The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-04-24
DAILY PRESS,


MONDAY APRIL, "a, 1871.


The Decline .ad Decay Of shs Cenme.
Schools efPortland.
MR. EDIroR,-When any governmental
maehine becomes daily more expensive and
=. tue same time more inefficient, when it be-
s'ns 70 iau TO reach large and increasing num-
oeis oi tnose Tor whose benefit II was Invented.
"non !. 'eg'ns to be superseded by private
en.eipiise' when Its executive officers quarrel
ana iaii out, and worst of all, when the peo-
pie grow Indifferent to all this, II NAV ..f.Ix
be inferred that the contrivance ia in h.d
way and is fast verging to Its dissolution.
Notwithstanding the boasts periodicallv
made, 1t is submitted to the candid citizens OF
Portland whether every one of these mortify-
ing symptoms does not now exist In the ad-
minis.ration of the public schools of this c ity,
nay, more, whether most of them are not
clearly diseernible in the recent report of our
school committee.
VI the disposition toward reckless extrava-
gance, the North School house Is a sufficient
monument. The enormous wsstefulness of
such pile hegrevious evils resulting from the
sweeping away of the many moderate sixe
local school houses, to make vav for this
.nammotn affair with Its tedious stair-cases
Tor the children to climb after their lenetheu.
ed walks, and the consequent injury 10
health, and hazard to life in case of FIRE or
alarm, from the herding such masses of child
rem have been already thoroughly exposed.
and the awkward architectural appearance of
Athe folly speaks for ITSELF And yet, more
discouraging than all, the committee seem to
recommend the repetition OF this costly
blunder.
Probably no one will deny that our public
schools have become fearfully costly--ars
they efficient?
Thatthe condition of many of oar school,
houses particularly the primary ones is de.
plorably filthy and uuwholesome is admitted.
In the report of the School Committee.
The alarming and rapidly increasing abseu.
teeism is also deplored and discussed by the
committee.
The system thus has become confessedIv
inefficient and it is not difficult to trace some
of its causes.
Repeated changes in the limits of the dis.
tricts, compelling In some eases three remoy-
ais OF children in less than one year. the
shifting about of teachers and the smplov-
ment of unsuitable instructors in some Of
the primary schools, have not contributed to
the usefulness or the success of our public
schools of late.
Dissensions within the committee the pre.
csie nature of which the public have been
able to get but little knowledge of are not
events of cheerful omen to the friends of unI-
versal public education.
The recent abandonment of one of our
largest, most expensive and comparatively
new school houses, involving loss not much
short Of 100000 Is another remarkable
symptom that something more than meets
the eye Is going on in the educational affairs
of the Fourth Ward.
Has any decent excuse been given for this
singular proceednga Can any be imagined
which would be satisfactory to taxpayersP
Has Corham's Corner suddenly lost its im-
memorial reputation for fecundity, or Is the
abandonment of the Centre Street three sto-
ry brick school house public, though silent
confession of the failure of the secular pub
lie school system In certain localities?
or fcourse the natural result of the deca-
dence of our public schools Is the absenteeism
of which the Committee complain, and the
appearance of private and sec.ariau schools
partially to fill the blank which our defective
public establishment leaves.
Doubtless the Romish hierarchy Is deber-
ately and implacably hostile to our Protestant
system of secular public schools, but Is not
much Of their recent success in inducing so
many of the poorest Of our foreign born pop
ulation to Withdraw their children from free
school and pay for their education elsewhere
the result Of a too well founded belief on the
parents part that our primary schools and
schoolhouses are not what they ought to bes
But while the poorer classes ars thus re-
moved from our schools under the influence
of the Romish priesthood, private schools are
growing up and drawing OF the children OF
American families, and parish school, VI
Protestant faith are put in operation, success
fully subtracting their quota and among them
| the children ofsome of the School Committee
| themselves.
Does not the indifference of parents and
taxpayers to all this Complete the series of
charges made in the beginning of this article?
If our present system is administered ex-
travagantly and unwisely, If our smaller
school-houses are filthy and unwholsome, and
our larger ones worse than failures, II $780,
600 is expended in one building, and soon
abandoned, il oar schools fail at both ends Of
the route, with the children of Americans and
with those Of the foreigner, If absenteeism Ii
alarmingly in the increase, and there are Sc
rious dissensions in the councils Of the School
Commisseee, is it not time for a reform, II we
would save the system from extinction?
| CITIZEN.