e Omaha Sunday B:
PrRT TWO'
SOCIETY
PAGES ONE 10 TWELVE
PART TWO
EDITORIAL
PAGES OXE TO TWELVE
sixnii: copy kivi: ckxts.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MOKXIXfJ. AHirsT :?o. l!14.
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, IS
the day fixed for the opening of the
Omaha Public Schools, when several
new instructors will begin their duties,
and a number of ntw features will be
added to the course of study. Super
intendent Graff is looking ferward to
an unusually active year in the schools
lUNBURNED and tousle-headed thn
youngsters of other days watched the
Bummer fade and with a great sadness
in their hearts heard the melancholy
tolling of the bell on the first day of
school. Behind them lay a thousand
joys, for they had been knights of the
willow fishing pole and many a mullein stalk had
fallen before them In battle. The future stretched
away as numberless days of grinding, heart-rending
labors, under the watchful eye of a stern man
who believed In the books and looked upon the
rod as a holy instrument, and could see little use
for fun or play.
So have 20,000 boys and girls in Omaha, in
other days, looked forward to the beginning of
school and trembled, but when the public schools
are opened, September 8, there will be no terror
In the occasion for the little tots, nor irksome grind
for "the higher ups." The men who are held re
sponsible for education, often planning wisely dur
ing vacations when others play, have sought to
Invest books and blackboards and desks with the
spirit to which the yotng ever pay homage. "These
are the things you will do when you go out into
real life," they say. "We are making school prac
tical. You are going to school to learn wonderful
things, but at the same time you are doing what
jour father and mother are doing."
And here are the reasons why the old terror
haa vanished: Boys and girls may spend much of
their time at school In laboratory work; a large
class In sewing will be started; manual training
has been made a part of the work in several addi
tional schools; and at the Omaha High school the
agricultural work will be extended to include odd
experiments with soils; the German language will
be taught in the grades, and there is at this time a
peculiar attraction In this guttural speech. for the
war-like young males.
Nearly a score of teachers have come back from
the heart of war-scarred Europe and they will have
tales to tell and In the after-work hours there will
bo interested audiences, for no Indian battle story
ever swayed the young more than the story of this
awful war on the continent and in the air over
Europe. And skilfully told the tale will point a
mighty peace moral.
There is, therefore, some romance in the open
ing of schools this year, but there is more than
romance, for many vital changes have been and a
few interesting experiments will be tried. Principal
C. E. Reed of the high school has arranged for a
class of physiography, under the supervision of a
Michigan university man, Lee W. Harrington. The
agricultural students will be given a free rein in
experimental work, assisted by Mies Caroline
Stringer, head of the natural science department
Principal Reed has arranged to give high school
students an opportunity to choose their own teach
ers. This they will do when they enroll. Several
teachers, owing to the large classes, will teach the
same subjects, and if a student has preference he
may select his favorite teacher.
The chief Innovation at the high school, how
ever, is a sewing class, to which either girls or
boys may aspire. Hearing early of the intention
to start this class as something separate from the
domestic science work, 130 girls have applied for
admission. Only about 120 can be accommodated,
and the principal and the supervisor believe girls
should be given preference over boys, which will
practically eliminate boys from the first year's
work. Principal Reed, however, intends to en
large the class as opportunity offers. Rooms have
now been fitted up for it, sewing machines in
stalled and thread and needle laid ready to hand.
It is Principal Reed's opinion that this work
may be increased ultimately to include fancy sew
ing and dressmaking and the art of millinery. The
classes will be enlarged from year to year and the
length of the course may, after this year, be In
creased from one to two years. Miss Verda Wil
liams, graduate of the University of Chicago, has
been secured to supervise this work. Superin-
By LAURA KINGSTON'.
HE great international war now raging
I " I over all Europe means a great deal to the
I ttompn nf that rnrvtinpnt While the
dispatches and newspapers and the bul
etin boards In these stirring times are given over
o the doings of the men, the soldiers and the
jailors, one should not forget the wives and moth
rs of the war-torn countries.
