New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-16
A CHANCE FOR REFORM.

For a thoroughly efficient system of public
instruction two things are requisite-tirst,
schools enough for all the children; second,
opportunity for all the children to attend them.
In neither of these particulars is our public
school system entirely satisfactory. The schools
are too few in number, too limited in capacity
for the work to be done, and so conducted as
to be practically inaccessible to large class
who sadly need the instruction they have to
give. School provision is made almost solely
for those able to devote to study regularly six
hours a day, which is more than the majority
of children have to spare for any considerable
period. The official school reports show that
the number of pupils enrolled from year TO
year-and by no means are all the children fit
for the schools enrolled-is more than double
the number ever in regular attendance indeed,
double the number that the schools can accom-
modate. This is the case here in New-York
with our hundred magnificent free schools; that
of the entire country is much worse.
There are, then, two evils to be provided
against in our public school system, namely,
the incapacity of the schools, and the inability
of the majority of children to avail themselves
of the facilities already offered on the cOndi-
tons now exacted. To secure school accOmmo-
daton after the current fashion for all the
children who need instruction would require
the multiplication of the schOOl-hOuses by two.
The expense of such course would be rather
greater than the public would willingly submit
to; but unless some such increased provision
is made, half the children must go untaught.
To require children to go to school, as our City
Board of Education contemplates, would, under
ofr ha mn ns-ih as
absurd
Must the evils therefore continue unabated'
Not necessarily. Paradoxical as it may seem,
they may both be abated in part if not wholly,
and the efficiency of the schools increased
without any addition to our present machinery
and with no increase in the tax-levy. Short
school sessions are rapidly gaining favor every
where. 1t is found that children improve just
as fast with three hours teaching a day as
with six; what is lost in time being more than
made up by the greater vigor and freshness of
mind with which the children pursue their
studies. This does away with the afternoon
session, and allows our school machinery to
rust in idleness half the time. Would it not
be better, however, to initiate the custom of
our larger manufactures, and keep the machin-
Sly iuHuluS nll luC tiniO WIN eu'eihatO cClo vi
workmen7 With the same force of teachers
two separate and distinct schools could be
kept three hours day in each schoOl-hOuse,
just as easily as one school is now kept six
hours.
The first and most obvious effect of this
change would be to double the working capac-
ity of the schools without extra cost, one set
of children occupying the class-rooms in the
morning, and an entirely different set in the
afternoon. Another effect would be to remove
very largely the irregularity of school attend
ance. The brands and "chOres," and other
duties, which are so often made an excuse for
keeping children at home, could then be at.
tended to without interference with school, This
has invariably been the result where the short
session plan has been tried; while he increased
regularity of attendance tells wonderfully Oh
the progress of the scholars. Still another eff
feet would be shown in the great increase in
the average period of school attendance, now
so deplorably short. Before young people can
command good wages they have to spend two
or three years " learning the business With
the poor, TO whom early income, however
small, is important, parents are tempted 10
withdraw their children from school lust "a
soon as they are big enough To work. Ac-
cording to the Official reports, half the chill