The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1912-11-14
RAEllG
Are Given the American
School System by a
Princeton Professor.

BALTIMORE, Nj. Nov. iS-The
American school system was severe
Is criticized by Prof. Royal Aieeke7.
Of Princeton University. in an ad-
dress before the Congress OF the
Prison Association here. prof.
Mceker's subject was The Connec-
ton OF our School System and Our
Prison system" He tried to show
how the population Of the prisons
could be reduced BY reforms that
began IN the schools.
While he acknowledged that our
schools pay. ne declared that they
should pay better. But he said.
u, think il probable that We could
set an the sood results achieved by
our schools for less than one-half
what We now pay.
Il think" continued Professor
Meeker, the supposed influence OF
our schools upon our morals is
greatly misunderstood and some,
what exaggerated. Ignorance is
commonly used syuonymously with
immortality. vice and crime. Some
os the eighteenth century writer's
thought that man could be redeemed
from Sin and crime b. the A. b.
c's and the multiplication table. We
now recognize that mere information
his little 10 do with right conduct.
Those familiar facts or our child
hood. The bug is in the rug. and
Seven times nine is fif,y-thrce or
sixty seven. whatever it may be. do
not incitc to deeds OF high moral
emprise. i doubt the efficacy OF
those excessively moral yarns con-
tanned in the school readers about
George Washington and the cherry
tree. and the bad little boy who stole
apples from the old apple woman
and years afterward died a miser- !
able death in the workhouse as a re
sul;. II may be that the ability to
read does make some more virtuous. !
am sure it makes some more frlv-
olous. more worthless, more wicked
BY enabling them to feed upon
trashy reading matter. Neverthe-
less. our schools do promote moral
ity much more than immortality.
THE greatest value OF the publicI
school consists in its democratizins
influence. They give US a common
medium or intellectual exchange
the English language. Without !
common spoken and written lam
guagc. union and democracy would
be impossible. OF course. We are less
savage. more sympathetic. more
truthful. more honest, because We
have common literature, COM
mon morality. common laws. Some
OF the democratiizing effects or our
schools are, however, clearly in
furious. Communal whooping-l
cough, measles. chicken-pox, diph-
iberia and the like; democratic "
ing, profanity, obscenity and other
immortality are undesirable by-prod-
ucts OF Wholesale democratic educa-
ton in the public schools. 1t viii
probably be impossible TO eradicate
these evil influences without eradi-l
eating the public SCHOOLS. II We had
no schools, plainly the schools could
not be blamed for these evils. 1t IS
often charged that the public schools
spread contagious diseases and i'm
morality. Would these evils cease III
tho public schools were abolished?
Certainly not, They would De dis
seminated from other centers. The
schools did not invent immortality
ana personal uucleanness. They,
found these evils existing within the
community. The worst that can be
said Of the schools IS that they have
been unable 10 eradicate these evils.
Who can doubt that our schools have
lessened them? We ought 10 be
careful in criticizins our school sys-
ten to make it clear that We arsl
comparing our present system with
an ideal or approximately ideal sys-
ten. we do not compare It with
no system at all. When say that
our school system is inefficient, I'M
econamical and rotten. I do not
mean that It is absolutely bad. !
mean it IS. compared with system
which could he maintained for the
same expense. relatively inefficient.
relatively rotten"