When upwards of 17,000,000 men are under
.rms, millions of them actually In the field, the
fcorld does not stop. It must go on. It is up to
'.he women to see that it does go, and that is what
'he women of Europe are doing today. The uni
formed soldier is not the only hero and martyr of
lie world's wars. "They also serve who only
tand and wait."
The Russian women are doing all the work,
vhile their husbands, fathers, eons and brothers
ore fighting against Germany and Austria. The
feasant men and women have no idea what tha
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tendent E. U. Graff of the public schools recom
mended Miss Williams to the school board after
an investigation which took him to several eastern
cities, where he interviewed applicants for this and
other positions. This year sophomores, juniors
and seniors will be admitted to the sewing class,
but after the first year admission will be restricted
to sophomores or sophomores and juniors.
An important improvement has been made at
the custodian's shop at Twenty-first and Nicholas
streets, in the nature of a large kiln wh jreln will
be hardened the articles made by the clay modelers
of the manual training department of the grades.
The manual training work has been extended
to include Sherman and Train schools, which were
remodeled during the summer to make room for
this department. Only five of the thirty-six
schools of the city are now wlthont a. manual
training department Diipont, Central, Lincoln,
Druid Hill and Webster. Best equipment possible
iz used in the manual training rooms, material is
furnished to the children at little cost and eacli
carpenter or clay modeler may retain the product
rf his handicraft.
Herr Ferdinand Stedlnger, supervisor of Ger
man, begins his first real work of teaching this
language in the Omaha-schools, for the course has
reached out into the grades and on petition of
parents of pupils will be taught in Bancroft, Cas
telar, Lake, Long, Edward Rosewater, Franklin,
Train, Webster and Vinton. Under a state law
passed by a recent legislature the Board of Edu
cation must teach any of the modern European
languages petitioned for by a certain number of
the patrons of a school. A few petitions have been
received for Bohemian, and this language may be
taught In one school, although thus far no ar
rangement has been made to teach It.
Prof. Stedlnger has been "campaigning" among
the 700 teachers of the staff as well as among the
pupils and has aroused a great deal of interest in
his undertaking to successfully teach German in
the grades. He has announced his intention to
teach the language "so she can be spoke," believ
ing It is a mistake to impart only a reading knowl
edge of German, as is frequently done in schools.
He is a German by birth and has had much suc
cessful experience as a German teacher.
Supervisor J. A. Savage of writing, comes from
Grand Island, having been elected by the school
board to succeed O. H. Peed, who went east. Mr.
Savage, besides being an expert with the pen, has
had experience as a supervisor. Also, he has an
idea. He believes more stress should be laid on
teaching the very young to write. First graders,
he believes, could be taught the use of the pen so
well that much of the difficulty of teaching the
upper grade students how to write properly would
be eliminated.
Two thousand of the students who will enter
school will enter for the first time. Rome, who
have been properly tutored, will get into the first
grade, but the majority will begin in the kinder
garten department. It is estimated that the lnl-
war is about, and they are not much interested.
The czar said, "Come and fight for me." That
was enough for the men. They Joined the army.
It was enough, too, for the women. They put
their hands to the plow, grasped the saw and the
hammer and went to work. In France, too, the
women already are feeling the burdens of war. At
tue outset the government asked the women of
the nation to go into the fields and harvest the
grain that was ready. They responded with a will.
But the women who went to the farm work went
from machines and looms, where has been made
the fine French lingerie and lace much sought
after by women the world over. Indirectly, then,
the war will be felt by the women of the United
States, for there Is likely to be very little women's
Asear imported from France for many months.
