The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-03
THE HIGH SCHOOL AND IT'S GRADUATES.


THE HIGH-sCHOOL AND ITS GRADUATES.
The Journal has received several letters
criticising the course of study and the gen.
eral scholarship Of the students Of high-schools
in the State, particular reference being made
to the high-school of this city
The maxim that tree must be judged by
its fruits, of course applies to the schools,
but no fair critic will judge tree as unsound
and useless because he finds defective OF
dwarfed apple in the barrel. The Hgh-school
of this city has steadily gained in public es-
TEEN since its organization, and is one of the
most powerful and complete institutions for
the education of youth of fourteen to
eighteen years of age in the State. It has
more students-over seven hundred-than
any school of similar grade in the State. Over
half of the teachers in the public schools of
this city are graduates of it. Of its sixty or
more graduates eight or ten each year 60 to
college, passing the examinations for the
freshman year of our State colleges, and also
for Vassar, Princeton, Yale and Harvard.
The School Board appreciates its usefulness,
and within the year has erected new buildings
for its use at an expense of $4,000. Among
its instructors within the last ten years have
been such eminent teachers as d. S. Jordan,
W. B. Fletcher, M. B. Anderson, G. w.
Hufford Fl. ". Wiley L. Ell. Jones, S. S.
Parr, w. W. Parsons, j. o. Wright, W. A.
Bell. G. P Brown, j. B. Roberts, and others,
who left the High-school to fill
the highest positions in our State
colleges. Two of its teachers have just been
elected as associate professors-one in mathe-
matics at DePauw, and one in physics at the
State University. It does not seem that un-
der such teachers the school could have been
notably superficial or lacked in thorough
work.
One patron complains that graduate of
the school could not write a fair hand, and
did not know the counties and county towns
outside of Marion. The same criticism may
be made of the requirements of one-half the
graduates of the State colleges. President
Haven, Of Ann Arbor, once said
he did not know the tables in compound num-
bers, but he,knew how to look them UP when
he needed them; the same with the details of
local geography. The students learn some
things for discipline, and it is quite as i'm
portant to forget some things as to acquire
The residue is left in the mind. Superintend-
emf Lane, of Chicago, often found that Har-
ward and Yale students failed in arithmetic,
geography and United States history when
examined for teachers certificates. But they
knew how to study, and after review of two
weeks took high per cents. Mr.. Smith, who
organized the telephone service of this city,
employed high-school graduates entirely,
claiming that they were far more competent,
and knew what to do in emergen-
cies; and this is the verdict of hundreds
who have taken these young people into Offices
of trust and responsibility. 1t is to be re-
membered too, that one half the work in the
high-school is elective-the French and Ger
man, the Latin and Greek, the political
economy, astronomy qualitative chemical
analysis, drawing, solid geometry, and rhet-
ORIG, and advanced English literature, are
electives IF students do not take book keep
ing review geography, and keep up the pen
manship of the lower grades, it is the fault of
the patrons who elect what their children
shall study, and not of the faculty or board.
Of course, the high-schools are not perfect;
there are incongruities. Such an one is the
study of Guyots great textbook of physical
geography in our High -school-a compulsory
study. 1t is sublimated nonsense to put
the same textbook in the hands of 200 chill
dren averaging fourteen years that is intended
for junior course in college. Pupils should
be required to do more in four years course
than mathematics through elementary alge-
bra and plane geometry. Grammar as it is
formally taught in most high-schools, does not
teach to write and speak English correctly: it
is rather metaphysics in disguise. 1t may be
worth while to appoint a COMMITTEE of visi-
tation and inquiry to advise with the board,
members who are too much outside to know
what is going on, and to counsel the principal
and faculty, who are too much in
side, and who do not feel
free enough about advising the
students as to what electives they had best
pursue. The students graduate too young;
that is certain. They are immature They
do not know what they need to study, and
their narents in 1nanr caSaS l.nou- lOau