The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-27

i 1900 OCCA4
marked progress along educational
lines in the United States within the
mast few decades, but it is also quite
true that the results of the present
educational system of the United
States (and this includes public
schools, private schools, colleges and
universities) are far from satisfactory,
from the business and commercial
point of view.
1t is all very well to declare with
the voice of one crying in the wilder
ness that education should not be con-
sidered solely as a means of amassing
wealth or of earning a living. 1 agree
TO this 1t is entirely proper to en-
courage general culture among those
who have to make their own way in
the world. 1 say amen to any plan for
mental training that will spread sound
culture everywhere. But the plans
which include attempts to rear the SUI
perstructure of culture before the
foundation stones thereof are laid are
harmful alike to the individual school
ed under them and to the nation as
a whole. They impair his personal eff
standard.
Matter of Figures.
Some who read these lines will think
l am old fashioned when l say that
mature study" free-hand drawing,
wood carving, clay modelling and lot
of the subjects" to which so much
attention is paid nowadays in our pub
lie schools should be rigidly subordi-
mated to matters that are more prac-
teal, so far as the great majority of
the pupils are concerned. In fact, none
Of these things, in my judgement should
be extensively taken up" by the
great mass of public school children
until after they are well and thor
oughly grounded in such essential
things as spelling, handwriting, the
construction of simple, direct English
sentences, and the elementary opera
tons of arithmetic.
Not long ago a bright looking lad,
under eighteen, applied for job in
retail shop on one of the cross streets
in New York. Where have you been
to SCHOOL," asked the shopkeeper.
Public schools; graduated from
Grammar School Number" replied
the lad.
81 like your looks" continued the
shopkeeper, land l want a boy. It's
only matter of figures. Now, if eggs
are 81 cents a dozen, how many can
you sell for % cents %
The boy couldn't answer, and he
didn't get the job, though he had spent
years in the public schools of the
greatest city of the western hemis-
phere. This boy, you will observe, was
wholly untitled to grapple with the
simplest practical problems. Hundreds,
yes thousands, of such stories might
be told, despite the vast amounts
Qarger by the way, than are so
spent in proportion to school popula-
ton by any other city on earth) which
the city of New York devotes annual
ly to the education of its boys and
girls.
You may say that the pupil with
artistic ability, who has latent talents
that will enable him with proper train
ing to make beautiful pictures, to
model graceful statuary, to become
finished musician, or to write thrllllng
romances, does not need to be able to
do sums" in mental arithmetic and
has no call to worry about such petty
things as the price of eggs. Suppose
this is granted, the fact remains that
only an infinitesimal percentage of the
boys and girls of this age, or any
other, have in them exceptional artls-
tic, musical or literary possibilities.
And even if every one of them by
training could be taught to paint like
Raphael to model like Phidias, to
compose and play like List, or to write
like Dickens, still only few could
find a market for their wares, while
the remainder would have to make
their way along old fashioned, hum
OrUn0 linpc in nf their RpniI1S
Some Curious Letters.
The number of youngsters graduated
from our public schools, and colleges,
too, l am forced to say, who can not
write clear, concise and readable let
tiers, is much larger than the number
who have not mastered the simplest
rules of arithmetic. And here l can
give examples from more direct per-
sonal observation. The financial in
sutution with which 1 am connected
requires written applications from all
Who desire to enter it's employment,
and these letters are kept on file. Here
is one of them, from one of them who
mas been trained in two colleges, be-
ldes, presumably, in the common
schools. 1t will be noted too, that part
OF his schooling was obtained outside
New York, and I mention this in order
10 show that not all the inadequate
schooling of the age can be charged to
the metropolis:
"Sirs:
Applying for admission into your
employment, I wish to state that 1
nave never been in business, being to
scnool at - college in Maryland,
and -- in New York. My fathers
position is a bridge carpenter on the
railroad. / live . l refer
u - and
VourS vacpectT11IIv