The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-01-14
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.

There is widespread belief-wheth-
er based on truth or not does not
here call for comment-that the ele-
mentary schools of the country, both
public and private. are not fulfilling
the mission for which they were estab-
lished. 1t is said that they fail to i'm
part to the child a proper training in
the fundamental branches of an ord1-
nary education and they lose no time
on non essentials, on fads and fanc1es;
that they do not prepare a child for
his future career; that they rest upon
theoretical and impractical basis;
that they look to the benefit of the
few who enter high school and ignore
the interests Of the many who do not
go beyond the elementary grades; that
they show results il1-proportioned to
the vast expenditure of time and
money.
Fast upon this severe arraignment,
there follows, as might be expected,
proposals for remedying the radical
defects Some demand a complete re-
organization of the elementary school,
and a curriculum more practical in
character and better suited to present
social, economic, and industrial condi-
u0s
so formed as to bring into the first six
years of school life the most potent
forces of education and would be di-
rected more to the service of the
ninety or ninety-five per cent. of the
children who never enter secondary
school, rather than to the small per-
centage who do. Coincident with
these demands, and as an outcome
of them, is the plea for another class
of schools-the industrial, the trade,
and the vocational school.
Those who are guiding the educa-
tional life of the nation are not in
sensible to the urgent demands for
change in the efficiency and charac-
ter Of the elementary school, and for
the establishment of schools adapted
to the Industrial needs of our vast
population. They recognize, however,
that the solution of the problems Gre
ated by the present educational sys-
tenn is by no means easy.
It may be conceded that dissatisfac.
tion with the work of the schools is
| justified; that a readjustment of the
present course of study is necessary
to put it in accord with the require.
ments of modern life. 1t may also be
/ granted that complete success will nc
more attend simplified and carefully
planned than complex, ill-adapted
course, unless the teachers are trained
in the right methods of impartins
knowledge, and are fitted to form the
moral and intellectual life of the child
for it is the teacher alone who car
give soul and strength to the lifeless
word. How this efficiency is to be
secured to the teacher does not enter
into the scope of this report; my pur
pose is rather to speak briefly for the
agencies which must concur in the
making of the successful teacher.
4 The first agency is the Motherhouse
of the religious teaching community
The Motherhouse bears the heaviest
burden of this highly responsible
work; it must make its members first
religious and then teachers. However
careful a teaching community may be
about the first duty, it cannot sue
ceed without keen sense of its re
sponsibility as to the second; for tt
send insufficiently prepared teachers
into the classroom is to introduce
into the community's organism ele
ments which will gradually destro.
both it's intellectual and religious life
The second formative power in pro
viding welltrained teaching body i
: the local superior of the Parish School
On the local superior depends largel,
the success of the school, the char
D acter of the work done in it, the al
1 titude Of parents towards it, the hal
: monious relations between the paste
. and the teaching corps. The l0ca
: superior should be spiritually minde
D and exact i'm the observance Of he
: rule. The relaxation of the safeguard
: of the religious life brings into DANCE
3 one of the most potent influences /
! the formation of the religious charat