The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-03-12
TIE PueLIc SCHOOL sYsTEM.

4 TIE = BLU SC1OOE = = ] Ems
Discussion of the public school sys-
TEN, such as interests the Salt Lake
people just now, is good for the schools
If only because Of the study of condi-
lions it incites and the added attention
II attracts from parents Of children in
attendance on the schools. So far the
question most widely thrust upon the
public is as TO the value of the edu-
cational system in vogue. Does it fit
the young people to be good citizens?
Does it prepare them for seIf-support
and the practical duties of life? In a
word, does it pay in the broadcast sense
of the word?
Allowing for the natural conserva-
tism of men which deprecates any
change in the system to which they
were accustomed in childhood, it must
be evident that the results Justify
doubt as to the practicability of the
present system. The closest observa-
ton viii convince any student of re-
suits that somewhere the system falls
short in that the boys and girls who
pass through the schools are not
equipped for practical usefulness with
out long preliminary experience in some
workaday vocation. It is a common
observation that graduates of the
schools, even the High school, do not
show the capacity for logical thought.
intelligent grasp OF details and clear
expression which their years of educa-
grammar school graduate is seldom
able to express himself in good Eng
fish. he lacks the power of logical, con-
secutive, constructive thought. More
than this. @ graduate of the High
school can seldom be found who is able
TO so directly into commercial life and
earn even a meager living from the
outset.
The commercial test may not be the
ideal standard Of the pedagogue; but it
is the final test in large majority OF
the cases tried by the world Good
citizenship and high standards of right
are necessary products of any effective
education: but the training which
throws a boy or girl upon the world
unable to meet its demands and obi
cations, is in the ultimate result,
failure
Nearly all foreign critics of Ameri-
can schools, especially the Germans.
have dwelt upon the impracticabflity of
the system in vogue. It has been said
time and again, that the boys and girls
turned out by the American schools
have a fixed distaste for manual labor.
an aversion for the hard beginnings of
practical life which lead to genuine
success. and a total ignorance of the
problems which confront them when
they leave school for the harder teach
ing of the outside world.
Whether this is wholly just or not,
there is enough Of truth in # to call for
an earnest effort to remedy the evils
complained of. Naturally. the leaders
of pedagogical work follow in one
general direction. Being students them
selves, they fail to realize fully the
popular need and demand for a more
rational eduCation-One that shall sim
plify studies but harden the discipline
for minds: one that shall give a child
thorough instruction in a few great
subjects rather than give him a con-
fused smattering Of knowledge in a
large number Of subjects. If the lay
man is at all competent to Judge. the
whole tendency of modern public school
education has been to render the acqui-
sition Of knowledge easy and super
fetal. rather than to give the growing
mind strength and fibre and habits of
severe self-discipline.
salt Lake, III common with every city
in the country, has suffered from this
tendency; and Salt Lake, like most
other American cities, is beginning to
get restless and wonder where the fault
les and how 1T can be corrected. In
our judgment, the first and most rad
icai need of the public schools is an
extension Of the manual training sys-
TEN, followed by the elimination of
superfiuous studies, the simplification
of methods and a return TO the belief
that one subject thoroughly taught is
worth a dozen taught in fragments
and digested not at all
The Germans have found the secret
of educational success in thoroughness.
and the adaptation of instruction %
the future demands on the individual.
They have a coherent, definite plan by
which the whole nation is taught those
things which go to make national sue
cess in commercial and professional
life. The success of their idea is being
demonstrated in every quarter of the