The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-06-20
urszHrna srAn AID cATHoI1c MEsSEgaEE.
Fducation by the state.

Education by tho State.
In our last issue we published an article
from tho New York San, under the caption of
81 sectarian Schools" To-day, we give the fol-
lowing article on G State Education," which
we find in the New York Journal Of Commerce, of
the 4th inst:
ton that the common school system would not
boar the strain to which they were subiectiDg
it. As long as they aimed, only to give the
masses the rudiments OF learning, and the ap-
pointments and requirements of the school
room were such that tho poorest felt at home
in the simple nursery, the advantages were
apparent, while the defects were more theoret-
zeal than practical. But when. course after
course were added, until the list of studies in
cluded every branch of science, and the stu
dents in some departments graduated with col
legiate honors, while the masses of poor, ragged
waits outside grew yearly more numerous and
more neglected, every thoughtfuf man felt
flluess at least the purpose for which it was
originally established. This discovery has
given the whole system shock from which it
win not soon recover. An attempt was made
TO meet the most prominent difficulty by q
truant law designed to compel the attendance
of the neglected, or to punish their eontuma-
CIV. This was decided failure; 1T is still on
the statute book, but at cannot be enforced.
TO cover this defeat the managers sought to
make tho schools still more attractive and
oh, SO that at least all of the upper
classes might desire higher institutions for
their children. In this they have been more
successful, but the want Mt the other extreme
is daily more and moro apparent, while the
cost is Enormous, and the luxury has become
an oppressive burden. There is scarcely
pupil in any of the schools in this city whose
parents are not able, without material sacri-
L6ee to pay for all such tuition the State
could feel any reasonable obligation to furnish,
while not one in ten of those who are really
paupers in this sense, has any advantage what
ever from the system.
As these facts become more apparent, intel
1igent men of all parties are asking some ques-
tions not heretofore discussed in this connec-
ton. While some are only inquiring how far
the State should carry on the educational pro-
cess, others find q more serious topic in the
startling inquiry, which must first be settled,
how much education is necessary to the best
condition of citizenship OF course the argu-
mont for education by the State is two-fold
strst, that ignorance is dangerous to the public
well-being; and secondly, that this can only
be avoided by the masses through the main
tenance of common schools at the public cost.
If the first argument is sound, the question
comes in with great force in view of the rapid
changes made in the standards, where is the
limit How much education must the child
have before he will cease to be dangerous
certain power for evil 1t is not to be assumed
that ali education must of necessity raise the
moral standard, so that the State for it's safety
is bound to give the highest possible attain
anents in scholarship to all the rising genera
ticn likely to exert any influence upon it's des-
finies. This would take away all limits even
for industrial pursuits, and set up scholastic
learning as the only good.
We admit that it is difficult to fix any exact
and universal standard, but we are convinced
that the limit of the States interference should
be far below the present requirements of the
common school. Reading, writing, and the or
binary processes of arithmetic are far as
any one can go without question in exacting
eatiPn En-, on a.. sse9nnt of aang geo to the STATE
xIs1sS by fes own
weight, and ceases to carry conviction with it.
But even if we admit that much higher
standard of learning is necessary to guard the
interests of the body pohtic, it does not follow
that it can only be attained by this form of
Public provision. If it were fully reached by
these institutions, perhaps this question would
not be raised but it's failure to provide for
the admitted needs of the very classes most to
be feared, makes the inquiry not only peril
nent, but highly important. The assertion
that the masses would remain wholly in igno=
rance if tho State did not provide for their
training, is akin to the argument for au estab-
1ished religion And yet the voluntary system
has been found best in theology, and all expo
Tience points to it the wisest for the race.
It is true that in many communities where
there are no common schools the people are
denseIy ignorant; but it is equally true that
an many countries where there is no estab-
1ished church the people are heather. We OBJ
ject to the common inference in both cases.
Are there no hospitals no asylums, no retreats,
mo provisions for the sick, the insane, the or
phan, the aged, unless the State furnish them
Arc the institutions established and supported
by the State tor these objects even well
managed as those which rely on individual
the children in this community docs any ono
that there weFsta be half az idle
vicious, degraded, oufcast children in ouI
streets to-day, outside of any actual provision
for their cultures
We are not seeking for the immediate aboli-
ton of the common school system. Bat enter.
tanning the views we haFe expressed we are
quite prepared to see o sweeping reform that
RhafI withdraw all State aid from colleges aud
aeninaries, and restore the common schools to
their primitive simplicity as primaries in the
canAs OF education. Such a restoration would
20 far at once to bring in the children of the
alley, the basement and the attic !; for it would
take out the elegant, tho high-bred and the
aristocratic, or bring down their pretensions to
n less offensive level. If this worked WELL and
tho schools were successful in giving to the
poor, and otherwise neglected, the elements OF
Learning, SO that all might be raised from abso-
Lutte barbarian, and placed within the reach OF
higher training by their own efforts, we
would continue their public support on that
basis. If with such q reform the mass, now all
nnlettered, were still unreached, we would
then abandon the attempt to do it by State au-
thority, since compulsory attendance would be
more dangerous to liberty than even the preva-
1ence Of ignorance; and we would seek the
Same end by organized private charity. II