, 1892-04-01

range of subjects, but the examinations
are severe. Many high school graduates
fail TO pass them. and every failure is an
argument against the tendency to make
the high school curriculum embrace
almost every known branch Of art, science
and literature. The high schools should
prepare their pupils 80 that the basis of
their education should be substantial
enough to be the foundation upon which
the liberal education of the collegiate
.superstructure could be built without the
further training OF preparatory schools or
tutors.
Civil service examinations for positions
In the railway mail service or the depart
mental service of the government are
competitive. insomuch that the applicant
passing the best examination secures the
first appointment. These examinations
prove an admirable method of testing the
efficiency of our high schools. for attend
ing these examinations are young men
and women from every walk in life, stores,
offices, printing offices and even humber
positions. The examinations are in arith-
metic. geography. history of the United
States. ~penmanship. spelling, skill in
reading manuscript, and ease of compos-
ing an ordinary essay or composition.
But the questions are not taken from text
books. They are mainly practical prob
lens and questions often encountered in
every day life. At a recent examination
held in Cheyenne of seven applicants,
three high school graduates received lower
marks than four applicants who came
from stores and Offices and who had not
had the benefit of a high school training.
The statistics of the civil service depart
ment show this to be about the usual rel
alive standing of applicants In all parts of
the country whenever brought into com-
petition. Taken away from the set an
swers and rules of the text book the pub
lie school student is often lost and takes
second place when competing with one
who has been wrestling with the practical
affairs of life.
This is shown with still greater force in
the examinations for Annapolis and
West Point. In the majority of cases
where competitive examinations are held
for appointment to these coveted positions
some farmers boy who has gone to win
ter school only. or some bright telegraph
operator or clerk captures the prize and
leaves the high school graduate with a
dim suspicion that his diploma with its
fifteen or twenty studies enumerated
thereon is not an education. Often when
the high school graduate, through politi-
cal or other influenza. secures his ap-
pointment he tails to pass the entrance
examination and must spend valuable
time in a-preparatory school or under Che
coaching of a private tutor before he can
do it. II is a significant fact hat in the
twenty or more years of Wyoming's e1-
istence but one boy has gone from her
high schools who was able to get into
West Point or Annapolis. And yet the
entrance examinations do not embrace a
single study outside of the common Eng
lIsh branches.
The high school graduate who enters
business life is often astonished and dis
appointed to find how little of what has
been studied and learned during school
life seems to be useful in business. Little
use is found In a store, a railway office.
postofice or newspaper for physiology,
botany. physics, zoology, geology or as
tronomy. The young man or woman who
can add a column of figures correctly or
take down a letter in shorthand and
transcribe it on a typewriter gets the best
salary and best position, even if be or she
cannot tell the distance from the earth to
the planets or demonstrate chat the square
of the hypothenuse is equal to the sum of
the squares of the other two sides.