Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-27

- ttonal lines in the United States
IQ&09pH within the past few decades.
49, but 1t is also quite true that the
results of the present educational system
of the United States land this Includes
public schools, private schools, colleges
and universlties) is far from satisfactory,
from the business and commercial point Of
view.
1t is all very we'll to declare with the
voice of one crying in the wilderness that
education should not be considered solely
as a means Of amassing wealth or Of earning
a living. 1 agree to this. 1t is entirely
proper to encourage general culture among
those who have to make their own way in
the world. / say amen to any plan Of men
tai training that will spread sound culture
everywhere. But the plans which include
attempts to rear the superstructure of Gull
ture before the foundation stones thereof
are laid are harmful alike to the individual
schooled under them and to the nation as a
whole. They impair his personal efficiency
and they lower the general standard.
Matter of Figures.
Some who read these lines will think l
am old fashioned when 1 say that mature
study" freehand drawing, wood carving,
clay modelling and a lot Of the subjects
to which so much attention is paid nova
lays in our public schools should be rigidly
subordinated to matters that are more prac-
tical, so far as the great majority Of the
pupils are concerned. In fact, nons Of these
things, in my judgment, should be extern
sively taken up" by the great mass Of
public school children until after they are
well and thoroughly grounded in such es-
sential things as spelling, handwriting, the
construction of simple, direct English sem
fences, and the elementary operations OF
arithmetic.
Not long ago a bright-looking lad, under
Is, applied for a job in a retail shop on
one Of the cross streets in New York.
where have you been to SCHOOL," asked
the shopkeeper.
Public schools; graduated from gram
mar school No. -" replied the lad.
81 like your looks" continued the shop
keeper, land l want a boy. It's only a
matter of figures. Now, II eggs are 81
cents a dozen, how many can you sell for
25 cents?"
The boy couldn't answe and he didn't
get the job, though he had spent years in
the public schools of the greatest city of
the western hemisphere. This boy, you
will observe, was wholly untitled to Crap
pie 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 population by any
other city on earth) which the city Of New
York devotes annually to the education of
it's boys and girls.
You may say that the pupil with artistic
ability, who has latent talents that will
nable him with proper training to make
beautiful pictures, to model graceful stat
uary, to become a finished musician, or to
write thrilling 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
inhnitesimal percentage Of the boys and
girls of this age, or any other, have in
them exceptional artistic, musical or lit
erary possibilities. And even II every one
of them by training could be taught to
paint like Raphael, to model like Phi