The National tribune., 1884-02-07
Our Public School system.

and poet, than whom there are few more
careful observers of manners and custom, is
reported as saying, as aresult of his personal
experience, that the tendency Of popular edu-
cation in this country seems to be in the di-
rection of clerical occupations and away from
purely manual pursuits, and there is good
reason for the assertion that the facts war
rant the conclusion at which he has arrived.
The truth is-as Prof Andrew f. West hap
PLY puts it, in the February number of the
North AmeTicaa RerieU-that, like Artemus
Ward, who once tried to do too much, and
did it! those who are responsible for the
character of our present school system have
fallen into the error of expanding it beyond
its natural and proper limits. Originally
1t was not intended that the public schools
should do more than furnish instruction in
those rudimental branches of knowledge
which form the basis of liberal education,
and their support by the State was justified
solely on the ground that certain amount
OF education was necessary to the making of
citizens capable of judiciously exercising
the right of the ballot, and properly dis
charging their duties to the community in
general. But this sound and practical OBJ
ject has been gradually lost sight of until in
many States and cities the sorry spectacle is
presented of children debarred from the
benefits of the public school system, because
the money that should be spent in main
tanning sufficient number Of schools of the
lower grades TO meet the demand for prim-
airy instruction is devoted to the sup
port of high schools for the benefit of
the few, We do not mean to say, of course,
that this higher education is not desirable,
but only that it is not incumbent upon
the State to provide it, and that it ought not
TO be provided at the expense of the funda-
mental objects of the common school sys-
tem-to reduce illiteracy to the minimum
But this is not the only fault of the system.
Another serious evil that is directly trace
able to the maintenance of schools of high
grades is the forcing process SO universally
in vogue, the effect of which is to hurry the
student on from one grade to another before
he has thoroughly mastered the subjects
taught in any. Thus it is common expert
ence to find in the higher classes young men
who cannot even compose good letter OF
speak and write the English language cor
rectly, while it is rare, indeed, that one is
encountered who has any idea of putting
his knowledge to practical USE That, IN
deed, is the most serious defect of the sys-
tern-that it is aimIess and visionary. 1t
| affords smattering of learning, but thor
ough, practical knowledge of no art or in
dustry. The lad who follows the curriculum
of study to its elimination is apt to discover
after graduation that, after all, he has re-
ceived no special training for any pursuit by
which he can gain an immediate livelihood,
/ but, ON the contrary, has acquired positive
| distaste for manual labor, and the chances are
| that he finds his level in the ever-inereasing
multitude of people who are fit for nothing
better than to fill positions of purely cIer
cal nature.
The remedy for this state of things. we
| take it, lies in return to first principles
j
limited to its legitimate purroses-to fit the
youth Of the land for the ordinary duties of
teal knowledge essential to making ones
way in the world. TO this end all the "trip
peries and scollops with which our school
system is now top-heavy should be Topped of,
the costly and yet unremunerative high
grade schools should be abolished, and the
money spent thereon expended in establish
ing additional schools Of lower grades while
the course of study shouId-b be SO restricted as
to render it easy for every pupil to thoroughly
master it. Thoroughness is, indeed, the
mark of good scholarship the world after,
and it is not so much the variety of his in
formation as the exactness and fnllness of
his knowledge that gives man standing
among his fellows.
But these changes in our common school
system, essential though they are, do not.
by any means, fully meet the exigency.
With the education of the mind should
go, it seems to us, the education of
the eye and hand. Drawing, it is true. is
now taught in the upper grades, but in
struction in that art is generally so de-
sultory as TO be of no practical benefit TO
the student. Tt should be made one of
the elemental studies, for it is, perhaps.
/ the most efficient of all aids alike in the
imparting and acquisition of knowledge.
/. A child who is thus taught the form and
shape of objects with which ideas are assoc
: ciated is pretty sure to deyelopa tenacious