The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-20

stand that the Methodists are planting system Of
schools and that other Protestant movements a1e
on the way The 7 NJ. G. A. has opened rooms In
San Juan and it will do a great work.
THE SCHOOLS OF PORTO RICO.
So far the schools Of Porto Rico have been In
describaby poor. The old school readers were made
ND of legends of the saints and Of the Virgin Mary.
They were of the most antquated description. and
were filed with misinformation. We had better
schools 100 years ago than Porto Rico has now.
A great deal has been published about the school
system here from which you might think the island
had school organization. The truth is, there are
only two buildings on the island which were built
especially for public school purposes and the only
modern schools those which have been estab-
lshed by the dozen schoomasters brought down
by our board of education. l. visited many of the
public schools They commonly kept In the
dwellings of the teachers. The school teacher who,
may perhaps live in will that for teach
ing in the daytime. moving the dining table out per-
haps to give place for the scholars. Many Of the
teachers have been collecting rent rooms used In
this way well receiving the pretty salary
allotted to them by their Porto Rico towns. When
mea1time comes the schools get out of the way Re-
cesses and vacations are taken on all sorts af nra
lenses. One of school inspectors found that II
school had adjourned and the teacher and scholars
gone to q cock fight.
In another school, where the children were writ
Ing he found the pupils did know even the nance
of the letters which they copying nor the
words. They made beautiful copies, but might az
well have been drawing pictures. for the writing
only pictures to them.
SHOULD HAVE AMERICAN SCHOOLMASTERs
AS far as l can learn the crying need Of Porto
Rico Is large corps of frstclass American school
masters Uncle Sam has been running his school
EIa bac
American school teachers at offer of $50 a moath.
This has been since raised to $5 but it is entirely
too low to get the best men. The island needs a
thorough reorganization and the school teaching has
to begin at the ground.
The board of education has already organized
Porto Rico into districts 1t has now sixteen sinner.
Vising American teachers. 1t has in preparation q
number of modern text books and is planning norma,
and other schools. 1t will give free text books and
will abolish the custom of allowing the teachers 70
receive pay from the scholars. All new teachers
from now must know English and Spanish and
all scholars will be taught English
A TALK WITH GEN. EATON
During my stay here have had several talks
with Gen Eaton about the schools. He tells me thar
the Porto Rican government has set aside 1925 ODc
for the next school year, but that considerable more
Is needed He believes that bonds to the extent Of
100000 should be issued to aid in carrying on the
school work. School houses should be built by the
towns, and they should be separate and apart from
the dwellings Of the teachers Education should be
made compulsory possible
Gen. Eaton says there $50 schools oY
the island, with an attendance of about $4,000; il
other words, among the children of school age on,
about one in twelve goes to school, 1 doubt whethe
more than that read and Write ...-
Gen Eaton thinks it would pay to give some c
the Porto Rican schoolmasters and lastresses trip
to the United States at government expense to shoy
them the new country and people to Which they ar
Joined and to enable them to learn English This
he thinks. could be cheaply done by giving then
passage on the government transports, anu in or
ganiznS circles in different towns Of country
people who wished to learn Spanish Each circr
would board it's teachers and pay in the neighpo.
hood OF 500 as tuition for the eight or ten week
of the summer vacation. The plan is not al OK
pensive one and it might be of great educational
value. -Frank @ Carnan+ar