Fraternity Aristocracy

To the editor of The Register. S. Really father, what objection have you to these high school secret societies? F. I think there are quite a large number of very serious objections to them, and I will state a few. Our High School is a public school supported by taxation, and the school tax is nearly half of the tax paid by the poeple of Ann Arbor, and the poor people at least pay their full share. The school is intended to be and should be entirely democratie, so that all pupils may enjoy its priviliges upon an equality. These societies are made up of clicks of a dozen or more of the sons and daughters of wealthy parents as a rule. They hang together, associate with one another, have mebtings together and their social intercourse is almost wholly, if not entirely, within their own society. They become exclusive and aristocratie, and look down upon and snub the other pupils in the High School, who don 't belong to their clicks or socities. This is very uncomfortable for the pupils who don 't belong to these associations. Their entire school life is marred and spoiled in a great measure, by these institutions. Our public schools were not designed to develop and sustain such class distinctions. It is a perversión of their objects and aims, that will tend greatly to injure the school and injure society hereafter. These societies also necessarily lead to a serious neglect of study and earnest attention to and interest in other important school duties. Then again, these societies may be organized in the back yards of some of the parents' homes, but they cannot be kept there. Children of fifteen years of age cannot be allowed to do things, that may be very properly done by persons who are older. They have not yet developed judgment and self-control, and have not yet the experience that would lead them to avoid doing foolish and injurious acts. This is very conclusively shovvn by your account of the initiations of members into these societies. These initiations might have easily resul ted in very serious injury to these parties engaged in them. And you admit that the boys did not properly attend to their school work for some time before and after these initiations. There are other very serious objections, but they may perhaps be boiled down under the general statement that boys and girla at the age of üfteen years, should not be turned loóse to do as they please, as they almost invariably are inclined to please to do something they ought not to do. They begin innocently enough, but it does not take long to run into the excessesthat you haveenumerated, and in a very short time, some of them, and as they did once before, would blossom out into institutions, such as the place lately broken up by the pólice on E. Huron-st. They hardly promise sufficient mental, physical and moral benefit to the members, to warrant the school board in sustaining them, in face of the great danger that they would surely foster and develop to many, if not to all their members, and the class distinctiona that are always the outcome of such clicks and societies. S. Well father, a fellow can't study all the time, he must have a little recreation and fun. F. Yes my son, children should have a great deal of recreation and fun, can hardly have too much, but there are plenty of amusements that may be indulged in and at all proper times, that will not tend at all to injure them or the feelings of their fellows. S. Yes father, but the parents of these children, many of them soem willing and very anxious, that their children shall belong to these societies, and they object very strenuously, to the attempts of the school faculty, and the board of directors to suppress them. F. Yes, that may be true, but these parents for the most part are persons of large means and possibly aristocratie tendencies, and they may enjoy seeing their children belong to an exclusive society or click. But the several hundred poor parents, whose children are not able to belong to these societies and clicks, don 't en. joy the institution at all, and the few who come here to edúcate their children, because education costs almost nothing here, should not be allowed to compel the school board to sustain insitutions in our public schools, that would in any measure tend to injure the children of the poor classes who, for the most part, support these schools. It is sometimos a seriousquestion whether the tail should wag the dog or the dog wag the tail. In the late action of the school board, it would seem that the tail had the best of it, and such action will greatly injure if not destroy all respect for authority, and all good government in our public schools. If our public schools were organized and supported only to teach what is in books, such interference with school government by pupils and their parents might not do serious damage. But the children are there mainly to form and develop good character and principies, to learn to respect the rights and feelings of others, including the poor and lowly, and especially to give obedience and respect to the properly constituted authorities over them, and thus develop self control and a character that will make them law-abiding citizens, and supporters, of all the institutions incivilized society, which togethermake up and constitute good government. S. But father, it was hardly fair for the faculty of the High School, right in the midst of the term and without any previous notice, to suspend or dismiss from the school persons who belong to these societies. F. Well, my son, it is perhaps but fair to concede, that the action taken was rather hasty, and perhaps not as well considered, as it might have been, but that the action was in svery respect right and in accordance with their du. ty, no fair minded person can question. They were simply enforcing the rules and regulations established by the school board. They may perhaps be fairly criticised for delaying action too long. These experienced teachers well knew that these societies would in time attempt to run the entire school, including the High School faculty and the school board. But that these click and societies should not be permitted in our public schools is entiroly apparent. They are accompanied with very littlo good, and almost invariably result in very great evil. If the High School board and faculty intend to put a stop to them, they should pass a resolution to that effect at the end of the year, publish the same in the city newspapers, and give the students and their parents full notice that no such societies will be hereafter permitted, and then direct the High School faculty to see that the regulation is enforced. Then if the parents who seem to appreciate the benefits of these societies so highly, care more for the secret societiea than they do for a course in High School, they can take their children out and give them a course in secret societies, and there will then be more room for the poor children, who sadly need the benefits of a thorough education.