The Columbus journal., 1909-05-12
.PUBLI0 LECTURES I'M SCHOOLS
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

The end of the school year is near,
and throughout the country comes
and review of educational
work and discussions Of the failures
and successes of hundreds Of methods
tried during the past two terms.
National attention is again attracted
to the system>of adult education that
has been 60 successfully conducted in
New York for twenty years, and in .
few other cities for q shorter period.
New York, the one city in the world
where q child is taken through the
kindergarten, elementary school, high
school and college without one cent Of
expense, saw no reason why q person
should be reckoned as having no
further interest in education because
he happened to be grown and was
among the ranks of the wage earners.
Thousands among the 100000 pop
ulation of New York had never COM
pleted courses of study that they would
have liked to complete, and as many
thousand more have little time to read
up on subjects, even if they had some
one to direct such studies.
To these, twenty years ago came the
city board of education; and opening
six school houses during an evening
each week, gave free lectures on "The
Chemistry of What We Eat and
Drink" illuminating Gas, "Ameri-
can Poets" How to Study Science at
Home" constitutional Law" and
'The Human Machine Shop" That
the neighborhood people were hungry
for such instruction and diversion was
proved by an aggregate attendance of
over $4,000. The next year more
centers were opened and the same type
of lectures offered, but these people of
the professional world, Of the shops, Of
the factories, of the trades, wanted
something more on the university ex.
tension line, and, beginning then,
regular courses in the arts, sciences
and literature have been mapped out,
and under competent lecturers have
been followed with gratifying success
In the twenty years the lecture cen
tiers have grown from 6 to 17S; the six
miscellaneous lectures have expanded
into three groups comprising 116
courses of 7O7 subjects, and the atten'
dance of $4,000 has grown to over
!, 100000. The audiences have passed.
with the times from the small upstairs
rooms where unillustrated lectures
were held through successive stages Of
public halls hired for that purpose by
the board to the free halls of the pub.
lie libraries and social organizations
and museums, and school auditoriums
of the most modern kind, all fitted
with platforms, good seats and stereop
ticon outfits to illustrate the talks.
Who 20 to these lectures? Note
some of the letters written the depart.
ment of education in answer to the
question why they came to the lectures
and if they enjoyed them. A very old
man writes: "Dr. Osler's theory don'l
| worry me. 1 work all day at manual
labor, but in the evening l feel like
child attending school with regard t.
attending these grand instructive lee
lures" A, woman writes: my hus
band and I take it turn about staying
with the children so the other car
attend the lectures. 1t is our only
diversion" One writes he attends the
lectures for two reasons, first for pleas
ure and second to listen and learn new
subjects never heard in q school
Another couple reports that they have
attended the lectures for fourteen
years, another sixteen, and lawyer Of
" adds his testimony and tells that he
has attended almost everylecture given
in his neighborhood. A man in the
iron business writes gratefully of the
lectures on metallurgy, another shows
how the centers are now more attrac.
tive to him than the cheap shows, and
scores of other letters show the writers
to be students of some certain branch,
pursuing the lecture course either to
benefit themselves in their careers OF
for the general culture and education
given.
In New York, the great polyglot
city of the world, the educational work
is the prime factor in doing away with
the confusion of tongues and making
of the 100 different nationalities gath.
cred there intelligent and reliable
American citizens. In London the
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