The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-07-22
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
the Work of Pubic
Schools by Preparing Students
for All Classes of Labor

Tor All Glasses OF Labor
I'VE have too many people who
think that education would make
them people of leisure; we have pro-
duced too many people who think
that there are only a few select kinds
of work that they ought to do, and
are strongly averse to all kinds of
manual labor. This is a direct pro-
duct and fruit of the aristocratic idea
that we got from England, and all
lowed to grow in and injure our edu-
cational field-like the tares among
the wheat" says Prof. John A. Gala
han, of CRANKY, Mis-, in an address
before a graduating class.
Down through the history of edl.
cation in New England, from the days
of the old preparatory grammar
schools, pupils were invited and coax
ed toward a few choice callings, and
the schools in a large measure fitted
them for these callings. The system
of education encouraged people with
certain ambitions and gave less help
to others. 1t helped those who were
to get a living by their head and gave
less encouragement and sympathy
to those who were to get a living by
their hands, and thus educated the
people away from many kinds of
technical, industrial and agricultural
labor.
$50, therefore, as I have tried to
show in this brief address. we have
had in the growth of our educational
system these two opposing forces or
ideas, ~inharmonious INC conflicting
the Dutch idea of democracy-ever
proclaiming the doctrine of lne equal
ity of all in the schools; the English,
or %aristocratic idea, which regulated
the internal work and kept eve
pointing toward a fashionable and
genteel kind of life as the grand prize
or goal of an educational career. This
aristocratic idea despises democ-
racy and continually urges pupils to
abandon the common ran'-G md seek
a living in what are termed
the higher callings.
"Our school, SO far t ey have
allowed themselves to be Influenced
by this idea, have thrown their in
nuence against democracy, against
all those common vacations and
trades that have always been the
pride and strength of every nation,
and the support of those common peo-
| pie from whose ranks have come the
men of inventive genius who have
made the laws Of nature bend to the
service of man; who have drawn hid
den treasures from the dark caverns
of the earth, who have spread the
! white sails of commerce on the seas,
who have amassed the nations
wealth, have fought her battles and
won her victories.
"Now in a republic where We claim
that all are equal before the law and
entitled to equal benefits from the
law, it would be difficult to show by
any sound process of reasoning why
it is just 10 use the public money to
support an atmosphere where we con-
tinually produce those who are to be-
come doctors, lawyers, preachers or
teachers and show less encourage
ment to those who are to become car
penters, blacksmiths, masons or farm
ers. Why has the government by the
people any right to select any CAL
ings or ways of getting a living and
places its stamp of approval upon
them by supporting courses of study
and an atmosphere that point to-
ward them and away from other vo-
cations. By this narrow and partial
educational course. we have been
creating a caste among the people!
an educational caste it is true, but
what right have we to create a caste
of any kind of educational or social?