Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-02
Secular Education.

East and West, for some change in
the system of common education.
The schools in most large cities are
over-burdened with too much of
what pertains, more legitimately to
collegiate course of training. Boys
who attend the so-called public
schools in most large towns and
cities merely to prepare themselves
for learning trade, feel unpleasant
ly situat-d when many of their school
mates, and perhaps classmates in the
common branches, are pursuing other
and higher studies with the view of
preparing themselves for some of
the learned professions. 1t requires
very little school education to fit an
honest and intelligent boy or girl for
useful citizenship in any enlightened
country of the world. Common
school or even collegiate education,
is, after all, only the warp of life
preparation; nothing short of the
practical experiences of days and
years can fill in the wool as it should
be done, to secure strong and
durable texture of character. We
hear q great deal said about the
"roll of honor" as relating to the
standing of scholars in the modern
graded schools. The best educa-
tors are fast coming to the conclu-
sion that much of the present school
system is a farce and not to be longer
tolerated.
A writer in the Hartford Courant
asserts that the country is becoming
over burdened with young people of
both sexes who, although boasted
graduates of the best city schools,
are absolutely untitled for taking the
places of their parents, as useful and
honorable members of society. The
boys belonging to the class above
designated, look upon the trades and
industrial pursuits as far below the
dignity of their secular education,
while the girls who have been rushed
through a dollhouse system of train
ing, regard their future lives only as
great tome of the widest romance.
of which they themselves are the
principal actors, if not the bright
and shining heroines. Not all young
men can be bank clerks or mercan-
tile book-keepers, simply because
they stood first on the roll of honor
in the city schools and were" finish
ed of" at some aristocratic CONNER
cial college. Not all boarding-school
young ladies should expect that,
henceforth, the way of life is car
peted with roses for their own special
benefit. The branches they have
mastered will be no detriment to
them whether they become the
wives of farmers, mechanics or
statesmen.
1t is encouraging to note that q
new departure has been taken in the
schools OF several Eastern cities.
Boys are taught the use of mechani-
cal tools and implements, while the
girls are instructed in all the indus
tries of well-ordered modern
household. In this way, there is no
over-growth of any one of the intel
lectual or reasoning faculties, to the
detriment of another. Mind and
muscle are SO tremendously educated
together that the young man or
young woman becomes perfect
specimen of their kind, eminently
qualified to take upon themselves all
the requirements and responsible
ties of actual life. To sum up the
whole matter, they are in the right
way to become men and women of
good sound sense, which is nothing
more nor less than the great legal
tender of the present world.
Several leading educators of Cali
fornia are advocating an entire re-
modelling of the school system in
that State. The public schools of
San Francisco are aping all the
majesty of endowed colleges and
State universities without possessing
the merits of such institutions. Hun
dreds and thousands of the students
who have nominally graduated from
those public schools, are now in
sorest need of being thoroughly edu-
Gated over again to lit them for the