The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-04-24
POPULAR EDUCA-
TON


One of the problems in American
public school education is not only
that each child in the nation shall
have an opportunity to acquire an
education but that he shall have ar
opportunity to have more of an ed
ucation than the average majority
the children are now getting. 1t has
been shown by carefully compiled
statistics that by far the greater num-
Der of the children in the public
schools of the United States stop at
tending the public schools by the end
of the sixth grade.
This is an alarming condition and
how to meet the situation is one Of
the twentieth century promlems in
public school education. Several Of
the states of the Union have begun
TO lesisate in this direction and one
of the most recent examples is that
of Ohio where the continuation
school, which was created by law
recently went into effect This law
provided that every girl between the
ages of IA and is who has not COM
pleted the eighth grade must spend
mot more than eight hours or less
than four hours a week" at some con-
tinuation school at times most con-
venient for the employers and the en-
ployes.
1t is mandatory on employers to
see that the act is enforced The
curriculum in these continuation
schools is Of extremely wide range
being designed so as to include in
struction in the many pursuits in
which the girls are employed regu-
larry and to give such instructions as
can be put into immediate practice
But just why the Ohio system was
not made to include boys is hard
to determine, and certainly the de-
mand for such an extension is one
of the crying demands of the age. A
recent comment upon the results of
the American school system is that
the demands on the citizenship of
this country cannot be met by the
requirements of sixth grade educa-
ton. 1t is true. of course, that the
school of experience adds materially
to what is lacking in the common
school education but this process is
slow and tedious and should be sup
plemented by something in the line
9f compulsory continuation" school
work
SSrmany meets this problem by
holding the child in the schools till
the eighth grade work has been
completed and finds that this one
regulation helps materially to solve
th5 problem as it gives impulse both
to the parents and to the children to
complete that work in the regulation
time rather than to lose a year if
the child is compelled by the exc
gencies of the occasion to go out and
become a wage Garner at the end of
the grammar school
As result of this process and reg
ulation the average German is a bet
ter educated man than the average
American Another thing is true, by
a system of continuation" schools
which are not compulsory but which
are designed merely to afford more
opportunity for extending the edu-
cation of the people along industrial
and specific lines, the Germans have
more citizens extending their edu-
cation into mature life than has the
United states or any other of the ma
lions.
The United States is lacking both
In incentive and opportunity in OK
tending its system of education for
that class of children and young men
stances to quit the public schools yet
who might be induced to extend
their education if opportunity offered
or incentive We're furnished. The
correspondence school and university
extension work is being projected
along these lines but there is no ma
tional movement and the masses are
not being reached and Influenced as
they should be