New-York tribune., 1905-11-01
A PART TINE PARADOX.
WHITEW4SH FOR M4YOR.
Statistics Upset Grouts Statement
Shosang Mann Cars

Although there were in the month Of Sep
tember S6,435 children part time in, the pub
lie schools or 10.925 more than on January i.
1904, when Mayor Mcclellan took Office with
glowing promises of what he was abort to do for
the. schools, Controller Grout yesterday issued
statement showing. on paper, at any rate.
that S9,O92 sittings had been opened in the pub
lie schools since the beginning CT THE Tammany
administration.
The statistics of the Department ,of Education
show that the school population is now 573 OPS,
while in September, 1904, it was 561 ALAN
Increase of .7S7 for the year. The, children
part time In September S64:t5. while IN
September 1904, the number So276-an
increase OF 6,159 for the year. With S9062 new
sittings opened in the last two years there should
now be 137 vacant sittngs In the schools
and no children should be part time
In September, 1904, there We're 40, 1873 children
In the city over and above the Recommendations.
and that number has been increased by 1871
new pupils since, bringing up the total to 81. .920.
While there are 80. 137 sittings that should be
superfuous, there actually 4a2K children
over and above the accommodations. putting
S6,435 on part time.
Mr.. Grout presented to the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment a report of the opinions ar
rived at by his investigators. Rotert B. McIn-
tyre and Mrs. Mathilde Coffin Ford after spend
~AO
methods of the school department. The report
advocated granting the department for 1905 the
of S23, $40, 800 46 for current educational ex-
penses. The Board of Estimate was slightly
less liberal. and granted S23.35S,1SS 3D. The
Board of Education asked $50, ,126 O4O36. The
cut of 81 767 $50 q is nearly twice as great as
the cut of last year. and will probably seriously
cripple the school system.
About $SOO.OOO Of the burden of the cut will
fall upon the general school fund. from which
the teachers are paid their salaries. 1t is esh-
mated that the sum granted the general school
fund will be scarcely enough for the teachers in
the day schools Nothing will remain for the
evening schools, part of which required by
law, for the truant schools, the Lectures, the
evening recreation centres or the summer
schools.
AS the Tribune predicted, the Board .sof Esti
mate and Apportionment cut down the general
fund because 1t SO much exceeded the money
coming from the legal allotment of mills on
each dollar OF assessed property. The present
action of the Board OF Estimate and Apportion-
ment is exactly what expected BY Auditor
Cook and the fnanciers of the Boardi of Educa-
ton, who are advocating, as they have done In
the past. that bill be presented to the legisla-
ture basng the growth OF the geIteral school
fund on the growth in the school population.
and not upon the taxes, which haTe nothing
logically to do with the increase Of children in
the city
Mr. Grout's investigators are impressed with
the extravaganza of the Department Of Educa-
ton and advise reductions in many directions
Mrs. Ford does not conhne herself to extrava-
gances but undertakes to criticse the peda-
gogical methods of the department. She says
In part:
The main reason why the children in the schools
1o learn TO they
sufficient practice to acquire facility in getting
thought from a printed page. Reading is only now
in the way Of becoming universal achievement
and 1t takes enormous deal of practice to de-
velop skill in this and difficult art.
While 1t Is true that poor results are obtained In
the teaching Of arithmetic and that the course OF
study in that subject needed to be curtailed. the
the real Of the difficulty It lies in the fact
that the arithmetic lessons do not interest the
children and therefore fail to develop power and
Skill interest being the key to all success In teach
Ing. AZ & whole the reeitations In this branch are
stupid They consist for the most part OF mechani-
problems having relation to actuallty. Acres
are still reduced inches. and children continue
to puzzle their brains over nonsenscai and useless
calculations which are so far removed from practi-
cal life that they fall to arouse interest.
In contrast with this 1t should be easy matter
TO rather from the actual business life OF the city
and the world OF business in general a sufficient
Indicated.
She attributes the poor spelling of the children
to the instruction received in reading