The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-10-30
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CompuIsorH Education.

OHn SbabC' AuNSCuI VIC GOull uUpe luhI
our next Legislature would prove itself
progressive enough TO take up the subject
Tor examination II not for actual legisla.
ton. The State Of West Virginia, in
common with almost every State in the
Union, Is paying outsn immense amount
Of money for the support Of schools. At
IN enormous expense we are educating
the rising generation. The State will
distribute $2l4,70l 80 to the schools Of
our "a counties this current school year,
and the counties will perhaps expend
double as much more. Such an expendi.
ture should reach every child in the State
No boy or girl Of schoolsble age should
be lett uneducated.
But the trouble is that Notwithstanding
this large outlay there are a large num-
Der o!children, in the aggregate, who re-
ceive little or no benefit from it. There
ore parents who being themselves unedu.
Gated do not appreciate the importance
Of education for their children. There
are other parents who either from neces.
sity or avarice put their children to work
ats very tender age, and thus cut them
ot until too late from an opportunity to
90 to school. We hsve in Wheeling
alone according to the State census nearly
ten thousand children Of schoolable age,
snd yet the last report Of Superintendent
WILLIAMS shows that there arc only about
5000 Of these on the school enrolment.
Now allowing that 5000 more are pro-
vided for at denominational and private
schools, there still remain upwards Of
three thousand children in this city who
from some cause or other are not being
educated. And yet the expense to tax.
payers is nearly the same IS il these
children were all at school. We have the
school houses and the school teachers, both
provided atgreat expense, and yet they are
not fully utilized. Had We compulsory
school law, requiring children between
certain ages to be sent 10 school, the re.
ports OF the State census and the Super.
intendent oISchools would not show such
an ominous discrepancy.
The experiment of compulsory educa-
ton will soon be tried in the State Of New
York. An act to that effect was passed
by the State Legislature last May, and
goes into effect on the first Of the coming
year. The provisions OF the law are these:
All parents and those having the care Of
children shall instruct them, or cause
them to be instructed, in spelling, reading,
writing, English grammar and arithmetic;
and every parent, guardian or other per
son having the control oI any child be-
tween the ages Of feight and fourteen years
shall cause such child TO attend some
public or private day school at least four.
teen weeks in each year, eight weeks at
least Of which attendance shall be consec
udve; or shall cause such child TO be in
structed in said branches at home ST least
fourteen weeks in each year, unless physi
cal or mental indrmity in the child
shall render such schoo! attendance
or home instruction inexpedient
or impracticable. No child IN
der fourteen shall be employed in any
business during the session hours Of the
public schools in the district, unless said
child should have attended some public
OF private day school where the required
instruction is given, at least fourteen Of
the titty.two weeks next preceding any
year IN which such child shall be en-.
ployed or have been instructed at home,
and shall deliver 10 the employer Ger.
ti6cate signed by q teacher or school
trustee Of the district, certifying to such
attendance or home instruction. Employ
ing child contrary 10 these provisions
subjects the offender TO fine Of $50 for
each ofiense, the fines going to the school
funds Of the district in which the oftense
occurred. School officers are required,
in September and February Of each year,
10 examine into the situation Of children
employed in manufacturing establish
lishmens, and report oil violations Of the
above provisions; and managers OF such
establishments are required TO furnish lists
OF children between eight and fourteen,
with their certificates Of school attend
ance or home instruction. Violations Of
this act are to be reported to supervisors
OF towns and chief fiscal officers Of cities,
and offenders are to be fined, for the first
otiense 81, and each subsequent derelic-
ton IS. Where parents or guardians are
unable to provide proper text books, the
school officers shall furnish them. Where
Sparent or guardian is unable to control
achild and compel attendance at school or
home instruction, such child shall be dealt
with as an habitual truant and It's sponsors
will be relieved Of penalties. School
officers are authorized, before the 1st
of January next, to make all needIul rules
concerning ruAnts aud other children
found wandering about the streets during
school hours, having no lawful occupation
and growing up in ignorance, and shall
provide places for the discipline and in
struction and confinement, when neces-
sAry, OF such children, and may demand
the aid Of police and consables to enforce
such rules.
The result Of the experiment in New
York will be watched with great interest
in other States. The necessity oi some