The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1915-05-20
PRACTICAL EDUCATION NEEDED.

The efficiency of the public
schools is so important to the flu
ture citizenship Of the United
States. 50 many people are per-
sonaily Interested in the schools
and the cost to the taxpayers is 80
great. that whenever the schools
are brought into question the pub
lie is aroused and wants to know
the facts.
From time to time reports come
from other States of dissatisfaction
with other methods. New York
City spends this year nearly $40, =
100000 on the public schools. The
New York Sun quotes a prominent
business man of that city who
complains that sit is almost i'm
possible to get competent boys
and girls from the public schools. I"
The average products of the ele-
mentary schools to-day, he con-
tinued, "cannot write legibly,
spell or read correctly or solve
easy problems in arithmetic. A
knowledge of simple fractions is
too fanciful an accomplishment to
contemplate"
New York business men attrib-
these defects to the undertaking
by the schools of too many sub
jects with thorough grounding in
none. The style in the old log
school houses, where the teacher
as rule did not have a very lib
eral education and had to restrict
the curriculum to few subjects
the fashion in these school houses
was to be thorough in what was
taught. When the class in arith-
metic, or geography, or spelling
got through the book, it was turn
ed back and went through it again
and again. But where the laying
Of a foundation of a broad educa-
ton is undertaken in the primary
and grammar schools, and vast
number of subjects are thaught.
there is no time for thoroughness.
Only about 5 or 10 per cent. of
pub!ic school children continue in
school beyond the grammar period.
1t has been suggested that there
should be a different curriculum
for the 80 per cent. who certainly
vii! not continue in the high
schools-that these should be
drilled and perfected in the three
R's.-Baltimore Sun.
The vice of exalting ambition
above the sense of duty is clearly
shown in the above article from
one of the most ably edited news
papers in the United States. The
wise are beginning to ask ques-
tons, some of which strike at the
very foundation Of nearly all our
educational systems, SCATTERING
the ideals Of many spectacular
pedagogues and dogmatists. For
example, there is the query as to
whether the.whole theory of slim
ulating ambition in the breasts of
all pupils is not mistake. The
teacher who mouths the Emerson
ian dictum, "hitch your wagon to
a STAR" is asked if it would not
be better to urge the young to
hitch their wagons to the nearest
mule that offers a way out Of the
mud and along the road. A star
is fine thing for direction, but it
is useless for the detail of decid :
ing which particular path is the
nearest or best to the place Of des-
tination.
Emerson was a poet and there
fore fully justified in creating his
beautiful image, but, as an ideal
for universal education, his star
hi,ching is largely moonshine.
Much the same is true of other
catch phrases, such as ''there is a
marsha's baton in every soldiers
knapsack' and 'every American
boy is possible President of the
United States.'
The soldier in whose knapsack
there is marshal's baton will
bring it out, but only by first at
tending to the business of being a
good soldier. OF necessity, there
are very few such batons-then
why talk of them to those who
must forever carry the knapsack:
There are one hundred millions
Of Americans and only one Pres
ident chosen once in four years
and sometimes holding office fol
eight. Is it not absurd to make
the Presidency the ideal for the
millions who can never attain it.
but who can perform other emf
nently useful work?
1t is not assumed that any very
serious numbers waste their lives
in vain aspirations for the White
House, but the principle is wrong
in that it exalts hopeless ambi.
ton above very practical ane
reliable sense of duty. The vice
of it is seen in parents who wan
to make their children "gentle
mans sons," or, failing that, tt
follow a "genteel" profession If
preference to work for which they
might be better fitted.
The counterpart of this cant il
noted in such expressions as ''the
4 - l,E l.. In y Il .nolE ax.: