New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-08-20
Lakes Superior and Erle and the almost I'M
known Canadian lakes.

known Canadian lakes.
INDUSTRL1L TR.fINLNG IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Those quack educators, mostly Official, VINO are
always itching to alnplfy the province OF the pup
lie schools. have ,lackened of late in their zeal to
furnish every ingenious American youth with q Tree
smsttorng in all the ologies, but it is only because
they have another hobby to advocate INDUS
trial education is the new cundurango which
Is TO make everybody healthy and wealthy
and wise. and it is TO be tried on
the girls first. The arts Of cooking and dress
making, we have been told for some time,
ought to form part of the of instruction III
the female departments of all our public schools.
Didn't Boston Lady Teacher" write TO Mr.
Commissioner Eaton about it, and isn't Mr.. Com
missioner Eaton just wetering in delight over
the prospect of setting up cooK-stoves In
the public schools and over the great reformation.
in our national housekeeping which is to sprout
from seed sown in those simple talks to little girls
on matters touching correct and useful ideas OF fe
and how to make homes better ~ And doesn't Mr..
Eaton unite as he goes along, with the Boston Lady
Teacher and others, in giving a remunerative pun
tosomebodys geOmetrcal system of drcssmaking
whereby girls at the tender age of thirteen years
oan cut and fit each others gowns with the simple
and of a quadrant and pair of callipersi
The illustriOus Commissioner is too conservative
Cook stoves and calpers for girls are by no means
an adequate solution of the great questions, What
shall eat, what shall we drink, AMI
wherewithal shall we be clothed ITO say
nothing of several other questions, material
and aesthetic, which naturally follow Them
Ii gown-makIng pie-ballng and carpet-shaking are
to be bundled into the curriculum of the female
department of the public schools why not teach the
boys to make their boots and paper collars II
girls are to be instructed how to chop and asOn
and fry sausage, why not train the boys to
stick the pigs, and give them practical lessons In
the general science of butchery In short, why
not put every pupil, male and female, through
special scientific industrial course, and turn
out specialists in withdrawing, laundry work,
veterinary surgery, bartending, undertaking. hair
dyeing, clog-dancing and all the other useful and
decorative arts which highly civilized mankind
finds essential to his comfortable existence
The fact is that every alleged argument in favor
of special industrial training in the public schools
is suicidal. 1t kills itself by proving altogether too
much. There is no need therefore of confronting
these uneasy and UNDERGONE spectators with the
evidence that this training under such conditions as
these schools furnish must needs be of the most
loose aud unsubstantial sort. And, granting that
cooking and millinery could be as success
fully taught as the other branches in the
already overloaded course of instruction in
our free schools, or even admitting that
under the new departure girl graduates would cook
and sow, and boys with diplomas would shovel and
hoe much better than theT now can read and cipher
# would vet remain to be shown that it is the bust
ness of the State to constitute itself brevet prov
rdence for supplying every 1izen with every
ha ,aaba mil hn oil for
amateur educators and others to remind themselves
now and then that the State Is not essentially a
charitable corporation and that There is lmpera-
five reason why it should furnish everybody with a
trade or profession, which would not also compel it
to furnish congcnal employment for citizens thus
equipped, and pay them lucrative wages for their
labor. Still more important is it to remember that
the people who feel most profoundly their personal
responslblty for the care of their children,
and who are readiest to make sacrifices for
tbeir education, are exercising the very yir-
tines which make them the manifest and there
fore the most desirable citizens. While on
the other hand II there Is a class in danger of
steady deradation # is made up of those who are
willing to be dependent upon Government mere
hangers-on for bouutes whether these bounties
come under the guse Of education, sOcalled, or In
any other shape.
Aud finally it may be safely asserted that the ton
dency Of the best thinking these matters not to-
ward stufng children, but rather toward educating
them There is a growing conviction that il is not
best 10 give instruction in more branches in the
public schools. but to give better instruction in
fewer branches. That the true way 10 furnish the
country with better cooks and carpenters
is to fill it with worthier, more intelligent
and moro aspiring men and women. That
the public schools are not doing their best
work in this direction when thoy furnish rolling-pins
and hammers for girls and boys to play with, but
when they give the most thorough discipline and
drilling in those elementary studies which carry
with them the KEYS TO all the treasures of knowledge