Loup City Northwestern
A LIVE NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN A LIVE TOWN
VOLUME XXXV.
LOUP CITY, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1915
NUMBER 1
The Schools and Teachers of Sherman County
by Professor L. H. Currier
County Superintendent
Appreciating the fact that the edu
cational question is probably the most
inresting and absorbing to all per
sons who have children of school, age
The Norhwestern deems it fitting to
publish all possible relating to the
same. With this in mind, we request
ed Professor L. H. Currier to pre
pare the article which follows:
In reply to your request, I am sub
mitting to the readers of your paper
at this time a brief report of the state
of the schools of the county and men
tioning some phase or phases of our
education needs. I will make a report
which will be as far as possible un
statistical and which I trust all school
friends will read.
1 wish to extend greetings to teach
ers, pupils, and parents of Sherman
county schools, and to congratulate
them on the success of their past ef
forts along educational lines.
While the school conditions in the
county are far from being perfect, yet
our schools are good, and the tendency
is toward improvement, and with the
active earnest, co-operation of all we
know that progress toward ideal con
ditions will be continuous. Reforms
and efficiency can be brought about
only through carefully planned and
long-sustained effort aud hearty co
operation.
We are all factors in the educational
movement, so let us realize our oppor
tunities as well as our responsibilities
and in a spirit of true helpfulness lend
a willing hand to aid in the work. Im
provement in the educational system
is not the work of any one person or
group of persons. It is the outgrowth
of experience and of the needs of the
people, based on successes and failures
of the past. We who are now direct
ing the educational work of the county
have laid upon us a grave resposibility,
in that we are training for citizenship.
The education of the people is the
largest business item connected with
the management of the state. The
schools assist in solving the fiscal and
social problems of the home and of
the state by increasing the productive
capacity of the people, by developing
a citizenship whose good behavior will
reduce the expense of criminal prose
cution and make additions to jails
and penitentiaries unnecessary, by
making every person a productive,
honest citizen who will put public in
retest above private gain. Ignorance
is a tax. and school is an investment
that pays two dividends, one in less
taxes and one in more property.
There are in Sherman county this
year seventy-six schools with only
two with less than eight months of
school while there are forty-seven
with a nine-month term. During the
past few years the schools have in
creased steadily in length of term
so that at the present time the aver
age term is a fraction less than nine
months. With more months of school
each year, the child and the teacher
will both feel a greater interest in
school work, and the pupils will be
able to complete the eight years’
course of study before they are
seventeen or eighteen years of age as
has been the case with some in the
past. More pupils would be able to
complete the course of study instead
of dropping out to work after the
fifth or sixth ' grade and the stand
ard of education would be materially
improved. This would also go a long
ways towards solving the problem of
keeping efficient teachers in the pro
fession.
From time to time I have made ad
verse comments upton the small sal
aries paid teachers of this county as
compared with the salaries in other
counties. I am now pleased to state
that the salaries compare quite fav
orably with those of other counties.
The average is still only slightly above
$50, but the minimum is $40, while
the maximum is $05. While it is re
membered that teachers are employed
for only eight or nine months each
year it may readily be seen that these
salaries are still inadequate to attract
and keep the best teachers in the
work.
Wherever it has been possible to
secure them, Sherman county teachers
have been urged for our schools as
home teachers understand the condi
tions and needs better than would
some outsider. Every qualified teacher
but two, in the county is teaching and
we still have twenty-four schools
taught by non-resident teachers. I have
visited every rural and town teacher
in the county since1 school opened last
fall and am therefore in close touch
with the work of the schools. Teachers
have been informed of the lines of
work to be emphasized during the com
ing school year. Hygiene has been in
the foreground for the past three
years; and we hope to make great ad
vancement along the lines of practical
sanitation this year. Reading, spell
ing, arithmetic and writing are to re
ceive special attention. Never in the
history of the county did we have a
higher grade of teachers than at the
present time. Never did we have
better qualified, earnest and devoted
workers in our schools. I am very
grateful to them for the professional
interest shown, for the spirit of har
k mony ami co-operation that exists and
^ for thf' Iffort to promote our schools
to r » ar standard of efficiency. A
fa #ago there were not many
teaci. h Sherman county holding
certificates above a second grade.
