Morning journal and courier., 1880-09-01
Our Public School System.
The Sort Of Men and Women and Voters f
 Makes-CrfticIsm Of q Much Landed In- atItution-Opinfons Of Employers Crime ana Politics.

The Sort ofMen and Women and Voters it
 Makes-Crftic1sm ofn Much Lauded In-
 atitution-Opinions of Employ yers-
 Crime ana Politics.
 [Richard Grant White in New York TimesI
 My recent mention of our public school system was not in terms of respect; nor could it have been so without wholly falslfy- ing my opinion and my feeling. This may seem strange to some, perhaps to many, who are accustomed to hear Our public schools spoken of as if they were at once the corner stone and the keystone the foundation and the crown, of our political system. They may possibly hold such position with regard to that system as it at present exists but the connection of reciprocal cause and effect be- tween the two has never been satisfactorily shown, to my knowledge and the burden of the proof lies with those who hold the affirm ative; but that they exert any wholesome in fuence upon our society, either morally or intellectually, that they make thelr pupils better men and women or better citizens, or that they fit them for the duties ana the Dus- mess of their lives, do not hesitate to deny With the system or systems of instruction pursued in them I do not at the present time concern myself. Those systems have been changed from time to time; they are not the same at all public schools; they are liable to change hereafter; but the system or public schools, that is, the plan of providing education for all children at the public ex- nense has been long established in this coun- trv. and with no great modification on any essensial point, except the recent attempt at compulsory education; and 1t Is consistent with right and with reason to judge of that system by it's fruits, and in this way to deter mine the real worth of an institution that IS so costly and 50 highly valued.
 Iappeal at once to practical men and wo- men of common intelligence who are i'll the position of employers. For they alone are they whose opinion Is of any real value on this question. As to working politicians It is to them a matter of business and of patron ape. and to theoretical politicians 1t IS mat ter of theory. Teachers Cor, as some of them call themselves, educators, education1sts, and even educationaIsts,) may claim to be heard as experts but the very fact that they are ex- perts is against them. Their expertshp qualities them to speak with more or less au- thority upon questions referring to matters strictly within the limits of their profession, but. like all other experts, they are to be dis trusted upon the practical application and the intrinsic worth of their speciality, partic- uIarly when, as in this case, the practical question is complicated with that of remuner- ative employment and position of more or less dignity and importance. Phiantnrop- ists must be regarded as being on this ques- ton in the category of theoretical politicians; and ministers of religion are as such, special ists, whose opinion is to be received with def erence only in their speciality. It is to be re- marked, however, that the public school, as at present conducted in the State of New York, for example, does by no means stand in very high favor with the majority of all ministers of all religions; and to this remark it may be added, unless greatly err, that an inquiry into the reasons of the adverse opin- ions among this class would discover less sat isfaction because the, children of the schools were not fitted to be good citizens and honest, efficient men and women than because they were led away from the tenets, the practices, and the influence of certain reIigious sect, than which there could be no better reason for ruling out clerical opinion on the subject entirely. The proof of the pudding is the eating; the proof of the value of our public school system is in the quality of the young men and young women, that it produces. What is their actual worth In practical life? How much better are they morally and intellectually than young men and young women who have never been to public schools
 To this question there will be but one an-