Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1902-10-01

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% aSs s$s1 ''i.S% IRe1SsS report y 'as
that system by a British board O
inquiry, According to the London Daily News,
the moral and educational value Of the free public
school is ncalcuable and its existence sccoOunts in
q great measure for American independence, equal
ity and patriOtim. Inshtuting a comparison be-
tween the school systems Of the two countries, the
News says:
"When Mr.. Carnegie granted free university ed
ucatiOn to Scotland the professors ia their arm
chairs raised a chorus Of grumbling. How fire.
quently we hear the phrase that SO-and-sO has had
the advantage of a public school education. This
means that a hundred other children have been
placed by the community at a disadvantage. In the
United States it is impossible to secure any such
unfair start in iie The fashionable private schools
are, if anything, rather less efficient than the pub
lie schools; and for a rich to withdraw his child
from the general race for knowledge is regarded as
confession that the child is deficient in mental at
tainments. Americas discourtesy to people who
fail is to some extent justified, because she is able
to boast that everybody has a chance. The rate
payer so far from stinting expenditure upon schools
regards it as indispensable insuranc against pluto
cratic domination. There are inumeTable families
in which humble parents stake every dollar they
possess upon the intelecfs of their children, who
consequently, whatever be their station in life ex
hibt courtesy and refinement at least as worthy
Of admiration as any we find at Ascot or Elton. Al
Brooklyn home manners, table manners, school
manners, street manners, manners in public Assem-.
blies and in public cOnveyances are regularly
taught"
It would be a great gain to Great Britain thinks
the News if the American school system could be
transplanted to that country. Elton and the other
large schools of England have deliberately elimina
ted the plebeian element with the result that "the
governing classes are drawn from too limited q
fed.r Neither in the schOs for the rich nor in
fort ia
tiOn in the duties Of citizenship, which is impor
tant feature of the American curriculum. FOl
while, formally we admit the right Of man, practi
cally preserve in midst the fabric Of medieval
ieudalism." It is highly significant that most o
the British discussion Of this question should be
along the thought that the American system makes
for independence, democracy, equality, and love o.
country. PeTmeating every English article Is
an illcODceaed longing for the independence and
democracy of our country, with attempt at all tO
conceal the weakness of the British caste system
The reason for enthusiasm over the American sys-
tenn, says the London Times, is because the
schools are the people and under their control
''There, isy'' continues the Times, can essential
unity of belief in democratic education, of desire to
make it generally accessible and OF determination
to keep up its quality. Hence, says Sir Joshua
Fitch, one Of the British commission, America may
be regarded as laboratory in which educational
experiments are being tried on a great scale, under
condition exceptionally favorable to the encourage
ment OF inVentiveness and free enthusiasm, and to
the discovery of new methods and truths The
first grand condition which makes all this life and
movement possible is popular enthusiasm, the be-
lief Of the democracy in its schools ard of the
schools In the democracy. In that lies a power
which is yet wanting in England"
The Times wonders why Great Britain has not
made some serious attempt to introduced the Amer
ican school system, When all of rs agree that 1t is
an excellent one to copy" The fact which
ought to be plain enough to students Of the world
the editors OF this great English paper is that the
free school system is not something that can be
picked up and transplsnted into the soil monarchy
1t is indigenous to democratic soil and it might not
thrive at all unless surrounded and accompanied by
the other phases OF our political and social life, O
which it is only an element We may be almost as
sured that school system WEIGH is product Of the
democratic feeling and government which preceded
it. must depend upon that feeling for progres and
even existence and that it could not live in eoun.
try where such q feeling was wanting. Put in
another way, We may say that the British writer's
are getting the cart before the horse. They would
adopt our free school system for the purpose Of in
culcating lessons Of democracy and independence.
What they first need to do is to inculcate the feel
ing Of democracy and independence, and then the
democratic school will follow as matter Of course.
Whether or not however, the free school system
is isincOmDatable with q monarchy, we may dismiss
the idea that England could transplant it bodily.
Nations are not what wise men would wish to make
them, but what they have grown to be through cen
turies OF evolution. Here in America We had the
forfune 10 start along the most advanced lines