St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-19
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The System Viewed From a
Parental and Non-Sec-
tartan Point.
Is It the Palladium of Our
Liberty or the Re-
verse ?
A Claim That It UndermineS
the Divine Authority Of
Parents.
Facts and Figures Furnished
nv Those Who Should

Facts and Figures Furnished
by Those Who Should
Know.
'sTrain up child in the way he should go,
it,
So thoroughly are the American peo-
pie convinced of the truth of this maxim
and the consequent Importance and ne
cessity of education in free republic,
that they long ago laid the foundations
of common school system which has
since taken deep root and grown to
enormous proportions all over the coun-
try. AS one of the best proofs Of a
mans sincerity is found in his willing
ness to go down into his pocket and
contribute Of his means to the support
of principle, SO the millions upon
millions annually spent by the Ameri-
can people for education is proof con-
elusive of the sincerity of their
faith in its importance and ne
cessity. So dear is this principle
to them, that the rising young orator
who aspires to fame and popularity,
seldom fails to acquire both by SIM
pie reference to our public schools as
the palladium of our liberty" And
who will say that the people are not
right in their convictions on this sub
ject?
If, however. the maxim. "Train up a
child in the way he should 60. and when
he is old he will not depart therefrom,"
l,Q frrl0 10 nf ho
sition must, as a general rule, be
equally true, namely, that when we
find people who do depart from the
path of rectitude it is because they
were not trained up in the way they
should go when they were children.
When we look about and behold the
alarming increase of crime. divorce,
suicide and pauperism, the ever WIDEN
ing breach between labor and capital,
and the many new phases of vice
that are constantly cropping out,
as strikes, lock0uts, trusts, tramps,
White Caps and the like. are we not COM
PEELED to wonder how so many I'M
f0rtunates have missed the opportunity
afforded by our tree educational system
to be trained up in the way they should
go? For if they had been they would not
have departed from 1t. If, indeed, Gig
norance is the mother of vice." and edu-
cation, thanks to our public school sys-
TEN, is universal throughout the land,
how are we to account for the lamenta-
BILE condition Of affairs? Is it not barely
possible that there is something wrong
in the kind of education we are bestOw-
ing on the rising generation? To some,
the mere suggestion may seem sacrlle-
giOus: but dare they, in the face of facts,
claim infallibility for a system which.
according to their own boast, has never
been tried in the history Of the world
before? IL
Some of the best and brightest minds
Of our day are fast arriving at the con-
viction that there are i'll our educa-
tional system radical defects, unn0ticed
at first, but which time is rapidly de-
veIoping. and which. if not promptly
remedied, will soon undermine the en-
tire edifice and cause it to tOtter and
fall, destroying in its ruins, if possible,
the American republic Itself. Witness
the following words of warning from
an hOnOred graduate of West Point
Military academy and state superinten-
dent of public instruction for the great
state of California, Prof. Weicker:
liberal toward the public schools. They
spend more than twice as much upon them
as upon all the other expenses of govern
ment besides, This is serious reflection
and carries with it strong sense of re-
sponsibility. The aggregate popular thought
is seldom wrong. and the people are thus
lavish toward the state schools because they
believe that they are, or may be, an over
shadowing benefit. But the people are be-
ginning to grpm be-, They are not thor
yet loud or threatening, but they should be
attended to. THE people are wonderfully
patient, but there may be limit to their in
diligence. They are capable of rising and in
a single day shaking to atoms institutions
that seemed to be founded on a rock. Then
let US inquire, while it Is vet time, into the
cause of these premOnitions of discomfort
There are not a few who believe that
we are not getting a fair return for the
immense amounts we are annually ex-
pending on kind OF education that does
not educate. Witness the following
words of the talented and popular au-
theress, Gail Hamilton, in her book en-
titled s'Our Common School SYSTEM:
Of the 50. 957 ,254 paid TO the public school
teachers of Ohio, the commissioner declares
80. 0Ou,G00 to be worse than thrown away on
incapable teachers who are employed by
criminally Indifferent or destructiyely igno-
rant boards of education" And again: OF
the $4,000 public school teachers in Ohio, at
least 10000 are as utterly unfit to teach
children as to practice law"
In this case the sooner we meet the
difficulty the better, since there is no
lack of those who are ready to sing the
uMceaSing praises of the system, and
blind us to it's possible faults by flat
terry. My readers must bear with me il
l pursue an opposite course, and fear
lessly call attention to some Of the evil
consequences with which it is charged.
shall endeavOr to point out in later
article their causes ard their remedies.
Lest, however. any one should accuse
me of prejudice OF harbOring un-Amer-
lean ideas, may premise that am an
ex-public school teacher myself and
native American, whose ancestors have
been native Americans for at least four
generations. l propose to- treat
rental and nOn-sectarian standpoint,
prompted by motives Of parental atfec-
ton and purest patriotism. To avoid
any trace of personalities, shall draw
my facts and figures almost entirely
from the writings of the friends and adj
mirerS OF the system, or those whose
close connection with it leaves no room
to doubt of the correctness of their
and the official figures of
the United States census reports. l
shall confine myself as far as possible to
a discussion of the system itself, select
ing particular examples of its results
only from large cities other than our
own, thus leaving it entirely to my
readers to make such local applications
as they may believe justifable by the
facts. Let us consider, first, some Of
the evil consequences of the system
upon the male portion of the pOpula- |
ton. The first charge brought against
it is that
1T Is UNDERMINING PARENTAL AU-
TIIORITY.
The authority of parents over their |
is established by the Creator
himself, and in its very nature indis-
soluble. A learned authority on this |