The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-17
SCHOOL REFORM.

!
Much of the fault found with the
sentiment which has developed here
for a change in the methods of admin
| istering the school affairs of the city
and of making the school courses
more effective is to the effect that 1t
tends to hold up the Topeka school
system to ridicule as compared with
the school systems in other cities.
This it is argued has tendency to be-
| little the advantages of Topeka as
desirable place for families to make
their homes. 1t has been stated time
/ and time again that the Topeka school
system compares more than favorably
with similar school systems in this
and other sections of the country. And
even the most ardent of those who are
in favor of change in the Topeka
schools are glad to admit that this is
so.
Attention has been called frequent
ly in these columns to the fact that
this movement for a betterment of the
school courses, for the establishment
of courses which will be worth while.
is not local with Topeka. 1t is being
waged throughout the entire country.
Such an influential and thoroughly
substantial publication as The Satur-
day Evening Post has lent its pow
erful aid to the cause by printing in
it's issue of last week an illuminating
article on this very subject by Maude
Radford Warren. 1t is entitled Me-
ieval Methods for Modern Children
and is we'll worthy of the perusal- OF
every person who is interested in de-
veloping the schools to their proper
spheres. 1t shows that the present
methods in vogue in the public schools
are far from being what they should
be in the attainment of desired re-
suits. Among the conclusions of writ
err of this article are the following:
"Our public school system. elabor-
ate as it is. fails to meet the needs of
all the people chiefly because the
standards are academic. 1t meets ex-
cellently the needs Of the Aldens and
the Brewsters Fictitious characters to
represent the aristocratic families
and families OF means who have a
mind to send their children to col
lege); and if no one but the Aldens
and Brewsters went to school, then
the system would be without a flaw.
In that case there would be enough
teachers to make the children perfect
intellectual aristocrats. But for the
majority of the students are needed
Industrial schools, trade schools. such
as those in New York and Milwaukee.
AS it is. in a city of a million inhabi-
tants, we have manual training
schools that will accommodate about
one-half of one per cent of the chill
dren of the community. Moreover, at
that, the industrial training offered is
a little work in wood and iron and
few courses in cooking and sewing.
And these courses, incomplete as they
are, have their usefulness still more
lowered because they are unrelated to
the fundamental work of the schools.
I'VE cannot have education for and
of the people until we have thoroughly
equipped vocational schools which |
will meet the needs of the hordes of
children who don't mean to go to COL |
lege. which will give them precisely |
the training that will set them to their |
trades in life with certain amount of |
experience. Then they may have |
chance to begin at something above |
starvation wages. They will have to |
be taught by experienced teachers |
such as are now to be found only here |
and there in a technical high school |
In vocational school a chiId's intel |
lectual training could go hand in hand |
with his manual practice in his trade; |
he could be taught that trade in its |
broadest relations to other subjects, |
and might come to know not only its |
mechanics, but its poetry. Only when |
such schools are established will |
America succeed in the great demo- |
cratic task she has undertaken of edu- |
eating all the people.
Even if children have the oppor- |
tunity to take either industrial or |
academic training, they need guidance |
in their choice