The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-08-21
PUBLIC AND PAR0CHIAL
SCHOOLS C0NTRlsTED


THE STANDING OF CATHOLIC
SCHOOLS NOT INFERIOR TO
THAT or THE STATE SCHOOLS.
Those who for one reason or the
other disapprove of parochial schools,
says the Pittsburgh Observer, are
fond of alleging that they are not
equal-so far as the education they
afford-of the public schools, and
there are even some Catholics foolish
enough to endorse that statement,
though their endorsement is usually a
cloak to. cover and a reason to excuse
their own dereliction in doing their
duty about sending their own chill
dren to Catholic schools.
It would not be surprising If State
supported schools were better than
those kept up by minority of the
people, and a minority that, as a rule,
| is not Wealthy-but, as a matter of
fact, results, which, after all, are the
gauge by which alone an honest opin-
ion can be reached, show just the
contrary
In Brooklyn there was a great
spelling bee,'' in which the children
from all the schools in the city were
invited to participate, and the contest
ants reached into the hundreds. The
pupils of one Of Che Catholic parochial
schools carried off the first prize, the
second was won by one of the public
school pupils, but the third, fourth
and fifth prizes all went to the Cath
Ollie children. The result naturally at.
tracted much attention and Mr.. Fried
man, president of B. Altman & Co.,
made a speech calling attention to the
ineficiency of the public school pu
pills. Later he supplemented his re
marks by an interview in the New
York Times, in the course of which
he said:
'The public schools of New York
City are producing in large number
boys and girls holding grammar
school certificates who cannot write
legibly, cannot spell simple words
cannot add, subtract, multiply OF
divide accurately, cannot handle the
simplest fractions correctly, cannot
locate cities and States, cannot talk
or write dramatically. Many OF
these young people are entering the
great business houses of the city and
are either failing completely, so that
they have to be discharged, or are
unable to- win the positions which
should logically be theirs, because the
public schools have not given them
the necessary ground in fundamen
tails; or are only able to attain such
positions after learning what the
schools omitted to teach them"
Mr.. Friedman went on to say that
he had observed some $4,000 to 20,
900 boys and girls who have applied
to his firm for work during the last
thirty-f1ve years, and yet, he says, he
finds it difficult to secure. the helI
he needs from among that vast army
i of applicants because they are igno
rant of the ordinary details of an edu
cation. y .g .s...f4..r..8 tl..E 5,sa
| Himself product of the public
schools, and warmly endorsing them
he says the trouble is the number OF
side studies that they have. The edu
cation given covers such vast mum
Der of subjects that the child learns
nothing thoroughly, and he goes or
to say that the letters received asking
for positions are badly spelled, I'm
grammatical and deficient in every
way Fractions, he declares, are g
dark mystery to many of the appli
cants, and such problem as GLOW
much will fourteen and three-quar
tiers yards of ribbon cost at Is cents
yard?" are unsolvable to them.
| Catholic schools are often criticised
just because they lack all those fad
studies which Mr.. Friedman finds sc
wasteful and useless, and injurious tC
the children who are forced to study
them. Of course, another great objec
ton to Catholic schools on the part
of their critics is that they spend toe
much time in prayer. AS a matter OF
fact, they do not spend nearly as
much time in prayer as the other
/ schools spend m many useless STUDIES
and the actual number of hours in a
year devoted to class work is larger
in the Catholic than the public
schools Incidentally it may be sug
gested that it would be difficult to
find a person who made failure oil
life, humanity speaking, because he
prayed too much.
We have called attention to these
facts and criticisms because, as we
remarked at the beginning of this ar
ticle, Catholic schools are so often
attacked by the ignorant or preju
diced for their poor educational facil
tiles, whereas, as a matter of fact
they are very well able to hold their
own with their rivals.