Evening star., 1916-10-01
THE NEWEST PUBLIC
SCHOOL.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. September 90
Every now and then somebody writes a
book on Great Men Who Never Went
to School" There are plenty of such
great ones.
An important subdivision of the fam
lily are the great men who couldn't go
to school, not on account of lack of
means. but because they couldn't get
along with the school system. A VOL
ume even more interesting than any
of the published ones might be written
by some omniscient commentator on
the men who might have been great
II they had been able to go to school.
The chief strength and the chief
weakness of our public schools lie in
the same point-their Standardization.
They are schools for the average child,
finely figured down to meet the needs
of the average child. and that makes
it possible for them to give the average
child the best free education he ever
got in the worlds history
That is their strength. When they
come up against the unusual child they
show their wea akneSs
The unusual child doesn't fit into the
scheme of things. He remains as a
friction point, causing lost energy and
heat on the part of teacher and parent
until he and the system often part COM
pany on terms of hostility
Here in Kansas City they have just
opened new public school that is dedi-
Gated especially to
This School for the cause of the un-
Unusual Pupil pous pousi m6o p0o can't 1T taxes Fs5
along with the ordinary public school
system. 1t doesn't make any difference
If they are young seniuses only
unusually obstreperous. Their trouble
may be anything from budding artistic
temperament to congenital dislike of
authority.
If they fail to fit into the scheme of
things as drawn up for the usual child
they can come to the new Broadway
school. They will get a schooling if it
is humanely possible to give them one,
and probably enjoy the process The
new school is an interesting exhibit.
Miss Henrietta Campbell. moving spirit
IN the new departure and an enthusiast in
the cause, has a long record of service in
the schools OF Kansas City. 1t was large
ly' on the strength of that record that her
ideas were hearkened to and blossomed
forth in concrete form. She is a special
lst on the problem of the unusual child
She is troubled by the boy who leaves
school in the middle of his grammar
course just when he ought to be getting
interested.
She was one of those chiefly instru-
mental in starting the local manual train
ing and trade school, in an attempt to
hold that boy. but the trade school
fiourished SO exceedingly that it wan
dered away from its original purpose
1T has grown into big department of
the public schools now, where the boys
who want to learn trades instead of going
to college build two-story brick houses as
part of their course. and the unusual
child is about where he was before
So Miss Campbell went before the
school board and seeing what she had
done they gave her the new school to
carry out her ideas. In this school an
attempt will be made to hold and educate
the boys who. would otherwise drop out of
public school on what the divorce courts
call grounds of mutual incompatibility
The school is an integral part of the
public school system. No one is COM
PEELED to attend it, if he or his parents
prefer to have him attend the local ward