The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-08-17

moral ana physlChl ulah'-up VI IHV Nu''u
aad man. 1t fills him with evil which
he impsrts more or less to hia classmates
and associates.
In any OF these views lees is gained to
German than is lost to English.
These phases are presented on the the
ory that all the children Of the city have
equal times and opportunity to attend the
schools.
But your committee are of opinion that
there are hundreds of our children OF
school age who can get but two, three,
four or five years in the schools, who at
the age of nine, ten or eleven years, go
into our mill. factories and other work
to aid in making living.
If public schools we're Instituted more
for one class than another it was for
lust such a class, and great
care should be taken that
nothing be done or interposed in
this short time to prevent them acquirin g
all the English education possible. 1t Is
in this language our laws aud institu-
tions are framed and enforced, and the
measure of public duty required.
In any view your committee have
been able to AXE, and when the best is
done that can be done under any system
heretofore tested in our schools, OF which
we have knowledge or information, we
are OF opinion that little of German is
learned and that little not very well.
How any member of the German com.
mittee can read the letters of the Princi
pals OF the schools as: supporting the pre-
sent system, we have been wholly an
able to see or understand.
AS to German in the public schools
your committee conclude:
l. That the present system is not con-
tempIated or authorized by the law IN
der which this Board exists and acts.
2. That the tendency OF the present
system is to make poor progress IN the
German at the expense of fair progress
in the English.
8. That if it is to be taught, other than
as "higher branch 1t should be con-
Quoted, taught and recited in separate
classes and rooms, aud so as not to clash
or interfere with the study OF English
photography, reading, writing, arithmetic
and elementary grammar and geogra-
ply.
4 That the office of German Superin-
tendent should be abolished, and the
salaries OF German teachers reduced to
equitably correspond with the salaries of
other teachers IN the primary divisions.
If 1t should be deemed by the Board
too abrupt change to cOntine this study
to the grammar rooms, your committee
in spirit of compromise offer the fol-
lowing, viz;
Re,olued, That until high school is
established, the German language in the
public schools of the school district Of
Wheeling shall be taught only to pupils
attending the A divisions and grammar
schools, and the instructions and reCta-
tions in German shall be conducted in
separate rooms.
Respectfully submitted by order of the
committee. K. H. COCHRAN,
Chairman.
Attic conclusion OF the reading ofthe
above report DR.. Hildretn submitted the
following:
MINORITY REPORT.
To tie Board Of Education.
GENTs:-The undersigned mem bers
OF the p-ciA committee TO whom WAS
referred TIE two reports OF your COM
mittee on German language, dissenting
most decidedly from Tire views and pur-
poses OF the preamble and resolution
adopted by u majority o; said special
committee, beg leave To submit the ioi-
lowing minorit, report, viz: About seven
years ago the German language was in
troduced into our public schools as an
optional part of their course OF studies;
il was then ew aud untried, and neces-
ssrily more or less imperfect and unsatis-
factory ms then arranged and taught; so
much so. that this Board, IN its wisdom,
III ADJUST, 1915, made most thorough
A d searching examination and revise n
of the whole matter, which
resulted in the adoption Of the present
method of teaching 1t, Tor the details
and discus.io ion OF which we beg TO refer
YOU to the minutes aud proceedings OF
this board at that time. Since The sdop-
lion Of this improved plan, German has
been AN eminent success In our public
schools, rs proven by the testimony OF
those who have not only carefully
watched its progress and examined its
students, but being Germans, are parties
most capable of pertormi.g his task cor
rectly, and whose opinions and views are
therefore entitled to respect and con ii
dence. The objections ard efforts TO
throw the German language out OF our
public schools are in chief part urged
by those who neither speak nor under.
stand it, and hence their opinions Ms To
lts merits are simply worthless, How
can man who kuQws nothing OF Greek
or Latin give an opinion OF Its merltsf
The resolution of the majority report re-
curing German to be taught only IN
the Grammar AMI A divisions CLAIMS it
MS "higher branch to be clsssed
with Latin, Greek and Geome-
try, and only adapted TO ma
ture minds" All observation and eX-
perlcrce disproves such a proposition.
As II living language its words and sen
fences arouse the attention and compre-
pension OF the youngest pupil in your
schools, by whom 1t is successfully, and
we may say. intultively Learned. Not
so with .ht lead languages, or the pro-
found sad abstruse propositions OF
Euclid.
The enrolment in our German de.
psrtment this year is 1875 (see superln-
tendents report Belonging to grammar
department rs; division A, l6l; B, 2O9;
c. l42. tsee supt. report for April, 1870.
Under the arrangement OF classes 1T tot;
time, the efiec. of the majority resolution
In teaching German onlyiin the Gram
mar and A divisions will be to utterly
exclude from the Third ward l35 pupils,
from the Fifth ward lis pupils, and
Eighth ward 1876 pupils, making
i all oS9 pupils in the three
sub.distrlcts, Ieaying only 1913
rlpll. in the whole German de-
uartment. We ask TINS Board, are they
ready Tor this wholesale slaughter sud
exclusion? The German element com.
prises about one-fourth of our city popu.
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