Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-12-30

heard an eloquent Doctor of Divinity
in Farwell Hall, Chicago, before as
many as could be packed on those
spacious floors, wind up thrilling
period, in as great a voice and as
emphatic gesture as he could CON-
mand, with the words, "Accursed be
he who lays hand upon our public
schools" The whole house appeared
to think as he did. 1t requires a
good deal of temerity to dare to say
anything against our public schools.
And yet Richard Grant White, re-
garded by some as the most critical
scholar in America, dares use such
language as above quoted. Some
examination into the origin of our
school system is made. cit was in.
tended for poor children whose edu.
cation was not provided for by any
religious society,"" Now, So, 1905 900
is spent upon public education by the
city of New York alone. And what
ia the result ? "Poor children" are
less educated and more debased than
before public education was thought
of. Examinations have been insti-
tuted to test the results of public edu-
cation. Examples illustrating the
discoveries are given in Mr.. Whites
article and they are indeed deplors-
BILE, both in regard to scholars and
teachers, aud even on the supposition
that the sole object of the public
schools is TO inculcate knowledge,
the conclusion arrived at is that "as
a mere imparter of useful knowledge
the public school has failed utterly.'
The theory is that education should
be general and at the public expense
in order to lit the masses 1t is not
merely unsound but false. The ad-
age, Ignorance is the mother of
vice." IS false. knowledge is the
father Of crme,' would be a more
truthful dietum. Go back to the very
first lesson on record, and the allego.
ry is that vice was introduced into
the world when man ate of the tree
Of knowledge. No one win deny that
the more educated a man is the more
able he is to succeed in criminal de.
sigus. Education, therefore, to be
useful to the commonwealth must
have with it something more than
mere knowledge. NJ. White enum-
crates series of evil consequences
that have followed in the wake of
our public schools. We quote:
If Ignorance were the mother of vice, and
if our publicschool system were what il Is
set up TO be, the fruits of the latter would nv
this time have been manifest, plainly visible
to the whole world, IN our moral advancement
as people, in a higher tone in our society
in the greater purity of our politics and the
incorruptiblity of our legislators, in the in
creased probity Of the executive officers of
our State and municipal governments and of
our corporate financial bodies, in the super.
Tor wisdom and more sold integrity of our
bench in the sobriety of our matrous. the
modesty of our madens, in the dimnution of
divorces, in the steady decrease of vice and
crime and dleness and vagrancy and yara.
bondage. Ifgnorance be the mother of vice.
and the public school Is the efficient foe of
ignorance, the last fifty years should have
seen in all these respects an Improvement so
great that admiring nations would applaud
and humbly hope to initiate But who needs
to be told that IN all these respects we have
deteriorated9 II is not Horace's praiser Of
the days when he was boy that tell. ne this
II is a matter of public record. 1t is known
to every ooservant man who has lived more
than thirty years. Our large towns swarm
with idle, vicious lads and young men who
have no visible means of support. Our rural
districts are infested with tramps "a creature
unknown to our fathers, and even to us in our
youth. The corruption of our legislative
bodies is so wide and so deep and 30 we'll
known that great corporations and business
men of large wealth can almost always oh,
tain the legislation needful for their ends
right or wrong, Bribery at elections is all
most openly practiced by both our great po-
litical parties The general tone and charae.
ter Of our bench, both for learning, for wis
dom, and tor integrity. haye fallen notably
during the last thirty years. Dishonesty in
business and betrayal of trust have become
90 common, that the public record CT the last
fifteen years on this subject ia such that Il
can not be remembered without shame. Pol.
tiles, instead OF being purified and elevated
has become trade in which success falls
year By year more to inferior men who have
little low cunning. Divorces have multi
pied until they have become so common as
to be a stock jest in the facstious column of
our newspapers Crime and vice have in
creased year after year almost pqyi passu with
the development OF the pubic-school system.
which, instead of lifting the masses, has Civ
en- in their place nOndescript and hybrid
class, unit for professional or mercantile life.
unwilling aud also unable to be farmers or
artisans 50 that g. aually ourskiled labor i.
done more by immigrant foreigners. while
our native citizens, who world otherwise
naturally fill this respectable and comtorta
HE position in society, seek TO make their
living by their wits-bonestly if they can if
not, more or less dishonesty or, failing thus
by petty otice,seeking. Fiial respect and
parental love have both diminished and. as
Tor the modesty Of our young men, aud even
o. our Young women, they 10 not blush that
they have lost it, This is the condition in
which we are after more than half a century
OF experience Of our publc,schcol system,
the only jnsuf cation for whose existence is
that il was asserted and believed to be pan,
ace for the cure Of social aud political dis
ease.
Mr.. Whites paper desc hot cover
the whole ground Why do not tie
public schools accomplish the object
in,ended? Can they be made to do
SO ? HIS conclusions could also be ar
rived Mt By different steps. 1t is
pain that evidences are in view to
show that IN general more knowledge
was acquired IN a few winters of the
private schools in existence before
the Introduction oftne public system,
than in seven to ten months per year
OF the whole school age nowadays =
Aud the knowledge then obtained
was both good and useful. 1t was
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