The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1899-04-22

enough schools In the cities many
children are crowded out for lack of
room. 1t is occasionally intimated that
while there are some incompetent
teachers, there are more who are over
burdened with arduous duties. 1t is
admitted that it is impossible for one
man or woman to give personal attcn-
ton to each of a hundred or more chill
dren; they must be taken in the mass.
But it is claimed that our schools are as
near perfection as could reasonably be
expected.
Mr. Hawthorne brings no Indictment
against these public schools. He be-
lieves that Oh the whole, the state does
we'll what it contracts TO do. He says
that training in morals. deCencies, ele-
walton of thought and conduct, cannot
be administered to children III the mass.
Parents must net take it for granted
that teachers, while instruCting their
children in the various breaches of study,
can instruct them in the social and
Christian graces. Pupils who, on leay-
ing school, 90 wrong, must not be charg-
ed to the public school system, bat to
parental neglect The education given
by the state should be fortified by
family training.
Mr. Hawthorne accuses American pa
rents of abandoning their children to
the state when they should only entrust
them to it for a part and not the most
important part Of their education. They
are fond of their children; they drudge
and slave for them, but they see little
of them; they question them but little
about their studies and school associa-
tons, or as TO how they pass their time
out OF school. They neglect their chill
dren just as they DO their civic duties.
He cites an exceptional case, that Of
Il man who works from sixteen to eigh-
teen hours day, but who always has
leisure 10 attend TO his little son, Il pupil
in the public schools. lie knows all
about the boys studies and progress.
He helps the boy with his lessons, he
talks with him and encourages him to
talk in return. The two are close friends
and confidants. There is between them
feeling of good fellowship. No hum
drum sOlemnity marks their intercourse,
which is full Of humor. manly, cheerful
and mutually respectful. This bov,"
SAYS Mr.. Hawthore, passes through
the loosetongued uproar of the street
unscathed. He is boy to the
tips of his fingers, but the soul
OF a gentleman is IN him. The
public school has done its part for HIM,
but his family has recognized its fuuc-
tons and limitations, and not injured
the child by leaving to-the school his
entire training. This boy is the type of
many other manly, right-mindcd boys
whose parents have not neglected them
Bat a much larger type Of children
both in the public and private schools,
are practically orphans who miss the
training, discipline, and inspiration Of
the nome. Fathers who would not al
low the most confidential clerk to en-
gneer deal for them oil change, says
Mr.. Hawthorne, entrust their children
to teachers of whom thew know moth
ing, and plead lack of time for Sinking
their most solemn engagements.
He argues that this neglect i. no light
matter, but one which becomes every
year more menacing because the public
school child of today is the parent of
the public school child of tomorrow,
and will do as he has been done by. He
contrasts the American life of the oiden
time with that of the present. Then the
state and the school took less on their
shoulders than they do to-day, ard the
parents took a great deal more on theirs.
Possibly the children were brought up
a little too strictly, but their home life
was pure healthy and simple. and they
were taught the virtues Of respect and
obedience. If children went wrong,
it was their own fault, not that of their
parents.
In view Of the fact that there are now
many more public schools than in that
dav. and that many more children 90
to them, Mr.. Hawthorne says, that ''the
more the state helps the parents the
more they should help themselves,
because the responsibility becomes
more urgent. The more arithmetic
and geography the school puts into the
chiId's brain, the more decencv and
honor should his parents instil into his
heart. The devil can attack him in
thousand ways. but the angels can
reach him only through his parents