Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1889-09-27
COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

In former article commenting on
the excellent character of the public
schools and other educational institu-
tions of Olympia, the necessity for
their continued hearty support and
encouragement was pointed out, in
view of the evil of ignorance that
threatens the entire country and the
absolute necessity of applying at all
hazards an adequate remedy to it. 1t
is popular ignorance that necessitates
universal eduction. 1t is true we have
offered 'ls, by class of citizens,
panacea for the mischiefs Of ignorant
government; namely, limitation of SUI
frage by an educational qualification.
1t is a quack medicine which has been
hastily and unwisely recommended by
some of our noblest and best thinkers.
What is wanted is not medicine, but
hygiene-the knowledge and practice
of the laws of national health. The
evils of widespread ignorance cannot
be got rid of by accommodating the
ignorant, but by educating them. Let
us have no new aristocracy Of brain,
no new "divine right" of the cult
waited to rule the uncultivated. In
stead of this, let us have such system
of education as shall ensure to all but
born idiots degree of education sufii-
cient to make it safe to trust them
with the ballot. And the sentiment is
growing up throughout the country in
favor, not only OF education, but OF
compulsory education, as we'll, az the
only sound solution OF the problem of
ignorant misrule.
1t is said that we have here, in the
United States, over five millions of
children, of school age, who never at
tend school. Is there no danger re-
vesled in this fact! If the nation has
itself right to life, it must have a
right to save its life by timely precau-
tons against this multiplying igno-
rance. In short, it only needs to be
made apparent that no State can per-
manently live which permits any large
proportion of its people to grow up in
ignorance, in order to convince us that
the right to educate its citizens is part
of the States right to protect itself
from subversion. There can be no free
State without impartial suffrage; and
there can be no impartial suffrage
without universal education. Children
have rights as truly as their parents:
none the less so because they neither
know them nor know how to maintain
them, and one Of these is right to be
educated, which no parent has a right
to infringe or violate.
The reason why the phrase "com-
pulsory education" offends the Ameri-
can ear is because it suggests the idea
of compelling parents 10 relinquish a
power they are justly entitled to. The
moment it is seen that parents have
no right to withhold education from
their children, no more right to starve
their minds than their bodies, it be-
comes plain that the enforcement by
the State of universal education is not
compulsion of the parent, but protec-
ton of the child. If any parent vio-
lates the child's right to be educated,
his right to fair chance in life, his
right to enter on q career which shall
not have the Jail as its fOre-ordained
terminus, then the State has as much
right to compel respect for this as for
any other violated right. Let the
whole subject be looked at from the
side OF the child as we'll as from the
side OF the parent, and nothing can be
clearer than that the State is bound to
insure education to each and every
child born into its jurisdiction. Life,
liberty and education-these are the
primal rights of man, and we might
wisely amend the Declaration of Inde-
pendence accordingly. No less has
the State right to secure educated
citizens, since ignorance on the part OF
the citizens is death to the State. If
the State has q right to exist, it has a
right to make sure the conditions of
existence.
There Ia a view Of Nhis maffar Of