The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-25
WHAT'S THE USE?
A Protest Against Some of the Things Taught
in Schools.

In Schools
Prentice milford. in San Francisco Chronicle.
What's the use of making a mans talk so
ornamental that you don't know what he means
when he's done speakingf What's the use of
forty pounds of ornament to a carriage except to
make it heavier to draw!
What if the sun is ninety-o millions of miles
from the earthY Who is the gamer or loser by
III What state would mans mind be in were
it thought necessary in order to be educated"
to know how far we were from 10, 900 other stars?
Would life be worth living if we had to keep
posted on the distance of every star
soon as the astronomer had calculated
it, What do we learn things for any
way! To have them in case they're
wanted? Would you carry pump in
your trunk because you thought you might
want it sumo time or other? Or learn all the
ropes in ship if you never expected to go to
seal If you're going to New Yerk you study the
route to New York You dort care, then to
study the route to Omaha. When l went to
school I learned things | never had any use for.
They put pumps in my trunk to pack about all
my life Is anybody the happier for knowing
that Columbus discovered America in 1922 Will
the knowledge OF this get you into society, or
government Office, or credit for weeks boardq
Is it ornamental to know it? Does it polish you
or veneer. or make you more respectable Well,
where Is the good of it any wayY l would pause
for reDly if the train could wait. ! have pom
dered over this problem for years.
The fact seems to me to be about as valuable
L
may find myself in some place where they have
no pumps. What did they educate me for? To
think could get no water unless had q pump,
though the Mississippi flowed past my door and
bushels of tin clippers were lying along the
banks? What profits it me that Tennessee is
bounded on the north by Kentucky9 Has this
fact made my morals digestion better or
worseP They told me when child at school
that should find out the use of these things
when grew up Well, I grew up. But never
fonnd ont think now they lied. l don't be-
lieve they knew what they were talking about
/ spent three Yeas of my boyhood learning what
States were at the top and what were at the
bottom of each other. l think now the time
was better spent when | ''played hockey" and
ished In the otter pond.
Why was taught in the ''speller and deGner
that the meaning of "ilustriousr was famous
told it was to be illustrous? Was this fairl Is
it any wonder that good boy should turn his
book into a nest of dogs cars and catch flies for
a living in school when treated Thus! What
moral garbage they used to sweep into our heads
in those little odoriferous red school housesi
One incentive given us was that any boy might
become President of the United States. Now
the position is hardly respectable and not near
"a profitable that OF bank cashier or Now
York alderman. The President is only boss of
the rotary Office machine. Were not we taught
that we should be heegers if we didn't get our
lessons! Didn't the boy who wouldn't get his
lesson and couldn't, turn out the richest man
when he grow up? Didn't he commence as
rum-swiIler and end by filing an honored Con
CHEESEMAN'S gravel Isn't the smart boy of the
school, who did get his lessons, and went
through college and became professor. now
starving in publishing house at making more
school books on $40 per week. Isn't life hard
enough and heavy enough without packing the
burden of such lot of lies on poor boys back
to trot through this weary world with?