The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-04-10
SCHOOLS OR HIGH SCHOOL.

Startling Proposition to Take the Cap
stone on the Educational Edifce.
To the Editor Sunday Mornilg NelOS:-
Judging from the energy and enterprise
which you have displayed since your adj
vent to this community I feel that / shall
not be mistaken in calling your attention
to a subject which seems to demand some
intelligent notice from the press. There
are in this city more than two thousand
children of school age who are unable to
obtain admission to our schools because
there is no room for them. They are grow
ing up or the streets in ignorance. We
have a High School, maintained at al an
nual expense of over $40, 900, in which are
taught Greek, Latin, zoology, botany,
physiology, astronomy, geology and a
number of other equally useful and n
mental studies. The money that is spent
annually on this High School is more than
equivalent to the interest, at five per cent,
on a capital that would be amply suffi-
cient to build schools enough for all our
children.
This state of facts suggests the question
as to whether we shall support u High
School and deny 1000 children any educa-
ton, or close the High School and spend
the money it now costs in givingthese two
Thousand children some education. This
Is DOC an unlmpOrtaQG question:. LII ue-
serves serious consideration.
The system of compulsory education by
the State rests on the theory that it is
for the interest of the State that its citi-
zens should possess sufficient knowledge
to d1screetly discharge the obligations OF
citizenship. Hence for many years and in
most countries only elementary educa-
ton was compulsory. But with the
growth of thought on this subject, espec-
tally in some foreign lands where the adj
ministration of the schools, at least, is
marked by more Intelligence than in ours,
it gradually came to be admitted that no
degree of education, however high, is too
good for the people, provided that it is of
such a nature and so conducted that they
can all have equal opportunity of enjoy
ing its benefits. The State Schools of
Prussia afford, undoubtedly, the best IL
lustration of this principle. The High
School of Jersey City affords the worst
distortion of it. We keep thousands of
children in a state Of complete ignorance
that we may teach a few score Of other,
but no more deserving children, a crude
smattering of the classics and the
sciences. To characterize this kind of a
system properly would require the use of
strong language.
1t Is needless to go into the merits of
the High School as an educational institu-
ton. Every one who is familiar with
it, and competent to form an opinion
of any value on that subject, knows per-
fectly well that it is a ~pretentiouS hum
bug, with a curriculum that would stag
ger a Double First man of Cambridge,
and without q graduate who could hope
to survive the mildest examination paper
that vas ever put under the nose of a
freshman.
Don't you think that these thousands of
poor children who are excluded from Il
schools are entitled to and should receive
some consideration? Do you think that
the fragrant contrast between their utter
illiteracy and the pompous studies of the
High School should be continued at the
public expense?
Will you kindly devote a little of your
masculine intelligence to the considera-
ton of this matter? j. M. N.