Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-10-29

other states may be likened to the va
riouS railroad lines that have grown
| up in Ii given territory in response to
various local needs and conditions. and
| now await business like consolidation
that they may more efficiently and
| more economically serve the people.
In our school system we have the ele-
mentarv school which is the outgrOwth
of the first free public school, a school
that was designed as the school of
common things; the secondary school
represented by the academy and the
public high school. the former an out
growth Of the college from above to
provide for college preparation, the lat
ter an institution created by the peO>
pie to supply in part the growing de-
mand for higher education, but inf1u-
enced mainly by the same demands for
college preparation. Again we have the
State normal schools created for the
professional training of teachers, but
often miSconceived as only another
sort of secondary school or academy.
Above these are the colleges supported
by private endowment and by public
funds. Each of these classes within
itself presents certain differentiatiOns.
For example: We find the various
kinds of elementary schools as repre-
sented by the different types, the city,
village and country schools.
No one who wishes we'll for our
schools would advocate that this school
system be reduced to one of absolute
uniformity; that the country school,
for example. be made to conform to
the same methods of organization and
management applying to the city
school, or that the academy be shorn
of anv peculiar characteristics which
make it of special service in its own
field There is. however. l believe to
be an urgent need that throughout this
entire system there be such unity of
purpose as shall prevent a confusion of
effort or an unnecessary and expensive
reduplication of work. The elementary
school system. diverse as it's conditions
are. can be and should be set TO the
accomplishment, though by various
methods of the same task. Our secOn-
dairy school system, now recognizing
its allegiance chiefly to the college. will
serve the college better if it can itself
be more closely connected with tho
schools below. While we have come to
think of the elementary and secondary
schools as institutions widely separat
ed in purpose and methods of work the
public which supports both will not
permanently tolerate such a lack of
unity in their efforts. Again the State
normal schools and other higher edu-
cational institutions have peculiar
functions which call for cooperation in
their discharge. Such a work of uni
fication embodying the ideal of a COM
plete school system which shall be q
| unit in it's general purpose but flexible
| in it's methods may well challenge the
| interest and the earnest cooperative
endeavor of all teachers and school Of
fcers of the State.
A More Useful School System.
OF all the larger educational move
| merits of the time probably no other is
destined to have SO far reaching in
! f1uence as that which seeks to intro
duce into our school work a more dis
| tinctly unitarian purpose than has be-
| fore been recognized. The general OBJ
| ject of the introduction of this purpose
has been so much under recent dis
| ctIsslon that it is hardly necessary to
| repeat this here. We are learning.
| however. from the experience Of other
peoples. that it pays in every sense to
train for efficiency in action as we'll as
| for efficiency in thinking and that, l
conceive is the underlying motive of a
right sort of vocational training. We
are recognizing that in the discharge
| of it's duty to itself the state is bound
| to consider as much the man who is to
| work with his hands as it does him
| whose labor is to be of the head; in
deed that is the rightly organized in
dustrial state where there can be no
complete separation of one from the
other and. therefore. that productive
industry is entitled to men trained to
CO. ordinate hand and brain in higher
better and. therefore, more profitable
workmanship.
! 1t is perhaps not easy to say to what
extent this new educational ideal i'm