Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-06-20

IT,. hSSSOAAN1
Telephone editorial or business
bmce) No. "A
Address the Courier Printing Conn
pany. Ottumwa, Iowa.
Z Entered as second class matter
october II, 1903. at the postoff1ce, OF
tumwa, Iowa, under the Act Of Congress
VI March 3, 1879.
" AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM.
s superintendent Edwin @. Cooley of
The Chicago public schools is opposed
10 the present course Of study in the
public schools, especially the high
schools Discussing the question in
the Saturday Evening Post he asserts
that the common schools are not COM
mon enough; that they are doing too
much overhead shooting. Hundreds
Of thousands of pupils in this country,
he says, cut short their schooling and
drop out of the ranks, every year, be-
cause they cannot graduate. acting
from the standpoint that they are in
The nigh school to graduate rather
than to learn, and they voluntarily sac
rifice the year or two years Of instruc-
ton which should do most to equip
them for the hard and practical strug-
gle Of life Discussing this he says:
The effect of treating the high
school as college feeder rather than
a. Peoples College is felt all along
down the line Of the elementary
grades. The course Of study in the
lower grades is made subservient to
the idea of high school graduation in.
the same way that the high school
course is framed to fit the idea Of the
college or university. The grades Of
pupils are put through studies which
no reasonable human being would as
sign them on any supposition other
than that of graduating from high
school and passing on to the college.
And yet 1t Is a certainty that only a
small percentage of grade pupils enter
the high schol, to say nothing Of be-
ing graduated from 1t, while he per
centage of those VINO rea> Z college is
almost infinitesimal.
But concrete example is far more
effective than abstract statement. Let
me give an instance of our present
high school training, which Is so typi-
cal that its truthfulness will be recog-
nized and admitted. by any principal
Of a large city school, Recently I be-
came interested in a bright boy who
was graduated from one Of our high
schools and whose circumstances made
q college training impossible. On in
curry found he was leaving the high
school to go into a factory What sort
Of preparation, asked, had his school
ing given him for the life upon which
he was entering? His mother had
helped MIN to get his education by
taking in washing" Such sacrifice
was worthy of rich and practical re-
suits. And those results were?-four
years Of Latin, two years Of Greek. two
years of German, one year of French,
two years Of mathematics, mini
mum of English and history, and no
civics or political economy! And the
trouble was not with the boyle had
been placed at the educational feast
and had eaten what was set before
MIN, '.asking no questions for con-
science sake The curriculum, the
whole educational scheme of the grade
and high school, was responsible for
his educational misft. He had good
start for college and professional ca
reer but his equipment for making
his way in factory was about as de-
ficient as the Imagination could well
suggest. And those who go the way
of the factory, the store. the shop and
the streets are thousands to the tens
who preserve to the university class
room.
The educational system which slim
ulates the boy to rise above his en-
yironment and go higher in the voca-
tional and social scale is a good sys-
tenn so long as it actually accomplishes
this result in a lair percentage of
cases; but 1T is not desirable when
1t achieves this at the cost of making
high percentage of educational mis-
fits in order to elevate a few into
the intellectual or professional pur.
suits.
Superintendent Cooley holds that
our public schools will not be com.
mon in the truest sense Of the word
until the ability of the pupil to build
a gas engine, construct dynamo or
make a difficult chemical analysis is
as highly recognized as the ability to
translate Virgil or Homer or demon
strate a tough proposition IN
geometry And embody1ng some OF
his plans in what ne hopes the future
will bring forth he says:
If we're to indulge in a word OF
prophecy ! would say that the high
school of the future will be closer to
the people than to the college; that its
curriculum will do more for the chill.
dren Of the plain people; that it will
make broader and stronger appeal to,
and better provision for, the boy
who has small interest in college, but
feels he must quit and go to work;
That It's course will smack less Of those
studies which tradi IN holds to be
divinely appointed agencies for "men.
tai discipline" that 1t will have less OF
the cast-iron program and will less
and less attempt to mould all pupils
to the same pattern that it will give
culture to those who seek culture and
help all to strike straight for the goal
dictated by their own natural impulses
whether that be a business or a pro
fession.
THE cLEWs LETTER.
Crops. politics and war are the three
topics discussed by Henry Clews in
his weekly market letters and on each