The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-06-30
HAS GROWN DEFORMED
Not Enough Attention Paid to
Industrial DevelOpm mt.
compliments the Free Universe.
ties of the State.


When but one-third of the children
remain to the end of the elementary
course in a country where education is
such universal passion, there is some
thing the matter with the schools
When half of the men who are respon-
slole for the business activities and who
are guiding the political life of the
country tell US that children are not
able to do any definite thing required
IN the worlds real affairs, there is
something the matter with the schools.
When work seeks workers, and young
men and women are Indifferent to 1t
or DO not know how to do it, there is
something the matter with the schools.
lndustrialism is the great basis of a
nations true strength and real culture.
knowing this, we have seen that there
is not sufficient articulation between
the educational and the industrial sys-
TENS OF the country. We have seen the
indefinite expansion of instruction and
the unlimited multiplication of appli-
ances leading to literary, and profess
sional. and managing occupations,
without any real solicitude about the
vital foundations of the nations hap
piness and power. A situation mani
testify unjust to the greater number,
even unjust to those for whom 1t has
done the most, has resulted Notwith-
standing our boosted universally of
educational opportunity, there has
grown up an absurd hiatus in the ed
ucational system, which denies the just
rights of the wage-earning masses and
grievously menaces the Industrial ef-
ficiency and the material prosperity of
the country.
The school system has grown de-
formed land it's one-sided and not broad
enough at the base The trouble is not
that the higher institutions have grown
abnormally. They are doing what col
leges and universities ought to do. They
are not doing what they ought not to
do. Free universities have become the
finest expression of the souls of great
states, and they are beginning to be
the expression of the souls of great
cities, in all parts of the country Nor
is the difficulty in the secondary
schools. although they are affected by
it. The ailment is in the elementary
schools.
Waste in the Elementary Schools.
Our elementary schools train for no
Industrial employments. They lead to
nothing but the secondary school,wh
In turn leads to the college, the uni
versity, and the professional school,
and so very exclusively to professional
occupations. One who goes out of the
school system at the end of the ele-
mentary school is not only unprepar-
ed for any vocation which will be open
to him, but too commonly he is without
that intellectual training which should
incite him to the utmost effort to do
just as well as he can whatever may
open to him. He goes without respect
for the manual industries, where he
might find work If he could do it. He
is without the simple preparation nee
essary to begin work in an office or a
shop.
1t Is time to organize a wholly new
order of schools as part of the public
school system. We may separate it into
two general classes. One class may
train all-round mechanics for work in
factories where workmen act in CO.
operation, where each is part of an
organization, and where much machin-
cry is used; and these may be called
factory schools. The other class may
train mechanics who work independ-
emily. mainly with their own tools, and
without much machinery, and these
may be called trades schools.
We say "a new order of schools be-
cause they ought to be sharply distin-
gushed from any schools that are now
common. They ought to be wholly
apart from the manual training
dividuality and a definite object of
their own. They are not primarily to
quicken mentality nor to develop Gull |
ture; those things will come, far as
is well, in the regular order. The "cul- |
turists" are not to appropriate them. |
electrical engineers; the literary and
technical schools are doing that very |
amply. They are not even to develop |
foremen; they will develop themselves, |
for they will forge ahead of their fell |
lows by reason of their own ability
tain nothing which naturally leads |
away from the shop. They are to train |
to do better work that they |
may earn more bread and butter.
These trade schools cannot displace, |
nor half displace, the common elemen- |
tary school. They will have to follow /
and supplement 1t. The reason is both |
in educational necessity and in the 1
likes and needs of the common people. |
But it is quite possible that the COM |
pulsory attendance age, in cities at /
least. might be so extended as to cover /
the time of these industrial schools.
Easily so if the elementary course can
be shortened or children can be brought |
to the end of 1t earlier than they are.
The law should see that child is eth
er in schoolo at work uD to his seven
tenth or eighteenth year.
the Public School System.
1t is proposed to reduce the compul-
sorry attendance age to seven years in
cities and towns and to take definite |
measure for a far more complete and
4 far more regular attendance; to SIM
plify the courses in the elementary
by ceasing so much dress pa
rade and experimentation and by
much matter that gives
mere information at the cost of power,
and to give them a more efficient and
Industrial trend through the forms of
hand work, such as paper cutting and
moulding In sand and clay,
plain knife and needle work. and the
ike which can be done at the regular
school rooms from the very beginning
IF the primary grades: and to push
children along so that they will at all
times have work which appeals to |
heir years. and will complete the pres
ent work up to the end of the sixth: |
grade earlier than now. If one or two
grades and a year or two of time can