In Austria-Hungary, too, the women are carry
ing on the every-day work of the land, while the
men are dolDg the fighting. They are harvesting
the grain, making the flour for tUa bread ttat
tlal attendance will not exceed 15,000 or 16,000, as
it Is usual for many pupils to delay enrolling for a
few days. -
A few faces for many years familiar to the
patrons of some of the schools will be missed this
year. Miss Caroline Scherer, who for more than
twenty years taught at Farnam school, has retired,
tB has also Miss Ellen Davis, for a score of years
teacher In the second grade at Webster school.
These teachers have been pensioned by the school
district under the "long service pension act." Miss
Mary Sullivan, has left the English department of
the Omaha High school to accept a position in the
Pittsburgh schools, where W. M. Davidson, former
superintendent of Omaha, is In charge as superin
tendent. Two teachers fell into the traps of Cupid and
will be seen no more in the school rooms: MIhs
Laura Williams of Edward Rosewater and Miss
Pearl Roberts of Pacific school. Miss Mabel
Mould, former teacher at Howard Kennedy, has
gone to the western part of the state, where she
has taken up a homestead. She intends to Im
prove her claim and make her home there.
Few other changes have occurred In the teach
ing staff; a few shift of grade teachers, by request
chiefly, but the same principals In charge of the
must be baked by them to feed the soldiers. They
are caring for the cattle that must be slaughtered
and cut up by them to go with the bread that Is
to feed the thousands in the field. They are run
ning the machines that make the clothes that are
to be worn by the troops.
The same conditions prevail In Germany. There
every man under 45 years of age has been railed
to the colors, and that leaves practically all of the
ordinary business of life to the women.
In England the war produced an unlooked-for
result as far as the women were concerned. For
ytars the militant suffragettes of that country had
harassed the government and the public, clamoring
for votes for women. They burned houses, de
tailed trains, set off bombs, destroyed priceless art
treasures, dynamited churches, assaulted cabinet
ministers and played havoc generally. On the
declaration of war King George pardoned every
suffragette In prison, and In return they pledged
cessation vt uiilUaucy uutil the was la over.
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schools; the two new supervisors and additional
teachers at the Omaha High School of Commerce.
Superintendent Graff has Just 1 completed the as
signment list, after working for a week at the task
of putting the right teacher In the right place.
The school year has been shortened by- two
weeks and the tendency Is to have as few vacations
as possible each semester, and these to be added
to the end of the year.
Few if any Improvements will be made as far
as buildings are concerned in the school district
the next year, but the Board of Education is plan
ning to submit to the people a bond issue of
SI, 500, 000 to build a technical high school and a
new hlgli school of commerce and to repair grade
school buildings, enlarging them where necessary.
Iast year the schools were thrown open to
neighborhood meetings and this proved so popular
that the school board U arranging to build audi
toriums in all schools not now provided with them.
The schools constructed within the last two years
have large auditoriums, which are used for special
meetings, school programs and holiday occasions.
During (he summer the secretary of the board,
. T. Hourke, and the board members have
v orked assiduously to put schools and school sup
plies in order for the opening day. Thousands of
books have been "doctored" by the repairers, the
stationer has been purchased and probable needs
v zsr.
"PrirLcipal OcrvalA'H-igtfvSortQol
cf the several schools have been attended to by
Mr. Bourke,' the superintendent of buildings, or
the janitors, as the Jobs fell.
The. school board Is considering the purchase
of additional grounds for some of the schools
grounds which could be used for play or building
purposes. ' Practically, al) of the schools now have
playgrounds about them. or within a short distance
from them. These playgrounds may be improved
after awhile as the city has improved its public
playgrounds, by the installation of swings, gliders,
strides, teeter-totters and other devices.
Right now must be met the problem of organ
King the 16,000 or 16,000 children who enroll into
schools, grades and classes. This will - be left
largely to the principals,' although the superin
tendent's office will be appealed to from time to
time as questions arise between parents and teach
ers over school boundaries.' In instances 'pupils
are permitted to attend a "school other than that
iu the district In which ;they live, but such-permits
are granted only when i advantages to pupils follow
as a matter-f course, y , ,
