West-Jersey pioneer., 1867-06-21
THE NEW SCHOOL LAW.

1louc1 ehop AZ was uouu9iul IL all llS pro"
visions would receive the hearty cooper
alton Of the people, and doubted whether,
so far as it lay in their power, they
would not repudiate it altogether. In
what it sought to do tho law was good
one, but in the details by which the pro-
posed end was sought, it was lamentably
lame, and indeed oppressive. The pas
sage of time since then has confirmed all
these expressions, and there is to day
large amount of hostility to the law itself,
among the people, arising principally,
however, from the Objectionable features
to which we at the time alluded. The
law is crude and unfinished, and bears
the marks of being drawn up by unprac-
tical men, who, however we'll they might
have been versed in scholastic lore, were
evidently unacquainted with the harmo-
nization of legislation. To be sure, if
one read the speeches of Legislators who
favored it, overfowing as they were with
an eloquence of fact and diction, of which
before the community had supposed them
ignorant, we might easily believe that in
such words of wisdom, error was nearly
impossible, but then the ikelihoods were
that the schoolmen wrote those speeches
and the legislators simply delivered them
without knowing very largely what was
meant by them, and, as matter of
course, the legislation partook of the
same confusion which naturally existed
in the mind of the law maker at the
time. The principal objection to the
law is founded upon the Capitalization of
all power in this matter in what is not
inaptly called ''the Junta," at Trenton,
and the exertions of that Junta to make
everything square both with their ideas
and profit. Their law assumes that
nobody knows anything about school
teaching, except the Ring, at Trenton,
and therefore no community or agents
of community shall have a word to say
about how their schools shall be con-
Quoted, except as approved by the afore
said well educated and sensible gentle
men at Trenton shall allow. 1t assumes
also that there is but one standard upon
which the common schools can be con.
Quoted, no matter how variant the cir
eumstances and habits of a community
and that that standard is the way that
things are done in Trenton. This to us
is manifestly absurd and ignores entirely
the principle of ''variety in uniformity" J"
which has been recognized as an essen
tial in building up and carrying on all
free institutions III - h'-- '''0"H D0"
stegd had no advocates except the king
who made it, and the process of cutting
off the feet of the men who were too long
and stretching the bodies of those who
were too short, till all fitted the bedstead,
never commended itself to the solid wis
dom of the generations. As it was a
settled fact that discrepancies of size did
exist, it was deemed better plan to
make bedstead which could be short
ened or lengthed in accordance with the
size of the sleeper, or even to have more
bedsteads, if they were better. The
principleof Union of states in harmony
with central government is the same as
this, it being apparent to any common
sense that the same applications Of a
principle will not always suit alike Mas
sachusetts and Idaho. The same neces-
sites exists in a State school law, and
while the general principle Of common
education, arranged in the best possible
manner, is fully recognized, yet these
"best possible ways" will of necessity
differ in the different localities of the
state; just as the habits and needs of the
separate communities are different. Ip
this the law entirely ignores this idea
and practically insists that there is nc
difference, that the scholastic plans te
which we have alluded are the only ones
that should be practiced anywhere, and
consequently these plans, rigid and in
flexible, have been put in operation
through the machinery of the law.
Among the foolish and oppressive
details to which we have alluded details
SO foolish that we wonder how any rep.
resentative of this section could have en-
dorsed them, is the one requiring the
annual examination of teacher to see il
they were competent to teach. 1t is
perfectly proper that an examination
should take place once, the more rigid
then the better, but that this should be
practiced year after year in reference to
the same persons and upon the same
topics is simply absurd. Just as well
might it be insisted upon that the Physi-
clans, Diyines, or Lawyers, of our city,
who have exercised their profession for
years to the entire satisfaction Of the COM
munity, should each year have man
from these respective professions sent
down from Trenton to examine into their
competency to continue their vocation.
If we just imagine the gentleman who
stands at the head Of the bar here, ex-
amined by anybody they could send down
from that city, we have an illustration
which is an argument in itself. In the
case of the teachers it is simply ques-