The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-13
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE ALL
RIGHT.
A Good Word for the Teachers.

n nlugBy uay at st. Paul. The Ma
tional Education Association Is I'm ses-
sion; a dull and lfeless session, feeling
the weather. dynamic personality
takes the floor, and mparts a sudden
impulse to static attentions. It is n
public school superintendent from the
far West. He has bursting bosom,
and relieves 1t OF dangerous pressure:
the critic gas too expansive for the
safety OF single cranial container is,
diffused through the cubic content Of a
large hall, no moro than "A healthy
stimulant. BY the time It's ultimate
wave reaches the outskirts of the audi
ent throng II Identifies as No, that
harmless but prankily effective atmos-
phere termed in the vulgate laughing
gas. The ultra occidental superintendent
meant to be awful. and was awfully
foolish.
Our public schools" he said or so
the reporter got II, "aro Mandy pamby
places to which we go because It IL the
custom, and some of us become good
citizens In spite of them" \ cynic
blast; lacking specification, a waste of
wind. But IN the empty spaces, peda-
gogic heads that gave the doctor OF
their own science something super
flcially resembling demonstration OF
correctness in his arraignment of
teachers. the wind raised hollow echoes
Of applause
The schools are all wrong, said the
heated advocatus dabof because they
try TO elevate pupils above the common
herd. But II they did that the common
nerd would be all elevated" because
IL is precisely the common herd that
tne pubic school system works upon
The teachers greatest practical diff
Guilty springs from the necessity OF
handling material Of different qualities
In crude bulk. the physical impossibility
OF individual instruction. And the
school systems Of to-day, with subdi-
vision of grades, are doing wonders by
way OF obviating the difficulties of only
dozen or fewer years ago. Without
impeding the progress Of tho mass,
there are now greater facilities than
ever for thc advancement Of the excep-
tionally bright pupil and the slower
progress Of the slower mind. A real
triumph has been scored In respect of
replacing old rigidity with cminently
desirable elasticity.
Things viii bc better, the Western
superintendent says again, when the
teaching force is allowed to make its
own judgments" But after an interval
he says: Most If our teachers are
selfish cyclists would-bc scholars. afraid
Of new methods that might show the
/ teachers ignorance" Not one public
school teas0er in n hundred makes any
pretence 70 scholarship. They have
| learned a trade or profession. as YOU
choose TO call It, and there is no trade
or profession with higher fidelity to its
. gta I'D I..It
are tho human element OF healthy
variety. And the teachers arc not and
cannot be the originBtors II school
system policy. II the actual originators
are to blame for deficiencies the
schoolman from the coast should score
his fellow superintendents. Hut they
are graduates from the teachers desk
God bless the girl who refuses to
study algebra, "A study that has caused
many girls - lose their souls" Lcav-
Ing out the soul problem, not com
monty viewed in algohraic terms. what
of tho doctors supplementary longing
for education in dressrpaking? Against
heavy odds the school systems have pre-
vailed, and what were once called
'fads and fancics" are now an estab-
lished and universally accepted part of
the common school curriculum There
Is quiet but not unntclligent minor
ity OF those who question tho propricty
of state patornalism in education, but,
ganting the rghtncss II the present
system, even the sceptic must admit
that the public schools of the United
States are to-day doing such a work in
tho preparation Of the young for life
and citizenship as never was done in
the world before.
The critic is cryptic when he COM
lains of certain powerful interests that
are blocking all forms of educational
progress" Is it the mystery of hys-
terra? This educator is not widely
known. at least here in the East Those
who never heard Of him before can be
happy II they never hear Of him again.
Viewed without bias, his remarks seem
utterly misguided. But because of the
prominence conferred by the setting In
So august an assemblage, because they
are circulating in the newspapers and
will be carried back home by those who
heard them, II is worth while TO say. for
the benefit of discouraged teachers and
possibly disquietod parents. that. for al
it's human faults Of administration, the
public school system throughout this
broad land to-day Is we'll planned. well
operated and characterized by unior
Of book education and practical prepare
ton that will not for a longer time than
the doctor or the teachers or present
pupils or their great gra ndchildren will
live to see the end OF close its hold or
our civilization and continue to exist
only as a decaying institution"
Work" may he variously measured In
units Of energy expended" or results
achieved This sensational outburs'
fits one of these mcnsuratlons, not the
other 1t was evidently most cnor-
getic deliverancc
Present Day Orntory.