Newark post., 1912-09-11


every parent should read, mind in the
Making: Mass education, on a univer-
sal plan, creates democracy, but it is
democracy of stupidity.
"ln other words, the public-school
system attempts the impossible feat of
making one course for all children, abb
solutely irrespective of physical strength,
mentality, inheritance, home environment
or whether the children are to become
lawyers or blacksmiths, artists or car con
ductors.
The second count in the Indictment,
directed against the imPracticabiiity Of
present Educational methods, is supported
by the statement that while 80 the studies
and the whole system of the elementary
public schools are keyed absolutely and
conducted solely for one aim-to fit the
pupil for graduation to the High
School,, only seven out of every hundred
pupils ever reach the High School at ALL
The argument runs in this connection:
Here is an entire system Of educa
iion for the first eight years of child IS
life keyed to one sole and single point:
for entrance to the High School.
'Now how many pupils from the ele
mentary schools enter the High Schools,
you ask! Here you have hit on the joker
in the whole situation: just seven out of
every one hundred pupils from the ele-
mentary schools ever enter the High
School.
90 But what in the world becomes Of
the other ninety-threc!' you ask in
surprise.
''They just drop out: a large number
of parents cannot afford to keep their
boys and girls in school beyond the ele
mentary school, and they send them to
work; other children beg not to be sent
to school any more, and they go to work
from choice; others, either parents or
children, get disgusted and decide that
an education is not what it is cracked
up to be and so on. Whatever the rea-
son the startling fact remains that only
seven out of every one hundred children
enter the High School,
And the percentage of High School
pupils who reach college is even smaller
Gradually the boys and girls who
went from the elementary school to the
High School, and from the High School
to the college, became fewer and fewer
in number. In the last ten years, for
the number has dwindled from
fourteen in every one hundred to five in
every one hundred children who leave
High School for college The private
schools, where parents pay, not the public
schools, are now preparing our boys and
girls for college. Yet the fact remains
that in spite of this dwindling number of
public-school pupils, until it has reached
the merest bagatele hardly worth men
tioning, the old idea on which the public.
school system was started--of preparing
the boy or girl for colleges still in
vogue. In other words, the public school
course of study is still planned as if
every pupil in it is going to college.
whereas only five pupils, now, in every
one hundred actually go from the public
school to the college. Do you see!''
Out of this startling revelation of the
waning attendance at High School and
college comes the writer's third assump-
ton that the results Of publc-school
teaching are Ineffective. We have held,
she affirms, to outgrow ideals, and have
done nothing to meet the requirements
of the ninety-fve pupils in every hundred
who do not go to college.
That is the failure of the public
school; it has not changed with the
times; it has stuck absolutely close TO
the old classical idea which no longer
holds good.
The best proof of this statement is
IN the attempts made here and there in
the schools to introduce manual training
for boys and domestic science for girls.
But these attempts are scattered; they
are not sufficiently general to make an
impression. Yet wherever these courses
have been introduced hundreds Of pupils
hav tiocked to them and in every case
these misunderstanding and domestic.
science courses have been overcrowded.
But these courses are again being graft
ed on; they do not form, as they should,
the basis on which the whole idea of
public educaton-which is now not to
fit boys and girls for colleges but for
practical life in the world-should rest
They are made branch of the educa.
tional tree, whereas they should be made
the trunk. This practical idea of a prac-
tical fitting of our boys and girls for a
practical life should penetrate the whole
system from top to bottom. Even where
it is being introduced it must not be
overlooked that it is principally i'm the
uh S.h I