Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-17
TRUE EDUCATION.
A Comparison OF the Common Schools
and Schools not Common.
To Have Government OF, For and By the PEG,
pie, the Voter Must Understand the
Needs OF the Whole People.
For the Gazette.

For the Gazette.
The greatest value and virtue of the
common school, in comparison wiHaaIk
schools not common consists in the eem-
munity life there awakened aSh B6ar-
ished, which makes up the INDISPENSABLE
foundation of republican forntsct COVE
eminent. In order TO vote justly antsta
make good laws, and to exercise the
right influence one must have an abiding
sense of the character and needs of The;
people of whom he forms an integeFAnd
for whom he lives. In order to. heEe
government cot the people, ApfAthe
people and by the people 1.-THE sgrereIgn
unit of the people, the voter, nussnTl:asll
derstand the needs of the whOR people.
Thus the social factor in a republican
education stands above all other factors
in Importance No course of study,
however elaborate, no methods or teach
ers, can instruct pupils in their duties
toward all without the presence in the
school of q representative of all grades
of society, and of ell phases of religious
and political thought. The common
school is the practice and preparation
school of the nation; it is the govern
ment in embryo; the infant republic.
Virtue becomes living and active only by
the constant necessity of and exercise in
virtuous acts. The poor are not ''al-
ways with a high class private school.
Human sympathy, which springs from a
mutual understanding, lies at the foun-
dation of our government, and the gar
den and nursery of that sympathy and
understanding is the common school.
The real danger of all schools not COM
mon below the college, both parOohial
and private, is the segregation Of one
class of children in community. EThe
product of such segregation is lack
OF true sympathy - misunderstanding.
Glass building has for its inevitable seF<s
quence dislike, hate and bigoted intoIA
erance, all of which make a true demo-i
cratic feeling impossible. There is no
danger whatever in the religion per SO
taught in any private school; the sole
danger springs from the lack of sctiEaaCr.
applied religion, which consists iHsthez
doctrine taught by the Master: '4Little
children love one another CoHvIncing
proofs of the effects of segregation of
classes are not far to seek-they fHthe
world g history.
Indeed, the segregation Of classe5sfrss
the same community has always been the
monarchies and centralized governments
in the preservation of their power. So
long as civilized opinion allowed it, the
simple ana cheap plan of keeping the So
called Clover classes IN utter ignOr-
ance produced the desired result. When
Germany, the first nation to lead, gave
her people public education the difficulty
became far greater. 1t was overcome,
however, by class schools making free q
kind of pauper school called the ''Volks
Shule. Thus, the stratified condition
of the people, upon which alone mon
arohy can rest, was perpetuated. Com
mon schools would change any monarchy
on earth into republic in two genera
tons. people can be intellectually
educated by segregation out of all
sympathy for each other,
Moral or true education is only posi-
BILE in schools where the demands are
constant for the exercise of every virtue
known to the highest Christian or ethical
life. Our fOrefathers, with a divine
prescience, laid the foundations of the
one system of schools that can in any
way overcome the bigotry, intolerance
and hate that haye filled human life with |
misery, and made history the record of
one long, bloody struggle.
No one can GROSS the line into Cdnada |
without feeling the sharpest change in |
the moral atmosphere. The air IS filed |
with intense sectarian hate that looks |
and feels like war. Canada has excel |
lent public schools but they are not COM
mon. In a fatal hour the government |
divided the school fund between Catho- |
lies and PTotestants, and the result is |
that the one thing that children learn |
with all their hearts is TO hate the other |
side. It is readily seen that republic |
of Canada is impossible just so long /
as this sad state of things continues. |
Either the means of democratic growth, |
the conditions for a strong central power
or internecine war must come.
To any student Of progress our own /
nation furnishes COUNTLESS examples of |
the effect of common schools A few Of |
the most evident may be given.
Fifty years ago believer in woman's |
suffrage was looked upon as the rankest |
kind of fanatic, an abolltionist not ex-
cepted. To-day there are few intelli- /
gent men in this great nation who do |
not believe that women have as much /
genuine right TO vote as men; there are |
exceptions, to be sure, and il would be
interesting to know whether such men |
ever attended mixed schools. What has
wrought this wonderful change? Sitting |
and working side by side, boys and girls,
in the common schools. All the elo-
quence of an Anthony, a Stanton or a /
Willard cannot equal the immense prac-
tical value of community school life, |
where the equality OF the sexes Is practi-
calIy argued day by day aud week by
week.
It would be hard to find Catholic IN |