Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-05

the superintendent market, with Prof.
Butler as head manipulation; or labor
union of organized superintendent with
the professor as master workman, SO con-
fidently does he hurl threats of boycott and
blacklist against rat" superintendent
who dare to dsplace those who bear the
seal of his approval If the new Washing
ton superintendent, he says, fails to follow
in Mr.. Powell's footsteps he will find him.
SELF without professional reputation III
teaching were really a profession no man
of high principle he says. would accept
an election t. a SUPPLEMENTARY made va
cant as at Washington
When Prof Butler, from his closet in
Columbia University, ventures the asser-
lion that there is no public opinion in
Washington which may be relied upon to
defend the public schools, he betrays the
grossest ignorance of local conditions.
There IS no other city in the country where
educat ionaI management is so completely
civ reed from the political wire-pulling,
which. reckless CT public opinion and pub
lie welfare, distresses educators In other
municipalities; ard where that manage
ment is so readily responsive to intelligent
public opinion. In no other city do the
parents of the children 41,0Oo in the Dis
trcO who attend the schools and the prop
erty owners who are taxed to maintain
them average higher in intelligence than
those at the national capital, or show great
err capacity to form opinions of value Ihls
very local change in certain methods or
education and superintendent has resulted
from an aroused public sentiment, formed
on the basis of the observations of parents
and the evidence and opinions of teachers
and supervising principals-an opinion which
,,-;&l, nd ho
gressional legislators for the District and
swept away every obstacle which inter-
posed
In the progressive improvement of the old
system of public education which paid ex-
cessive attention to certain favored ele-
mentary studies. which overloaded the
memory with much worthless material and
which. comparatively speaking. neglected
to develop observation and reason, the ten
dency, here in Washington at least, has
been to go to the other extreme, to ignore
the memory, formerly overstrained. now
undiscipined, and to degrade as unfit for
systematic thought the studies like SPELL
ing and arithmetic, to which undue atten-
ton paid in the past. There is a hap
ply medium which will preserve what is
beneficial in both the old and new systems,
which will develop all the childs faculties,
memory included, and which will pay
proper attention to the founda lions as well
as the superstructure of the system of pub
lie education. The people of Washington
desire that their children shall not only
enjoy the broadening and inspiring influ-
ence of modern methods of instruction, but
shall spell with reasonable precision the
words of the current vocabulary and shall
be able to figure quickly and accurately in
49,
We have wish to return to the good
old times when spelling was the educa-
tional fad, and when Master Butler would
have been soundly spanked for spelling
throughout 'thruout,' as Prof Butler does
in the first sentence quoted from his edi-
torial. Today the people who constitute
the barbarian tribes will merely smile at
his phonetic affectation. and conclude that
one of the volcanic disturbances in edu-
cation to which he refers has shaken three
letters from throughout
The people of Washington intend Of
course. that certain changes, neither radi-
cal nor revolutionary, shall be made for
the Improvement of their system Of public
instruction. The insolent scurrility of Prof
Butler will have tendency to influence
either Congress or this community in favor
of Mr.. Powell or the methods which he
typlned. III Columbia University should be-
come convinced that its professor Of phlos-
ophy had degenerated from a philosopher
into a supercilious and scurrilous coxcomb,
discrediting the university, It's determina-
ton to drop him from the faculty would
not be shaken by abusive and threatening
protests from Washington pedagogues
Washington acting through It's congress
sional legislature, its Commissioners and
its board of education, and responding to
intelligent local public opinion, will exer-
else the same high privilege, unaffected In
dealing with its local concerns by the Of
fcious interference of meddesome and i'm
pertinent outsiders.