The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-15
ENGLISH COMMON SCHOOLS.
The Educational Machine Running at
Remarkably High Pressure,
With Prospect that Something viii Break
Unless a Reaction COmes-A Needed Re-
fOrm-VictOria's New Book
Of the indianapolis journal.

he will ride towel, to a person who shall be
nameless The principle of this adage England
bids fair to illustrate in her newt born zeal for
popular education. From having so long pro
ceeded in this work at a snails pace she is now
dashng forward at the dangerous speed Of
lightning express. Everything connected with
her common schools is run on the high-pressure
plan, and there are signs that the machinery is
giving way, and that ere long, if wiser counsels
do not prevail there will be serious reaction.
First, there is the compulsory education law,
which acts as whip to force the children to at
tend Then, the managers step forward and
compel parents to disgorge the weekly school
fees Naturally, compulsory attendance and
compulsory payment for attendance, DO not al
ways work together as smoothly as could be de-
sired, and upon the abject poor the results of
their conjunction are cruel and oppressive in the
extreme. This, however, is only the beginning
Of sorrows. Once year every child falls into
the hands of one of her Majesty's school in
spectors-not so terrible thing under ordinary
circumstances, your readers may think, but let
them withhold Judgment until they hear all,
What makes this annual examination the terri
BILE ordeal it is is the fact that portion Of the
teachers pay depends upon it. For each child
who passes, the government makes a certain
grant of money, which is divided usually be-
tween the school board and the person or
persons in charge of the school Thus
the English schoolmaster has two of the strong
est possible incentives to make the most that is
possible not only out of his school in general,
but out of every individual scholar; for every
failure on the part Of the latter will represent
the loss to him of certain sum of money be-
sides detracting from the credit in which he de
sres to be held by his employers, The conse
quence of all this is that, for some months be-
fore the examination occurs, a baneful system of
push and cram is adopted. In this struggle
what is one mans meat proves another mans
poison The strong thrive and do well, but the
weak are crushed, and, in some cases, actually
killed Recently school lad committed suicide
assigning no other reason than that he was sure
he could not pass the inspection. Cases of
ruined health and swift fevers, resulting in
death, are reported among the scholars almost
every day And the teachers fare no better In
London, within few months, fourteen of these
have succumbed to nervous exhaustion and two
have died chiefly say the doctors, from lover
pressure" These tragic developments are at
tracing wide spread attention, and before long
Parliament may conclude to call halt Mean
while the intelligent looler-on is scarcely more
shocked by the distressing aspects of the strug-
gle than he is amused by its humorous features
One of the latter is the fertility of resource
shown in The infiction of punishment upon
scholars who are behind with their lessons
1t has just been established in court
that one irate pedagogue administers
chastisement by dosing his delinquent
pupils with castor oil. He might to be
sure, have easily adopted more harmful meas
ure, and one, too which, judging from the eX-
perience of many parents, would have been
more agreeable to the administrator. At the
same time, physicking the young idea" is not
at all proper part of school discipline. and few
will regret that the teacher in question has been
severely taken to task In this connection
may add that the London school board asks for
$500, 600 from the rates this year-One thir
teenth of the total municipal expenditure in the
metropolis, and about one penny in the pound
per quarter on the ratable value of the prop
erty. The gross cost per child for education is
about $13. 30, of which sum 81 is met by govern
ment grant and 50 by the school fees, the bal
ance being covered in the amount above named
Two hundred and eighty officials are employed
in London alone in bringing to the schools, by
aid of the compulsory act, children whose par
ents would not otherwise send them, and the ex-
penditure for this one item amounted, last year
to over $4,000. The average attendance at the
metropolitan schools has risen from e. 347 in
1874 to 262, 1882 in 1888.
FIGHT AGAINST REFORM
Mr.. Chamberlain's merchant shipping bill will
have stormy passage in the House of Com
mons Those who have fattened on the abuses
and cruelties at which it aims are preparing to
fight it at every stage, and it will not be their
fault if the measure shall finally escape the fate
which so many of their own worthless vessels
meet. The most useful features of the bill re-
late to the matter of insurance. 1t will prevent
the outrage of lnsuring ship beyond its value,
and owners from recovering anything under ma
rine insurance if the ship was unseaworthv at
starting, or if loss is due to unseawo1thi-
ness which might have been prevented
This subject is one in which the whole civilized
world is interested, and few facts will show
your readers the urgent need for sweeping re-
form. In single year $500 sailors have met
their death by drowning on British ships. This
is exclusive of the deaths of passengers of men
employed in ships of war and in coaling boats
as well as of the fishermen who have lost their
lives on the British coasts. 1t thus appears that
one in sixty of the men and officers employed in
the British mercantile marine is drowned at
sea. This, however, does not fully represent
the case, for leaving out of the calculation the
great lines of passenger steamers, and the best
sailing vessels, to which an accident seldom oc-
ours, the death rate is raised to one in forty or
fifty. AS an illustration of the reckless way in
which the lives of British sailors are sacrificed
the case may be cited of ship which, in de-
fance of repeated warnings, was sent to sea by
the owner, a man who knew nothing of nautical
matters with the upper deck only three feet
nine inches out of the water instead of seven
feet, as he was told it should be- The vessel
foun6ered of course, and every man on board
was drowned. Many ship, there is too much
reason to fear is, to quote the words of the late
Chief Justice Earle, built and equipped, and
manned and loaded with the intention of sending
her direct to her destination at the bottom of the
sea-" The manager of large steamship com
pany, on being asked what kind of a season he
fortunate-we have had no losses" There are
cases again and again happening, Mr.. Chamber
lain assures us, in which ship having been lost
the shareholders in the vessel have received back
the whole of the capital and bonus profit on
the disaster. All this is simply shocking, and
the wonder is that bill like that now pending