The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-01-11
WORK OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.


Mrs. Schuyler Van RensseIaer's Reply Il
Statements Made BY Mrs. Rcbeec'
Harding Davis.
In the public excitement now prevail
ing regarding the appropriations TO
schools and the fitness and duties TO-
certain teachers the views of thoughtful
people on the subject of education IL
general are of special interest. The diff
ferent points Of view possible are shown
In two successive numbers OF me
North American Review. Mrs. Rebeccs
Harding Davis says in part:
Has the public done its work? Has
education been always an unmixed bles
sing to American and Americans?
This question cannot be answered sc
easily and positively as loyal sons of the
Republic may suppose.
Two or three facts which come UP II
my memory seem to me to have bear
ing on it.
First-On the table before me lies the
annual report for 1898 of the inspectors
Of the Eastern penitentiary in Penn
sylvania. Here is one item; Ninety
one convicts who We're in the prison last
year had served one or more terms In
it before. OF these hardened Offenders
only nine were unable to read and write.
OF eight no record has been kept; but
as majority of them were forgers and
counterfeiters, they had evidently re-
ceived some mental training. The re-
naming seventy four were all educated,
= daI from two
nine years.
Another fact: Three years after the
opening of free schools in London a
marked increase was noticed in the
number Of juvenile offenders in the city
prisons and reformatories. There was,
too, a change in the kind Of crimes COM
mitted by them. The number of boys
and young men convicted of forgery
grand larceny and intricate swindling
schemes, was more than doubled, while
the number of sneak thieves, drunkards
and pickpockets was lessened by one
half As years passed the proportion
Of educated criminals largely increased.
Are we to understand them de-
manded jealous Humanitarian in Par
lament, that our graded schools are
breeding houses of crime?"
But this was too pessimistic view.
Education did not breed crime In the
pupils; education only gave crime tools
to use. The three RS never begot a
desire in the mind Of boy to work
harm to his fellows; but, finding the de-
sire there already, they taught him to
forge a note instead of picking a pock-
ct. without education, he tramped
barefoot In the mire of the broad road
that leads downward; with it, he drove
In q chariot, but on the se1f-same road
and to the same dark end.
Take another community, one In a
remote corner Of New England. Fifty
years ago x, was a live prosperous VII
age. The heads of the families were
mates and crews
Seen witted, quick eyed men, who
gathered knowledge on their long voy-
lges, and brought home, too, histories
Ind news of far off countries. Some
lines, indeed. they took their women
ok with them on their voyages, and
hus continually windows were opened
through which glimpses of the great !
utside world came into the lonely ham
ct. The life in it was full of hard |
work., but not without it's fun; 1t was !.
ctive, healthy and human.
But the whaling industry Is dead in |
{, now, and so are the old seamen who |
oIlowed 1t. The generations that sue
eeded them have not found. any indus
ry to take it's place. The swamps re-
nain undrained, the fields untitled, the
ish disport themselves in millions in
he bay undisturbed. The old people
a the village keep themselves and
heir children alive by renting their
ouses to summer boarders. But the
hildren have but one ambition--to be
ducated; their feeble energy finds 1t
My outlet in an academy and college
curse. Nothing could be more laud-
BILE, according to ordinary opinion.
visitcrs look with awe at the three huge
choolf1ouses and the free library which
over over the village houses, until they
iscover that there is not a cobbler nor
tailor nor druggist nor a skilled me
hanio in the village. Then they begin
, wonder whether book learning is the
My wholesome and needful thing in the
fe Of community.
Inc young SlTiS VI a, BU lIIUuBu Tie
,urse," nibbling at dozen sciences and
hilosophies and two or three languages
ing enough to learn the flavor of each,
ut not long enough to find any actual
,od for their brains; not long enough
zen to teach them the first lesson of
iucation--how little they know. They
nd no place as teachers for New Eng
nd in filled with women competent to
ach standing in rows waiting for a
acancy. These X young ladies'--for
ley are careful to give themselves that
,gree-settlel down at home. They will
it cook nor wash, as their mothers do; ,
ey are no longer Of the class Of trades +,
,ople; they are untitled to marry the {.
NEST laborers on the farms; they NOPE
Id look at the world in false lights
rough their tears, and join the great |
my Of half-starved, hysteric, morbid
omen in New England-the most use
ss figures, perhaps, In the worlds ..
myriads
The majority of the young smen re-
IN and wait in vain for work in which y
cir book learning will prove effective
lev have no capital to go into bust =
SIS; the professions are enormously :,
ercrowded; they look down with con- u
mpt on the trades or any manual la :
r. in which was their chance for USE v
|, earnest lives. One or two men of -
usual power have gone to the West .
d succeeded; the others in the end, -
lven by dire need, usually take up :.
me occupation which gives them food. !.