The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-08
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

A very intelligent, weil-educated gentle
man, who listened to President Eliot's re-
cent talk at the Congregational church.
asks the very pertinent question, what
interest the plain. everyday taxpayer has
In President Eliot's system Of common
school education, which is nothing but an
elaborate preparation for anding mass
of children, nine-tenths of whom must
perform manual labor. at the door of our
colleges" The same thought which in
spired our correspondents question has
prompted School Commissioner Schuyler
Crosby, of the New York city board OF
education, TO introduce a resolution pro-
viding for the appointment Of special
committee TO inquire and report sin
what way the course of studies" in
the public schools of this city may be
improved and changed 50 as to secure TO
the children a better knowledge OF
the English branches and to fix the re.
sponsibility for deficiency in these
branches" Colonel Crosby is Disguised
with what he regards as the practical mis-
appropriation Of nearly 5,ooO, 900 of pub
lie money appropriated last year for school
purposes, money that was part Of the tar
levy whose burden rests on every inhabi-
tant of the city.
The machinery of the New York city
public school system runs like clockwork,
30 perfect is the mechanical discipline, but
Colonel Crosby points out that out Of 900
applicants for admission to the City col
lege in 1891, as many as $40 fell below the
minimum standard in grammar. They
did not know how TO use their own Ian
guage. About 400 Of them were found de-
ficient in American history and geogra-
ply. Colonel Crosby found also that in
the majority Of cases boys selected from
the graduating classes of grammar schools
write properly expressed business letter
or letter Of application for a situation.
As a rule, even their handwriting was
bao; and in some cases the style and
composition, he says, "would have dis
graced cross-roads' school in Ar
Kansas" Yet the ages Of these
boys were between IA and Is.
These boys are the natural products of
an absurd school system which requires
the pupils to study sixteen different sub
jects, upon each one Of which from fifteen
to twenty-five minutes a day only can be
expended. Yet seven-eighths of these
boys and girls must leave the schools be-
tween the ages of twelve and fifteen in
order to earn their living. These boys are
literally turned OUT by machine which
is contrived and adjusted with reference
to furnishing material for a graduated
course which it is impossible for them to
pursue. This vigorous indictment Of the
public school system of New York city
by Colonel Crosby is supported by the
New York Sun as follows:
OF course, the vice OF the whole system is that
1t undertakes to do too much and violates the
principle which alone iustifies the school tax
The only education for which all the people can
in justice be required 10 pay is the education
which il requisite for ail the children in order
to lit them for citizenship, which they can all
receive and pursue. That instruction, OBJ
viously, is simply elementary: reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography and American history.
During the limited period OF time, the few years
which the children, on the average, can spend
at school, there Is no chance 10 give them any,
thing approaching thorough instruction in
other branches II they could remain twice as
long as they do they would profit best by con-
tiauing the restriction, for the rudimentary
branches OF study are the most important and
the moro completely they are mastered the bet
ter IL 10 for the youth. both morally and intel
lectualiy. The most serious defect'of ali educs-
ton is weakness in these fundamental and ee-
mentsry departments
The schools of France and Germany ara
better than our own they have no cram
ming system of examination under which
the superficial. fluent. glib pupil, gifted
with good memory, can escape the conse-
euences of weeks of idleness and want of
understanding and secure promotion.
while totally unpreps-ed and unworthy of
il in the Judgment Of his daily teacher.
In these foreign schools the pupil is not d.
ver,ed from understanding rather than
merely memorizing the subject in hand.
He is not scheming for marks; he is try
ing to thoroughly comprehend his
studies. Scholars in French and
German schools are more thoroughly
educated than in our American schools
and in far shorter time, because teachers
plsee more stress on the pupils clear IN.
derstanding of what he has been taught
than upon mere parrot memorizing Of
rules and maxins. Under this method.
cheap, cunning, indolent students of small
capacity cannot rise TO promotion BY mere
success in examining for examination.
and sturdy, sensible, hard-working
pupil, who might have an excellent IN
Outstanding of principles but poor YER
bal memory, would not lose the promotion
he had fairly won. The teacher would
know that the glib talker who was
crammed for squirt of speed was unit
and unworthy, while the scholar who
lacked fluent expression and powerful
verbal memory might have an excellent
understanding OF all the knowledge he had
acquired. The trouble with our American
public system in too many places is that
when children pass from the primary
school 10 the grammar and other higher
schools they are taught too many things at
time and nothing with thoroughness.
The so-called higher education in