The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1918-12-12
EDUCATIONAL.
(By J. w. voborll)
PRUSSIANIZlNG AMERICAN
EDUCATION

Volksschule, or school for the com
mon people 1t takes a child eight
years to complete the course of study
in this common school and he usually
begins at the age of six and finishes
at fourteen. To these schools so the
children of day laborers, farmers, and
others on the same low" social plane
in the German caste system. Some
times the children of the higher social
classes attend these schools for the
first three years This is particularly
true in the country and in the smaller
towns The course of study is not es-
sentially different from the course in
the first eight grades Of our city
schools, or in our one-room country
schools, The child who has gone
through the Volksschule is not pre-
pared, and he is not supposed to be
prepared, to so on to any higher
school, because chiefly of the lack OF
foreign languages which the higher
schools in Germany demand for en-
trance. Neither is he prepared for
citizenship if by the term is meant fit
ness to participate in the affairs Of
the government; he is simply fitted to
obey officers and rulers, and to do the
work for which he has been trained.
The higher schools are reserved
for middle classes and more particu-
larly for the higher social classes, "the
future lawyers, doctors, high state Of
iicials, bankers, land proprietors, rail
road directors, university professors,
and army officers"
In Berlin, in the school year 19OS-09
over fourteen thousand boys were
graduated from these Volksschulen
and out of this number only thirty
We're reported as going to some high
er school. This is a little better than
one in live hundred, or one-hfth Of one
per cent. In order to make the con
trast, compare the number OF pupils
graduating from the eighth grade who
so into the high schools of Wisconsin
In some Of our smaller cities ! have
known all of them to 80 to high
school; in most cities the number is
large, the average for the cities of the
state being eighty-liye per cent. In
recent years the tendency in the
United States is strongly in the direc-
ton of giving all our children, coun
try as we'll as city a high school edu-
cation. About forty-hye out OF every
hundred graduates from country
schools so to high school. High school
attendance in this country has in late
years increased at an unprecedented
rate, and is still increasing rapidly
What happens to the children in
Germany,-t ninety per cent who
are children Of the day laborers, in
cluding farmers and others Of like so
cial standing? After they have at
tended the common school they are
sent to part-time continuation
school, if there is one, where they are
taught IL the quickest possible way
the tricks Of some trade or occupation
which they are supposed to follow for
the remainder of their days. Anything
and everything that would be OF inn
mediate practical value to them is
taught Their intelligence is appealed
to only in so far as it may be neces-
sary to make them efficient in the
limited scope Of the work they
are to do They are not Obliged
to follow in the footsteps Of
their fathers, but most OF them do,
and all are expected to work on the
same social plane as the families
from which they spring
The prussian manufacturer accord
ing to some of our men who made
hasty trips to Germany, decided tnat
he did not wish to have school mas
ters managing and directing the af
fairs of the continuation schools The
managing they thought should be
done by the persons who are employ
ing these workers, or who will eme
ploy them. This is to insure their be-
ing trained in the simplest and quick
est way consistent with the desired
results
Dr. Thomas Alexander, who visited
many German schools just before the
war has written d substantial volume
on the Prussian Elementary Schools.
| quote from his preface. This prus-
sian elementary school Is the best in
the world from the point Of view Of
the upper classes, but from the point
Of view Of the lower classes 1t is the
worst system, for ii takes from them
all hopes OF improving their condition
in life The Prussian method Of edu
cation has produced a people that
moves as one may at the command Of
its king"
The children Of the laboring classes,
who constitute about ninety per cent
Of the people in Germany get no high
school education The exceptions, pos
sibly one in five hundred IN the cities.
are 50 rare as to prove the rule.
A reproduction Of this condition Of
things appears to be exactly what a
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