Today we have six teachers holding
life certificate, seven holding state
certificate, forty-six holding first grade
certificates, forty-four holding second
grade certificates and one holding a
third grade certificate. Every teacher
teaching in the county has had at
least eight weeks of normal training
or at least one year successful ex
perience.
Realizing the fact that success of
our public schools depend upon the
teachers who do the actual work of
instruction. I have always stood for
a ltigh standard for teachers. Some
one has said, “The state that has the |
They take proper sleep and exer
cise. They consider that their time
and strength belong to the children
whom they have contracted to teach.
Four years ago there was not a
modern school building in tiie coun
ty; now they are five. Three of these
were built within the last year.
“Modern” as applied to rural school
houses means that the building is
heated by a furnace or by a system
which distributes the heat equally
to all parts of the room. In a
modern school house fresh air is
warmed as it enters the building, and
the foul carbonic acid laden air near
the floor is removed. No school room
schools.” That is, they meet the
twelve minimum requirements of the
state department of Public Instruc
tion. Rural districts number 2, 38
and 25, are teaching the ninth grade
work this year and receiving full
credit from the state department for
one year high school work and is
listed as a “One year High School of
the Second Class.” All of these
schools are doing good work. Excel
lent work is being done in the two
room rural school in District No. 25.
With two teachers is made possible
better grading, more enthusiasm, and
consequently better teaching. The
school spirit in this district is excel
past two years every town school in
this county, with one exception, has
added another teacher this year.
Ashton, Rockville and Hazard have
each four teachers and Litchfield has
five.
The people of Ashton certainly
show a good public school spirit. At
the annual school meeting this year
they voted to erect a new school
building and voted a levy for that pur
pose. The object is to employ more
teachers and to add the full high
school course or at least the eleventh
grade. The schools at Ashton are in
excellent working order.
The Rockville schools are in ex
excellent work. This crowded condi
tion was relieved this year by the ad
dition of another teacher. This gives
all teachers an opportunity to do .the
best of school work. At a special
election held November 17th, bonds
for a new school house for Litchfield
carried, by 96 to 12.
The records of the Loup City
schools show a large attendance. The
school spirit is fine and good work is
being done. \Ve have a normal train
ing class of twenty-nine pupils this
year. Last year's class furnished the
county with fifteen teachers who have
had four year’s work above the com
mon school course and also a review
men has the present; the state that
has the schools has the future, the
state that has the teachers has the
schools.” The school is. largely in the
spirit of the teacher. Teachers are
employed to help children to be
strong and better and there are few
teachers who can succeed in doing
this without devoting their entire
time and energy during the school
year to the task of preparing and
keeping themselves prepared for the
work.
Teachers who keep late hours on
school-day nights seldom do good
work the following day. Such teacn
ers are irritable, listless, and weak
physically, and mentally. Our best
teachers are careful of their health.
can be well ventilated by windows.
It is granted that cold air can be
brought in and warm air let out by
this means, but some of the pupils
are subject to draft, and the foul air
which is always’ near the floor is not
disturebd. Thirty-five of our rural
schools are equipped with modern
heating and ventilating systems and
it seems that the time is not far dis
tant when every ^school will be
properly equipped in this respect.
In a “modern” school house the light
is from the left and rear of the pu
pils. Cross light and shadows with
their attendant eye-strain, are thus
avoided.
There are five schools in the coun
ty that may be classed as “standard
lent and Sherman county has made a
good start in having one real rural
high school for rural children. There
are five pupils in the ninth grade in
this district.
The record of attendance in Sher
man county has almost doubled in
the past four years and is far better
this year than it has ever been be
fore. This is due in a great part, no
doubt, to the special efforts of the
teachers and parents along this line.
I wish to urge upon the parents the
necessity of encouraging regular at
tendance. The money received from
the state this year is based on the
average attendance of the child.
Our town and city schools have
shown marked progress. Within the
cellent condition this year. Rock
ville is certainly a good school town.
The people take a great deal of pride
in their schools and have always
shown the right spirit toward school
work. There is some talk of a new
school building at this place.
The school at Hazard is on the up
ward road. There has been a steady
improvement in the school for the
past two years until now the condi
tions are very satisfactory. The
school spirit is fine and the people are
always ready to help in making con
ditions better.
Every room in the Litchfieldschool
has been crowded during the past two
years, but in spite of the crowded con
dition the teachers have been doing
i ■■■
of the common branches and the nor
mal training required by the state de
partment of Public Instruction. This
normal training in the high schools of
the state is an excellent method of
preparing better teachers for rural
schools. The high school pupils are
making good. I am well pleased with
the record they are making.
