Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1910-09-29
BAD PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Eminent Foreigners Condemn
Them-They Suppress In
diyiduaIity And Breed
VICE AND SOCIALISM
They StifIe The Warnings OF Great Men
Hearst Papers Sadly Mixed Regard
ing Them...AbOition The Word
Communicated J

Communicated.
To the Editor 1t will be remem-
bered that when | was killing the
compulsory education bill before the
last Maryland Legislature, l stated
that leading scholars and thinkers of
all countries were coming to the con-
clusion that popular education was a
curse rather than a blessing. These
scholars and thinkers have continued
to warn the civilized countries while
educators have continued right along
in demanding fabulous sums for pala-
tial buildings and increase Of their
own salaries. At the same time the
children, as a whole, have continued
to degenerate mentally, physically
and spiritually.
The most prominent city in this
country in the cause Of popular edu-
cation ever has been Boston. To it
our Maryland educators have repeat
edly pointed as an example. But of
late no city in the land has seen the
public school system so rddled as has
that city, and its big dailies have
been compelled to give in their news
columns facts sadly at variance with
4 their editorial utterances. The Her.
aid and the Post are the two last to
give matter exceedingly felicitous to
my anti-public school crusade, which
my Socialist antagonists in Maryland
can digest at their leisure
The other day the famous English
scholar and newspaper man, Lord
/ Northcliife, arrived in New York on
his way TO his states in Newfound-
land. No sooner had he touched the
land than Edward Marshall, a repre-
sentative of the Boston Herald, inter-
viewed him at length, t1e whole of
which interview hung on the public
schools. He said we are 100, 000,-
600 white Chinese" as a result of
our education, which destroys our in
digdualty, and he said we even made
the immigrant like unto ourselves.
Our men who do possess originality
and individuality, he said, were chips
of the block of the past.
One of Lord Northcliffe's para
graphs reads: The curse of your
country is its public school system.
1t grinds them out like sausage" "
After he said this Mr. Marshal OBJ
served ''As an American l had
thought our public schools were the
mainstay of our nation Lord North
clilTe came over to this country few
years ago for the especial purpose OF
investigating our schools. The edu-
Gators were delighted with the oppor-
tunity. The way they took him around
and pumped into him all their sup
posed perfections made me laugh at
the time.
Lord Northcliffe returned TO England
and gave out his report which was
anything but on a line with the
damaging paragraph from him above
given. l resolved to lay before him
some facts. and this l did in a
bundle Of my most ultra circulars
and newspaper articles. Perhaps
they worked the change in him. as
they once did on Mayor George B.
McClelland, of New York He was
set to address the educators at their
annual national gathering in praise
of the public school. He gave it
about the best drubbing it had ever
received. The educators were thun-
der struck. The fact is he read and
digested what | sent him. Lord
| Northcliffe has evidently done the
same. The educators are just
now not running after him at all. On
the very same day that the Boston
| Herald laid Lord Northciffe before
its $4,000 subscribers, the Boston
Post laid before its 240, 900 subscrib
ers something equally good from
foreign source. 1t was put under the
heading Urges More Freedom and
! Less Schooling for Girls" 1t was
dispatch from Munich. and the speaker
was Prof. Max Won Groeber, who has
lust gotten into book form his lecture
on Education of Girls. His main
idea is that girls should be brought
up with the same freedom as ami
mails. l am doing this with my own
girls with much satisfactory results
thanks to the absence of compulsory
education in all of Maryland.
IF this was done, the Professor
says, their character and heart and
their practical sense would receive ALI
the education they can stand, and the
girls would turn out good mothers and
housewives. | commend this to
Cardinal Gibbons and all others who
are bewailing the divorces and sepa-
rations of the day. The Professor con-
cluded: 4 don't believe that mil
lions of women are hungering for sci
ence and the arts. Limit their edu-
cation and they will be happy" This
is so, judging from the number Of
suicides that are occurring among the
educated class of young women COM
mon observation also confirm it.
With the opening of the fall term
the Hearst papers got off their usual
number of immense editorials in
praise of the public schools, but be-
fore the first month is past the same
papers see one of their leading wri-
tiers expatiaing on the vices of pub
lie school children. This writer is
Rev. DR.. Charles II. Parkhurst, SO
East 35th street, New York CITY.
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