Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1910-06-25
PRACTICAL EDUCATION.


First of Q Series Of Articles IN the Cam.
paign for the Improvement OF Our
Public Schools.
We areall friends of the public schools
No tax 10 paid less grudgingly than the
school tax. No one will deny the vast
importance of the work which has been
done by the schools as a fundamental
cause for the marvellous progress of our
people.
Yet the schools have acknowledged
short comings. They do not seem to
meet the needs of the mass of the chill
dren and the mass of the children, there
fore, drop out before completing more
than half their course. Scarcely five
per cent survive until graduation sea.
son.
Students of the question tell Us that
our curriculum Is at fault. Purely aca-
demic subjects and book study lead to
the learned professions, and not all chill
dren, have the aptitude nor the desire
for professional careers.
But this kind of an education is the
most easily furnished. II requires but
a school room, teacher and some books.
The procedure thus far has been to give
every child as much of this kind of edu-
cation as it will take. When it would
not or could not take more it was al
lowed to drop out of school, and no 9TH
er kind Of training was offered.
OF late years the rights of the many
to the kind of education they need, have
begun to be considered OF as much or
more importance than the rights of the
few. This means broader curriculum.
1t means better equipment. 1t means
training in doing things; for the major
ity of the people are and always will
be, workers, manual workers. 1t means
manual training, cooking, sewing and
agriculture, as we'll as algebra, Latin and
history.
Will this pay? Secretary Wilson has
estimated that the increased returns
from the farm lands and from live stock,
in the state of Iowa, due to the instruc-
tion given at the State College at Ames
and at farmers institutes, in the sub
jects of seed selection, soil treatment
and live stock breeding, have already
paid a = rdred times the cost of the
Agricultural College to the people of
Iowa.
II, through an agricultural high school
or we'll equipped agricultural depart
ment in an existing high school in every
agricultural county of the state, the far
mer boy could learn to use the known
facts which science has to offer, the re-
turns from the farms in South Dakota
would be doubled in less than ten years.
In the same way, through a develop
ment of the manual training idea, the
efficiency of skilled workers in all lines
of the industrial world would he vastly
increased. Girls who were properly
taught sewing and cooking would not
only be better workers, but better home
keepers. Aud if to this were added
courses in household sanitation, decor
alton and economics, there would come
an uplift in the home in increased health
and happiness far out weighing the cost
of maintenance.
All this would not mean the neglect
of the time tried academic subjects
The decoration of "Auld John Knox
that "ilka scholar adds to the riches of
the commonwealth" is as true today as
when it was uttered. In our belief, it
is the first duty of the state to make pos
sible the development Of the scholar, to
furnish the thinkers, and to fill the
learned professions. But the schools
have too long been shaped singly to
this aim, and the time has arrived
when brains which are to direct the do
ing OF things, the every day work of the
world, should be trained, and be fur.
nished with the knowledge which will
make that work most fruitful. In this
way, may the schools meet the needs OF
the great majority instead Of the few.
And it Is in this way that education may
be made more practical, for in greater
efficiency lies the way to an understand.
ing and appreciation of the highest cul-
ture, and in the highest thought worke d
out into actual achievement, lies the
hope Of permanent prosperity and the
realization Of our ultimate destiny.
All this means better school buildings
and more extensive equipment; il
means thorough reorganization of our
schools, and more expert teachers, with
consequent better salaries; it means
the spending seemingly, of very much
larger sums of money for the work oil
education.
And how is this money to be provid-
ed? 1t is possible that an enlightened
public will consent to spend more mon.
sy for education than it does for the ma
tional defense or for reformatories, pen.
al institutions, and the judicial system
1t is possible that they may be led tc
freely vote larger tax as a matter o.
business investment, counting upon in.
creased returns. But this method ha.
an element of doubt, would probably re-
quire much time, and is not at all GER
tain of results.
Larger expenditures would better con
ditions, but would not permanently i'm
prove them, for there are weaknesses ir
our school system itself, which must b.
removed before the desired results car
be obtained. These weaknesses lie il