Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-12-28
Compulsory Education-Shall the Law
Encourage Illiteracy or Prevent 1t?

mend the passage of law making
1T compulsory upon parents to have
their children educated"
Every friend of education will
thank our Governor for placing this
question before the Legislature for
action. 1t is reformatory measure
which has been contemplated for
years among Wisconsin educators.
At several State Teachers Associa-
tons it has been urged in strong
resolutions, and Governor Fairchild
there promised it his hearty support
He evidently feels strongly on the
subject.
AS the title of our article may sur
prise many, perhaps alarm few, we
ask to be heard in an explanation of
Its objects, and advocacy of it's prin-
cip!es.
The school system of Wisconsin,
excellent and munificent as it ia in all
other respects, yet in one thing falls
short of its grand object-general ed
ucation. 1t provides amply for the
intellectual wants of all who thirst
for knowledge, but there is no pro-
vision to regulate those who scorn
these chances, who shun the school
and spend the days of childhood in
the street, learning the arts of the
vicious and acquiring the character
OF the idle loafer. 1t allows families
OF foreigners to disregard our tacilI-
ties for learning, if they choose, and
to pour forth upon society a class of
young men and women who, being
uneducated, are untit 10 be good
American citizens. 1t contains no
provision for truancy on the child's
part, or wiIlful keeping from school on
the part Of the parents
Every parent is bound by mora
laws. not onl y to MAINTAIN, but |"
educate his children 1t he reare
them TO maturity unable to read and
| write, he does them grievous
wrong by leaving them untitled for
the struggle of lito, and disqualified
for anything but unlettered manual
labor or vice. The wrong does not
end here; he does society an injury
by aiding to fill it with ignorant men
and women. What the Governor
and the wisest moralists and educa-
tors of Wisconsin are striving for
now, is la'o by whose operation
they may oblige every parent or
guardian to give his children a GER
tain number of months schooling
every year.
Every one will admit that the
fearful amount of crime now preva-
| lent needs to be abated in every
possible way. The most efficient
way yet found to prevent rearing a
vicious, rowdyish class of boys, is to
keep them steadily under the whole
some restraint of good school.
Prevention is always better than
cure, and far better than punishment.
We have jails to confne the guilty,
q Reform School as a home for
youthful convicts, coupled with laws
to compel those who need their dis
cipline to remain there. On the
other hand we have o bounteous
system of free schools with SO lax
law for attendance that any evil dis
posed or book-hating boy or girl can
grow up unable to read, with the
consent of guardians.
OF the vast crowd of European
immigrants that flock to our shore,
there is large proportion Of litter
ate persons but Prussia sends us
none of her adult population, how
ever poor, who do not read and
write. The principle Of compulsory
education has been part Of the
| PruBsian law for many years, and
has always proved most salutary in
its effects, both IA a means or univer-
-al enlightenment and II preventative
o! crime. The advocates Of this law
| point - the succers Of the Prussia
system a. triumphant proof OF it's
suuud and humane policy.
A mistak idea OF what is meant
by ~ land of liberty" may lead
many an ignorant parent OF foreign
or slave-staLe extraction TO say that
he has the right, if he cho ,ses, to
bring up family unable to read /;
that no one shall dictate TO him on
such matters, and that he claims and
.rH haze the time aud labor of his
children till they arrive at legal age.
But considerations of public policy
lead us to oppose this position, and
the good of society requires that a
legal means be provided by which
the children of such grasping and
hard hearted people may receive
schooling.
/ Let US examine this right to keep
toe rising generation out of school.
Each city enforces laws against va
grancy. Its rulers find that idle,
dissolute people who do not employ
their time like good citizens, are
useless and dangerous set; so they
enact that such vagrancy is crime
against the city, and as penalty
the vagrant is sent to prison to learn
industry. Just so we have in every
village q few children that need
little looking after from the authori-
ties, to improve their conduct.
Again, we arrogate the right to con-
fine young offenders in the Reform
School at Waukesha, and make them
work and study for years. But
many of these are merely village va
grants, sent by Justice on the COM