The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-12-19
PLEASE DO.

well WOIUII L6dulIl9 @4
PLEASE DO.
TO Nh. Jeremiah Mahoney::
Please do, Mr.. Mahoney, please do
tell us what is meant by a Common
School Course in a. Common School"
See page 1874, paragraph 6, "Chicago
Letter" This is just the thing we've
been trying for years to find out. Tell
us just a0hat the common school is, and
e0hy it is "comneo71." Isn't it time that
the friends OF the common school put
it upon a solid basis? Give it a sys-
tenn? a constitution to grow and build
upon? Give it definite end to ac-
complish, fixed purpose? and a way
"a method of doing? Then, indeed,
may we talk of "commOn-schOol
course" Is it just the old 'three Rs
that you want there? The common
school is a kind Of a chaotic omnibus
at present Free from hobbies No.
We have the grandest hobby of all in
''Th6 American System" Of schools. A
system (?) which means nothing def
mite either in design OF realization;
which takes the tithes of property and
throws them away upon the migrate
full; which forgets the DarWinian the
Ory of selection, for teachers, and takes
the cheapest, instead of the .5ftteSt
which toots more horns than were
heard before the walls of Jericho
and not even the walls Of ignorance
tumble down.
Now, do let us enquire, is there any
way out of this quagmire tFumpery?
or must the only systematic school
work in the United States be confined
to towns and cities? 1t is noticeable
that at the " ycntennlap' not a single
common school" showed its work.
Must this be so forever? Is it still to
he the history of the race that the yeO-
man must be the Door? Must real edu
cation of an extended or liberal nature
be kept to the Jewellers Of the toWns|
Must we say to the common school
'YOu may 'smatter' as much as you
can, but nothing more? "Smatter' is
about all they do; and is it not largely
due to the fact that we treat these
schools as inferiOrs-a kind of AMER
A7lg? Go into an institute where you
will, and the distinction is sharply and
odiously drawn between the common"
and the graded school. Teachers who
are in charg of graded or normal or
some other schools where superior
classification affords opportunity for
better work as we'll as methods-meth-
DDS that can't be taken successfully i'll
10 ungraded SchOOls--theSe teachers
are put in charge of the instruction Of
teacher pupils. This is well; but they
put before those they instruct the meth
DDS of their schools. not one in ten of
which they could GARY, without disas
ter, into the common school, and not
one in fifty Of which they ever tried,
or saw tried there. Common School
Course" forsooth! And then to crown
the climax of this most absurd Of all
absurd semi-intelligent enterprises
they try by neutrality-suspicious. to fill
up the vacant heads-vacant of real
knoWledge-.in their classes with I
surplus schOol-master lore and give
them to us to be put i'll charge of our
children's minds and bodies.
II this isn't the celebrated Irish
tower of Babel" what is it? only there
is about fourteen miles in the mad.
and as many more in the clouds =
where in goodness is the part on solid
ground, is left solely to conjecture.
Hobbies? !. Yes, l think 50. Can you
mention hobby or "hobby-horse"
that has been more seriously denuded
Of cuticle by overriding than the "glo
rious free-schoop "bulwark of
liberty ETC., ETC., od j2att1itasna, ad naat-
seam? Riding them, pot-house poll
ticians make votes, and Office, and
wealth. and power. Demagogues as
sail your ears with their windy love of
1.-THE common schools" "the safeguard
of the nation" and lead us still deep
Ell into the miTe of -glorihcation
and self-ignorance. In the name of
childhood, and it's possibilities, is there
not some way to unhorse these fell