The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-07-18
AMERICAN SCHOOLS
HAVE WEAK SPOT
Present System Of Education Does
Not Fill the Place II Should
for Children.

CHICAGO, July 1s.- American
schools under the present systems OF
education do not fill the place thew
should in fitting boys and girls for.
manhood and womanhood, according
to Professor w. d. McClintock, of the
University Of Chicago. Prof. Mac
Clintock has long advocated radical
reforms in American schools which he
believes will tend to make the young
graduates fitted to take up their
duties as citizens. Today he gave to-
the United Press his ideas as to the
changes needed.
[By Prof. w. d. MacClintock. written
for the United Press
The test of our school system IS
whether it prepares our young people
to take vital places in a real. social
world--a world of all the people. a
world of real, not accidental needs
and service. In many ways our.
schools are still unsocial. They do
not give the young people what Is
needed to make them self-supporting
when they leave and go out into the
world. They do not give them the
things which society is glad to pay
them for
In many ways our women are the
more "unsociaI" of the two sexes. and
our schools for girls, of course with
some exceptions, especially fail to
train young women to be helpful
members of society, and the word
society Is not used in the narrow. lin,
lifted sense. Girls are trained in cul.
tivated, but .'unsociar' seclusion They
are taught to be members Of false
society" on money they do not earn
and do not know how it is earned. on
a scale which the world really cannot
afford, and with a social exclusive.
ness and snobbery which isolates
them from the vast majority of man.
| kind.
! In order to be genuinely social the
individual must begin to make re-
turn to society for what he or she
! has so long been receiving. And this
return must be In some vital kind Of
service which society needs.
For matter of twenty years on
the average young people of today
are receivers" only; they have taken
food, clothing, shelter. the experience
OF others, leisure and play But while
they have been receiving all this
gratis few of them have had 1t made
plain to them that they were like
building in the course of construction
which. when completed at the end OF
twenty years, must be put to good
use They can become social only by
enthusiastically giving, back to society
for the rest Of their lives something
worth while And this law of return
NAV be stated not as duty. a self.
sacrifice, service. but as a pleasure
of the highest kind and privilege.
OF all things most needed. young PEG.
pie need to be taught that no one
ever gets something for nothing. The
something received, must be paid for
some time.
Again, we become social by learning
to work, to know and respect labor.
1dleness is the greatest social sin
The individual should be expertly
capable Of clothing. feeding. shelter.
ing and entertaining himself or her.
self, and should receive no certificate
Of graduation, no diploma. until he
can prove the ability to do so.
He must know what his pleasure
and support cost in human labor and
no mature person should be allowed
to think the world owes him a living