New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-04-02
ScHnoL BETTER THAN STREET.

Superintendent Maxwell makes complete an
svver TO the Tammany school demOralizers Who'
to deprive the little children Of training IN What
they call ''fads" would shorten their schOol DAY.
He saws: The school is better thar the street
II the enemies of the so-called ''faGs' proposed
to give the extra time to the teaching OF Whal
they hold 10 be essential branches now insuf1l-
GENTLY taught. there might be something said
for Them But when they advocate turning all
the first year children out into the street Tor the
extra hour and a half merely 20 let Mayor NC
Clellan call part time full time they show their
inter bad faith. The people OF New-YOrk can
not he fooled I'm that fashion Most OF the part
time children are in the first year. Putting all
the first year children on part time and then
saying it is full time will simply mean that more
children than before will have only that three
and a half hours school day which Mr., MeClel-
Ian a year and a half ago described as denial
OF elementary education DR.. Maxwell puts the
case admirably for the longer school day, even
If it be conceded to include some things which
elsewhere might he thought ''fads." when he de-
clares:
II our children could play in the open country,
or even I'm spacious Fairgrounds. l should not
object so strenuously to the shorter day. But
where the crowded narrow street, with sun
light excluded. is practically the only play
ground. 1 advocate longer school day. Is II
street exposed to all moral and physical peril
or is II better for him to be in schooroonl'
where in addition to teaching him to reao'
write and cipher we try to do something through
hand work recreation and physical exercise 10
make UP to him for the absence Of sunlight in
the streets for the absence of fresh air, for the
absence of green fields. for the absence Of that
training through hand work which the country
boys receive?
The country boy used to have a six hour
school day. or five and half hours. taking ac-
count of the intermissiOns. Certainiy five hours
is not too long when the alternative is the street
and its unhealthful surroundings. Whatever
NAV be said against "fads' in the upper grades,
where Mayor McCleIlan's political needs have
not dictated a change, there is great deal OF
nonsense talked about the harm done by them
10 the tiny children. The "fads" with them are
natural features Of the transition from kinder
garten to grammar school, and some Of them
are required by State law. Much fun has been
made Of sewing for boys, but the boys do not
sew. as the men who used that bit OF claptrap
know Sewing is simply the leading description
of one course, including allied occupations such
as basket weaving for boys, a work which In
terests children and trains their hands and eyes.
making ND for the education in manual dex-
terity which comes naturally TO country children.
Isn't basket weaving better than crap shoot
ing? This and other similar occupations may
be Of questionable utility, but it certainly does
the children no harm TO engage in them rather
than run the streets, the prey to trucks and au-
tomobIles. But Mayor Mcclellan, after climbing
into Office on the strength of his fearful sym
pathy with the dear children who could get only
three and a half hours schooling now wants to
climb into a second term by kicking still more
OF them out from pleasant work under ennObling
influences in the schOolhouse to encounter the
evils OF the streets.