The Omaha Sunday Bee
PART TWO
PART TWO
SOCIETY
PAGES ONE TO TWELVE
EDITORIAL
PAGES ONE TO TWELVE
VOL. XLIII-NO. 31.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 18, 1914.
SINGLE COPY FIVE- CENTS.
Scltool Where ovs will be
loped trilo Usefulness
lijmahas
mil ::mkj.eve
G3
Mill
ERE Is a bright boy, but ho flunks
persistently; ho will not work and
he does not learn; he does every
thing but study; he's boiling over
with energy misdirected energy;
really, he's a mischief maker. What
can wo do with him?" Time and again a puzzled
truant officer led. a sturdy, clear-eyed boy into
the office of the superintendent of Omaha schools
and asked that question. What can wo do with
him?
One day Superintendent Ellis U. Graff and
President E. Holovtchlnor of the Board of Educa
tion wore dlspusslng tho problem presented by the
increasing number of tho boys who would not
study; who were perfectly normal and more than
normally troublesome.
"We could put them In a special school," sug
gested Superintendent Graff, "and there permit
them to do the things they seem most apt in doing.
Give them good, hard work and teach thorn' a trade.
Mix in the curriculum a little academic work
nover enough to make their lives irksome. Enter
tain them and teach them at the samo time."
"Just tho thing," said Dr. Holovtchlnor, calling
to mind numerous examples of bad boys who bo
came illustrious men. And so they sot about to
build such a school. They purchased two little
buildings and moved them to lots on Fort
street owned by tho school district. They named
tho truant officer, a scholar and a sonslblo follow,
very wise in the ways of boys, principal of the
school and they found a practical man well versed
in tho several trades to assist him. The school
they named the Fort Special School for Boys.
Next had to bo met the problem of selecting
tho boya who wore to be trained in this special
school. The school authorities decided to call tho
experiment anything but a reformatory and the
impression that it was an institution for the cor
rection of "little toughs" was painstakingly
strangled. Later evonts proved that tho au
thorities did their work only too well. Thoy noti
fied the principals to send tho superintendent the
names of tho "backward" boys those who con
tinually failed to mako good. At the opening of
school tho building was still in course of equip
ment. Within a fow weeks It was ready for busi
ness. Half a dozen names had been sent to the
superintendent.
School opened at the Fort Special School for
Boys and half a dozen sulky youngsters were in
structed to report there for work. Three or four
reached the school. The others, for known and
unknown reasons, never reached the Fort school.
The first few days at this school was a revela
tion to the boys who had rebelled against the Ir
ritating discipline of the graded schools. Here
thero was discipline, but of a different sort. "Do
this or do that," said Principal E. D. Gepson or
his assistant, F. W. Bason, "and do It well." But
the tongue-lash of the teacher who must see that
certain lessons are ready at a certain period was
not there. Further It was different work. Here
&RES THE
were lathing machines, a printing press and long
cases of type, little electrical devices, a blacksmith
Bhop; and down In the basement roomB were being
made ready for a gymnasium all things to de
light any kind of a real high-strung boy.
"It's great,'! Bald an apprentice printer, aR ho
fumbled with the cases. "Some class to this."
But habit was strong within him and when tho
patient Bason's back was turned a piece of per
fectly good type went hurtling at tho redhead of a
fellow-student. Howover, hope grew stronger in
tho hearts of the principal and his assistant.
"We'll have a wonderful Institution here," they
told Superintendent Graff. "A little more time.
Wo aro making progress marvelous progress,
sir."
So Superintendent Graff and Dr. Holovtchlner
visited the school to see for themselves. "Hello,
Graff," shouted a touslo-headed, Inky-faced
"pressman" as he shoved down a lever and turned
on the "Juice." And "How are you, Holovsbeen,"
was another's greeting. Because of these and
numerous other unconventionalltles these boys
had been called bad' The men sloughed the little
niceties, rolled up their sleeves and tackled the
work along with the boys, becoming one of them,
working side by side with them and helping -
always helping.
Attendance jumped. Twenty-five boya wcro
onrolled. Barring a few distressing incidents an
attack on a grown-up with a keen-edged knlfo
a fow desperate battles on street cars a fow
bruised heads and battered faces work went
quietly. The "bad boys" woro becoming inter
ested. All of a sudden the fact that a boy could
learn a real vocation and could work with real,
man-slzo machinery and tools at this school was
known to every ambitloua fellow In tho grades.
Principals of grade schools continued. to slowly
list tho names of those who woro "qualified" to
' enter tho Fort school. The list grew. There are
now fifty attending tho institution crowding It,
but not too much. A kind of routine Is maintained
at this school, but It is not objectionable. Tho
fact that It is not objectionable is proven by the re
port of the two men in charge that tho boys havo
absolutely ceased to play "hookey." Thero la
something about tho whirr of machinery and the
scrapo of planors and the pounding of hammers
which appeals to them greatly.
Principal Gepson is authority for the state
ment that so deeply interested In tho work aro
some of tho boys and so enthusiastic about tho
future of Fort school that they fairly must bo
driven from tho school house at the close of day.
They hold tholr old aversion for tho academics,
but arc more than willing to learn grammar, read
ing, writing and arithmetic in order to be allowed.
in rrjs
"woctp
LAB'
It la "our school,"
to follow tho lure of tho trades,
emphatically, now.
And Principal Gepson and his leas imaginary
assistant sco visions of a groat institution whore
tho frame building of Fort school now stands. In
timo will arise a huge brick building aud hundreds
of boys who may bo "bad" and who may be Just
"backward" but who have, in them tho energy
nnd tho brain, will flock thero for training. There
will be completo Instruction in all tho vocations
instruction to fit them for work without making
them "skilled artisans." They will bo taught the
gTeat fundamentals. It will be the beginning of
tho unchanging Ideal tho fitting of a boy to do
the particular thing for which he seems by nature
and Inclination best equipped.
Thus far the school has cost but a few thou
sand dollars. Tho plans of tho Board of Education-plans
extending Into a dim future aro to
gradually build It up not wholly as a trade school
nor as a parental institution but as the placo
where an American boy may do tho good thing ho
doslres to do and forgot tho oppressive grjnd of
the thlngB which hold no interest for him, but
harassed him until hopo fled and hato rulod him.
"Tho purpose of Fort school is tho samo as
tho purposo of all true education tho develop
ment in the pupils of those qualities which will fit
them to meet conditions of life," said Superintend
ent Graff. "The nature of its equipment would
lead to the belief that tho purposo was to train
artisans or tradesmen, but It Is tho boy and not
tho occupation, which is of chief concern. The
timo of tho pupils will bo about equally divided
between academic and liard work, experience hav
ing Bhown that this will produce the best results.
Tho shop vork will all bo practical and so far as
possible the actual conditions and demands of a
given Industry will lid reproduced.
"A boy will not complotely learn a trade or
occupation, but his work will bo correct as far
as it goes and ho will not be taught anything
which he will have to unlearn. The various kinds
of hand work will enable a boy to test himself
his tastes and capabilities, and will help him to
find the line of work to which he Is best ultedL,"
