The sun., 1919-08-03

1" study and pracuce nave taken
a prominent place in the
thought of the people and the curric-
ula of the schools. Hygienic theories
have at the hands of European scien-
lists received great attention and de-
velopment, but the practice Of them
has devolved largely upon American
educators and health boards. for rea-
sons which will appear in the sequel.
No country outside Of Germany has
equalled the United States in zeal for
the education OF the multitude. For
merly the State taught nothing: in the
centuries previous to the nineteenth,
after popular education began to re-
ceive some attention, the State taught
the necessities only, religion and mo-
rality and the three Rs. To-day the
State has turned pedagogue, particu
larly in America, and has developed
an educational scheme of tremendous
complexity, high pressure and superla-
tive expense in the solemn effort to
teach every citizen what every citizen
should know. Unhappily, to prevent
healthy criticism of the State system,
it has been so entwined in the public
mind with the virtue of patriotism that
the honest critic of faults and abuses
in a purely human system is declared
kin to traitors. The educational and
political beneficiaries of the system
have craftily encouraged this senu-
ment. Formerly 1t was the press that
served as the palladium of our liber-
to -, fIA cpf.N nl-
house, and millions of people fondly
cherish the notion that training In the
State school is synonymous with patri-
otism, almost the only source Of patri-
otism. How easy to forget that the
founders OF this nation had no such
training! 1t is religion and the moral
ity which springs from it's teachings.
not mere mental training, which nour-
ishes the truest patriotism. The fac
tors which turned the State into a
pedagogue are many. instructive and
necessary to be known by those inter-
ested in the question Of hygiene in the
school.
The rise OF the democracy and It's
needs Is the prime factor. II the peo-'
Die are to rule in fact, as they are sup.
posed to rule in theory, they must
possess trained intelligence. The tg-
norant are sure to be ruled by the
cultured It is quite clear from the
present situation OF democracy all over
The world that the people have long
path to travel before they can be sure
of ruling anything. America is ruled
by the money kings, not by the peo-
pie; the money power has established
itself firmly in the very teeth of the
State school system; the directors pf
the money power are the very children
of the State school. None the less Is
the State school training the citizens
of the future in the ways of intei!i-
renee, and II 1t has given US our
money kings 1t will in due time give
US the king tanners. Democracy made
the State into a pedagogue.
The second factor was. that idea OF
culture which prevailed at the opening
Of the nineteenth century. The French
Revolution had practically abolished
religion in many minds, and certain of
the illuminate assumed that religion
as a social force was entirely played
out. Still ii was felt that some other
force was needed to keep society going.
It was thought by Ralph Waldo Emer-
son, as far as that cloudy philosopher
may be said to have thought at all,
and by the genial educator, Horace
Mann, that culture might take the
place Of religion in shaping the destiny
of the nation. No doubt 1t. was an
Honest thought, but a test Of sixty
years has not demonstrated its eff
cheney. It had one 1amentable effect
upon the State school system. viz. the
abandonment of the sinpiicities and
the adoption Of the complexities. The
time needed for spelling and arlthme-
tic was given to singing and biology,
to drawing and geology. with such
necessary Consequences in our day az
that the colleges VIII mot accept the
graduates of the system because they
cannot spell, sand the critics declare
that the system takes. five; years too
long for what it teaches. and thesex-
perts have butt up host OF prepare
tory schools to make up for It's de!
ficiencles. The theory that culture can
take the plaoe.of religion, that the citi-
zen is entitlef to culture at the ex-
pense of the State, made up the sec-
ond factor.
The third was the desire to form the