The North Mississippi Herald

BIG ENROLLMENT
AT SCHOOL OPENING
Monday Morning 785 Pupils
Registered—Work Organized and New Depart-
ures Inaugurated

The Public Schools opened the 1922-23 session last Monday at 8:30 a. m. The attendance was large and at the close of Thursday had reached 785. The opening exercises for the high school were begun by scripture reading by Rev. Wayne Alliston, followed by prayer by Rev. L. P. Wasson. After which each made strong stirring talks to the pupils and teachers. 165 pupils and teachers. 165 pupils were enrolled in the high school the first day, and there are more pupils there now than have been since the seventh and eighth grades were seated in the hall. The ninth grade is the largest in the history of the school, having 85 pupils. Miss Cornie's hands are full, but she says the pupils are working hard and doing fine.

The work is now well organized and moving along nicely. A stranger would never guess that the school had been opened only a day or two ago. The seventh and eighth grades are organized on the Junior High school plan, so that the teachers of these grades may specialize in certain subjects and teach them, instead of each teacher having a grade and teaching all the subjects of that grade. Miss Lucile Brown teaches all the arithmetic in the two grades; Mrs. Tarver all the English in the two grades, and the other subjects are divided in a like manner between them. The new teachers in the school are getting nicely into the work and winning the hearts of the pupils. Both the new and the old teachers are well placed and have their work well in hand. Mrs. Tarver put in a request for lower grade work and so has been given the sixth grade. Miss Williamson has been transferred from the Water Valley Primary School, North Main street, to the fifth grade in the Wagner street school. Miss Miriam Jackson has the science classes in the high school. Miss Ludis Latham the history and Mr. C. D. Hawkins the Latin. The other teachers hold the positions they had last year and are as follows: Miss Cornia Mayes, principal; Miss Clyde Adams, mathematics; Miss Minnie Frederick, English; Miss Ida B. Nall, Commercial; Mrs. Willie R. Hill, fourth; Miss Inder Davidson, third; Miss Levy Biles, second; Mrs. Marie Gooch, High First and Mrs. C. P. Brown, Low First.

Miss Lula Erickson is principal of the school on North Main street. Her assistants are Miss Emma Addington, Mrs. E. S. Whitley and Miss Vera Pearce. The children in this school are fortunate as the city provides just as good teachers in one school as the other, and in this school the teachers have fewer pupils than in the down town school.

The superintendent gave tests for promotion to a few of the pupils who had made exceptional high grades last year. Those who stood the tests were permitted to advance two grades instead of one. Those selected for this test were those whose grades were mostly A's. For instance, if a pupil was graded sixty times during the year as shown on the report card, he was expected to have about forty-five, as the rest B's. Most of the pupils selected for the tests passed, but some failed. However, all made splendid records as to succeed meant each pupil would have to make a record that a pupil one year in advance of him would make. Had it been a test to see who would pass to the next higher grade, all would have passed. The whole school had been given a reading test just before school closed in May. The records of these reading tests were kept and used as a part of the test given these pupils. For this reason some pupils who had grades otherwise as good as some of those selected, were not asked to take these tests as their grades in the reading tests were not high enough to permit them to skip a grade.

The plan of testing pupils in this way is new, but is being rapidly adopted in many schools throughout the whole United States. It was the superintendent's desire to try these tests with a few of his best pupils and observe their work during the year. These tests will be given to other pupils of the grammar grades during the year and if we find that the results are satisfactory the tests will be made a regular part of the school work.

The High School is indebted to Mrs. Rosa Price for a sixty volume set of history. This gift is surely going to be a great help to the school. The library is growing slowly but surely. The high school acknowledges the receipt of the books and hereby expresses its appreciation of the gift and the kindness of Mrs. Price in giving it.

Mr. Hawkins and the high school boys are busy every evening, practicing football. Now that we have someone to coach the boys and have so many in the high school, Water Valley promises to have a high school football team that will give the best a run for their money. Mr. Hawkins has gone right to work with the team and has a good squad out every evening. Get behind the boys and boost them. Help Mr. Hawkins in his work. We have fine boys in this school and have Mr. Hawkins here to help us give these boys the sort of training that is best for them. The board has selected a good man for this work. You will be serving your best interest by helping Mr. Hawkins. Think it over.