The Topeka state journal., 1897-12-31

careless mother, a rude brother and a
degraded father.
Next we must Danish politics from
our school boards. We must do this
to the end that we get better superin-
tendents and teachers. In this respect
foreign countries, particularly France
and Germany, are far beyond US. In
Germany, I have noticed, the very best
educated men teach the lowest grades,
te-haired men giving the best fruits
of a lifetime of teaching to getting the
beginners started on the right road
I'VE must have moral training in our
schools It is a real misfortune that
the teaching of morality and of relig-
ion are so often COMPOUNDED.
when we have achieved all this
the kindergarten made universal COM
pulSOry attendance, better teachers
moral training and regular cOurses-we
shall have made a long step ahead.
But we must not lose sight of aesthetic
cultivation. More art should be intro
duced into school work and music
should be carried further. Every school
house ought to be a palace and all it's
appurtenances OF the best. Good light,
pure air and comfort are prime requi-
sites. Much OF the characterization in
the schOOlroOm arises, I have no doubt,
because the rooms are not physically
comfortable.
The school building itself should be
the best product of architecture, and
painting should supplement it's sister
art in the decoration of the interior
Let beautiful pictures cover the walls
Venient inches. There would be more
than an aesthetic advantage in this,
Tor history and geOgrap ply often can be
taught best from a picture or a bit of
statuary that makes the subject one of
immediate and present interest. There
should be Fairgrounds of ample size,
and well-kept lawn, besprinkled with
mowers. L would have Conservatives,
too, attached to every school house, so
that a fresh bouquet might be placed
in every school room every morning.
THE school authorities should furn-
ish to the pupils every day an aesthet-
ic, high class. hygienic luncheon. School
children nOW-mOst Of them, at least
suffer from the necessity of going home
to luncheOnIf they carry it with them
to school it is cold unhygienic and in
digestible. The extra strain thus put
upon the physical forces inpedes the
operations Of the brain and the best
results from study are impossible. The
plan of serving luncheon to the pupils
has been tried in Boston and in other
cities, and it has worked well. There
is both an economic and an aesthetic
advantage in the plan, and we all know
how the social side of human nature is
benefited by the practice of eating to-
gether.
Fourteen years of school life of this
sort would change our national cOncep-
tiOn of what it is to live. The best i'm
pulses of the human heart would be en-
couraged and stimulated. We would
have our great armies of wage-earners
standing together as a consequence of
higher average Intelligence and better
understanding between man and man.
Poverty would disappear, because no
person. would enter upon the race of
life SO handicapped as to be predestined
to utter defeat In the event of strikes
and that is a remote possib bility L
think under such conditions-there
would be a better understanding be-
tween employer and employed, and less
bitterness. The poor would cease to
hate the rich. for there would be no
need of charity, and it is a remar1a Bile
characteristic of our present system
that the recipient of charity always has
hatred for him who bestOws it.
1t will be urged against this proposed
system that it is socialistic. I trium-
phantly reply that it would be no more
sOcialistic than our present public
school system. What then, ,hinders the
adoption of such methods? l answer:
Apathy on the part of the people,