The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-10-03
OUR COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM.
ALIVE SUBJECT CALMLY CONSIDERED.


ceiving much attention.
The BULLETIN with all the better class
Of newspapers with which it exchanges
holds, and has ever held, that in the con-
duct of our public schools, and more espec-
tally in those of the cities the substantial
and useful, have, to an unwarranted extent,
been supplanted by the unsubstantial and
ornamental. There is not, as the St. Louis
Times-Journal alleges, single large city
in the United States from which this COM
plant does not come. 1t is known, and is
not to be denied, that while money is being
lavishly expended upon high schools and
normal schools, and in giving instruction in
languages outside the scope Of a common
school education, the doors are closed abso-
lutely against tens Of thousands Of children,
because of an insufficiency of room to
accommodate them "The sys'
tem," says the same authority,
has been loaded down with ."branches'
as harmful as they are costly to the pub
lie which Is forced to foot the bills. The
schools are no common schools They
have gone far beyond their warrant in
the curriculum and they fail to furnish
education, such as it is, to all youths
entitled to 1t. If the extravaganza out.
growth were Topped off and the system re-
adjusted upon the origina idea Of ele-
mentary education it would be possible to
give to every youth who would claim ii, in
struction in the fundamentals Of ordinary
education without increasing the cost. 1t
will no longer serve the purpose Of the
rings that hang about the present system to
charge that any proposed reform is an at
tack upon the public school system, or that
any suggestion looking to economy comes
from an unfriendly feeling against any
class, sect or nationality That reforms are
possible in the unscientifc methods Of
teaching whch. now obtain is shown by the
successful effort at Quincy, Mass, of which
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., is the careful
historian. OF course Quincy had not SUI
fered as larger cities have, but as in the
school, the textbook publisher stood be-
tween the scholar and that which was to be
impaired to him. The Quincy case as mar
rated by Mr.. Adams, is worth the telling
for its suggestion Of possibilities elsewhere.
BY some fortunate accident the town cleo
ted school trustees who were not
willing to become tools Of the
superintendent, They watched the prog
ress Of education and were not
pleased with it. The annual public ex-
animation passed off well, but it was
a sham. "The teachers conducted the
exercises over safe and familiar ground TO
a triumphal conclusion in some peculiarly
unnatural Bit Of childish defamation" But
the real understanding Of the pupil was
not tested. The committee thereupon
determined to conduct an examination for
themselves. They found that the children
had abundance of rules at their tongues
end. They found however, that pupils who
knew every rule fsyntaX and couldformally
parse sentences could not compose an ordi-
nary letter dramatically. They could not
read any matter outside their text books
without absurd stumbling. In short, they
learned as parrots learn, and after their
course Of training knew no more than
trained parrots. The committee resolved
that the schools should rot 90 on
in this fashion aud that the remedy
should not involve any increase Of the tax
payers burden. They were busy men and
not able personally to conduct the work of
reformation. They therefore determined
to employ competent superintendent The
town agreed, and in 1915 they engaged
man peculiarly fitted for the purpose
teacher who had studied the science of
teaching. The multiplicity of studies was
at once discarded as productive Of the
merest smatterng Of knowledge and text
books were in measure done away with.
Instruction was confined to reading, writ
ing and arithmetic, except as gammar,
spelling, history and geography were
impaired incidentally with reading,
which was not confined to q
text book and writing which was not from
copy but off hand. "The old reader having
disappeared" says Mr. Adams, "thc teacher
was at liberty to put into the hands Of the
class biographies or histories or magazine
articles, and having read them first the
scholars might write Of them afterwards to
show that they understood them Their at
tention was thus secured and the pen being
continually in the hand they wrote as read
lily as they spoke and spelling came with
practice" The improvement in the schools
was immense. The pupils learned to read
oyoollnntlv az eiOht 1hnv wrote nuicklv onl