Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1885-01-10

ence seemed to create a new spirit of
health and TigoF among the scholars"
/ A great German teacher fully compre-
/ hended the influence of the teacher over
! the minds Of the young when he said to
/ his Emperor, GIVE me the first seven
/ years OF the life of your subjects and
| Will willingly grant you all the rest for j
/ snail thus be able TO make the laws Of
/ the empire
! The refOrmer appealing to his audience
I OF matured men and women tOrgets that
/ the beginning is with the child, at the
| home and Ia the school room. Go out
INTO the street, into the store, or into the
Office. Do men ask whether the new
conner Is a graduate or what his educa-
t1Onal advantages have been2 No. They
ask: docs he understand his business,
Is he man of honor, viii he do to
trust, is he suuare?' These are the ele-
ments Of character demanded of men
and women too. The teacher must be
broad, patriotic, and with such courage
and independence as VIII enable
him to answer at appropriate times
all the serious demands of citizen
ship, and to realize that the Republic
depends for its perpetuity upon the viz
tue and intelligence of It's citizens. The
teacher has proven himself Of such stuff
IN the past and feel sure thst If the
alarm ever. sounds again, as 1t did twenty
five years ago, calling thousands upon
thousands Of boys from the schools, from
the shops and the Offices to stand up and
do battle unto death for the preservation
of their country, they VIII be found
ready to go as they were in that terrible
struggle not so long p; st but you all re-
member it, and the teachers will be
there as their captains and leaders, true
70 tho Eha+ Nhn nf+fuar11a
duty is to his country.
To you practical educators we leave
cuTiculums; we leave school room
methods. We ask you to give US the
results that experience and study and
o observation have secured to your pro-
fessiOn. On the outside we watch your
work, with confidence thatyOur zeal and
your intelligence is doing for our boys
and girls the best that can be done. The
age is full Of progress and invention, and
must bring to you advanced theories and
better practice.
The question that comes most forci-
bly, to all of us is whether the system of
education in this country, from the pri-
mary up to high school, thence up
through the university and collegiate
course, brings to the mass of the people
the best results for the large investments;
1t is a healthy sign that the attention of
educators is now so largely given to dis
cussing course of study for the great
majority Of bOysand girls who can never
reach the public high school, and who
will never see the inside of university.
L believe that among all classes Of intel
Hgent, thinking people the conviction is
gaining ground that toward this large
class and in this particular is our educa.
tiOnal system lacking. A larger knOWl-
edge of the educational systems of the
old world has disturbed the egOtism out
of which we proclaimed the perfection of
our own schools.
We have been willing as people to
bear burthensome taxation to support
generous public school system, Normal
Schools, Agricultural Colleges and State
Universities, but we have all learned that
we have not yet solved the problem for
the youths who cannot be maintained in
school from six years of age to twenty.
The large class who leave school between i
the ages of twelve and sixteen must be
provided for. L will not harrass you
ladies and gentlemen with statistics to
show the importance of meeting this
phase Of the educational problem. In
my judgment it must be met by indus
trial schools, created by the State, sus- |
tanned by public taxation, where boys
and girls may learn useful trades, where
the State may protect itself by making
skilled artisans. The late Mai. Hopkins, |
while Warden of the Penitentiary, once
said: among the 700 cOnvicts in the
Kansas Penitentiary there is seldom /
found a skilled mechanic" In the East /
ern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania there /
are l,04l prisoners, and among them /
there are only seven mechanics. In /
England, where the experiment has |
been tried Of teaching useful |
trades to boys who have been sent |
to Government Homes for reformation, |
statistics indicate that 80 per cent. Of the |
boys are reformed. To secure the full /
benefit of the Reform School we must
add to it shops where the boys may
learn 10 work in iron, leather and wood /
and a farm, where they may become /
familiar with every detail Of agriculture, 7
The State must protect itself against the /
idle and the vicious, and work is the best /
corrective ever invented. In an agricul- /
tural community like Kansas, new and /
yet sparsely settled, this one school well |
supported would be a great factor. /
the East an industrial school /
in every county for idle boys and girls /
would do more to relieve the over
crowded prisons and take the tramp out 4
of the next generation than all the col
eyes that can be built.
In this country, where wealth is rapidly 7
a large contribution to the
army of respectable loafer9 comes from
families, where, by hard work and bust
ness sense, or by accident, money has
made eXertlOn unnecessary, and the
SONS and daughters proceed to exhaust
the parental savings by a life of idleness
and genteel vices. For this the teacher
is not responsible. However sensible we
may be about the ordinary affairs Of life,
we can never quite forget that our own
children deserve better ppOrtunitiest than
we possessed, and few fathers who enjoy
3 competence have the courage to say,
My son, learn a trade; learn to do some
thing well, out Of which you can make