The record-union., 1899-12-27

education and, as a compromise with
these elements the present Constitu-
ton gave sanction to liberal support
for the elementary schools and for the
State University, but specifically ana
illogically prohibited the use OF any
State funds for the secondary schools
which lie between the elementary
schools and the university. However,
so far as schools directly preparatory
to the university have been concerned,
those which the Constitution specially
sought to disable, these have grown
! vigorously in spite of the Constitution.
This anomaly has been due to the fact
| that the local communities have wanted
them so intensely that the people have
| burdened themselves with a local tax
| to establish and maintain them. Clear.
! ly, history has shown that the spirit Of
| the constitutional convention did not
| reflect the wishes of the people of the
! State. The Constitution should there
| fore be amended to permit the use CT
| State funds for elementary and sec
| Ondary schools without distinction.
! Superintendent J. w. McClymonds well
| expressed the real situation recently by
! pointing out that high school education
is not a local nor an individual matter,
| but matter of preparation for citi-
! ZenShip in the interest of the State.
! The parent in San Francisco is vitality
!! interested not only in his own sons ed
ucatlon but as deeply in somebody else's
son, living in Siskiyou County, for the
! Siskiyou child will be the citizen CT
/ the future making laws for the San
Franciscan, and it is to the interest
! of every citizen that every other citij
| zen should be educated, honestly and
/ intelligently to perform the duties OF
| citizenship, and become a producer Of
| intellectual, industrial or commercial
capital; otherwise the State must sup
! port him.
This brings us to another consdera-
ton. The real victims of the disabling
! clause of the Constitution have been,
not the university preparatory schools,
but those schools of broader and more
practical range-the manual training.
| trade and technical schools. This class
of schools has sprung up and shown
marked vitality in other States during
the past ten years. California is visi-
bly, laggard in this field. Given one
: half the encouragement which the
present high schools, serving the mar
/
enjoyed, and permitted to enlarge their
scope and horizon, we may safely guar
antee that in ten years they will usurp
the place of the present high schools,
or rather, we may say, the present high
school course will be SO modified as to
guarantee to every graduate not only
preparation for college, but also the ac-
j quirement of a practical manual trade,
| and a preparation for the duties of citi-
zenship. Such schools as the Lick
School demonstrate the feasibility OF
! their plan. Such schools should be IN
the reach of every community of the
State, and they may be placed there
and maintained at no greater cost than
the present high schools require Those
| acquainted with the trend of revolu-
ton now progressing within the uni
versities are aware that before this
| change in secondary education is &C
complished the universities will cheer
| fully and readily recognize the work
which such schools will offer as ade-
quate preparation for university adj
mission.
This step should be accompanied by
| a second making the division between
the elementary and secondary schools
! at the end of the sixth school year, thus
providing for a six-year elementary
course followed by a six-year secondary
course. This change is justifable both
upon psychological and practical
grounds, and is one which is rapidly
coming into universal favor. The sec
ondary school would therefore COM
mence with the thirteenth year of life,
the beginning of adolescence, when,
pschologically, there should be radical
changes in the matter and method of
| instruction. Pupils could then prof
itably be given training in the manual
trades along with scholastic study, thus
permitting an enrichment of the ele-
mentary school, and at the same tim.
that extension backward of much of
the work in science, literature and his
! tory now packed too closely into the
high school period. Such an important
reorganization needs the wise delibera-
ton of a competent educational organ
/ ization.
And what is the instrument by which
these notifications and reforms of ex-
listing conditions may be obtained? Leg
| islation?
| Legislation is certainly an essential
| assures US that in no particular do the
! educational interests so grievously need
reform as in the manner of securing
educationa legislation. There has been
! a saying, which has at least passed for
truth, that the California Legislatures.
no matter how iniquitous they may
have been upon general principles, new
! ertheless have ever been ready 10 pass
any laws which they could be convinced
We're for the best interest of the schools.
/ Certainly the Legislatures have been
more than liberal in providing for the
school funds. The errors of school leg
! islation are due chiefly to absence of 4
system which calls for the well-digested
counsel of the honest and wisest edu-
cational forces. The legislators them
selves have necessarily not been com
petent to collate and digest the facts
necessary to provide wise school leg
/ islation. On the other hand. there has
been no systematic effort to obtain
we'll digested counsel from competent,
reliable and disinterested school men.
As a result, then. each Legislature is
flooded by a flotsam of bills. some bad
] through design to raid the treasury in
the interest of some individual or some
local constituency; some bad through
ignorance, and few. if any. the product
of wise and carefully digested policy
of development. Time and again Ia
borious attempts have been made by
State superintendent, by the conven-