The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1912-09-14

well known evils In our school system are TO be
ces Lynch. In the Ladies' Home Journal OF Aui
should Investigate this subject and see II they ca
needs of to-day. This State suffers very greatly
at this moment. antiquated methods and impra
I have been for years teacher in
the public schools, city and country,
from the primary through the grammar
and the high school grades. ! am now
a teacher, and after years of experience
in my own schools and after months of
careful investigation in other schools,
for the purpose of this article, make
this statement carefully and deliberate
ly:
That the American public school sys-
tenn, as at present conducted, is an abb
solute and total failure.
For these reasons:
1t is stupid in method;
1t is impractical in plan;
1t is absolutely ineffective in results.
After eight years training in the ele-
mentary schools the average boy or girl
is fitted for nothing practical.
Now to you, my reader, who have
constantly heard, and perhaps said SO
yourself, that 1.-THE American public
school system is the most magnificent
system of public education in the
world" this statement will prove q
shock. You will probably refuse to
believe it. You will say it is person
al opinion: prejudiced, partial For
years you have been made to believe
that 1.-THE most colossal fact in Ameri-
can life is the American public school. y
Its overawing splendor has forced thou
sands of the unthinking, even to such q
figure as the present President of the
United States, to view the system with
an attitude of reverence and to regard
it almost as Heaven-sent institution.
But not the men and women who KNOW
have said this or thought it.
This is not new statement, nor am
l alone in it. For thirty years the
foremost educators of our land, almost
to man, have recognized and present
ed in speech and by pen the evils Of
our public school system. You haven't
heard them because their voices or pens
have only reached the educators and
teachers. Ex-President Charles w.
Eliot, of Harvard University, has re.
peatedly said that the entire system
sis unintelligent from the primary
school through the college," And ev.
cry educator worthy of the name hal
emphatically indorsed this statement
every progressive superintendent, prin.
cipal and teacher knows it to be true.
Then why has it been allowed to e
on?
Because you, my reader, as mem
Der of the great public, have failed t.
take an interest in the question, ever
where the evils of the system have
reached your ears, and only you car
stop the present idiotic system which
costs over four hundred and three mil
lion dollars year, and is either wrong
ly educating, matchmaking or abso
lutely harming nearly eighteen million
children every year.
This is not an extreme statement
Ask any educator who has common
sense and he will tell you that it is true
But how, you will ask. do you &C
count for the fact that SO many mel
have gone to our public schools and ar,
to-day successful men? Their success
is not due to the public schools. Al
educator of the highest prominence re
Gently said: cit is still possible for
bright child to 60 through the publ
schools, grammar grades included, AM
yet retain his individuality and acquir
an education, but the chances for hi
doing so are fast diminishing. Tn
men and women who attended publ
schools and are to-day successful in tn
world became such successes becaus
either of home training, outside stimu
lus or natural gifts, but not through
what they learned in the public schools
Do you know one salient, incontroverti
BILE -incontrovertible because care
full inquiries have proved it: that tn
public school records conclusively SHOW
that the bright, energetic boy invari
ably leaves school, the first chance b
can get, to make his way in the world
Why? Because he feels, and has sal
that he is wasting time. And he is
Do you know, further, that expert
ence Of educators proves that tn
brightest and most promising children
who are either compelled or induced t