Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-08-09
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

? THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
A friend of the Tribune and (
friend of the local schools, who is IN
terested in their welfare, requests tn
Tribune to reprint this editorial from
the Minneapolis Journal, in order tina
: the matters set forth may be callet
to the attention of those having to az
with the progress and development
of school work:
There is something wrong with the
American school system. 1t fails
somehow to do the work 1t ought tc
do Every year quarter million
children in American cities quit school
before reaching the eighth grade
There Is deep discomfort among the
pee! 1le over the results OF school train
ing for their children. In Boston TINS
discomfort has burst forth so violently
as to threaten turnover from TOD
to bottom. In other cities there are
questionings and murmurings, while
in still others the awakening has led
to heroic measures OF reform.
What is being done in Minneapolis?
The superintendent of schools has
just made his annual report in which
he recommends that domestic science
be taught in the high school, that the
school for stamnerers be continued,
that the kindergarten work be eX-
tended, that the night schools be en-
larged. Not a word in the whole re-
port about arithmetic and grammar.
Not a word about teaching the child
how to figure and how to talk and
write. A vast deal Of talk about do
mestic science and other frills and
fads, but nothing about the essentials
of common school education, moth
ing about improving the average OF
scholarship, nothing about relieving
the stoppage Of the lower grades by
pupils who lag behind, nothing about
sending our youth into the world or
to institutions of higher learning
equipped with thorough and practical
knowledge of the fundamentals.
The Journal recognizes, as do most
thoughtful Minneapolitans, the high
value of the twenty years work in the
schools of the present superintendent.
He has labored much and wrought
nightly. There must always be
among us a keen sense of gratitude
for what he has done. But the time
has come when the need of differ.
ent and more thorough-going super
vision must be recognized. Condi-
tons have changed with growth. The
need here is for strong executive lead
ership. The school system of this
city is too important, too expensive,
too vital thing to be sacrificed to
personal considerations. The future
welfare of the rising generation is too
involved in the effective
ness of our schools to justify US in
neglecting their thorough reforma-
ton. It is no time to palter with
and sewing, when the three
RS are neglected.
The school board has received spe' |
cial reports from the highly impor'
tant department of drawing and dab. |
bling, from the vastly essential de.
partment of gymnastic gimcracks, |
from the indispensable department OF
singing songs, and so on. Each is
bulky document in which is pointed |
out the necessity of appropriatlnS |
more money to carry on the work: !
But what light has the board re-
ceived from the grade school teach.
ers, from the devoted women who
are struggling against the food of
fads to give their pupils sound foun-
dation on which to build? What does
the board hear from the principals
Of the schools and the problems with
which they grapple almost unaided?
And what good advice does the super
with his hand on the throt-
tie, give as to the running OF the
school machine?
The schools are always the subject
Of difference of opinion, because there
is natural difference of opinion as
to what a school course should be.
And it is probable that "faddism' has
taken hold more extensively in met
ropolitan schools than in those of the
smaller communities, which stick
closer to the old idea of schooling. !
It is possible there is such thing
as being too conservative in school
matters, just as it is possible to be !
too much addicted to fads. There
ought to be sensible mean between
the two extremes, and it ought not to
be difficult to find it. The main thing |
is to get the right kind of school
management and then to stand 10y
ally behind it. A good deal OF the
evils that grow into school matters
arise from failure of the community
to stand loyalty behind those who are
trying to give us good schools.