The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-11
CUVELLlER'S VIEWS ARE
STRONGLY ENDORSED
PRESIDENT JORDAN GUARDED
IN HIS REMARKS.
Many Parents Want Chang-John
P. Irish on the Demagogic
View.
Oakland Office San Francisco Call,
sos Broadway. Sept. 10.

oakland r ~,
sos Broadway, Sept. To-
President Jordan of Stanford University
has entered into the controversy Of the
Oakland schools. This evening the Trib-
une published the following letter:
I do not feel any call TO discuss the matter.
which is one OF which 1 have not much direct
I have. however. placed the communication
in the hands Of Mr.. Cubberiey, our assistant
professor of education who may feel like say
am correctIy quoted as saying that young
%orE 6y 9 aTca IL gh fat az no
garding pupils coming from the city high
our representatives from the Oakland High
School have been for the most part students
OF high grade.
sisting on certain technical requirements have
often added to the difficulty Of shaping the
There is no doubt that the best training for
actual life and the best training for college
But the colleges have not demanded what
Is really the best training. They have rather
measured. On the other hand the public has
shown very crude notions Of what is wanted
FOR practical affairs.
DAVID S. JORDAN.
Councilman CuvelIier, whose strongly
worded circular called forth the discus
sion, is receiving many letters from
his stand. Superintendent S. B. McLenegan
of the Haywards electric road says the
statements OF Cuvellier voice the senu-
Rector F. ]. Mynard of St. Johns says
that in his parish calls he has seen enough
to convince him that radical changes are
indorses every word of the circular. Ed
and truthful. Z. T. Henshaw admires
Board of Education and read his letter.
Mrs. A. r. Wood says that the Board Of
Education should obtain consensus of
subject and It would give them the sur
prise OF their lives
John P. Irish expresses the following
views:
have read with interest the new contro-
versy over an old issue that has been reused
BIZ Mr. Cuvellier's paper the Oakland
schools This issue was Joined forty years ago.
versities in the East, IN commencement adj
dress, long ago, took up the subject OF
schools for the State universities, and op-
posed it. His grounds were that common
school system, as It's name implies, is TO i'm
part that education which can be common to
all He declared the purpose OF the common
schools to be the thorough training of pupils
in reading writing and spelling the English
in arithmetic and geography. II a pupil desire
academic or collegiate education above these
fundamental branches, let him use the train
ing their acquisition gave his mind to prepare
for the higher culture
/ heard that address and witnessed the Cen1a-
gogue clamor which followed. The champion
OF the poor man was Immediately in evidence,
enduring vicariously the sorrows of the poor
and incidentally running for office. The presi-
dent of the university speedily run out of
his position and out of the State. He was de-
nouuced as an aristocrat who sought to deprive
the poor mans child Of the higher education -
The plain people were appealed to, to rally for
their rights and elect only their friends to
throughout the East the primordial purpose
of the common schools. to give complete edu-
cation to all Corners IN the branches upon
which all culture is founded, was lost sight of
entirely, and the curriculum loaded with
studies preparatory 20 the university.
For two score years this process has gone on
The friends Of the poor man have had their
way. until just what that wise old university
president predicted has come to pass The
policy demanded in behalf Of the poor man has
proved TO be his undoing, and instead OF open
ing TO his child easy path TO the higher etii;-
cation, is making it less easy for him to get
any education at all
The expected having happened. the dema-
gogue is again in evidence, weeping proxy
victims of policy ordered into being by der1a-
gogues in the interest Of their class less than
half century ago.
II Is unwise 10 individualize the Oakland
schools in this matter; 1t is folly to call upon
the Oakland School Board the contempt OF th.a
city. Our schools are part Of a system which
the board cannot change. II was the fruit az
dernagogy. and in changing it back to the SAN
system of the past the demagogue comes again
as an inpediment. a damage and a danger
unwiseIy discussing wise things and inviting
the activity of bigotry TO give such impulse 10
movement as to endanger turning thereforYr,
Of the schools into their destruction