The record-union., 1894-08-20
TEE PALLADIUM OF OUR LIBERTIES.
Safeguards Should Be Thrown About
the Public Schools.
The Educational system Deserves and
Requires Careful Watching
and Regulation.


embodying the result of their labors, also
any suggestion the committee might see
fit to make for the correcting of errors
or abuses that had crept into the system.
The committee has performed the work
assigned it and submitted its report, as
follows:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen ofthe Citi-
GEMS ProtectiUe association -FOUR COM
mittee, appointed to consider education
In its relation TO patriotism ana the pub
lie welfare, respectfully reports as fol-
lows:
The perpetuity of popular government
in America depends wholly on the virtue
and intelligence of the people. Foes
from without we need not fear; but, on
the very day conmemorating the last
anniversary of the republic, vice, lgnor-
ance and disloyalty. the foes from within,
annulled the Constitution and the laws Of
the Nation, of the State and OF the munlcl-
pality, and established in Sacramento
tyranny more destructive to human IN
terests than any that ever before existed.
Success in such q revolution meant not
the staying of the wheels OF progaess, but
their reversal OF 5000 years of darkness
and of misery. Our public schools, IN
many respects justly
THE PRIDE OF EVERY AMERICAN,
Were established largely for the diffusion
OF the civic virtues. Have they discharged
their function is a question that must
occur TO every thoughtful citizen.
We have, in California, system of
education said TO be one OF the most COM
plete and perfect in the world, which is
nowhere more perfectly exemplified
than in Sacramento itself-an unbroken
system extending from the alphabet of
the primary grade TO the most recondite
studies OF the highest degrees conferred
by the State University. Assuming chat,
In its entirety, the course Of study, COW
ering period of seventeen years, fits the
student in the most economical and
thorough manner for the duties and
pleasures of life, then from the vantage
point Of the university graduate it may
be pronounced q perfect system. That
our public schools are excellent feeders
to the university cannot be denied.
Every step, from the primary grade
onward, points 10 the university, and the
highest praise ever bestowed on our
high school is the undisputed and IN
disputable fact that it prepares its pupils
Tor the university.
HIGH SCHOOL FUNCTIONS.
But your committee submits that pre-
DaratiOn for the high school, or prepara-
ton for the university even, is one thing,
and preparation for the duties of citizen
ship is quite another. and it is just this
preparation for the duties of citizenship
which it is positively incumbent on our
public schools to impart. This is the
reason and, in strict equity to the tax
payers of the land, their only reason for
existence. If they fail in this they fail
in their fundamental purpose.
Let US throw the light of statistics on
the assumption that the real function of
our public schools is the preparation of
its pupils for the university. The Super
intendent of Public Schools informs your
committee that the average daily attend
ance in the primary grade OF the public
schools during the month of July was
dts, and that the number of graduates
from the High School was %; 4. C., that,
as nearly as may be, 1 in 20 of the pri-
mary scholars graduated from the High
School.
What ratio of the High School gradu-
ates takes or even enters university
course your committee was unable to
learn with any accuracy; but, Judging
from the best information obtainable,
this ratio does not exceed l to 3. OF the
primary Students, therefore, about | in
20 takes the High School course, and
about / in 100 takes a university course;
or in other words, 95 in 100 stop short of
the High School, and 80 in 100 stop short
OF the university:
Furthermore. this l in 100 who becomes
a university student has either excep-
tiODdl 6AGGDllOlldl dDtIIlY.
or exceptional ambition, and very often,
If not always, would reach the university
without the connivance of the public
schools.
THE MAJORITY RULE IGNORED.
The fact, then, that our public schools
prepare their students for the university.
and prepare them thoroughly, even, by
no means indicates that they effectually
subserve their true function, for their true
Il L.
tion OF the ninety-tive who do not enter
the High School or the ninety-nine who
do not enter the university, for the diff
cult and varied duties of citizenship. If
our laws and institutions are nodded for
the majority, why should our public
schools constitute an exception, especi-
ally when the majority is so overwhelnl-
ing that ward politician could not af-
ford to ignore il? our public schools then
should prepare their students, not for the
university but for citizenship, and this
they tail to do.
SEVERAL CAUSES Contribute TO THIS
FAILURE.
In the first place the curriculum of our
public schools has not kept pace with the
progress OF knowledge. Our schools are
attempting to do a nineteenth century
business on an eighteenth century capt.
tai. Three-fourths OF their graduates are
with the times. They have not the
slightest knowledge of right living, as
interpreted by physiology and hygiene:
they have not the slightest knowledge oil
intelligent citizenship, as interpreted by
civil government, political economy and
sociology; and yet TO them are to be in
trusted the destlnes OF a great and free
people
Secondly, the prevailing methods of
education are unphysiological. They fill
the mind with information instead Of
knowledge. and repress instead of en-
couragiDg independence OF thought and
action. They make OF the mind ma
chine for the record of other mems opin-
iods rather than for the elaboration of its
own. Miinicry, and not reason, is the
result.
Thirdly. particularly in the High
School, a snattering OF numerous studies
is impaired, instead of thorough knowI-
edge OF few. -Four languages are taught,
and tits safe 10 say that, with the possible
exception OF Latin, not one in ten of the
students who do not subsequently enter
the University receives the least benefit
from the time spent in their study.
Fourthly, our public school teachers
are withdrawn from the operation OF that
statutory law OF the survival of the fit
test. Not that teacher who is most
capable and most desirous of inspiring
enthusiasm for virtue and for knowledge,
but he who is most skiIlful in the use of
those influences which prevail in Ameri-
can politics, is sure of selection and pro-
motion in our public schools.
This subject your committee considers
of fundamental importance, and il there
fore recommends the appointment of a
special committee, whose duty il shall be
to thoroughly investigate courses and
methods OF study as related to the real
purposes of our public schools, and to re-
port the results of its labors TO this asso-