Page 6 of Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal v.22 n.2

Notes On District Officers MRS. BESSIE S. THOMPSON PRESIDENT OF THE SECOND DISTRICT K. N. E. A. Mrs. Bessie S. Thompson of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a product of Kentucky State College, is a classroom teacher in Hardin County, chair- man of the National Program Committee of the Kentucky State Alumni Association, and the proprietor of a cleaning establishment in Eliza- bethtown. E7 G. BRISCo HOUSTON PRESIDENT OF THE FOURTH DISTRICT K. N. E. A. G. Brisco Houston, a graduate of Lincoln Institute and Kentucky State College, received his Master of Science degree from Indiana University in 1948, is a past president of the Third District Association, and is now principal of the Henderson County Consolidated Schools. Student Participation Through the Student Council Student participation is the active self-motivated and responsible sharing of the pupils in the planning and living of school life under the guidance and stimulus of the family. Many educators believe that this can best be done through the student council. Under no circum- stances is student participation or self-govern- ment to be taken to mean complete control of the school by the pupils. PRINCIPLES: 1. To train for worthy citizenship through cooperation, self-control, self-reliance, initiative, etc. 2. No one council can fit every school. 3. All phases of the school must be given proper training. 4. Make sure it is cooperative government -not self-government. 5. The school must feel a need for the council. 6. Each pupil must be represented. 7. The student should feel his represen- tation. 8. There should be no general restrictions on representation. 9. The council must have a definite place on the school program. 10. The principal implications of democracy are basic to council purposes. OBJECTIVES: 1. Training for citizenship. 2. To establish better faculty-student and better student-faculty relationship. 3. To develop an interest in and pride for the school. 4. To promote self-expression and self- development. 5. To instill the fundamentals of correct parliamentary usage. 6. To develop good business habits. Just when student participation began is unknown. Even the Greeks had it. It has been handed down to us in various forms. It is important that we bear in mind that self-government and pupil participation are two different things. Under no circumstances is the pupil to govern himself. The government Continued on page 7