St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-01
MINNEAPOLIS,
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Rev. William Wilkinson Dis
cusses the Philosophy of the
Present System.

cusses the Philosophy of the
Present System.
Rev. William Wilkinson, in st. An
drew's Episcopal church, yesterday
morning, preached upon The Philos-
ophy of Our Public School SYSTEM"
The text was from Isaiah, knowledge
shall be the stability of thy times" He
said: Tomorrow more than 500 teach
ers in this city. under the authority of
public law and with the enthusiastic
support of popular feeling, will begin
anew their useful work in our schools,
and the educational work for the year
will cost nearly $500, 1000; and even with
this expenditure of time, talent and
money, the great and ever-growing need
of instruction will not be met. Ignor-
ant children of careless parents
multitude of 100000 ignorant people,
for it is not small thing that one-fifth
of all the population OF America are
persons of school age. And 1t is a sad
truth that only 90 per cent of those
children are in regular attendance at
school. This shows clearly that in
few years we shall have added to our
population, not by immigration, but by
growth, large percentage of persons
who cannot read, and the 6,0OO.OOO OF
our people who cannot write, men and
womei, who, in instances not few. de-
serve the sincerest pity and commisera-
ton of every person who loves the hui
man race, and hates injustice. Daugh-
tiers and sons of hard toll, poor pay and
lifelong drudgery, who, had happier
childhood been their lot, would
have lived nobler lives, and some
effective measures to prevent its spread
if it cannot be obliterated.
There is nothing more expensive and
dangerous than ignorance except down.
right crime. 1t is this fact which gives
force to every argument for our school
system. There is no land under heaven
In which it is more needful for the peO-
pie to be supplied with the necessary
means of an education which will open
the portals of large and varied knowl-
edge than in America. We are yet in
the genesis of our life, our large West
ern states have grown up in the MEM
DRY of men who are yet with US. and
what this age and century designs will
give character to them for ages to come.
AS the twig is bent the tree is inclined.
The form of government under which
it is our happy lot to live, is not one
in which one man however wise. good.
kind and able, speaks the word and
the people obey readily if they will. but
reluctantly and with pain If they must.
Here the people are supreme; they can
raise one man up, put another down;
they can say what policy shall be fol-
lowed in our dealings with nations
abroad, and with states at home; every
man who is a citizen is jury of one,
and at every election of officials in his
village, town, state, is asked to form an
opinion and record it upon public
policy and events. Whether or not this is
the best form of government is not the
question; that it is the fact is undeniab-
ly true, and true it will remain. The
man who is ignorant of history is not
i'll a position to speak upon many
questions which come up con-
stantly with any voice which deserves
No body of people would submit ques-
tons of music 10 the deaf, or questions
of color to the blind, or questions of art
to an untutored mind, for the reason
obvious. They are not capable of judg-
ing these things. How much less then
ought wise people to let ignorance
stalk through the land, and the ignor-
ait people take part in its government.
Our very national life is bound up in
our public school. The teacher with rule
and pen is at least as potent factor in
the state as the soldier with gun and
sword. No nation can continue to exist
simply because it has wise laws printed,
and understood by its judges. A nation
for growth, advancement in commerce,
wealth, power and facility for enjoy
ment requires to use all the
available material and means at its dis
posal. A people who let its fertile lands
be unused, when part of its population
was in need of food, would be open to
terrible reproach. And people who,
needing, as we do, in this age, all the
mental power we have at its highest
cultivation. must see to it that no Milton
is kept ingloriOus because he has not
the means of education. No rank or
state in life is in possession of a monop-
oily of brain. You are just as likely to
find pre-eminent gifts in the son of
carpenter as in the son of bank presi-
dent; in the son of farmer as of rail-
way king. 1t would be thrilling book
which should tell the toll, disappoint-
ment and final triumph of poverty.
Mental ability is not the exclusive her.
itage of any one class. Genius may
spring from lowly as well as eX-
allied birth. The world needs all
Its SONS whose minds are most alert.
We cannot afford a mute, ingloriouS
Milton, or an ignorant Shakespeare or
Stephenson. We are one of large
number of nations, each trying TO out
strip the other in every honorable walk
of life. We owe it to ourselves, to our
national pride and progress, that every
mind be cultivated and every power en-
ployed so the sum total of the general
good may be the largest possible. To
secure these desirable ends it is not
alone needful that the child shall have
no fees to pay; but, in my opinion,
books should be provided at public eX-
pense.
1t will be said this is han dship to
those who have few children, an njustice
to those who have none. In what
now advocate no principle foreign to
our present action is introduced. You
are made to pay for many things you dc
not use on the ground that they are a
public advantage. 1t is one of the best
and largest advantages any man can
have to live in well-educated. refined
community. A good we cannot value
enough. The public school, then
ought to be open with all needful
things for whoever will attend. The
next thing is attendance for given
time every year, say six months at least
of all children between seven years and
fourteen years, old enough to be
made compulsory, except in cases OF
lIl-uCdlblI. vi IL lie oLOhI W pup Ci
authority that such children are being
properly educated in other ways al
other places than in the public school,
No man has moral right to turn q
child's tender years into toll. care, pain
work, cash. for his own selfish ends
and thus thrust him into the world 6
man unfit for the solemn duties of man.
hood. This education should be unsec
tartan. The public school cannot be
watched with too much care. To-day i
is standing testimony to the sad divi
sions of Christianity. No religion i.
taught in it, and it is not likely there
will be in our time. Men who judge
there ought to be are not to be de
nounced. No honest man should be. But
the fact remains that any proposal tt
teach religion would bring up antago
nisms, painful controversy, division
and end in the destruction of popular
education. What, then. can we do fOl
the present? We can emphasize the
work of the church and of the home a!
We never yet have done, for it is the
God-given duty of all Christian men tt