Pueblo chieftain., 1921-12-08
EDUCATION WEEK
, they are the Misses

much depends upon It. For literally
everything depends upon It. The hope
| OF the future is IN it's schools. Con-
slider any of the major problems which
confront the country with care and it
will lead you to the schools.
Take the problem of the national
health. for instance. The draft re-
vealed the fact that about r. third Of
the men of military age in this coun-
try were physically unfit. In many
cases this physical unfitness WAS re-
ported to be due to a lack of knowl-
edge Of the facts of hygiene. In a word
many of these men arc physically i'm
paired for life because they had not
been taught In schoolrooms those facts
about the human body and It's care
wellbelng of every civilized individual.
UNDERFED CHILDREN
Most of the rest Of the unfitness was
due to undernourishment. Many of
these young men had not attained to
proper physical development because as
children they had never had enough
to cat. This is at the bottom an edu-
ca tional problem, too. For 1t is impos-
sible to teach anything to starved or
hungry child. If the child comes to
school in that condition It Is the duty
of the state to feed It. Indeed, 1t IN
necessary tor the state to feed 1t IL tho
education which the state proposes to
give II Is not 10 De a tOIAl waste. IL
may be right, under an individualistic
regime, to let the adult starve IL he Is
not efficient enough to feed himself.
but to let the children starve or half
starvo Is surely imbecile. For that un-
derfed child will in a majority of cases
fail to attain healthy efficient adult
hood. and therefore be unable properly
to feed his children in turn.
Take. again. the problem Of crime.
The United States produces more OF It
than any other civilized country in the
world. Yet scientists have proved be-
yond question that more than 80 per
cent of all crime is committed by per-
sons OF impaired mentality who could
easily have been identified as such in
childhood. In other words. II a proper
scientific study was made OF the school
child. the greater part of crime would
be prevented by isolating the criminal
when young. Furthermore. In this way,
many of those psychopaths could be-
cured and made into useful citizens.
In fact, the scientific study Of the
child in school is the thing above all
needed. Not only the child below nor
NAL, but also tho child above normal
in gift and intelligence, suffer by the
present system. Our schools teach a
child to read and write. and beyond
that they do little more than stuff him
with lot of fixed beliefs about gov
crnment and society. which inhibtt
thought rather than encourage 1t.
Their whole tendency is not to de-
velop individuality, but to hammer,
every one into tho same shape. and
this restrictive tendency is found not
only in the graded schools. but in high
schools and in most colleges.
When America shall have become
truly civilized. the child instead Of be-
ing entrusted for the most formative
years of his life to an ignorant girl Of
20. will pass that period under the
supervision OF men and women of the
best brains and scientific training. His
capacities will be studied with tho
care. He will be examined se
and scientifically as an oil
we'll or n radium deposit is examined. He
will be recognized and treated as what
he is-thc most important of all nat
ural resources. He will then be train
ed and developed so cts to attain the
highest possible usefulness to himself
and to the state.