Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-21
Children Should Read, Write
and Cipher.
SCHOOL WITHOUT FADS
DANGER TO YOUNG AMERICA IS
EDUCATIONAL FRILLS.
knowledge of Primary Branches Are
Essential to Success in Life-Away
With Spelling Reformers.

Address by Whitelaw Reid. Chancellor, al the
Forty-second ConvocatioB of the University OF
the State of New York.
1T has been made my duty and it is car-
tainly privilege and personal pleasure,
to call to order the forty second univer-
sity convocation of the state OF New York,
forty-second on the list, but first in signifi-
canoe In the whole history of our annual
meetings.
"For this convocation follows Immediately
upon the unification of the states educa-
tional systematic end of strife between
wranglng departments and of controversy
over divided powers 1t assemblies on the
call Of the constitutional body under whose
supervisory the state has now placed
the whole work; and signalizes the opera
ton of the states decree for the co-ordi-
nation of all efforts. public and private,
tax supported not. primary. secondary
or collegiate, for the proper training of the
young in the greatest community on this
continent one free commonwealth of 5000,
GOO souls
''Who can overrate who can even estimate,
such a responsibility? 1t is common
wealth beside which Athens when PericleS
ruled 1t and it ruled Greece. seems petty;
commonwealth greater than Rome when
from it the Caesars gave laws urbi ct orbi;
greater than Venice when she held the gor-
geOuS east in fee. and was the safeguard
of the west: greater threefold than this
whole nation when it achieved its indie
pendence; greater than half the nations or
America today or many among those of
Europe. Nay. this is measuring greatness
merely by numbers. When you measure by
material prosperity, by intellectual leader
ship, by political weight or moral worth,
where, the wide world round. is this COM
monwealth surpa ssed? Does it not in fact,
grow In minds regard With tlliaI
pride and awe its imperial proportions. to
something of the image formed by the old
home in the seerlke eyes of John of Gaunt:
this earth of majesty, this other Eden, this
happy breed of men, this little world. this
blessed spot, this earth, this realm-th:s
New York!
Cost of the Schools.
What the state itself thinks this work is
worth may be partly seen in what it pays
for it, The states solcitude for various
objects may sometimes be gagged in the APP
preparations Well, the state of New York
pays more money for its schools than for
any other one thing-five times as much for
schools as for legislation; five times as
much as for courts and all the machinery
for the administration of justice; five times
much for the improvement and repair
Of highways, rivers, bridges and the like;
nearly three times as much as for the
governor and all the executive officers and
all the departments that crowd the state
house and all the commissions that roam
the state. In fact, you cannot find an ac-
count on the books of your state treasurer
that equals his payment for educational
purposes without adding together the whole
of the states charities along with it's addi-
lions to the permanent investments for the
insane. With all our talk about canals,
the state spent last year less than two
thirds much for them for schools, even
when you count in the purchase of nearly
a million and half bonds for the sinking
Quit Of toto it,1-a f,ft
four millions last year for all purposes the
state spent in all five and one-half millions
or nearly one-fourth of all its money, for
education.
THAT is far from telling approaching
the whole truth. l have been speaking only
of those expenditures derived from state
taxation; but the report of the late super
intendent of public education, Mr.. Skinner
gives also the local expenditures for the
same purpose, and the grand total is thus
swollen to proportions whose impressiveness
cannot be heightened by words. The state
of New York spent in 1903, in all its multi
form activities, outside of the schools, only
1879, $50. 1t spent on schools, including
local with state expenditure, $43, 1885,
The people of New York thus gave between
two and three times as much for their
schools as their state government pays for
everything else, of whatever sort or de-
scription.
fundamental Principles.
first convocation after unification has been
achieved, 1 spend most of the few min
utes more for which 1 may claim your in
diligence in reminding you of some funda-
mental principles, almost axioms, that we
should never lose sight of in the common
schools. There is nothing new about them;
their Importance is merely that they are
everywhere and forever true.
I'VE have seen that there must first
be heights against which the educational
ladder can rest. The exact point where
the top of this ladder is supported may
vary; but there can be no variation or I'M
certainty about the support for it's foot
That is the vital concern. Unless the foot
of the ladder is solidly grounded, the
higher you climb the worse the fall.
First then we must insist that the COM
mon schools really teach, with a thorough
ness not yet SO generally attained as is
needful. the three things that make the
common basis for all subsequent work.
Their pupils should learn till they really
know how to read, write and cipher I'm
I'll you make absolutely sure of that. let
us have fewer frills
You have not taught reading until you
nave made 1t at least accurate automatic
ana as unconscious as breathing.
You have. not taught writing until YOU
nave made 1t equally easy, equally exact
and besides have taught it without f,ds
Not only must the characters be ieeihle
rather than obseurely elegant but the
words must be spelled as they are now
speileo In English literature. No doubt
there is place in the scheme of the uni
verse for fnsatiate reformers-eyen mace
our accomplished lbrarian!) for spelling
reformers; but their place is not in the com.
mon school room. Your business there is
to teach what the literature of the English
speaking world has accepted-not what the
reformers think 1t ought to accept or even
believe it is going to accept. Your warrant
from the state, in this very ground work of
all learning, Is not for teaching debatabie
things, contentious things, butt the things
now accepted and built upon and embodied
in our standards, and you are to teach
others only when they have been accepted |
The Multiplication Table.
Again. just as nothing can take the place
of an absolute readiness in thus reading
and writing the English language. SO moth |
ing can take the place of an absolute mas
terry of the multiplication table To the |
boy or girl to whom you do not give that in |
childhood, together with the common things |
1t stands for. you are turning out into the |
world cripple for life. II ne cannot add /
and subtract, multiply and divide with the |
readiness and precision of machine. If this
work is not instructive and instnctively