The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-06-10
COMMUNICATIONS.
COMMON SCHOOLS.

Whether or not our Common Schools have
been failure, can be best determined by
considering the design and the results of the
system. Governor Wolff said in his message
to the legislature that they were designed to
supercede the old system :of schools. That
old system taught some spelling, reading,
writing and arithmetic. If the common
school was to teach nothing more, why abol-
ish the old and inaugurate the new system ?
Thaddeus Stevens and others termed them
'-The Peoples Colleges" and from the de-
bates then made on the subject, as we'll as
from subsequent legislation, we learn that
they were intended even to SupeTcede the
colleges and academies then existing. They
were to educate the people thoroughly. For
this reason no one could teach without first
being examined and getting license from
State authority to teach. Normal schools
were established, at a very heavy expense,
to prepare teachers thoroughly, for what 3
certainly not for teaching merely what had
been taught for a hundred years before,
namely, some spelling, reading. writing and
arithmetic. A State department was crea-
ted to furnish instruction, blanks, report
books. and to send State and County repor is
to the legislature, all at heavy expense. A
county superintendent was created in each
county, at heavy expense. State, county
and district institutes were established to
prepare teachers, for what ?-certainly not
to teach some spelling, reading, writing and
arithmetic, for all these and far more were
taught in the pay schools before the public
school was established. The writer and six
others all studied surveying, at one time. in
an old fashioned school, while twelve others
studied book keeping. Hence we infer that
all this preparation, and organization, and
expense, meant work. School houses were
not built over the land as numerous as the
leaves in Valambrosa, at heavy expense,
merely to teach what had been taught before.
Prof. Wickersham says the design was "to
make education universal, impartial and
free" SemiLaries, academies and colleges
were to be merged in the common school,
with all the public appropriations, and the
common school was to educate in their place.
The policy of the school department proves
this. The design, therefore, was a grand
one, not second to any effort put forth by
any nation in ancient or modern times for
universal education. From these schools
hundreds of thousands were to emerge capa-
BILE of transacting all kinds of lawful bust
ness. They were not to lay, or attempt to
lay, simple foundation, on which colleges
could build a superstructure, but they were
to be "the peoples colleges"-the Utopia of
educational bliss.
Now what are the results? The schools
are not uniUerSGL in every sense, and if they
were, they do not edEcate universally. Many
people have to send great distance to school.
Many districts only get four months school
in a year, and that does not educate. Let
every reader take State report and exam
inc the details of each district. and see for
himself, or let him take peep into his own
district for the proof of what we say. Many
send to pay school to have their children ed
ucated.
They are not impartial in any sense. Men
who pay the heaviest tax claim the right to
and do exercise the most influence and reap
the greatest benefit because they can furnish
more books and send more regularly than
poor people. Some districts purchase the
books for the children, others make the peo-
pie purchase them. Some keep open six
months, some nine, some nine, some four,
and some do not keep open at all. Some
have elegant school houses, Others have very
poor ones. Some pay twenty-six mills tax
on the dollars valuation. others three mills.
One would hardly call this impartial.
They are not free. The more wealthy are
favored in almost every city and town, if not
in every district. Thousands of poor chill
dren never get to school at all. We have
just now, in our own city, occular demon
StrdtlOn OF IBlS iaCG. - 1ne MlSSIOu OaoOaLu
School," a very worthy institution. is now
feeding. clothing and instructing many schol-
aIs in this neghborhood who never see the
inside of public school. There may be
75O, 900 children enrolled in this State; still
this tremendous fact" does not prove that
all are enrolled, or that those enrolled ara
educated. The convicts of the Penitentiary
are enrolled, but that does not prove that
they are educated. There are not less than
$50 900 children in the State who are not
enrolled.
From these observations we learn that a
system, good in design and expensive in its
details, is failure in its results. 1t educates
just about as much as the system which it
superseded, and no more, at tenfod the ex-
pense. Would to God it were otherwise
Yours, &C., L. l. P.