Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-11-14
THE CORVALLIS GAZETTE.
FRIDAY. NOV. IA, 1902.
REFORM NEEDED.

address recently made before the
Connecticut State Association of
Teachers has called a lot of crili
cism of the school system, both
moderate and harsh, but noue
quite so savage as President
EIiot's.
There can be no sort of doubt
that the public school system as
now organised and administered
Is falling far short of accomplish
ing what it should. 1t fails to
give boys and girls such thorough
elementary instruction as will fit
them to earn a livelihood, or
upon which they may base any
course of collegiate training.
Colleges have been compelled,
in not few instances. to estab-
lish preparatory departments to
impart correct knowledge OF
the most elementary kind to boys
who desire college training.
Business men everywhere COM
plain that boys who apply to
them for employment are sadly
deficient in spelling, composition
and ability to use figures cor
rectly.
The best informed teachers de-
clare the products of the schools
to be very unsatisfactory.
Parents complain that their
boys and girls, after passing
through the public school course
cannot read intelligently, spell
correctly, write legibly nor figure
accurately.
Such complaints are far too
numerous and prevalent to be
groundless, and it is all too plain
that the fault is in the system it.
self. The schools everywhere
are attempting too much. In
struction is attempted in so many
branches of knowledge that
neither the teachers can properly
instruct nor the pupils acquire
proficiency in any.
President Eliot scores the
teachers, but the teachers are not
at fault. AS a matter of fact
college presidents and professors
and college graduates were, at
the first, most active i'll planning
and instituting the present sys-
tenn of public school instruction.
The purpose was to create cor
relative system of schools begin
ming with the common or public
school, embracing the high
school or oracademy, the college and
university. 1t is a beautiful, at
tractive and philosopllic theory,
but it wrests the public school
from its own proper field of en-.
deavor and injects the misplaced
high school into the system.
This is the genesis of the
whole troubles. Forty years ago
the mischeivous results of adopt
ing such fine spun and impractic-
able theories were pointed out by
college trained men who under
stood the real purposes of educa-
ton by means of public schools.
Criticism is easy. but if the
schools are to be placed in their
own right domain and the system
made to perform its own proper
functions much more than caustic
criticism is necessary. Radical
changes must be made. The
range of studies must be excised
until only the fundamentals re-
main. After thorough instruc-
tion has been given i'll these, and
the pupils have gained correct
knowledge of them, there will
not remain, to far the greater
number of boys, ti,ue nor neces-
sity for more schooling.
The work of reforming the
schools must be insisted upon by
parents and must be done by the
intelligent and earnest friends OF
public instruction by common
schools. Known enemies of such
schools must not be allowed, will
not be permitted to exert any in
f1uence whatever in the matter.
The work of reformation should
be undertaken at once, and may
we'll begiu in Oregon, for ou1
schools are of a piece with those
of other states.