The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-06-18

His U~nostentatious Reform of Our Pub
lie School System Wins Merited Rec
ognition.
20 From, the Journal of Education.
Superintendent Poland is meeting
with great success in the unostenta-
tious reform of the school system. He
has shown rare ability in discriminate
ing between essentials and non-essen-
tials on the one hand, and in selecting
those phases of reform for which,
under the circumstances, the city is
prepared. The result is the accom-
plishnlent of many important changes
with the least friction or public ex-
element, and the awakening of the
city to the need of other reforms for
which the taxpayers must be held re-
sponsible.
The lack of a compulsory education
law is seriously felt in that city. There
are 81, 455 children of legal school age.
and %, 061 of these were not in school
at all during the veal. The superin-
tendent makes one of the best argu-
ments for the importance of the
primary schools that we have seen.
T~hree-fourths of all the children in
school are in the primary schools, and
at most but one-fourth ever enter a
higher grade. He says
If most children could attend school long
enough to finish, or nearly finish, the grammar
school course, slow progress in the lower grades
would be very desirable. / must confess, how
ever, to some degree of pity and regret when l
have seen in the lower primary grades children,
whose school attendance would not be more than
one or two years, denied promotion by reason
of failure in some single study. 1t Is for the con-
scientious teacher to find out, II possible, the
school prospects Of every pupil OF her class; 10
importance than servile adherence to any minor
conditions of promotion, whether self
imposed or imposed by, the system.
otherwise our system of graded school instruc-
ton, based too much upon the principle that to
secure good results in the grammar and high
schools slow progress must he made in the pri-
mary schools, becomes a curse to those whom the
hard conditions of life have forbidden to enjoy
either high school or grammar school. Whereas
Iwould not recommend that we upgrade or de-
grade our primary schools by pushing children
forward faster than the interests of good gram
mar school work demand, still ! must emphatic
ally urge upon teachers to be lenient in promo
lions, to inquire always what is for the interests
of the particular child, and, having carefully de-
cided that question, to act accordingly in the
matter of his instruction and promotion.
Speaking of school libraries he
says
Teach the children how to use books. More
over, have the books where the children can use
them without inconvenience. Locked in q case,
or placed where they can be seen once or twice a
week only, books are of slight value to the
school. They should be graded to suit different
ages, and distributed among the different rooms.
Each grade should have its separate library. All
reference books should be kept upon an open
table easily accessible at all times to every mem
Der of the class. They should. in fact, tempt
the pupils by their close proximity to consult
their pages. Behind glass doors the dictionary
and encyclopedias have small attraction xorhet
average child.