The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1909-07-16


schools, if one is to believe some of
the speakers at the recent National
Educational Association, are teach.
ing something like two million boys
how to become president instead OF
preparing them for the factory, the
store and the mine, the carpenters
bench and the brick mason's trowel.
The m ost ardent friend of the public
school system of the United States
will not deny that there are many
respects in which the system might
be improved, but the fact remains
that the Improvement is going on
all the time and that in the main,
by a very large majority, the public
school system of this country is
doing magnifcently the great work
for which it has been established,
doing 1t in a manner which has
challenged the admiration OF the
educational world.
In the public schools, perhaps
more :nsistently and more effectively
than anywhere else in this country,
the boys and girls are being taught
the fundamental democracy on
which our institutions are based.
1t is easy to conceive circumstances
where a goal may be held out un
| wisely to those who are running the
common universal race, for in the
nature of things only an infinitesi
NAL fraction of the citizens Of the
republic can ever hope to get within
official sight of the White House.
1t is therefore indulging In forceful
apigram rather than stating facts
with the seriousness which the oc-
casion demands to say that the
public school system of the United
States is teaching boys how to be-
come president. 1t is teaching
them all the fundamentals of the
education which is the keystone in
the arch of environment, opportunity
and personality. 1t IS placing their
feet on the highway, giving each the
same opportunity which the other
enjoys, a fair field and no favor.
1t is instllling into their minds the
very essence of our Institutions
equality of opportunity. The great
evolutionary laws of human nature
and human character, of intellectual
capacity, of political history, of all
the things which mold destinies and
decide races and contests, begins
whsre the public school system
leaves off. 1t is no fault Of the
system if it holds out to every boy
the shining system of the past. In
inculcating the ethics of democracy
and the great lessons of equal op-
portunity plus individual capabillty,
the public school system is dis
charging its full obligation to the
pupil, no matter how high may be
the goal to which it points by way
of incentive or pointing the moral
which adorns the tale of this marvel
Gus Ameriaaa history of ours.
Nothing could be more unfortunate
than the injection of class destihy,
that blighting fatalism of sociology
which the socialists call "class con-
sciousuess," into the public school
system by teaching that no boy may
rise above his so-called "Glass" and
that some are elect and predsstined.
while the vast majority are doomed
10 remain within the prison pen of
class environment. All this Is not
inconsistent with practical equip
ment for specific callings, but the
son of the artizen can be taught no
more vital lesson, along with his
manual t. raining, than that he may
become president of ths United
States, as more than one artisan,
son has become. Our convention
orators are often led away by the
enthusiasm of the rhetorician and
the ardor of the epigram. The
most eminent Of them are examples