The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-12-27
MAYORS GAYNoR's VIEWS.
On Public Schools-Too much Taught
 Too Many Frills.

1 New York, Dec 23-"We are teach ing too much in the public schools tG
 make good citizens, citizens who vii
 think sufficiently to vote and at the
 same time willing to work with their | hands"
 | This is Mayor W. G. Gaynor's criti.
 cfsm of the public school systems
 throughout the. United States and par.
 ticularly of the New York public
 schools.
 Boys are getting too much in theil
 heads to want to work with theii
 know too many other things to want | to do housework."
 | Mayor Gaynor is an advocate ot
 teaching 'readin', riting n 'rithma- tic" in the public schools along with
 a few other essentials and letting lan- guages, for instance, wait for those | who have more time for learning than l those who end their schooling with the grades.
 In giving his opinions of what the ! public schools in this country should | do, Mayor Gaynor said:
 l ''The public school should train our boys and girls to work; work with
 their hands as well as their heads. Schools especially in the larger cities all over this country, are turning out | boys and girls who think they are a little too good to do ordinary work. LAAS l5 udu LOT the country. l We are bringing boys and girls out | of the common schools who, unless
 they can get jobs where they can sit on high stools Or at typewriter,
 won't work. They have been taught | too much and think because they have 1 been educated they should use their 1 heads alone and let others work with | their hands
 This condition is bad for the coun- | try, and I have a notion it is all 1 caused because those in charge of the
 schools are trying to do too much.
 Children in the common schools are taught so much they can learn little ] we'll.
 1 When I was a boy in, the district l school in the country and later in the
 village, observed it was very easy to | discourage pupils by too much work,
 although then we were taught only the | essentials. Now then it seems to me
 too many subjects are taught in
 school and the children become dis gusted because they think they are | overloaded. None can learn all that
 is taught while the great majority
 learn very little.
 | T think the largest percentage of
 merged-they just have their noses | above water, struggling to breathe.
 They have more than they can do.
 We try to teach them too many things
 and the result is they leave the com mon school with a superficial knowl-
 edge of many things and an accurate
 Knowledge of none. This was my own 1 experience in the common schools. l There are a lot of frills and refine
 ments now taught in our schools that 1 ought to be dropped. French and Ger 1 man, for instance, are refinements.
 If there is any one who has ever learn ed French or German fn these schools l even to read and understand it, I wish | they would come into my office and talk with me. Either boy or girl who has accomplished this certainly would | be curiosity.
 ''The teaching of languages does not
 help our children become better citi- | zens. It does not impress on them | the necessity of work And there is
 a shortage of workers all over the | country. Children born here and who
 attend our schools won't work with their hands unless they have to and then they don't like it.
 And II am convinced that a system
 of education that produces such a re-
 suit is a failure and the systems .in our larger cities are very generally producing just that result. We are teaching unnecessary things. Prob ably. this is so because those interest ed in education are jealous in their work, constantly adding to that which they think our children should learn
 It's a hobby. with them; they keer enlarging and enlarging the studies
 for the common schools. For this req son think these engaged in any one line of work should consult with those in other lines to get a. broader view
 of thesr own work before going toe far. Teachers and those in charge | of our schools are apt to get narrow just as those in any other work, un-
 less they are guided somewhat by out l side influences. I don't want to criti- else too much but we should teach our l children with greater care.'