WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH THE PUBLIC
SCHOOL OF ALASKA
By DAN A SUTHERLAND.
The article in the September issue of The
FISHERMAN on “Standard Schools” has brought
me considerable correspondence and several Alas
kans who have recently visited Washington have
made inquiry regarding the facts in connection
with the hopeless failure of four Alaska high
school senior boys 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 board as printed in the September number of
FISHERMAN, which is absolutely correct and
which I here incorporate once more in order that
those 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 Boy:
Geometry 9.2; 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. Hist.
2.9; Anc. Hist. 1.0; Physics 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. Hist.
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
cate 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- j
fled with the past management of our schools. j
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
wrould 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 wrho
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 lias 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 Commissioner, that
any critical opinion is likely to be resented, but
the writer is quite impervious 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 from its higher grades pupils so woefully
lacking in knowledge of the subjects they have
been taught through a period of four years, as
evidenced in the case of the candidates for An
napolis. Perhaps the primary and grammar grades
are all right; my opinion is that they compare fa
vorably with country schools throughout the
United States. Without particular investigation
in the past, I have had the same assumption re
garding the high schools.
I believe I am now warranted in assuming j
that pupils in at least some of the Alaska high
schools are not being properly taught. This as
sumption is not a reflection on the intelligence of
the pupils, but on the system under which they
are being taught.
Surely a Commissioner of Education should
take priae 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 ol
teaching in the elementary grades throughout the
Territory, nor can he be expected to give schools in
far scattered communities his personal attention.
That is work of- local boards. But it is within
his official authority, and would be a reasonable
activity for him to give his attention to developing
a higher standard of instruction methods in the
high schools of the Territory, even if a few issues
of the periodical bulletin have to be omitted and
even if the periodical treks to all parts of the Ter
ritory are curtailed. In other words, if the Com
missioner wou.d devote a considerable part of his
time to elevating the high school standard, refrain
ing from issuing propoganda, curtailing lengthy
voyages as much as possible, eschewing all expres
sion of political opinion, and allowing all Indians,
Progressives, Radicals and even Bolsheviks who are
outside of school jurisdiction to follow their na
tural hell-bent proclivities without molestation
from him, I am inclined to believe that, improve
ment in the educational standard may result.
The new Commissioner of Education has be
fore him an excellent field for service. He has
I probably been in a position to observe and learn
[just where the trouble lies. He is certainly in a
position now to profit from errors or failures of
the past in standardization of our high schools.
3&
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OPEN FORUM
Editor Alaskan:
I was sizing up a fox island
the other day.. Here is the lay
out. Two islands, total area
about 30 acres. Producing
roughly, $5,000 wotrh of skins
annually. Improvements in the
line of buildings clearing $2,000.
j The owner had a very nice
garden producing an abundance
of berries and vegetables, but
his house was not much. He!
takes great pride in his roxes
and gardens and is very proud
of his success as he has every!
right to be|
He takes every care of his
breeding stock and tends strict
ly to business but his improve
ments are all of temperary
character.
I asked him why he didn’t
build himself a house to live in
and he answered: “I would if I
owned the island, but I only
hold a lease on it. Also the tim
ber is reserved with no assaur
ance that it will not be remov
ed.”
No! Renters do not want to
build homes. Only owners do
that. Isn’t it a shame that the
man cannot be made to feel at
home in his own house?
$4,000 vs $40,000 Men
I was jawing with a Forest of
ficer the other day over this and
that and I don’t think that that
young man will be with the
Service very long for this reas
on. He is too smart. After I
had pointed out a f ew of the
stupidities of the department,
all of which he was loyal enough
to defend to the best of his in
structions, he burst out with
this glaring truth: “Well, what
can you expect. The department
puts a mildewed $4,000 brain to
contend with a $40,000 business
brain’'. He knows the weak
ness of the Bureau system. You
bet.
E. S. H.
-x
The reason why there is not
much objection to national for
ests in Washington and Oregon
may be summed up in an article
by J J Donovan, published in the
Timberman, of Portland. Mr.
Donovan is connected with one
of the largest lumber companies
on Puget Sound, the Bloedel
Donovan Lumber Company, and
should know what he is talking
about. In this article he states
that if the present price of logs
were DOUBLEd that less than
One-HALF of the National Re
served supply of timber would be
available.
This can mean but one thing:
that the National Forests of
Washington lie principally on
mountain tops and on such
rough broken country that the
cost of logging is prohibitive.
Can you wonder that there is no
great public movement toward
the land in Washington or any
great objection to National For
ests. All of the desirable tim
ber and lands are already pri
vately owned.
In the same article, Donovan
also gives it as his opinion that
with the present rate of cut, the
available timber from all sourc
es in the State of Washington
will not last over twenty-three
years. This does not take into
consideration the new growth
on cut over land which at the
end of that period will have
produced vast second growth
forests suitable for pulp and
mill use on land not suitable for
ether purposes.
Washington has had the use
of her lands and timber to build
up a worth-while country along
the lines of American progress.
The people of Washington have
benefited. They have a perma
nent population of land owners.
They have a permanent lumber
industry from second growth
timber when present old growth
has become exhausted.
What would have been the,
condition in Washington ;had
the Conservation Acts beaten
the settler to the land there?
(Answer) The same as condi
tions in Alaska today.
E. S. Hungerford.
-x
WHAT A MAN CAN DO FOR
HIS TOWN OR CITY
-X
E y Charles II. Parkliurst
People say. You can’t do any
thing. You can. One man can
'chase a thousand; we have the
! Almighty’s word for it. I have
done it. I am not bragging of
ia; but I have done it. And any
man can do it. be he Catholic.
Republican or Democrat, if he
have the truth on his side, dares
i to stand up and tell it, and when
he has been knocked down once,
gets up, and goes at it again.
One man can chase a thousand.
Let our earnest, fiery citizen
once get an inkling of what
citizenship means, in its truest
and innermost sense, and there
is no wall of misrule too solid
ly constructed for it to over
throw; no “machine” of dema
gogueism too elaborately
wrought for it to smash. There
is nothing that can stand in the
way of virtue. A fact you can
misstate, a principle you can put
under a false guise, but a man
you cannot down; that is to say,
if he is a man who has grit,
grace and sleeps well o’nights.
If anyone wants to do some
thing for his town or city; and
asks me what he shall do, I ans
wer; Get the facts; state them;
I stand up to them.
A. contemporary advises that
“Peanuts” Morrissey is in the
hospital, Ketchikan with a
cracked head. (How did they
find it out?)
x
HERRINGU3 TRUSTICUS—A SPECIE FATHERED BY THE
PACIFIC FISHEERMAN AND O'MALLEY
GOODWILL—CAN IT BE ATTAINED?
Every prominent canneryman hopes for the
goodwill of the people of Alaska. They deplore
what they call “tile fight made upon them” by the
Natives, and wish for peace and good will.
We would point out a more effective way to
secure this than by “wishing,” and refer to what
occurred last summer in Kasaan.
This is a town inhabited entirely by natives
of Alaska. Its men fish in seine boats but make
so little money that the women are compelled to
work to provide for the winter. In former years,
these women found employment in the very can
nery that exists within their townsite and usual
ly earned somewhere around $100.
But last summer, not a single woman was
employed for even as much as one-half hour. All
of this labor was performed by imported contract
ed Filipino labcr who were paid off “in Seattle.”
You can’t have good will on an empty stomach.
Alaska is not benefited by labor that is paid
off “in Seattle.”
William L. Paul.
■Mr*-,
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