Los Angeles Herald, Volume 33, Number 187, 5 April 1906 — LOS ANGELES HIGH SCHOOL [ARTICLE]

LOS ANGELES HIGH SCHOOL

It Receives Merited Compliment From

Sacramento Visitor and Newspapers

From tho Sacramento Union.

At a time when high school altair3 are in the air the account given by Job Wood of the Los Angeles institution will be read with interest. It is certainly an object lesson in the broad and generous instruction that it is within the power of a high school to give to its pupils, an instruction that is broader and deeper and perhaps more valuable than the mere acquisition of mental knowledge to which school instruction Is usually confined. At the Los Angeles high school there are 1500 pupils who. because they are assumed to have the power of selfgovernment, have actually developed that power, and who are able to maintain absolute discipline amongst themselves entirely without the intervention of the masters. The principal of the school told Mr. Wood that discipline was a matter with which the teachers had nothing to do; that it was entirely an affair for the pupils themselves, and that It was enforced in such a way as to produce a standard of conduct that would be creditable to any assembly of adults.

It seems that the principle of selfgovernment in the Los Angeles high school has been developed not only In the matter of behavior and discipline but in many other directions. The pupils, for instance, have organized a, school restaurant, and they have done it so efficiently that they are not only able to provide an excellent meal for about one-third of the ordinary cost, but also to earn a profit of $10 a day for the support of their athletics and for other suitable purposes. There is no interference with school work in the running of the restaurant, as paid help is employed, nor is there any departure from the business-like decorum that pervades every department of the school life, scholastic and otherwise.

Los Angeles is evidently fortunate in her high school, Its principal and its r.uplls, but the results that are obtained in Los Angeles can also be obtained elsewhere. They may vary somewhat with local conditions, but tho same spirit is certainly waiting to be called forth everywhere. Whatever is expected from high school students will be forthcoming. Whatever rational powers they are assumed to possess they will display, nnd if teachers are parsimonious in their demands the returns will be similarly lacking.

There is no doubt that the opportunities afforded by school life are largely neglected. It Is not enough to develop the purely . mental faculties. There is an unrivaled chance to call forth the business and the social faculties, as has been done In Los Angeles. Pupils can be taught to show each other the same courtesy that is so great a decoration In the world. There Is indeed no teaching needed for such things. Nothing .is necessary except the opportunity and the expectation. In fact, the high school can be made the scene where children will play in miniature the larger part that they will one day play in life, und if that part be well played now it . will be well played then.

Homeless children received and placed In homes for adoption. Apply Rev. O. v Rice Superintendent Children s Home society, 334 Bradbury building. Los Ansrele*. ,

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