The Chemawa American, November 21, 1928, Image 1

OREGON STATE
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CHEMAWA AMERICAN
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P r i n t e d a t C h e m a w a , O re g o n , a n d D e v o te d to t h e In t e r e s t s o f I n d ia n E d u c a tio n
5l. XXX
Wednesday, Nov. 21, 1928
A PUBLIC SCHOOL A N D CHEMAWA
By CLARICE PARR, Chemawa Student
No. 5
furnish a student with such excellent industrial train­
ing as Chemawa furnishes. Here there is everything
that is needed to work with. If one takes advantage
of all the instruction given in that line, he or she will
be well equipped to go out into the world and make a
good living and not be a burden on society like some
of the folks Supt. Upps described in his recent excel­
lent talk at assembly.
Some folks think to leave home and go away to school
is like going to college. It is true we have all left home
to come here, but we are not in college. While here
at high school we are learning that it is our duty to
ourselves and to society to get all we can, for so many
things are offered to us here. Students who go to col­
lege are oldenough to think for themselves and know
what they fere there for, and besides colleges are not
organizations like Indian Schools.
I think Indian parents are wise in sending, their,
children t6 a government school for at least part of the
time. It gives the pupils a chance to learn more
intimately about the lives of each other. If one is
selfish he soon learns there are others to whom he can
lend a helping hand. If he knows only his home life
he learns about others and can be more sympa­
thetic, because some of us are from homes better than
others. This association teaches us some things that
we could never learn from books. After all, we are
educated not for ourselves alone, but for others as
Until now all of my school years, both grade and
high, were spent at Adams Public School. This school
had an enrollment of about one hundred and twenty
pupils. In coming to Chemawa I found a vast differ­
ence between the discipline of a public school and that
of a government school.
This place is an institution, and all educational
institutions must have rules for both day and night,
because the pupils are under discipline from the time
they enter in September until they leave in June.
In the public school our athletic activities were
directed by a supervisor from Whitman College. This
work was very good. Yet in a small high school like
ours it did not work so well, because we did not have
the requisite number of pupils to work with. Here the
athletic activities are more numerous, more beneficial,
and more entertaining. In a public school that part
of my work seemed only to be a pastime. Here at
Chemawa it is part of one’s education and we get a lot
out of it. That is because here we have nearly one
thousand, and numbers make a great difference.
Our social activities, too, differed greatly from these
at Chemawa. At our parties and dances we had the
privilege of doing things as we pleased. And usually
our parties never ended until eleven or twelve o’clock.
At Chemawa it is different; we older pupils know it is
better for us to go home earlier, get our rest, and pro­ well. .
tect our health. For what good is an education with-?*
A public school does not require one to attend
out health? We realize that our social activities should church. 'When we are at home we are apt to go
be directed by the people running the school. * I when we feel like it, and possibly some of us never go.
think we realize that the hours given us are very,
• we are expected to go every Sunday. This is
reasonable, because we get the amount of sleep that a PV j |f e nng for young people, for it will teach them
we should have.
tl e nubit. Even after we leave here we may not go
At a public school one has more privileges. Here K regularly, and neither will we forget the lessons
we have rules and regulations that we are bound and • learned on Sunday.
ordered to obey. But could this be expected to be
LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS
otherwise in a school of this kind and size? What
Compiled by CHARLES MOTCHMAN, Chemawa Student
would happen if the pupils were allowed to go where
Charles Dickens was born at Eandport, in Portsea,
they pleased, come when they pleased, and do as they
pleased? It would cause disorder in every way, and on the south coast of England, Feb. 7, 1812. He was
the standard of the school would go down instead of the second of eight children. His early days were far
up.
from being happy, although both his parents were alive
I am very glad that I was a student in a public school to look after him. That is exactly what neither of
before I came here. It gives a chance to compare the them did.
educational advantages. A public school does not
( Continued on page 4)