Dodge City times., 1888-01-12
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
If there is one public institution in
which I'll the people are, or should be-
more crested than in any other, that
one is .e free school In many respects,
it is IL finest of free Americanism in our
midst Children of the rich and poor,
educated and ignorant, religious and pro-
fame, mingle in one common congrega-
ton; sit side by side. graded only by their
prOfciencs in their various studies and
rated by their behavior in the school
room and on the play ground. The child
of the most humble day y-laborer,, occupies
the same position, and is required to con-
form to the same rules and regulations as
the offspring of the wealthy and power
full All have the same rights and privil-
eyes, the same opportunity to improve
their time and talents. If We were call
ed upon to point out the grandest exam
all distinctions, save those of natural
gift and industrial attachments, we could
find nowhere, SO well defined and so per-
fectly represented, as in the public
schools. Their value to the State and
Nation can never be estimated. Many a
man, whose name to-day is inscribed high
on the roll of honor and distinction, would
in all probability, have never been heard
of but for the start and influence he re-
ceived in the common schools.
1t has been the nursery of Presidents,
the incubator of statesmen; the manufac-
turer of the great controllers OF the com
mercial world Poets, Painters, Invent
ors and the great array of educators, have
poured forth from the humble and an
pretentiOus school house all over our
land Its influence is felt in every walk
of life, and seen in every transaction OF
| business How important the school
How great its power for good How
necessary to the general welfare of every
community, yet how strange and unac-
countable it is that SO few people seem to
takes any interest in its success, or make
any effort to increase its efficiency. How
| few ever visit the school not take any
trouble to ascertain what progress their
children are making, or whether they are
really in their places in the class room, OF
playing truant at their own pleasure.
Many of our pupils are receiving the
| only fortune their parents will ever be
| able to give them, in their co nmon school
education and if their studies are right
ly persued and properly appreciated, it is
better an hundred fold, than many thou
sands of dollars, bequathed to those lack
ing that training and preparation for the
duties of life which the day school i'm
parts to those who faithfully improve
their opportunities.
We are largely indebted to the common
| school teachers of this country for the eX,
cellent sysem and improved methods OF
imparting knowledge to our youth, that
have supplanted the crude and barbarous
means employed by the King of the
Birchen scepter' who struck terror to the
futtering hearts of our ancestors when
they were mastering the Rule of three
and making pot hooks vainly lmagin-
ing they were learning to write More
intelligence and less muscle; more ex-
planatiOn and less rule committing; more
kindness and less punishment, are some
of the markes of difference between the
schools of to- day and those of the good
old tines SO often referred to by the
fault finders of the present. Our school
houses with few exceptions) are as much
| i'm advance of the generation preceding
us as the manner of teaching is superior
to the system then emyloyd. If the pat
rons of the schools. the fathers and moth
ers would take up education, its beauties,
its advantages, its great importance, to
their children, at home, around the fire
side, in their daily walk and conversation,
such an interest would soon manifest it
self in the close application of the pupils,
the encouragement of the teacher that
the name and fame of our schools would
soon be heard abroad in the land X