The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-06
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.


American History in the Public Schools.
To tur B.. tor ut .' ID. 'tanupo!.' journal:
The ignorance of the committee on text books
and course of instruction as to what is and what
is not taught in the city schools is amusing. The
News has made great discovery. It is useless
for the committee, board, Superintendent
Tarbell to make scapegoat of the assistant SUI
perintendent, Mr. Mills. Ridpath's History of
the United States NOW displaced by the ''Eclec-
tic") contains three hundred and ifty-six closely
printed pages and sixtyseven chapters. The
ifty-sx pages and eight chapters devoted to the
civil war and the subsequent administrations
have been omitted in Ridpath's, as the CORE
spending chapters were in Andersons book,
which Ridpath's displaced and as they no doubt
would have been the coming year in the Eclec-
tic had the newspapers not come to the front
In the Manual of the Public Schools" sup
piled by the board to every teacher, and con
tanning the course Of study in each grade, we
read Eighth year, second quarter, history, Rid
paths United States chapter a 80 So"
Thesuperintpn dent certainly knew, every seventh
and eighth year teacher must have known-the
committee on instruction and the board admit
ted officially by printed books and synopsis, that
for years United States history was only taught
up to the civil war The same Manual of the
mittee on text books and course of obstruction
ito report at the first regular meeting in April
such facts and suggestions in regard to text
books and course of instruction it may think
advisable TO present" Page A Ii the COM
mittee and superintendent have allowed the as
sistant superintendent to dictate for years what
parts Of United States history are to be omit
ted, it is not in good taste for them not to as
sumo the responsibility of his action. For them
to plead ignorance is child's play-the baby act,
in fact
The same manual page AZ also declares that
the superintendent shall direct and supervise the
details Of instruction in all the public schools of
the city, and page Az that the assistant superin-
tendent shall semi annually make careful reports
to the superintendent respecting the course OF
study, discipline or other topics of general inter
| est" 1t would seem there is no reason why the
superintendent and the committee on instruction
should not know what is doing in the schools,
and that no subordinate officer can be held re-
sponsible for the omission of the history OF our
country during and since the civil war
| That the supervisors have not been actuated
by any partisan spirit is shown in the fact that
Goodrichs Childs' History of the United States
has been used as a reading book in the sixth
| year and that no part of it $50 pages-civil
war % pages) has been omitted. This book,
moreover, is revised by one A. B. Bevard, said to
have been an aIrant rebel 1t certainly devotes
more space to Stonewall jackson than to Abra-
| ham Lincoln, and says not one word as to the
! crime of slavery, not word about John Brown
The most it says of the cause of the war is that
''there were, no doubt, great faults
on both sides" It draws no moral, en-
! forces no lesson-perhaps this is the
| reason that this miIk-and- water-account
of the greatest struggle for freedom the world
has ever witnessed is considered proper text
book of United States history to use reading
book in a city which, during that struggle har-
bored hundreds who were rebel sympathizers
and ripe for treason, and some of whose precious
necks missed the gallows by little more than a
ropes length
But time flies Thirty-three years are a gen
Grafton; twenty-four have passed. Prudential
reasons" can be thrown overheard. The people
should be thankful to the argus-eyed newspapers
that keep the public schools from stagnating,
and have 'called the attention" of the board and
superintendent of public schools to the fact that
| they may safely intimate to Mr.. Mills that he
may now "prudentially' conduct the infant mind
through the whole history of his country, even
in the capital of Indiana, without danger of an
explosion, of the metaphorical or actual grand
bounce. PARENT PATRIOT