The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-07
EXAMINING TIE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

EXAMINING The SCHUUL SISIhMs
The Journal, in last Sundays issue, ex-
planned to the Righ-school committee and the
public at some length the reasons why so few
boys attend and graduate from our high
schools. This is an old topic in education in
this city, and has received the careful atten-
4ion Of such men as George P. Brown and
Horace Tarbell, previous superintendent as
their reports will show. Superintendent
gones's report to the board, on Friday night,
shows nearly IL, 900 pupils in our public
schools, of whom nearly 1000 are in the high
schools. OF this number-800 to !, 0O0-from
sixty to eighty graduate annually, completing
the t~welve-years' course in our city schools.
But there are %, 600 children in this city of
school age-that is, between six and sixteen
years-so that less than one-half the pupils
falling within the school decade-six to six
teen years-attend the public schools. There
are, however, nearly 5000 pupils-2,S33 in
I8S3-attending private, parochial or special
schools, as those for the blind and deaf.
This still leaves 10, 900 unaccounted for,
and who, if the statistics furnished
the board by previous superintendent are
correct, attend no school whatever. OF course
these numbers are constantly changing, and
the units which compose the two great classes
Of those who do and who do not attend any
given year are constantly transferred from
ene class to the other.
As to continuance in any given year, Super
intendent Tarbelps report for 1928 showed
that of the ID, 6S5 enrolled during that school
year 1,070 dropped out in two months, 1853
were in more than two and less than four
months, 1,161 more than four and less than
six, 1854 more than six and less than eight,
1858 more than eight and less than ten, and
1850 only of the Is, 685 enrolled for the year
stayed IN school the full ten months. These
figures are sufficient to show that whatever
committee is appointed by the board to in
vestigate the attendance as regards sex and
number in the High-school should extend
their labors to the entire system, for the
High-school is, after all, only a continuation
and complement of the work begun in the lower
grades. How do these figures compare with
those Of cities of similar size, in the West; say
with Columbus, Galena, Louisville, Detroit.
or oven with Cincinnati or Chicagos 1t is
true, as a general fact, that only about one
LIE &C IL. .l.ll.~~ l.L-..- - L..-
in our cities are attending the public schools,
end that only % per cent. of them attend eight
months and 81 per cent. the entire ten months
of the school year. And is the deficiency of
attendance due to the schools and their man.
agement, or to the failure to enforce attend
ance on the part of the parentsg The ques-
tion as to whether twenty boys or fifty gradu
ate from the High-school is but a small por-
4ion of the work before a committee of ad vice
and counsel if there be any well-settled de-
termination en- the part of the School Board to
get at the real condition and management of
our public schools from the lower to the higher
grades.
Perhaps a thousand dollars could not be ex-
pended to better advantage than to have a
thorough examination of our entire school
system. It cannot be done without time,
money and talent, and no such report can be
made in a week or two weeks. What we want
to get at is the course of instruction and the
method of teaching and supervising in all the
grades. This cannot be done by the board,
or by the board assisted by the supervisors
and school principals, for they are all in the
xut and ring; they created the school and
each other; they have not been outside to see
whether we are doing better or worse than
ether cities, or in some respects better, and in
others worse.
BY all means let us have an investigation,
but not by alocal, or an interested. or a know
nothing committee. 1t is not withdrawing
the schools need, but illumination, and by a
light of such power that it will bring out both
Che virtues and the errors in our system, and
be of true educational value to this and other
cities. A committee of the board and teach
srs and citizens, unpaid, with little time
Tor visiting, and no power of in
quiry. win be of little avail, and
would only transfer us from one
get of ruts to a parallel set. But a board
Of educators from abroad. composed Of two or
fhree college men like Drs. Smart, of Purdue,
r -
White. formerly of Purdue; and of two
Or three outside superintendent who
have not grown up with one system, at least
not with ours-such men as Rowland or Pick