The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-05-20
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL MAP.

The public school map puts the Amer
lean educational system in a striking
form.
Thirteen million pupils are now en-
rolled in the public schools of the United
States-that is, there are more than
three times as many pupils as the entire
population of the United States in 1900.
The entire population in 1880 was 10 $780,
900; there is consequently larger ma
ton of children now in our free schools
than the whole nation of sixty years ago.
These 100000 public school pupils
are one-ffth of our present population
of 65, ,000,0 There are something over
million mora in private and parochial
schools. But it is this nation of our free
school youth, this nation within the
nation, that will be controlling the re-
public fifteen years from now. These
children of the states" imbued with
our characteristic American spirit, will
soon be the leaders of the people who
are to solve the problems of the opening
years of the coming century.
One-tifth of our population in the pub
lie schools means that the American idea
is that childhood and youth shall enjoy
sacred immunity from labor while the
preparation for life is going on. In all
our states the age when children can be
employed for wages during the school
term is steadily creeping upward. The
time is not far off when one-fourth in
stead of one-fifth of its population will
be enrolled in the schools. Here is the
place for state legislation to make rapid
and sure strokes. When the children Of
a poor family are hired out for wages
there comes an apparent relief to the
family; but child labor invariably re-
duces the labor of adults. Raising the
school age always operates to raise the
wages of the men and women to whom
labor belongs. In the states not yet
awake to this the children who ought to
he in school arc with their little hands
holding down the general rate Of adult
wages. If fifteen We're made the uni
versal school age, with strict penalties
for hiring child under fifteen during
school hours, millions of toiling chill
dren would be added to the hopeful ma
tion of pupils now in the public schools
Who are the instructors of this vast
democracy of youth? Three hundred
and tifty-two thousand teachers are en-
ployed. One-third of them are men,
two-thirds are women. The men are
usually well trained. The proportion Of
trained female teachers is increasing
year by year, as the normal schools send
out their classes. Nevertheless, scores
of thousands of these female teachers
are unframed. Forty per cent. Of all the
female teachers teach for only one term.
Think what that means. In the rural
districts of many states teaching is q
sob" to which almost any girl may
turn. Careful examinations of teachers
are not to be expected when the school
fund is so penurious that the cheapest
teachers are the only applicants.
The faults of the American public
school system, however, are all on the
surface and can easily be remedied
State superintendents and higher edu-
Gators generally are giving to all the
weaknesses discernible in our system
their careful attention. They are de.
terInined that the new century shall
open upon an educational plant as near
ly without defects as progressive energy
can make it.
The public school is our most distinc-
tive American institution. 1t is this
same public school which, more than
race, has made the difference between
this republic and the republics of South
America. When the world gathers here
ut our 400th anniversary to scrutinize
our life this, our proudest institution,
will be pointed out as the clearest source
Of American greatness and enlighten-
ment.
1t is very fitting thing that the cell
ebration of Columbus Day, Oct. 12, be
placed in the hands of the American
public school. Through the school house
flag movement, and the education in
patriotism aroused by it, the schools of
the republic have been grasping the sig
nificance of their relation to the life of
the nation. AS our $4,000 900 of public
school pupils see committed to them the
celebration of Americas greatest ami.
versary they will receive a new and in.
spring lesson in the responsibilities OF
public leadership which devolves upon
the educated American.