The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-03-09
COMPULSORY EDUCATgoN.

Our Minister Resident at Stock holm says
that in Sweden and Norway ninety seven
out of every hundred children between
live and fifteen years of age attend school
This result is obtained by system of
compulsory attendance. And though
1t seems somewhat repulsive to our ideas
of free country to compel the atten-
dance Of all children at school, yet more
and more the convictions of the wisest
and best people are declaring that every
boy and girl must be compelled to ac-
qulre common school education. If
parents disregard their duties to their
offspring, either from disposition or n-
ability, the State should become foster
N other. and for the general veal as well
as for the sake of the children themselves
should enforce their attendance at school
until they acquire at least the rudiments
Of education. In Illinois there are four
hundred and thirty-seven thousand chill
dren not attending the public school, aud
but Two hundred and sixty-nine
thousand public schools in the whole
State, and a similar condis ION of
things prevails throughout the country.
The consequence is poverty, vice, idle
ness, crime, and other of the ill-favored
children of ignorance are greatly multi
Piled. to the injury of the entire commu-
nifty. The ounce OF prevention may be
found In the school house, and thus the
pound of cure, not always furnished by
the penitentiary, be unnecessary.
1t IS not enough to make education
free to all. If from any cause any are
refusing to secure its advantages, it is
the duty Of the State, duty the State
has no right to evade, to compel their
presence where they shall receive the
privileges Of at least the elements of
knowledge. 1t is no more an infraction
of private rights TO take from parents the
control of their offspring, if they are al
lowing them to grow up in ignorance,
than to take them out of their custody
after they have been guilty Of crime. Ig-
1t is the egg of the snake, the seed of
the poisonous plant. The State must
stamp out and destroy the germ or the
matured growth will cause evil and
trouble Every child should be taught
| to read and write, and it the sacred duty
of teaching is avoided by the parent, the
State Should assume it.
We are taught most instructive les
son on this subject, in the unexpected
results of the ErancoPrussian conflict.
In Prussia mental and physical training
have been absoiutely obligatory. In the
school and the gymnasium the mind and
body have been thoroughly developed
so that not only has the bayonet thought,
but it has baen welded by an arm that
could obey the behests of the trained
mind behind it. On the other hand, the
French army is composed Of a large per
cent. of ignorant men, whose bodies,
enervated by neglect and idleness, bear
no comparison for vigor, with those of
their opponents, and whose minds are
less able on the average to cope with
their adversaries than are their bodies.
| After the battle of Sedan large number
of French subordinate officers were una
bic to write their names. The school
master is the victor now laundering at
the gates Of Paris. But in peace, more
than In war. are the results of education
seen, and therefore, whether we contem-
| plate the contingency of hostilities, or
alone consider the vast enterprises that
are strown along the future path of the
| American people, it becomes the solen,a.
duty OF tho government to compel every
| child, male and female, to be so reared,
! as that vigorous muscles shall be con-
| trolled by intelligent and developed
minds, and thus render the nation not
only inyincible to foes, but mighty, pro
gresslve, irresistible in the great march
of civilization. More essential to the
welfare of the nation than army or navy,
is Compulsory Education. Core
| naat