The school spirit in Loup City was
never better than it has been the past
year. The bonds for a new school
building carried by a large majority.
Our new school home is well started
and if all goes well the building will
be completed by the first of- next
August.
By constant efforts for improve
ments by the friends of schools in
this county we should easily make the
schools of Sherman county the best
in the state.
I wish to take this opportunity to
thank the school officers of the county
for their very hearty co-operation with
the county superintendent in his ef
forts during the past four years. I
also wish to thank the various news
papers for having from week to week
published the school news from this
office.
Very truly yours,
L. H. CUKKIER,
County Superintendent.
TALKS 4,600 MILES BY WIRELESS
TELEPHONE.
Bell Officials Send Message from At
lantic Coast to Hawaii.
Wireless telephony from the Atlan
tic coast to Hawaii, 4,GOO miles, a dis
tance greater than from Seattle to
Tokio, Japan, is an accomplished fact,
By the special wireless telephone de
velopments which have been made by
the engineers of the Bell Telephone
system, speech was transmitted last
Wednesday night from Washington,
D. O. to a wireless station near Hono
lulu. This last triumph came but a
few hours after Theodore N. Vail,
the president of the Bell company,
had talked by wireless from New York
to John J. Carty, its chief engineer,
who was at Mare Island near San
Francisco.
This wonderful wireless telephone
message from Washington to Hawaii
had to pass over the whole of the
United States before it encountered
the more simple wireless conditions
v.'hich exist when sending over large
bodies of water. For the purpose of
this test the sending was done from a
wireless station at Arlington, just out
side of Washington. The receiving
was done on a small wireless station
specially erected for the purpose by
the engineers of the Bell company at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The results obtained in talking by
wireless telephone from New York
and Washington to San Francisco and
Hawaii, were a culmination of long
and very important investigations and
discoveries which have been made
by engineers of the Bell Telephone
system. These investigations have
extended over a considerable period.
During the early spring of this year,
as a result of the work already done,
the engineers of the telephone com
pany talked over a distance of 250
miles, using for the purpose an experi
mental tower which they had erected
near Montauk Point, L. I., and a small
tower borrowed for the purpose at St.
Simon’s Island, Georgia.
The results of these tests so con
clusively demonstrated the correct
ness of their work and its possibilities
that steps were immediately taken to
try distances comparable with those
involved in trans-Atlantic telephony,
and, indeed, even looking to trans-At
lantic telephony. What the results
of these further tests have been is
shown by the talks to San Francisco
and Hawaii.
Another interesting feature of the
tests was the connecting of the wire
less telephone apparatus with a wire
telephone line. Mr. Vail in his talk
used a wire from New York to Wash
ington. At Washington, by special
means invented and developed by the
engineers of the Bell company, the
wires were connected to special wire
less apparatus where the message
went wirelessly to its destination.
The Bell Telephone officials believe
that wireless telephony has an im
portant place in the general scheme of
communication. They expect that it
will form a most important adjunct
and extension to their existing means
of communication, simplifying and sup
plementing but not substituting the
wire service. It will enable communi
cation with moving trains, ships at
sea, and other places where it is im
practical to extend wires. Telephone
officials say that wireless telephony
can never take the place of wire sys
tems because wireless telephony sys
tems are subject to serious interfer
ence from numerous conditions, at
mospheric and others, and that the
fact that anyone suitably equipped
could listen in on a wireless telephone
talk would be a serious limitation to
its use.
THE ANTI TREAT.
Dear old London, owing to the exi
gencies of war times, has abolished
ts eating in the pubs. For the bene
fit of those who may have to obey
a similar order in this country if cer
tain reforms are inaugurated, we
make the following suggestions:
Patrons of a public house must ob
serve the forty foot rule— that is,
they must not approach within less
than forty feet from one another.
Persons recognizing friends at this
safe distance may shout through a
megaphone: “Hello, old codger,
what’ll I have?” Old Codger in re
turn may answer “Thanks, I don’t
care if I do." Then the first may say,
“I’m drinking hearty, old chap;” to
which Old Chap may reply: “Here’s
looking at me.” After which the
first may observe: “Well, will I
have another?” and the second will
respond: “Thanks; make it the
same.” This ceremony will be known
as an anti-treat