Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1916-03-16
KNOCKING" THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Elsewhere in today edition is printed an article from the pen
schools of the state, together with editorial comments thereon by the
Aberdeen News.
Professor Miles, having had experience in public school work
and also having served as instructor in a college, Is IN position to
that eE Nne~ q 5pgS ofs t6e public "l Ic'. school system T"ns should % 81 aEI not T be induced dmh ID
in, nor, in fact, the knocking, of any feature of public or private
work, we also agree with the Aberdeen News in its conclusion that,
in some respects, our public school system is inefficient.
Honest, earnest criticism, however, is not necessarily knock,
it's army. Even the suggestion that the nations fighting men We're
rot trained and equipped as they should be was treason, in the opin-
upon the French in 1870 Frances magnificent" army crumbled
Ii was not prepared. Il was not efficient 1t was founded largely
dearly for it. "' '"S' law N"N 400 'V' '' - '
The United States of America has a public school system which
is the pride of It's people and the envy of the enlightened world. But
the fac. that no other country has a system of free education that
that it is without its faults.
The criticism passed upon it by the Aberdeen News is well found
cd, The graduates of our public schools, even our high schools, as a
rale, are not proficient in English. They arc not proficient in spell
Ing. They are not proficient with regard to punctuation.
These matters n subject to some latitude, we admit, some
learned man, for instance, putting a comma where another would
wonla nse the small letter. These are details concerning which there
may be room for variation, But it is regrettable that the average
his own in either business or letters with the ladwho has received his
education in the school of experience.
True, in the long run, perhaps, the school room training has
wrought more than appears on the surface 1t has taught, within
tent, the power OF concentration; it has fitted the pupil to progress
more rapidly in the school of experience than otherwise would have
And still, the school room has failed, in a measure, to accom-
p permitting Hna' our ' ssisse a' 70 d asfa@p nhst ve = sh al t spehG and how he s we
shall teach the ninety odd out Of each hundred children who never
go beyond the grades IN lei euucal0nal W0fk- VIZ III planning
and striving for the half dozen out of the hundred who manage to
get into the higher grades and the colleges. and we are forcing the
ninety odd to conform, in the matter of education, to the needs of
the few who, for the most part; seek professional careers.
But The Saturday News thinks it has detected evidences of a
decided tendency towards such notifications as will nearly meet the
requirements. The time is not far dstant-not very far-when the
ninety odd will not be compelled to follow along precisely the same
lines in the grades that our colleges have chosen for the few.
The great body of college-bred men enter the professions. There
is always room at the top, but the overwhelming proportion of the
boys and girls of today who will be the men and women of tomorrow
never seek to reach the educational heights. For reasons which need
not BE- dwelt upon here they drop out of the schools before they reach
the freshman stage.
We think that Professor Miles will admit there is such a trend
and that he will concede the need of it. and to this extent he and the
Aberdeen News stand upon equal ground.
Anyway, knocks that are not founded upon a disposition for
mere earping critsicRm but rather upon a sincere desire to improve,
and that result in the end in remedying the things that need rem
edying, are not knocks at all. They are boosts.
The Aberdeen News, as we view ii, is boosting rather than
knocking.