is ingrained in the social consciousness.  Deserting the school is no more thought of than any other form of suicide.  If, by any chance, a boy should desert the school, he would be a pariah in that community and could not live among the people in any degree of comfort.  He would be made to feel that he had debased himself and cast aspersion upon society.  The looks that the people would bestow upon him would sting more than flagellation.  He would be made to feel that he had expatriated himself, and neither himself nor his parents would be in good standing in the community.  They would be made to feel that their conduct was nothing short of sacrilege.

=Public sentiment.=—­In view of the school sentiment that obtains in the community the eighth grade is practically as populous as the first grade.  Attendance upon school work is a habit of thinking both with the children and with their parents, and school is taken for granted the same as eating and sleeping.  If a boy should, for any cause, fail to graduate from the high school, every patron of the school would regard it as a personal calamity.  They would feel that he had, somehow, been dropped off the train before he reached his destination, and the whole community would be inclined to wear badges of mourning.  Every parent is vitally interested in each child of the community, whether he has children in school or not, and thus school taxes are paid with pride and elation.  The school is regarded as a safe investment that pays large dividends.  Patrons rally to the calls of the school with rare unanimity and heartiness.  Differences in politics and religion evaporate in their school, for the school is the high plane upon which they meet in fraternal concord.

=The course of study.=—­The course of study is flexible, and because of its resiliency it adapts itself easily and gracefully to the native dispositions and the aptitudes of the various pupils.  If the boy has a penchant for agriculture, provision is made for him, both in the theory and in the practical applications of the subject.  If he inclines to science, the laboratories accord him a gracious welcome.  The studies are adapted to the boy and not the boy to the studies.  No boy need discontinue school to find on the outside something that is congenial, for, within the school, he may find work that represents life in all its phases.  If he yearns for horticulture, then this study is made his major and, all in good time, he is made foreman of the group who care for the gardens.  If the course of study lacks the element which he craves and for which he has a natural aptitude, this branch is added to the course.  The economy of life demands the conservation of childhood and youth and the school deems it the part of wisdom as well as civic and social economy to provide special instruction for this boy, as was done in the case of Helen Keller.  This school, in theory and in practice, is firm in its opposition to wasting boys and girls.  Hence, ample provision is made for the child of unusual inclinations.