Devils Lake weekly world. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1911-1914, 1911-12-22

at tho st. Paul land show and II Is tie
aim Of the men in charge Of the dis.
plays ut the show to got them into the
hands Of mon who are looking for
new opportunities and new homes.
Grand Forks Times. NJ
o. -------- 5{sf5 "
FREE EDUCATION FOR THE PEO.
Pile.
Tho paramount question is free edu-
cation, while it seems to center around
courses Of study, is, in fact, to make
clcar the purpose and aim of public
schools, those that arc supported by
general taxation. 1t is Of first impor-
lance, then, to decide for whom primar-
lily these schools are furnished, for
what classes Of the people this public
" supported system of education was
and is intended.
Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, head Of the
Chicago schools, made this general
statement:
"We have como to believe that it is
moro important to build the body Of
the youth until it reaches as near per-
foction rs possible than it is to devote
so much time toward development in
mental attachments.
Upon this the New York World
makes the wholly unfair, prejudiced
aud narrow comment. "This is as au-
thoritative and clear m expression as
has yet been given to the prevailing
doctrine that school pupils should be
given physical culture and trade-train-
ing rather than so-callea ook-learn-
ing
"The theory seems to be that if the
public schools develop tho muscles Of
the boys and girls and then teach
them how to cook and sew and sing and
make clay models and run jigsaws,
there will be no real need of reading,
writing and arithmetic. Or, perhaps,
the advocates of the new education as
sumo that all such minor things as men,
tai lessons can be given at home along
with instruction in manners and NOR
als.'
We believe that it will no be ques-
toned that the American system of
free education was and is intended first
of all for the masses, for the children
of those who could not afford private
schools. 1t is for the children of the
ninety of the hundred parents, who
otherwise would have inadequate edu-
cational opportunities or none.
If this is so, then these public schools
should offer such courses of study as
are best fitted to promote the indus
trial and moral welfare of this vast ma
jority of the young; such as will make
them good citizens and insure such cit
izenship by increasing their earning
capacity, giving them an inclination
to labor by aiding to it intelligent ap.
probation and understanding.
One of the essentials of this is phys
ical capacity, possibly it is the first es-
sential, but that this should come at
the sacrifice or in disregard of mental
training Mrs. Flagg did not mean, as
the World we'll knew.
Society sends to the schools many
anaemics, many who are under-nourish-
ed, those afflicted with other physical.
It would be useless to fill the heads Of
these with book lore unless their bodies
were healed. The theory is not at all
that these, as all the rest, twill not
need reading, writing and arithmetic. -
But the theory is coming to be that
these for whom the public schools were
primarily designed and are supported,
the ninety of the hundred, do not need
Latin, higher mathematics or smat-
tering of the sciences and modern Ian
guages.
That they distinctly do not need to
have their inclination turned away
from hand labor, and the land to the
professions; that the potato patch is a
more fitting inspiration than that they
may be statesmen or president, and
that the carpenters bench or the me-
chanics will bring them greater indie
pendence and more of contentment
than the law book. or the surgeon IS kit,
and that the work bench or hoe may be
made to develop mental capacity and
culture equal to that which comes from,
a professional career.
LAKE REGION SPECIAL.