The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-06-05
Secondary Schools.


leave school it would at hand have
the best possible equipment for life.
This is good theory, but hard to work
out in practice 1t is possible to strike
median between industrializing the
schools on the one hand and serving
only the academic needs of the few
on the other hand. The great obpor-
tunity that now lies before our pub
lie schools is to offer such instruc-
ton as every pupil needs to render
him most efficient as citizen At the
present time, it must be confessed,
the secondary schools are meeting
the needs of the states citizenship on
ly partially. Whether they realize
it or not the secondary schools are
now being tried in the crucible of
public opinion from the standpoint Of
usefulness to the taxpayers. One
can hardly pick up a current maya
zine nowadays without finding a dis
sertation on the schools in their re-
lation to the home or the outside &C
tiyities of life. 1t is only right that
the publicly supported schools should
he organized and conducted in the
interests of the community, and this
means that every pupil is to be edu-
Gated in terms of some subject or
group of subjects by which it may be
trained for the largest measure of
usefulness to itself and the community.
This does not mean the education of
the exceptional pupil for some high
er or professional calling, but rath-
err the education of every pupil so
that he may, if circumstances de-
mand, be prepared for a common cali
ing. There is absolutely no danger
Of educating boys away from work
when all have that training for which
they are fitted Even though every
boy or girl that enters the schools
should receive degree, yet the water
will still be drawn and the wood
will still be hewed. The busy work
aday public needs education of the
right kind and since the individuals
that comprise this class are in the
majority and pay the major portion
of the bills they will have it. The
trouble has been that the system
found in our secondary schools, has
been too far from the ground and too
far from the muscular forces of the
peoples activity. It is interesting in
this connection TO note that the first
subjects that wer etaught in the
schools had to do with the stars and
the vacant space over head. Astrolo-
gers and soothsayers were the edu-
Gated men. Later there were scribes
and priests who learned of the life be-
yOnd and the intangible road to get
there These were the embodiment
of all the philosophers there were,
In the following centuries men want
ed to know what was over the hOTi-
zon. The earth then became round,
revealed it's relationship to the sun
and America was discovered. With
the development of the printing
press, education and it's methods got
down on the ground and among the
PEOPLE, and there may it stay and
manifest a deeper and more pene-
trating influence until all have the
best there is for them We must
now recognize that the road to learn
ing is not a royal one for the few
to travel and have milk and honey at
the other end, but it is a common
state highway that passes through
the best that the state has to offer
and is open to travel by all alike. 1t
has such byways and tributaries as
shall enable those who turn off the
main highway to find in their chosen
vale a competence. Davenport in his
excellent paper on industrial train
ing has summed up the matter thus
The masses of people need more
than the rudiments of education,
They are entitled to have more, and
1t is in the interest of the community
as we'll as the individual that they
should get it. We need better farm.
ers, more highly skilled mechanics
more capable carpenters, more mas
terly masons. We need plumbers
with some conception of sanitation
Cooks with a knowledge OF what
foods are for and how to prepare
them, and cleaners that know what
cleanliness means. We need all these