The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1918-08-08

Is the system OF education gener-
ally followed in the United States
radically defective? Will 1t have to
undergo revolution in order to enable
the coming generation of Americans
to hold their own in the contest of eff
ficiency for the industrial domination
of the world which is predicted to be-
gin very soon after the conclusion of
the war?
These questions are not asked with
out reason. Not only the American
public school system, but American
institutions of higher learning have
been challenged by no les an author
ity than Doctor Charles w. Eliot,
president emeritus of Harvard Uni
versity, and what Doctor Eliot says
has been considered worthy of re-
printing and circulation os a public
document by p. p. ClaXton, United
States Commissioner of Education In
an address which was part of the
commencement exercises at Reed
College in June, Doctor Eliot dis
cussed Certain Defects in American
Education and the Remedies for
Them" AS Commissioner ClaXton is
circulating copies of this address, I'M
doubtedly it will be the subject Of
discussion in American educational
circles for some time to come.
Standing out prominently in what
amounts to an indictment Of educa-
ton in America, are the assertions
that it is deficient in systematic train
ing of the enses and that its graduates
are without the qualification of ha-
bitual accuracy in observation and in
statement. Under the first head,
Doctor Eliot declares American
schools wanting in exercises that
would train pupils i'll determining
facts and weighing evidence. Worst
of all, he adds, most American schools
have neglected to enlist and cultivate
assiduously the interest of each pupil
in his daily work, in spite of the fact
that no human being, child, adolescent
or adult, can do his best work unless
he is taking an interest in that work,
Hence American schools have, as a
matter of fact, failed to train the great
mass of the children for successful
earning of a livelihood in the Ameri-
can world oftoday, and at the same
time they have failed, for the most
part, to inspire the children with the
tastes, ambitions and aspirations
which would guide them to sensi-
bic and enjoyable use of their leisure"
Where Americans pssess powers of
observation, reasoning and precise
statement, Doctor Eliot asserts, they
will usually find that they owe them
not chiefly to schools, but to parents,
or older friends, or to sports or work
outside of school, perhaps to the bust
nesseso professions in which they
have earned their diving. He says:
Some men whose education ceased
at fourteen acquire through expert
ence in their trade powers of observa-
ton and correct inference which pro-
fessional men whose education was
continued to their twenty-tifth year
never acquire. 1t is the men who
have learned, probably out of school,
to see and hear correctly, and to rea-
son cautiously from facts observed,
that carry on the great industries OF
the country and make possibleg reat
transportation systems and interna-
tlonal commerce.
At the present moment the work
which President Wilson has entrusted
to Charles M. Schwab seems to be
proceeding much more auspiciously
than thatw hich was put into the
hands of Professor Garfield, though
Garfield has had all the advantages
that schools and colleges are supposed
to impart, while Schwabs formal edu-
cation ended when hel eft the village
school and as a boy drove stage
coach over the five miles between
Loretto and Creson, pennsylvania,
there being in his day no anti-child
labor law to prevent American youth
from getting the real education which
is gained in the school ofexperience.
| OF course It would be rash to rest final
judgment on this hap-hazard COMPARE
son. But 1t is safe to recommend
general attention to President Eliot's
/ addraoa