The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-03-28
SCHOOL PROBLEMS
OF PRESENT DAY


other day and talked over some aspects
of New York's school problem, says the
New York Evening Post
IT'S a time" said he, when innumer-
able associations and organizations of
one kind and another and the commit
tees thereof are passing more or less
impressive resolutions in regard to equal
pay-for it, or against it, or something
or other about IL. as the case may be.
And the masters and teachers and school
officials are worked up about 1t 10 various
degrees, until we all seem to have for
gotten that the schools were instituted
for something else than to provide a lot
of Us with Jobs. The primary iaea that
the schools were intended to provide chill
dren with education and that everything
else is secondary, seems to have been
lost sight of. When they meet TO dis
cuss the matter. everybody is represented
except the children. The sooner the mat
ter is settled for once and all the better
Sometimes. when I think Of all the
very eloquent things that are continually
being said about the nobility OF toll, the
dignity Of labor, and all that, I wonder
IL some things in our system Of educa-
tion are quite what they should be
wonder II what we call a high idea isn't
sometimes a wrong idea. BY that I
mean that we give a boy the education
Just enough OF ito make him resolve
TO obtain a so-called digniied position
where he won't have TO toll with his
hands So when he leaves school he be-
comes an entry clerk or something Of the
kind, and sticks there at a salary Of s or
so a week until the end Of the chapter
The other boy who didn't go far enough
in school 20 learn not 20 want to get his
hands dirty becomes a mechanic of some
sort. rises in his position. and. in these
days Of opportunity, Is soon drawing
many times the pay of the first boy.
The Case of Mary's beau.
Perhaps the girls encourage that
clean-hand proposition a bit. Not long
ago young woman I know slightly an
nounced that she was going TO be mar
ried. I asked one of her girl friends if
she was going TO marry well.
u should think sor she exclaimed
Why, the man Marys going TO marry
! wears cuffs every day
a little later I found out that this
! Immaculate iance was a porter at SO a
week. But those cuffs had done the
business for him. II he had been a me-
chanic al Sc or S2s a week he would not
have been anywhere in the running. for
then he could not have worn cuffs every
day-at least during working hours.
"One OF the problems Of educators IS to
convince pupils 10 enter the high schools
after graduating from the elementary
schools Do you realize that the per-
+ eentage that ends It's school education
Just where it should properly begin is
Influenced largely by the matter of
clothes? Some pupils are forced to re-
gard going to school as something to be
specially dressed for. 1 used TO meet a
girl on the street near her home bare
footed and in a calico garment. who, in
school, was arrayed like the best Of
them. Our rich and our poor sections
are so i9termixed that II is hard on the
poor boys and girls who viii stay away
as a matter Of pride when their gar
ments become shabby and there is not
the money at home to spare for new
clothing
1T goes along all right in the lower
grades when the boys and girls are sep
Grated, but when it come TO the time
that they meet-just at the sensitive
time Of their lves-that clothing diff
Guilty is one that is hard to surmount
When 7 was a teacher, used 10 do
all could TO discourage that feeling.
| When I saw that a boy was wearing a
particularly large patch. I would some
! times promote him, whether he deserved
/ it or not. so as to give him the encour-
! agement that would keep him In school
/ In that school the boys and girls were
apart until they rose 10 a certain ad-
vanced grade. Then. when they came to-
gether, # was hard on some Of the poor
fellows They had been coming TO school.
1 jumper-clad and unashamed. but now
/ there must be the concession TO feminin-
/ ity. and there would follow a resurrec-
| ton OF strange and wonderful cravats
from the slim family wardrobe and
waistcoats of another time
JImmy's Lost Garments.
/ "One boy did not really belong In my
school, and when he began to give me
some trouble. wrote 10 his mother TO
take him from there and place him in the
/ building where he belonged. She came
! TO me with a tale Of anguish. A burg
| lar. she said. had entered the house some
| time before and had stolen Jimmy's good
/ clothes. He could come to my school IN
! his old ones. but as for going TO that
/ swell school I had said. On. dear no. he
would have to quit school altogether
/ first I don't know whether that was a
compliment 10 my building or not. but at
any date Jimmy stayed
They are talking at Albany about
| having a shorter elementary term by
| year than is now the case. Well. that
will mean a year less school for many.
that's all The boy who will stick it out
to the end in one building ceases to go
| TO school when the time for a change
| comes.
yet the last year Of the elementary
school and the requirements to enter
| high school constitute a great problem.
Some Of the high school people are in
clined to criticise the material we give
them, but we should tell them that It IS
up TO them to develop what Is good in
| that material. I do not believe in hold
ing a pupil back on account Of failure in
one subject. If it is a failure in gram
mar, that does not preclude the success
ful study of Latin or Greek, and after
a perfect grammar scheme is learned.
the English grammar may be more easily
acquired
Too Many barriers.
Arithmetic except of the most ele-
r,,or,tnr.r- sort Is NOT rncnssar-- "a L.