The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-18
CHILDRENOYERSTUYING
SAID TO WORK TOO MUCH IN NEW
 YORK,s PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Children of tho Poor Suffer Most-Ignoranee of Young Workers from the Grammar Grades--How Music and Hygiene are Imparted-Four Hours and
 Half Q Term.

New York Evening Post
 The City Record is not designed for a popular family magazine. but the recent is- sue containing the result of Comptroller Grouts investigation of the cost of main taining the New York city school system deserves a wider circulation than 1t is like ly to get. Certain parts of the report would make interesting reading to parents of school shidren. In a general way they have known that their children were over worked under the system. and there have been many complaints concerning the amount of home study required of very lit- tie children. Few have taken the trouble to inform themselves as to the actual ex- tent of the -crowding of courses. Those who have visited the schools have not re- ceived much satisfaction. It would not be expected that teachers would imperii their positions by criticisms of the schools. Ac- cording to the present report there ap- pears to be a very general agreement among teachers in charge of the different branches of the course for the last ten months that 1t is too heavy, and impossible of eomple- tion in the time allotted to 1t.
 "In addition to the ordinary common school branches. difficulty of mastering which even under the most favorable cir cumstances is generally admitted, the pupil is required to attend elaborate courses of study in drawing. constructive work, sew ing or cooking in physical training and
 
 years. nature study"
 Of course if the average school child ab- sorbed all these 1t would exhaust him to a dangerous point. but equally. of course, he does not absorb 1t all. There are good grounds for thinking that the vast majority of children absorb very little of 1t. Many. in fact. leave schoold almost as ignorant as when they entered. Children from poor homes. who depend on tho schools to teach them everything they learn. are here re- ferred to. It is these children who are the real sufferers for they must literally end their education at the school house door,
 Ignorant Grammar Scholars.
 The best place to study the results of the system is in the factory and the department store. The ignorance Of fourteen-year- old boys or girls when they so to work is the best proof of the folly of trying to stuff a dozen branches of learning into brains ca pablo of absorbing half as many. Not one girl in ten who enters the dressmaking trado as errand girl and helper can add column of figures rapidly and correctly, or make out a bill. The mental darkness of the average factory girl or boy during tho first six months of work is pathetic. They have little idea of the relations of the materials they have to handle That is to be expected. But they should have the power to think and to reason to a certain extent. Apparently they have not.
 In the Manhattan Trade School for Girls the work of teaching trades is handicapped by the necessity of spending. time in acade- mic olaAses The trade school has to overcome the deficiencies of the public school It has not been the experience Of this school that the serving classes of the schools were of any particular value to those who desire to learn a sewing trade The girls are taught to make neat stitches and to put simple garments together. but they might better have employed their time cultivating the brain power to do that very work quickly and accurately A class of fifteen girls who recently entered this school were above the average in scholarship. for the simple reason that they came from superior homes and did not depend on the school training for their entire development. The progress in the technical classes of these girls has been rapid beyond all pre- cedent. They waste no time studying eIe- mentary arithmetic and spelling and their work in tho technical classes is marked by intelligence.
 The same story is told in the Girls Teeh- nical High School. Instead of spending all effort in the classes which distinguish the school from others the pupils have to study arithmetic. A few special academic class es have to be maintained in all technical schools, but there should be no need of re- beating the work of elementary schools.
 In one of the large downtown schools the woman principal has instituted special classes for backward pupils, some of whom are old enough to go to work, but who are unable to complete the required school work In these classes all "frills" are eliminated and the children are held rig idly down to the three R's. Their prog ress is said to be amazing. With minds freed from cooking. sewing. music. hygiene, effect of alcohol and narcotics. manual training and the rest of the list. the at- tack of acute mental indigestion from which they have been suffering is quickly cured. and they pass their examinations.
 How SpeeiaIties are Studied.
 The question is where to begin to elirnin- ate Nobody dsubts the educational val ue of any of the specialties. Music. for example, has a very great moral influence upon children. especially the younger ones, The Grout investigation confirms this view. but it affirms that the course Is too long and too difficult The science of music should not be taught in public schools. Imagine an Irish or German-born child who expects to go into box factory as soon as he reaches fourteen being required to write trlads on the second. third and sixth de- grees, and to study the dominant chord of the seventh with its resolution. The girl who will respond to the cal. of "Cashgs