Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1885-03-12
The Public Schools Criticised.

When we wrote the Introductory
remarks, with which we prefaced the
article copied into our paper from the
Democratic AdUocate, we had not read
the address of Mr.. Bonaparte, which
has excited so much clamor in public
school circles. A friend has since
supplied US with the speech and we
find it to be very different affair
from what we had supposed. Mr..
Bonaparte is not only not an enemy
of the public schools, but he avows
himself in favor of compulsory educa-
ton, with severe penalties to be at
tached to parties or guardians for
failure to secure the regular atten-
dance at school of the children under
their charge. His criticism is aimed
at the supposed defects of our school
system, not at all or at any system
Of public instruction which furnishes
good results. This, he claims, our
system not only does not do, but is
productive of harmful effects. But
it is best that Mr.. Bonaparte should
speak for himself, and to this end we
give place to the following extracts
from his speech, promising, that howev-
er widely we may differ from him in
some of the points raised in his speech,
we agree with his concluding propo-
sition, that whatever the justice of his
censures, the public schools cannot
but gain by an intelligent criticism Of
their real or apparent defects:
"Our system of public education
rests essentially upon two ideas -
First, that it is the duty of the COM
munity to teach gratuitously the chill
dren Of citizens willing to have them
so taught: second, that the instruc-
ton thus furnished should be the
same for all occupations and all clas-
ses of society The State offers 10 ev-
cry one, rich or poor, an education
free of expense, but no one is forced
to accept this offer, and whoever
wishes to learn what cannot or need
not be taught every one must pay for
it.
"In accordance with this theory in
all the more progressive States of the
Union we have public schools Of sue
cessive grades, open to all children,
without regard to the circumstances
Of their parents in which they can re-
ceive without cost an education sufi-
cient in contemporary public opinion
as basis for any special or profess
sional training. These schools are
supposed to teach everything which
any one ought to know as citizen
merely. Anything more is deemed a
luxury, which the State is not bound
to provide. This is the accepted view.
In my opinion it is radically erro-
neous.
CAS- our schools are organized, in
fact, the interests Of the poorer boy
will be sacrificed to those Of the rich
er. The former will leave school pre-
maturely that he may contribute to
the support of his family, indebted to
it for a dangerous half-knowledge Of
many things to him useless and dis
taste for the manual labor by which
he will earn his bread. The latter
will be fitted in large part for his
profession at the charge Of the taxpay-
ers instead of his father. To censure
the public schools because poor chill
dren do not get from them all the
benefit they can afford seems to their
defenders like Directing to all chart
ty. They are not slow to impute a
hidden aversion towards modern pro-
gress to any one who doubts the util-
ity Of partial education for the poor.
I certainly think the instruction re-
ceived in our schools as now organ
} lied by the bulk of those dependent