The Coconino weekly sun., 1892-06-23
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL ZAP.

1 The puOlc sCnOoI map puts tne Amer ican educational system in striking form.
 Thirteen million pupils are now en- rolled in the public schools of the United | States--that is, there arc more than three times as many pupils as the entire population of the United States in 1900. The entire population in lS3o was l2 .S98,- GOO; there is consequently larger na- | ton of children now in our free schools than the whole nation of sixty years ago.
 These l3,0O0,0O0 public school pupils are one-tifth of our present population of 65, ,000. 900. Thero are something over a million more 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 'childrep of the states" inbued 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 a sacred immunity from labor while the preparation for life is going on. In all our states the age when children can bo employed for wages during the school term is steadily creeping upward. The time is not far of when one-fourth in stead of one-ffth of it's 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- duccs the labor of admits. Raising the school age always operates to raise the wages of the men and women to whom labor belongs. in tho states not yet awake to this the children who ought to be in school arc with their little hands holding down the general rate of adult wages. II fifteen were made the uni versal school age, with strict penalties for hiring child under fifteen during school hours, millions of toiling chil- dren would be added to the hopeful na- tion of pupils now in tho 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 arc men, two-thirds arc women. The men are usually well trained. Tho propor ion of trained female teachers is increasing year by year, as the normal schools send ont their classes Nevertheless. scores of thousands of these female teachers are untrained. 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 a "job" to which almost any girl may turn. Careful examinations of teachers arc not to be expected when the school fund IS 50 penurious that tho cheapest teachers arc the only applicants.
 Tho faults of the American public school system. however, are all on the surface and can easily be remedied. State superintendents and higher edu- cators generally are giving to all the weaknesses discernible in our system their careful attention. They are de- terinined that tho 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. It 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 at our 40oth anniversary to scrutinize our life this, our proudest institution. will be pointed ont as the clearest source of American greatness and enGghten- ment.
 It is very fitting thing that the eel ebration of Columbus Day, Oct. i2, 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 nificanco of their relation to tho life of the nation. As our l3,000 900 of pubic school pupils geo committed to them the celebration of America's greatest nnni. versary they will receive new and in spring lesson in the responsibilities of public leadership which doyolyes upon tho educated American.