Settled

In "High School Notes" which appear elsewhere in this issue, will be found a statement of some recent happenings in the high school, which have attracted wide attention and aroused considerable feeling and much cornment. It appears that on Monday last Principal Pattengill suspended twelve pupils ostensibly for being members of certain secret societies. This was done under a direct rule of the board which reads as follows: "Any student of the high school who becomes or remains a member of a secret school society subjects himself thereby to suspension or forfeiture of diploma of graduation or both." Considerable excitement was stirred up by this action of the principie, reporters of the Detroit dailies and local papers hurried to investígate and write up the situation and the parents of the suspended pupils conferred together over the matter and lantly the board of education callea a special open meeting Wednesday evening and after listening to speeches by members of the board, several interested parents and Principal Pattengill and Supt. Perry, precipitately retreated from the po;ition assumed by the rule and proceeded by a vote of 7 to 2 to abrcfrate the same. As a result of this action Principal Pattengill reinstated the suspended students yesterday morning and the fraternities and the students seem to have the best of the situation thus far. Whether there has been any wisdom displayed in any of these transactions remains to be seen. That the action of Principal Pattengill in suspending certain students was based solely upon the fact of tiieir belonging to certain secret school societies, cannot be believed for a moment. If such was the casé, his action could not be considered justifiable; but if, on the other ijand, through their connection with these societies, these students were becoming negligent of their school work and conducting themselves in their school relations in sach a tnanner as to disadvantage themselves and the school, then his action was based on good. judgment and merited the support of the school authorities, especially since ït was based on a direct rule of the board. Years of experience in the school-room has convinced us that such organizations are usually detrimental to the highest school interests of the pupils connected with them. As a rule, pupils of the age of most high school students are peculiarly susceptible to the attrac tions and pirasures of society, and the result oí too much, or indeed very much, of it is quite sure to divide their a'.tention and result in serious loss to their school work. Of course it is not wise to deprive then? oí al! 3 nd amusement,! but our experience has been that the difficulty does not lie in this direction, but rather in their having too much or ít and too little study. They lack the requislte maturíty of judgment to insure nioderation, and the result is failure in study. failure to pass their work at the end of the year, and often censure of the teachers for the failure, when it is directly attributable to too niuch society aud amusement. There is but little ïfany doubt thatif thequestion as to the good or bád effects upon school interests of such organizations was submitteed to the high school principies and school superintendents of the state, the people who come in most direct contact with their workings, the decisión would be that they are detrimental to the highest good of the schools. When these results can be established, the question would seem to be a legitímate one for a board of education to deal with. In the abuse of these things lies the offense, not in the thing itself; and that there had been abuses in the past is evidenced by the rule of the board covering the subject. That there are such abuses at the present time seems to be a quite general belief. That the rule should have been abrogated without a searching investigation, therefore, looks hasty. It would seemtoleave the question in a rather unsatisfactory condition for all concerned except the members of the fraternities.