for adequate prepara
ationi— (Sitka) Verstovian.
THE CHILD’S BILL OF RIGHTS
-X
W. W. Carpenter of the George
Peabody College for Teachers,
suggests the following bill of
rights for the school child:
..Every Child has the light:
1. To attend school every day
during the school term, and go
to school, the same number of
days in the year as every other
child.
2. To be instructed by a
trained teacher.
3. To go to school in a build
ing free from fire hazard.
4. To attend school in a build
ing that is located in a healthful
environment: that is scientific
ally built and equipped; and that
is kept sanitary.
fi. To be transported to school
if the travel distance is too
gi eat.
6. To succeed in school.
Every child has the right to
j-ttend a school:
7. Where medical and dental
inspection are available without
charge.
8. Where organized play is
considered a normal activity and
is nrovided.
0. Where the love of home,
the desire for its improvement
and an appreciation for the
beautiful and the good are
taught.
10. Where cooperation in ac
tivities is encouraged.
H. Where appreciation of so
ciety, its struggles and victories
is made clear; its challenge to
the future made personal.
21. Where the selection of the
life work of each individual is
not left to chance.
13. Where the individual is
trained for his life work.
14. Where the problems of the
fchcol come from problems of
the community, state and na
tion and not altogether out of
books.—Indiana Education News.
MT. McKINLEY ?-JATSONAL
PARK
The Department of the In
terior is planning to speed up
the the development of the Mt.
McKinley National Park in Al
aska, in order that its unique
wealth cf animal life and its
magnificent scenery may be eas
ily accessible to the American
touring public. Already con
struction work on the road
across the park to Copper Moun
tain, 80 miles from the railroad,
is sufficiently advanced that, by
the end of the 1931 season, a
modern hotel will be erected at
this point from v/hich excellent
views of the mountain itself and
of the Alaska Range may be had.
Mount McKinley is the highest
mountain in North America, and
in addition has the distinction
of rising higher from its base
than any other mountain. Not
even the far famed Himalayas
lise so far above their own base.
Of McKinley’s total height of
20,300 feet above sea level, the
greater portion, or about 17,000
feet, rises above timberline and
above the tundra-covered pla
teau stretching away on its
north and west. Two-thirds of
the way down from its summit
1 lie mountain is blanketed in
glistening snow, upon which the
summer-long sunsine plays with
marvelous effect. Great glaciers
flow down its southern and east
ern slopes through a region of
Arctic sublimity.
Especially interesting are the
great herds of wild animals that