San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1890-04-24
HON. 0. II. COOPER's ADDRESS,
On the Laying OF the Corner Stone o
the Fort Worth High School.

On the Laying OF the Corner Stone OF
the Fort Worth High School.
Hon. o. H. Cooper, State superin.
tendent OF public instruction, deliver
cd an address nc the laying OF the
corner stone OF the Fort Worth high
school, Of which the following are ca
tracts:
The ideal which has dominated the
system Of public instruction in Texas
accords with the theories OF tho pro-
foundest and most philosophical
statesmen and thinkers. The ideal
Huxley has called 20 ladder reaching
from the gutter to the university
II was Jefferson's dream that the
State should provide elementary
schools for the thousands and colleges
or universities for the hundreds. The
Third congress OF the republic OF
Texas created the earliest OF our
agrarian endowments for common
schools and academies and for twt
colleges or universities.
In later years the endowments pro-
vided for the high schools or acade
mics were diverted to the common
schools, and instead Of county acade-
mies in all the counties, city high
schools have grown up In oil our
cities aud large towns to supply tue
''missing link" in our system. Our
fathers were wiser than their success.
sors and the county academy should
not have been lost for the city high
schools are practically limited in their
patronage to the cities and larger
towns, which are rich enough and
wise enough to provide for their sup
port. It is not too late even yet to
repair the mistake and restore the
county academy TO its right position.
In counties like Tarrant, which con
tains cities, the county academy
would be fused with the city high
school and add to its strength;
while in other counties it would be
established on new basis. If this
can be done we shall have in Texas,
before the dawn OF the twentieth
century, q complete system OF edu'
cation.
Ineed not discuss the objection
which one sometimes, though rarely
now, hears to the system of pablo
education. We are practical peo-
pie and reply to the visionary casuist
who tells us that VIC Gun not provide
for the education Of the children at
public coet, that we find it better.
cheaper and surer to do SO; that we
are doing it and will continue to do
it. II he declares the public school
communistic, we reply that we find
this communistic practice quite as
advantageous as some other commun.
istic practices, such as Furnishing
criminals by legal process at public
cost, building bridges, and paving
and lighting streets.
-- All intelligent people who have
given attention to the matter know
that the average cost of the public
schools to nine-tenths of the taxpay.
ers who have children to be educated
is less thad half of what they would
be otherwise compelled to pay in
private tuition for equal or inferior
advantages.
The case ia different, OF course,
with the very wealthy, who contri-
butte much more than the mere cost
of educating their children, and with
those taxpayers who have no children
to educate. The question may be
asked, how are they benefited! The
answer, as you know, is not far to
seek. What would be the shrinkage
In the value of the property of this
city if the public schools were swept
away foreveri 1t would probably be
greater than would result from the
withdrawal OF half of your numerous
railroads or confagration destroy.
your principal business blocks.
Prof. Cooper closed by saying:
The high schools are really doing
the work which they profess to do,
and this conformity of practice to
profession is almost exceptional in
the field of higher education. We
have probably thousand institutions
chartered US colleges" or "universi-
ties which are really poor, ungraded
common schools with few students
in subjects belodging to the college
course, for which they are not pro
perly prepared, and which their teach
ers with rare exceptions are unable
to teach properly. But we are 9
good natured, optimistic people, and
hope that the school will some time
grow up to its name. We forget
that the poor pupil who goes through
and graduates" 10 deluded into the
belief that he has liberal education
and that false and ruinous standard
is fixed in the plastic minds OF al
these pupils, save perhaps a few
whose aspirations carry them else
where. Let us have done with shams
in education. Let public sentiment
outlaw pretentious institutions which
are doing poor high school or com
mon school work under the noble
name of college or university.
The city high school is doing much
to establish the true standard OF edu
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