National Republican., 1880-11-29
True Economics,

pense for police force, jails, alnshouses,
prisons and hospitals is the outgrowth of tho
ignorance which blasts tho children of the
degraded, aud the fact given in one of his re-
ports by Commissioner Eaton, that iii the
iliielate voters of tho United States but ac'
quired Il slightly advanced degree of oduca-
tion 1t would annually add to tho productions
of our country $3lt ,2s6.2O9, or five times the
whole amount expended for education in this
country" the most stupid patriot naturally
proceeds to add the sum which ignorance, the
father of vice, takes ont of the government for
the support of vice, to the amount of which the
government is robbed by the uselossncss of
these non-producing vagrants, The total
result looms nebulously on the startled vision,
showing us that ignorance is vastly more
expensive to government than would be the
gift of most liberal education carried on
in the being of every child in the
nation from the age of two years to eight.
cen. In the following extract from q letter
which precedes Commissioner Eaton's state
mont of the system of education of the United
States" ho says "the free public education
of tho children of the United States depends
everywhere on the action taken by the sew
crnl states and by tho citizens Of those states
in their several localities" and that "the ex-
istence of the republic, unless all its citizens
arc educated, 10 an impossibility."
From this it is seen that the necessity Of the
rescue of the masses from ignorance Is not only
one of social economics, but that this rescue Is
dependent upon tho action of the citizens of
the d inorent localities, and that it is problem
fundamental to the existence Of the republic.
Therefore, on grounds of self.proiecton, po.
litical economy aud ofour safct y as a nation,
it behooves each of us to look to it
that the best possible educational means
are offered to tho masses, aud that they are so
offered as to be thoroughly serviceable as in.
dustrial qualifications, training each child in
conformity with her or his destiny as soll.
controlling, selfsupporting element Of this
gorlously conceived government.
| 1t is becoming fully understood that the So
luton of the labor question is bound up in that
of true, practical education of the masses.
Our public schools have not as yet served TO
furnish this needed thing. The question,
what they would achieve if all the pupils were
kept in tho course prescribed through the years
allotted is of less ultimate Importance than IL
would be If the children Of the poor were not
so generally set to work before half those years
olopsc.
The great trouble Is, in our educational at.
tempts we have been not unlike King Suddho'
dana, tho husband of the mother of Buddha,
of whom we read that
when the eighth year passed
The careful king bethoughtto teach his son
All that prince might know"
Like this king, we have been years too late
in our little educational enterprises. As in
the beautiful legend so in each repeated in.
carnation of divine life in baby.form, human
destiny is fixed,
while merry in the hall
Boards wHgalW
over ways and times of setting about the work
Viswamitra, the wsest one,
| The fartheSt-sceu in scriptures, and the best
| In learning, und the manual arts, and all"
must have had horrible sense of gonencss in
tho courage, and emptiness in the head when
this man.neglected child began to exhibit the
pyrotechnic display of that eght.yenrs
growth. He began by bidding Buddha write
after him "tho scriptures which only the
hgh.born hear" and the child, quickly stoOp.
ing in the dust not in one script, but in
many characters drew the pictured writings,
the speech of eavo.men and scapeople and
the Masters verse IN every tongue"
Not shaken from dignity, said the amazed
teacher AFTER me repeat your Enumeration
tllI we reach the lakh;" and tho child repeats
hundreds, thousands, aud, "tho round lakh
centuries, koti nuhut kamba, utpalas" aud
page of things unknown to US ignorant,
counting tho rau.drOps Of the universe, and
"thence to tho Maha Kalpas by which the
gods compute the future and the past"
Yes, destiny is fixed while we are bethink.
ing us to teach these children Of tho republic
all that such princes should know
If we solfabsorbed, could Rot out of our.
selves and into tho strange old depths of the
hearts of the little gamins about the streets,
we should discover there knowledges rs
varied, uncauny aud startling as, though much
less innocent than, those which amazed the
stQrga2ng wonder man of India. At
the time when our present school system FIRST
recognizes these little ones as elements in the
social problem, tho destiuics of many Of
them are fixed. Litte old wrecks, shaking
in their rags before the criminal courts
; many of them have learned all that q prince
(of darkncss) need know while our present
tardy school system Is preparing to strike a
light
In the words Of Schulzs Delltalch, "Hlghor
cultivation aud increased capacity in tho
lahorlr is the solution of the sOcia. question"
Now then, to train men to be the mali ions
worlimen, artisans or artists-that is, to train
them for their destluy-weou ought 10 commence
as wo commence with the plauts-at the germ
But the respect due to personal liberty aud
family rights will permit tho government
!
the child's incessgnt aud mind.diroGted nc.
tiyitie5 cause the oyerbudencd and probably
ignorant mother at homo TO complain that
"the little one is full of mischief aud into
every thing II Sees" 1t is just hero that the
nursery kindergarten, with its gymnasiic
plays, rythm otmotion songs, tho soll-instruc-
ton and DEVELOPMENT of experiments with the
spheres cubes etc, with tho paper-ioIdiug
and clay modelling delights the child and
leads him on TO a sense that human seltaGriy.
ity Is work and that work Is the delight Of
life, while achievement for self aud others Is
what makes mau onlya little lower than the
augels aud crowns him with loving kindness,
This wise development Of the activities, If
promptly substituted in each child's life for
inpatient spanlSings, seedlings and cruel use.
less attempts to make tho child keep still,
and, If carried on In the lives Of little ones
from the age Of two to six or seven, would
powerfully tend to secure such children
against the unnatural vice Of stagnant Idle.
ness and would so arouse their intelligence
that tho question would no longer be how 10
keep these children IN the schools, but how to