The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-07-12

takes up higher education, we do not
reach the conclusion that it would
be either the duty or the privilege OF
the state to engage in industrial
education.
1t should be born in mind in the
first place that the course OF study Is
fixed absolutely by the State Board
of Education, county Boards having
no authority in the matter; and
while we have the greatest respect
for the policy and ordinarily the good
Judgment of the present State
Board, whose presiding officer is our
governor, and whose guiding spirit
is our efficient state superintendent
of instruction, we are notln harmony
with their extension of the course
from nine to ten grades several years
ago, and still less with their present
determination to extend the course
another year. There is not a coun-
ty superintendent on this Board,
hence it is not unnatural that it is
hardly in a position to be in sympa-
thetic touch with county schools.
We submit the following as the
basis on which the state educates
her young:
For the purpose of rearing good
citizens and to arouse the
dormant sensibilities of her youth,
she should use every means to bring
within her schools all children until
at least their primary education Has
been completed. We do not mean by
this that academic and special courses
are not desirable, but she should first
render the greatest good to the
greatest number, and if the infant
mind is sufficiently aroused in early
years, individual ambition and
parental affection will unite to carve
out for the child an opportunity for
higher education. In a parental
government like that of the German
empire, where the state owns the
child from the cradle until he has
spent the early years of his manhood
in her military service, industrial
schools are appropriate and deslra-
BILE; but this idea Of government is
not popular in our land of liberty,
and should be left to private enter
prise rather than state management
by public taxation. This truth ap-
plies with especial force to rural
schools where it is not generally
| practicable to furnish successful
special courses because the pupils de-
string such are too widely scattered
to take advantage of the opportunity
offered.
During recent years, Estate organl-
zation of high school principals has
been formed, which is valuable in
itself and should be encouraged; but
in their ambition to make their in
situations prominent by scholarly
graduates they have been pressing
the course of study upward, and
while entering an occasional student
in the sophomore class at college
they have forgotten the vast num-
Der needing their thoughtful care and
supervision in the primary depart
ments of their schools. For instance,
at Havre de Grace High school
during the past year there were nine
graduates, while there were three
hundred and sixty-three pupils in the
first, second and third grades; who
pretends to say that the best energy
of the principal of such a school
should not be given to supervising
those hundreds Of weaklings, rather
than to the sturdy students already
quite we'll equipped for the battle OF
life?
When the course of studies was
limited to nine grades a large per
cent of our pupils completed the
course and received their Justly
coveted diplomas, but this number
has been cut down amazingly since
the course has been heightened a
year.
The result of extending the course
still another year will be to further
intensity conditions here outlined
and reduce the number of pupils who
have heretofore found it possible to
complete the course; we believe that
such a result is so unfortunate and
contrary to our plan of education
that we would be pleased to receive
timely communications on the sub
iect, which after being used for the
benefit of our readers, can be trans
mitted to the State Board of Educa-
ton when they finally pass on this
subject at their August meeting.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTING.
We desire at this early moment to
recall our words of commentator in