The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-06-01


spread among the elder people. I'm
less on the lines of education and the
public school interests we must look
for the only place where the people
can get together in true democracy.
We cannot look for the common
growth of patriotism in the exclusive
churches, corrupt political parties OF
labor organizations. The doors OF the
school houses should once, more swing
open for the better education and
systematic amusement and develop
ment of parents, who need education
as much as the children. The best
voices in the community should
be heard there, as well as the best the
country affords 1t should be free as
water or air, and should be so plain
that the poorest will go there and so
neat that the most travelled and re-
fined will be pleased with it. The
lecture field has deteriorated into
money making. The question after
lecture is not what did he say?" but
chow much did you make?"
The advantages now only offered in
college should be here where the shop
girl and the weary but enthusiastic
mother can reach it. How little is
being done by the public schools for
the struggling masses. We demand
that the schools be utilized to the
auxiliary purposes of educating the
children out of school and their
parents. Prepare assembly rooms
where the people can get together.
You educators talk wisely of uniyer
sity extension. Prepare next winter
school extension at home.
Instead of a gradgrind in school
prepare the scholars for life. You
now only prepare them for college.
Twelve years of the children's lives
are taken up in this way. The course
in school should be like a beautiful
avenue, inviting all to take it's de-
lightful walk. The public would be
ness and it's evil results. But few
children are permitted to take this
long walk, the great bulk of them
being swept into breadwinning be-
fore the eighth year of school or the
expectation Of the grammar grade is
reached. Thousands of boys and girls
1,n h,,rl Of
them, and for which they were not
fitted in school. Drop for the time
the extension of high education, and
attend to better education in the COM
mon school and fit the boys and girls
for life. Give them passion for
knowledge, a thirst for refinement
We need it in every room in the school
every day. 1t is pitiable to see the
higher education Of our country con-
tributing SO much to the embecile
gentility of the country.
The new education is now dawning
upon teachers as practicable. May
the system of Froebel continue to
march on until it is found that the
citidal of refinement in the mind may
be reached by more ways than one.
Not by drudgery but by thirst must
knowledge be inStilled. The schools
must become less military and more
embrionic communities.
Give the children a sense of cor
porate consciousness. Teach them
to love their country's flag. Teach
them to sing America" instead Of
the geography of Madagascar, if only
one can be done. Never was a, more
promising chance to make patriots
than have the teachers in this inter-
mingled race. The people must be
raised above the blind prejudices of
nationality and of religion. Let us
go down in America with our banner
OF fraternity flying. if we must
fall. Let us have a free land in
which there shall be no appeals
to religious or social prejudice.
Let there be no "America for the
Americans" Let there be Germany
for Germans, England for English,
France for French, but America for
humanity. The speaker spoke elo-
Quently of the destiny of America,
and said let there be no backward
step. This is all the work of you
teachers. 1t will be said that the
change was due to the breath of the
school teachers. The time is coming
when the traditions of sectionaliSm
will be forgotten in the North and
South.
[ believe that the children can COM
prehend in some measure the econ
omic questions now agitating the
country. Make our America not a
thing of boundaries, but a thing of
love and hospitality. The centuries
have been Illuminated not by the
slaughter and tyranny, but by the
smiling multitudes who have march
ed to death for principle. The
flowers of yesterday should be rightly
interpreted to the young by the
teachers. The true significance of