Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-12-19
TaE PUBIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Considerable discussion has been pro-
voked during the past two weeks relative
to an article by Richard Grant White in
the North American Review, in which he
pronounces the common school system of
the United States failure and advocates
its abolition in the interests Of education.
Mr. Grant is an extremist in many re-
spects. He is the inveterate foe Of slang
in every particular, and refuses to admit
as legitimate parts of the English laneu-
age any of the words Or sentences that,
even in the remote past, were considered
as slang, no matter how expressive they
may be. He is purist in language in
the strictest application Of the word, and
will permit of no amendments of the
Aleen's English under any consideration
whatever.
But Notwithstanding his eccentricities,
Mr.. White has some excellent ideas, and
though he goes to too great length in
his denunciations of the common school
system, he is more than half right in
some Of his criticisms No one who is
blinded by prejudice can have overlook
ed the many defects that exist in the
management Of our schools. In the first
place the instructors, as a rule, are not
selected with view to their capacity to
properly control and instruct the youth.
There are few studies in which they are
examined, and if they show themselves
reasonably proficient in these they are
given certificates pronouncing them quail
fed to teach the young idea how to shoot.
They may be utterly devoid Of that moral
force that gives men and women control
over the young, yet they are given charge
Of scores and often hundreds of children.
1t IS perfectly natural that these teachers
should pay more regard to mere sstuffing"
than to culture in its broadcast and proper
sense
Then, again, the studies in which
instruction is given, are selected
without regard to the capacity or inclina-
tions Of the pupils. A child may not be
able to distinguish one musical sound
from another, yet it is compelled to study
music, and any deficiency in that line
IS marked to its discredit. It may have
no natural taste for mathematics. and vet
IS obliged to keep up with it's class in
arithmetic on pain Of being marked
down IN the average Of studies. 1t may
dislike the German language and have
no capacity for acquiring it, but it must
study 1t all the same. 1t may not be able
to tell the difference between a. triangle
and oblong square, but still it must prac-
tice drawing. Nothing IS left to the
Judgment or inclination of the pupil or
its parents. One infexible mould is pre-
pared for all scholars Of every DISPOSE
ton, and all are obliged to conform to it.
frequently it happens that the task is like
hitting a square peg to a round hole.
The effect, however, is to dwarf MANY
lntellects, and to turn children from pur
suits in which they might achieve dis
tlnction into channels in which only fail
ure awaits them
some OF MIR. Whites objections to the
common school system are well taken.
though the SUNDAY GLOBE cannot en-
dOrse his demand for adjustment. But
as long as the absurd plan of endeayoring
to mould ell characters and intellects in
one mattrix continues, the objections to
the system will increase until there will
be popular clamor against it that will
either result in its reformation or in it's
abolition. No study should be forced
upon pupil for which it has no natural
adaptability, and something more than
rote learning should be required of in
structors