The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-08-14

THE Milwaukee Journal deems the
crowded condition of schools In cities an
incontrovertible argument against the
wisdom of compulsory school law. 1t
never fails to display prominently any
facts of this nature, and is quite indus
trious in gathering them. But The Jour-
nal does not seem to realize that cities
are not all the state of Wisconsin. The
country schools are not crowded. Not
one in one hundred throughout the state
has its capacity taxed. Fully 20 per
cent. have not an attendance equal to
one-half their capacity. The country
schools in the neighborhood OF parochial
schools have not an attendance sufficient
ly large to justify their existence. The
church schools are under a compulsory
system and the compulsion comes from
the clergyman. The compulsory feature
of the parish school often prohibits at
tendance at the public school. II the
parish schools taught the subjects which
experience has shown to be of greatest
value to the child, and employed teachers
OF approved competency, there would be
no objection to granting to the clergy
man the powers which is denied the state
that of compelling the parent to send
his children to school. But the parent
is not permitted to send his children to
the public school in the district in which
he lives and the compulsion IS such that
in many instances children attend paro-
chial schools at a distance of five miles
from their homes, travelling the entire
distance each morning and evening that
they attend school. In one town in this
county pupils attend a parish school
which is seven miles distant from them.
The parents ''take turns" each morning
in conveying the children to school with
teams. They frequently are permitted
to get home the best way they can. There
is hardly public school in this county
within radius of four miles of a paroch-
ial school which might not proftably be
closed up for lack of attendance. The
exceptions are due to diversity of relig-
ious belief in the population of the cir
cumscribed territory. The Journal might
approve of this remedy for overcrowded
public schools, but it certainly is not
conducive to the best interests of the
communities affected. The public school
spirit is dying out in these localities I'M
der this organized system of suppression.
This may not be war upon the public
school but the effects are the same.
Even in cities the crowded departments
of public schools, are not these attended
by pupils affected by the compulsory
school law. The primary departments
are the ones overtaxed. If it appears
otherwise it is because the pressure of
attendance in the lower rooms is felt IN
the upper.
There is no one who understands the
conditions who can truthfully say that
opposition to the Bennett law on the
part of those with whom the opposition
originated is not war upon the public
schools. There has been a covert war
carried on against the public schools and
what they teach, for years. There is no
force in opposing to this belief the wide
ly published opinions of those who were
formerly uperintendents, particularly
when it is not the opinion of the superin-
tendent but of the prospective office
holder which is given. Opinions in these
troublous times are based more upon ex-
pectations of favors to come than facts
observed.