The Conservative, 1901-12-26
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Editor Conservative:

of the 18th instant on the public school
system in which the writer treats, at
some length, of the evil effects of fire.
quent changes and lack of permanency
in the teaching force, summing up with
the conclusion that nine-tenths of the
evils of the schools could be traced to
this source
Of course this is case of the pot
ter and the clay. If experience and
skill are requisite in the moulder of the
Jug how much more are these qualities
important in the manipulation Of science
whose duty it is to grade the chill" SO
that Eli can get through without fatigue.
If, however, the nine-t -tenths of the
evils he proposes to eliminate are each
equal in import to the one tenth for
which he has no remedy, the whole will
be found distressingly improper and
vulgar fraction.
The writer's whole scheme, however,
falls into "innocuous desuetude" from
the simple fact that the child, like the
corn stalk, is an indigenous plant.
Hence too much teacher for the one and
too much rain for the other is too much
of two good things.
The general disquiet, owing to unsat-
isfactory results Of public instruction,
arises from misapprehension of the
nature and functions of public schools.
When this is understood it will be
found that our schools are up to the
times and doing the work assigned in
manner to compare favorably with the
enterprises in handicraft to which your
correspondent refers. A farmer would
be a fool to raise bald barley and then
grumble because he had poor bread.
"a11 - 1xy lo.
was introduced into this country
and sown broadcast about the
time the present generation was
born. 1t is pretty good for isms but it
never met statesman who relished it.
To drop the figure and speak in plain
language of what is called the "New
Education" It got a pretty fair start
in this country about 1875. It is an
importation and had it's origin in a
laudable effort to see what could be
done for the poor children of the peas.
antry, who had no access to public
schools. After the manner of seed dis
tribution by the Department of Agri-
culture, this new process was dissent
mated by the Bureau of Education.
Literature in the form of numbered
circulars was sent forth and an army of
institute instructors followed to initiate
teachers in the new methods and warn
ing all that if they failed to "catch on'
they would in short time lose their
jobs. The term "New Education is a
misnomer, for it is simply device to
do without it,
Hence, we have now probably the best
schooled and the poorest educated period
in our history and it is quite safe to say
there is not an educated man or woman
in the country under thirty five who has
not either been to school at all or has
broken loose from it's trammels and be.
come an independent student. Of course
there is more or less education going on
in our schools, but what there is is in
cidental and results from the laws of
mental philosophy and is by no means
the result of class exercises in facts.
The working basis of the new educa-
tion, reduced to a formula, is simply
this: knowledge on the line of least re-
sistance. I submit herewith sample
for class exercises sent out as a model