The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-29
THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS
WAITER ALIENS ADDRESS BEFORE
THE MEMS CLUE.


Import to the state-Plato, Chariemagne,
Knox and Jefferson Advocates of Univer-
sal Education-We Should Shine by Our
Own Light and Not by Reflected Light.
Walter Allen addressed the Mems
club at the United church last evening
on "The Public High Schools in Free
State"
The lecturer began by saying that the
education Of men and women was of
far greater value to the state than the
accumulation of riches. The benefit de-
rived from the knowledge and the SER
vice of the illustrious Grant far exceeds
the cost Of educating all the graduates
of the military academy at West Point.
The education Of the people by the state
and for the state is as old as Plato, who
not only enjoined upon the Greeks to
educate the youth, but advocated COM
pulsory education.
Charlemagne in the ninth century,
Alfred the Great in the Tenth, Martin
Luther in the Sixteenth and John Knox,
the founder Of the reforms in Scotland,
in 1924 the teachings Of Luther took
root.
The safety of the state depends upon
the education of the men who will pilot
the state and the women to train up
the youth Of the country. 1t was John
Knox who placed q school in every
kirk of Scotland when the first book of
discipline of the Reformed church OF
that country was promulgated. This
was sixteen years before the time-hon-
ored school law of Massachusetts,.
Every earnest reader of the Bonnie
Briar Bush" lifts up his heart in thank
fulness for the enduring fame Of the
great reformer's ideas.
They tell you that this is paternalism.
Was this idea not that Of Thomas JEFF
ferson, who struck blow at paternal-
ism whenever he saw It? For forty
years he preached the establishment in
favor Of the establishment of schools
in Virginia, where young men could be
fitted for the colleges at the expense OF
the state. He did not succeed. but q
friend and a disciple, imbued with these
ideas, went to Michigan, and when that
territory numbered but 1000 white men
established the system which spread to
the eleven central states, thence to all
the states between the Ohio river and
the Pacific ocean.
The speaker referred to the estab-
| lishment of the high school system and
| the college in the early days Of the
| Massachusetts colonies, and to the de-
cay Of these schools. Happily, how
ever, Mr. Allen said, Massachusetts
| had redeemed herself
The state colleges in the eleven cen-
| trail states contained more students
| than all the colleges Of New England,
| of whatever kind. The quality of these
schools is seldom inferior to those of
| New England, and in most instances
supremacy in public school education is
| fast shifting to the west. Massachu-
| setts is first and New York second in
| line, and Connecticut will soon be out
of the race unless great change comes
over the spirit Of the people.
Make the scheme Of high schools as
comprehensive as you please. II q boy
or a girl cannot afford to spend the
time that it takes to complete the course
| the benefit derived from the stay of one
year will be incalculable. He will be
all the better for the duties Of life.
|
dangerous thing. 1t is not true. One
year spent by boy or girl In the high
school might awaken an interest that
would be an inspiration to drink deep
Of the wells of knowledge. The COM
mon people cannot have too much edu-
cation. This absurd and dangerous
/ idea was banished by the immortal
Lincoln when he burst the shackles
from the slaves. 1t Is important that
the high schools be patronized by the
rich and the poor.
| 1t will enlarge the ideas and concep-
tions of what real life is in the tenderly
nurtured child of the rich as well as
in the child Of the laboring man.
The great function of the schools in
this country is to instil the idea Of true
democracy into the mind Of the young.
There is something wrong when any
part of the people become imbued with
the thought that public high schools
are good enough for other peoples chill
dren, but not for theirs.
DR.. Rainsford, in addressing large
gathering of we'll disposed and religious
ladies in Brooklyn, said: Ladies,
| cease TO De i6duerS VI SOClGly, duQ SO
into the public schools. There is enough
work to be done there, God knows"
He was right. No woman can be en-
gagged in greater work for her state
than to become acquainted with the
needs Of It's schools.
/ Comparing the attendance upon the
high schools in this city with other
cities, the speaker said. that if it were
in the same proportion TO the popula-
ton Of Hartford, there would be 1,030
pupils in the high school; with that of
/, Cambridge, Mass, 1850. Worcester, a
twin city in population, has an attend
ance upon her classical high school of
764, and upon the English high school
of 1,16S.
This lack of attendance was not due
TO the inferiority of the schools, for it
was good one and managed WE'LL but
to the lack of room. The speaker en-
treated the men and women of New
Haven to see to it that better and
greater facilities were given to children
to obtain a high school educa ton He
exhorted them to make New Haven a
sun shining by its own light. rather