The Boise citizen. (Boise, Idaho) 1906-1910, 1908-12-18
PLEA FOR PRACTICAL SCHOOLS

a IS the matter with the educational system of today?
something serious is the matter That much is certain. The
oohest complaint the farmers before mper
@ upI commission that the schools in the farming dis
rcts do not supply the educational needs of farming commu
my Inc city man. he talks about it, will usually you that
m Guy schools do not supply his needs any better If the farmers
children are being educated cywar one farmer put it the other
Jay the city man children are being educated oiceward the
enver News Even apart from any specific complaint could
tell at the public schools fulfilling their part by the great
NUMBER OF other schools business colleges correspondence
ade schools and the like that sprngng up all around Amer
lea has always been devoted and rightly education We spend
more on schools than other people spend war; could not
put stronger than that But somehow, schools not do
ing e work we have right expect them to do Our teachers
models Of devotion our educational system is too good
model Of machneke organization but somehow don't get the
returns.
The News believes that comparative failure
that schools reared wrong foundation We have
made education thing of books when should be made thing
deeds And have shaped the book training beau
uy distant end which only the smallest fraction of children
reach The public school system of today designed to
feed the universities Ninety per of the school children of
the United States quit school at before they have finished the
eighth grade Less than 10 cent enter the high schools and less
than cent graduate from the high schools What percentage
and graduate universities The News is not at
present informed but it only be small fraction OF the
high school pupils Yet the whole scheme of education
warped fit structure which only complete when capped by
university degree.
No possible devotion part teachers and supplement
the by outside training could keep such scheme OF
education failing the needs of workaday commu
nifty The today starving for good wormen Yet where
normal child learning trade in the public schools? Practl
cay nowhere part per cent who graduate from the
high schools had manual training The children who are de
tecve or with child these terms pretty much
the same ng-ar often put schools where they have the best
and most practical instruction But what of the vast majority OF
our children? of the 80 per cent of normal children who
never get past the eighth grade? They the who must DO
the worlds work the very future What sort OF training
are they getting for their task?
To ask the question it. And to realize the answer
to realize also the imperative need of some reform that VIII put
o educational system practical everyday basis just What
% reform should be The News is not prepared to state But
m do know that education be really successful must be shaped
meet the needs of majority must be devised that the boy
who has TO become winner at IA or 10 years OF age VIII
get something practical than the groundwork 1or
+bo bo car never take And know likewise that this
fewer books and workshops We shall not be satisfied
hest of manual training within the reach OF every gram
mar grade pupil.