The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1875-06-02
Compulsory Education in Practice.
Frnm The chIcnro rdbune.l

From the Chicago Thbune.l
The New York press shows a commendablt
spirit in printing frequent and full returns Of
the workings of the new educational law il
that city The record is of great interest, for
if the experiment succeeds in the metropolis Of
the country, its possible success everywhere
else may be taken for granted. 1t has often
been urged that compulsory education is al
impossibility outside of the rural districts
When it is argued, on the other hand, that a
seventeen years trial of the law in Massachu-
sets has increased the school attendance 40
per cent, and made it difficult to find child
who cannot read and write, and that the great
thrift and comfort of the poorer classes in that
State are mainly due to the strict enforcement
of the act, the doubters say that the Bay State
is rustic community, with few factory
towns, and one moderately large city, but with
nothing which can be compared with New
York City, and that the admitted success of
the experiment there, although prolonged over
so many years, is no proof of the possibility
of applying the law to metropolitan communi-
ties. This kind of,urgument is meeting with a
crushing reply. Compulsory education, tried
in the largest city of America, is succeeding
The fact should be kept before the people,.
The new educational census now being taken
in New York City shows school-population
of nearly 25O, 1000. The attendance at the
public schools before the new law went into
effect was less than half this number. After
due allowance had been made for the many
boys and girls enrolled in private academies,
there remained a vast army of growing re-
cruits for the criminal classes. Detachments
of this army are now being daily brought un-
der the Christening influences of education
The truant-agents make constant rounds in
search of children who are out of school.
They talk with them and their parents, and try
to persuade parents and children that the best
possible thing for the latter is to get an educa-
ton. A policy like this has made the poorer
classes of Massachusetts, the firmest believers
in the law. They look upon it as a safeguard
of their rights. Any attempt to repeal it
would awaken their liveliest opposition. So
i"A al tiAO ~NSN 4OAh Oul1
sion has been needed to convince parents. The
terrors of the law have not had to be called
into play except in the case of some homeless
little Migrants The Superintendent of Tru-
ancy has submitted report covering the time
from March II to April G, from which it ap-
pears that during that time 1l9 occasional tru-
ants, 81 habitual truants, and 40 non-attend- |
ants, many of whom had never been at school, |
were reported. Of these 2O2 children, l2l
have already been reclaimed. As soon as the
night-schools are opened, the newsboys and
bootblacks will be swept into them. "Many
cases." says the New York Tribune,
might be cited, all tending to show that the
Education act is working satisfac-
orily throughout New York; that its practical
benefits are already being made manifest in the
increased attendance at the schools, and that it
meets with the Endorsement and cooperation
If parents generally, who recognize the impor-
ance of an education for their children and
emoval from the demoralizing influences of
treet association in crowded city," We
rust to be able to say this of Chicago ere long.