Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-11


and un-American and unnecessary.
THE common, domestic broom Is an instru.
l. ment for the sweeping together and, with
the help of a dustpan, for the disposal Of
rubbish No housewife however pleased she
may be with a new broom, fances that 1t is
just the thing for smashing pictures, tearing
down draperes, or gouging the eyes out of
the Apollo Bevedere in the front parlor. Not
in the widest flights of her fancy does she
imagine that she will go riding on the broom
over the housetops.
The exclusive reforming broom is horse
of another color. On 1t serious thinkers can
ride to Armageddon and remake the world
The latest is the schoohouse vacuum cleaner,
highly scientific, guaranteed. Il comes under
the patronage of the Rockefeller Foundation
and the inventor is Dr. Abraham FleXner
little resentment has been manifested on ac-
count of the very superiority of the mechan
ism. But with the abundant enthusiasm of
good Americans the Flexner plan has been
hailed as the salvation of the educational
problem.
1t ought to be fairly apparent, after nearly
a century of experiment, that the informing
reason for the American system OF education
is not that it makes scholars, nor proficient
technical experts, nor business men, but
simply good citizens. The public school is
in actual fact the basis of political sys-
tenn because that system presupposes the in
telligence of every citizen. 1t Is also the
fundamental of our social system, because it
offers democratic springboard from which
every man may start to finish his course in
accordance with his abilities and desires.
We pay n heavy price for that equality of
opportunity, for the universal basis of our
existence. 1t is true that boys who will grow
up to deal in bricks are taught great deal
about the beauty of Parian marble. 1t is
true that you can span the Delaware with
a suspension bridge even if you do not know
that Washington ever crossed that stream.
But it is equally true that the man who has
looked a picture of the Parthenon will
build a better house, though it be of brick.
And it is more important that the who
builds the bridge will vote more honestly
and more intelligently If he knows why Wash.
ington once stood, with hope and resolution in
his heart, where his bridge now stands.
The loss of cultural studies, of the habits
and traditions of civilization, would be desc.
lating to American life, but it would not ap.
proxmate the loss to American democracy.
No resourceful person, gifted with a sense
of history, honestly can hope to cling to our
present elementary and secondary systems of
education, in all their details forever No
one questions the value of criticism and the
benefits of change. But it is seriously
question for the American people to deter
mine whether they have not been led astray,
into methods and programs foreign to their
very life. Has not something crept in which
will corrupt the entire spirit of a democratic
country?
Let no man be deceived. If the modern
school is to put its chief emphasis on science;
if actual contacts and practical tests are TO
be the burden of our education, there will
grow up class which will be dis
tinct in its habits of mind, superior in its
ability to think, because ii will cherish and
preserve wf.lt others discard. Behind every
plan for bringing the school into closer con.
tact with life"-by which we mean 'more
immediate relations with commerce and in.
dustry and business"-there turks the danger
of class distinctions. You cannot hold the
boys face to the grindstone of mean fact and
expect the man to walk, head erect, in the
presence of great ideas. You cannot train
a man to be mechanic. giving him no ink.
ling of other things beyond, giving him no
training in the processes of thought. and ex-
pect him to sit in counsel with the mastering
intelligence of men accustomed to the use of
the mind.
1t might be thought that there is a con-
spiracy afoot to separate in the United
States the workers and the masters. If there
is. it is not the fault of our pseudo,aristocrats
1t is the fault of our practical men, who are
so bent on immediate results, on the cash in
hand, that they are. forcing another, and a
superior, education on those who see greater
things-see the future of America as a great
international power, see education as a prepa-
ration not for business, but for life. The old
system Of education gives every citizen at
least chance to join this class of supermen.
The new forbds it. 1t may sound like vague
abstraction, but the situation is the most seri-
Gus problem in the social existence of the
United States.