The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1830-08-12
From the New York Daily Sentinel.
PUBLIC EDUCATION.


Lycurgus resolved the wholesome busi.
ness of Legislation into the bringing up of
| youth.
Train up a child in the way he should
GO; and, when he is old, he will not depart
| from It.--SoLoMor.
What sort of Education is beftfing a
Republic This is an exceedingly inn
portant question, to which we purpose,
to the best of our ability, to attempt a
reply.
A system Of Republican education
ought to be open and equal 10 all.
No system of education which em-
braces any thing less than the whoIs
people, deserves the name Of Republic
can; and no other system will reform
a nation. Colleges to rec Give ons
tenth or one mndredth part Of the
young population, may have their uses;
but # citizens are TO be- trained up az
citizens of a republic ought to be, the
schools of the nation must be open,
not to n hundredth not to tenth ofths
rising generation but to ALL.--To
shut the book of knowledge to- ono, 4,
open 1t 20 another, is an unrepublican
mode proceeding.
+ But some we are told, are rich, while
others are poor; some through superior
skill or luckier fortunes have obtained
the means to afford their children an
expensive, scientific, polished educa-
ton; while others, either more idle or
less fortunate, have not wherewithal to
pay schooling for their children : or to
support them beyond the age Of nine
or ten, even mt free school.
This is true enough. Ifit cannot be
remcdied, it is n farce to talk Of repub-
lican education. So long as the pow
erty of the parent (whether caused by
misfortune or misconduct) is to deter
mine the ignorance the child, so long
. will education remain, as il now is, a
manufacture of masters and servants.
As long as young citizen must have
a rich father or guardian, before ho
can be trained in the way he should go,
#. Just so long will aristocracy be perpet-
o uated, and equality among the citizens
be destroyed.
Many think, that for that very rea-
son aristocracy must be perpetuated,
and equality must remain an idle word.
C They think, it would be unjust and ex-
10 travagant to give the poor mans child
9 az good an education as the rich man 8.
" They say that it is giving idsness the
= same reward as industry, and offering
"A premium to improvidence. fla man,
they argue, chooses to beget family
without the means to afford them ra.
tional calculation, whose fault is it, il
J. not his own7 and who il to bear the
:, blame and the injury if not himselfl II
i. is not society that dooms his children
r, to ignorance and inequality, but them
q selves. Whatsoever man sows, that
3, let him reap. If liberty and equality
} are to DO based upon injustice, better
we should live without them and in
- justice it surely is, that, if a man ha,
n been prudent, careful, fortunate, ane
:. is now rich, his children should not have
greater advantages than his poor neigh
boris, reduced to poverty, pei haps, by
,e idleness and intemperance.
r The objection we have to this reason
- ing is, that it makes no distinction be.
70 tween honest poverty and WORTHLESS,
u poverty; and---a still greater objection
r. that il visits the sins of the father,
on the children.
'' All poverty is not caused by miscon
N. duct. A man is often poor, not be
os, cause he is less industrious, but because
he is more scrupulous than his neigh
bors because, perhaps, he will not tel
falsehood, or stoop to dirty trick t
get rich. Such poverty is honorable
and, if the fathers worth is to be tn
measure of the sons deserts, the chile
Of such poor man Yerits as good
nay, n much better education, than III
cY fortunate speculator's, whose Golfer
RED groan under half million.
Butwe deny the position that becaus
kc the parent is worthless, the child ough
to be neglected. That man or We
man becomes malefactor may be n
excellent reason why he or she shoul
" be shut up in the States prison; it
no reason at all, why their childre
should be condemned to ignorance on
to vice. The child Of the creates
- criminal in the republic has as goo
right to national education as thu
ion Of the most disinterestcd patriot.
Does the child make its parents, {
choose them Is 1T permitted to d.
ct. termine whether they shall be wortl
less, or estimable According to VIII
principles Of justice, then can can
bo ,,,n,shed With iouorauce for the