The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1881-12-03
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN.

WHY THE TEACHING OF THE PUBLIC
SCHOOL SHoJLD HAVE AN INDUSTRIAL
ELEMENT.--ePubiic education should
conform tothe common needs; should
change as the needs change, neither
exceeding their requirements, nor
falling below them. When public
schools first became fairly organized
in this country, they met, at that
time and for many years, the com
mon needs of the people much better
than the present public schools meet
the common needs of to-day. For in
spite of the great progress which
these schools have made in some di-
rection, they have not kept abreast
with the timcs-with the multiply
ing educational needs of the people
as whole.
If we go back sixty years, we find
that reading, spelling, writing, and
arithmetic, were the only things of a
purely intellectual character that
were then taught in all of the com
mon, or public, schools. Grammar
and geography were not fully recog-
nized. How is it to-day? In the
largest part of these schools, but lit
tie or nothing more is now taught,
all outcries to the contrary notwith-
standing.
High schools we do not regard in
this connection as common schools:
for though they are public, though
they are free, yet SO slight per cent.
of scholars attend them, that they
can hardly be called common. But
even if we count the high schools,
we cannot count them as clear gain,
for it is probable that the proportion
of American youth who receive a
good secondary education now, is not
greater than it was two generations
ago.
The public education is better, alb
solutely, than it was fifty or sixty
years ago, but much worse, relative
~, if we consider the requirements
of the varied occupations TO which
the boys and girls upon leaving
school must devote themselves. This
is the truth Of the matter. Examine
the course Of study in these public
schools, country or city, which are
really common, you find the differ
ence between now and the past is,
with slight exceptions, difference
in the quantity, and not in charac-
ter of what is taught. Now it is
more reading, more spelling, more
arithmetic, more geography, more
grammar, and thus the increased
time devoted to school-life is con
sumed.
The studies give no intimation
that the boys and girls are expected
to do anything after they leave
school. There is no industrial Gle
ment. Good, say those who think it
is the business of the public schools
to make men, not workmcn," as
they phrase it, forgetting that to
make a good workman, is to make
man, not to spoil one.
We venture to say that, when the
foundations of the public school sys-
ten were laid in this country, if the
conditions of life had been such as
they are now, the Legislators of that
day would have made the course of
instruction much broader than they
did; they would have put into it a
marked industrial element in the
form of science and art theoretical
and applied. Such all element was
not then needed: and because it was
not then needed, the conservative
thinks it cannot possibly be needed
to-day.
Sixty years ago the agricultural
John Smith stood in no particular
need of chemistry, or botany, for ex
ample, as none Of his neighbors had
such knowledge, and his only com
petitors were these neighbors. By
following the traditional practice of
''rule of thumb" he was enabled to
hold his own in the community. This
is all changed now, and in the cult
walton Of the soil, brain counts more
than Drawn.
Sixty years ago, St. Crispin, like
the schoolmaster, boarded around.
He went from house to house max
ing shoes and boots for the inmates.
He had little need to trouble himself
about the beauty of his work, but
there must be no lack of durability.
Some thirty years ago we began to
hear of shoe and boot factories; the
itinerant workman gradually disap-
peared; and taste as well as durabil-
ity is now demanded by the consum-
or Of leather products.
Sixty years ago almost everybody
clothed himself in homespun. Then
there were domestic spinning-wheels,
looms, and dyeing-pots in the land.
The textile products were not Of the
most artistic kind; but they would
keep one warm when enough could
be had. There has been a revolution
here in taste, and in processes of
manufacture.
Sixty years ago there was almost
no American iron worker besides the