"We think that the school board and citizens of O’Fallon should discuss the institution of a high school in our village. Other villages smaller than ours have supported high schools for years. Many young men and young ladies who now strike the street at the age of 13 or 14 should be sent to school and pupils of that age are certainly mature enough, if the case is properly presented, to see the advantage of this higher qualification for life. There is plenty of material in O’Fallon. On account of the crowded condition of the schools here the upper room must consume a large portion of its time on comparatively primary work. This is very discouraging to principals and to pupils who have a higher ambition. Give the youth of our village a chance. An agent was trying to sell a dictionary to a teacher who was without one, the teacher’s excuse was ‘I cannot afford it.’ The agent’s proverbial reply is ‘how can you afford to be without it?’ A high school may cost a little, but we ask how can O’Fallon afford longer to be without one? Lets have light—mental as well as electric.”