The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-26
Remarks on Reform in Our Schools
BY DIR. A. sHAEFRANcK, PALATKA, FLA

BY DIR. a. sHAFFRANCK, PALATKA, FLA.
The pauperism is the real pulse of the
State; it SHOWS far better than the sta
tistic reports OF importation and expor-
tation whether the State is in healthy
condition or not. With the increase CT
poverty there is, in the same measure,
an increase of immortality and crime,
which symptoms we find in large cities
in an alarming degree. The care of the
poor requires great part of the public
revenues. There are the poorhouses, the
orphan asylums. hospitals, warehouses,
penitentiaries; we have an expensive
control of police, we dress the wound
the best we can, instead of thinking
how to cure 1t in a radical way. We
aust go TO the root of the evil. What
help is it TO cut the branches and twigs,
while in the depth the weed is growing?
This is one of the most important
questions of our time, and on the right
way to meet it it depends the future well
fare of the country. But the nations
welfare cannot be secured by despotic
laws to check all free movements and re
strain brutal forces, but rather in giving
them healthy nourishment. Make the
head clear and the heart warm and both
of these intellectual poJencies of the or
ganic life will bring health into the or
ganiZation of the State. We have not
TO be afraid of cultivated people, but of
the rough mob with its fanatic outbreak
of rage. The less it is delivered from
rudeness the greater will be its crimes
and distinctions. The true welfare of
the nations depends en- the growing of
thei- intelligence and morality; these
must penetrate the masses. All our con-
ditions are results of education. The
more perfect the latter is the less there
will be need OF criminal laws.
Pauperism, this threatening monster,
this most dreadful of all conditions, can
only be prevented by public iustruc-
ton, which is we'll organized and man
aged with the greatest care and strict
ness. The compulsory school law should
be introduced everywhere, that good
education and training can be secured to
all children, of all classes, religion and
nationalities, and that the children are
protected by the law against being used
for hard labors before they have reached
the proper age.
In our children lies the hope of our
country. The more they are cared for
and protected in their rights the more
we can look forth with confidence to the
future. The less we devote our cares to
them the greater will appear afterwards
the danger of corruption. For only
cultivated nation VIII find the means to
promote its welfare, and will use them
in the right way; only cultivated ma
ton viii reject violent acts TO obtain her
object, only a cultivated nation will
know how TO appreciate the measures of
wise government, and will gain the |
persuasion that each member has TO sub |
NIT himself for the benefit of the whole; |
only in the cultivated nation can exist |
the elements of a lasting prosperity, a |
prosperity which is not gained by force |
of bayonets, but by the moral strength |
of the conviction of 4 higher human /
right and dignity.
1t must be the chief aim of each /
school to give to the family and TO the /
State what both need, that ia, healthy
members and characters who have been
trained in the principles of truth and
charity. For this purpose we have our
public schools. Their influence will de-
stroy the barrier which political and re-
ligious fanaticism has set NJ, and their
aim is to unite all in the one important
thing, that is knowledge. knowledge
makes all equal and removes all preju-
dices; knowledge gives Us freedom. Our
public schools must prepare better times.
they must destroy all the errors and sad
of ignorance, they will
nourish and nurse patriotism, and will
unite them all IN the hour of danger
when the country calls them; the n they
will not come as Englishmen, Germans.
Frenchmen, Irishmen or whatever other