Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-03-27

Deys eNdT olrls who Feel che Need
Of an gdueatIen, but Who Have 70
lWork, Are olvsn . Chance
By SARAH ID. LOWRIE


4 education after you have left school e
you are thrown constantly with educated
people: IN fact, that is what most people
ectuaiy DO who are % placed.
They pick up what they need between the
twentieth and thirtieth years BY acquiring
some intelligent taste which opens the door
What they ct at school or even college is
at best an idea Of how to study and where
70 60 TO get their facts and sort of founda-
ton OF good taste, or, at all events, to know
py nearsay what II regarded a. worthy Of
Of facts. which is the good taste Of the
moment.
They have learned to speak a. grammatical
Ensnsh with more or less wide vocabulary
Dy ear, ~ one learns a tune without the
leest 1dea OF how the notes look written.
PUT boy who is not thrown constantly
- with educated people out Of school must
depend upon school to give him everything
he is quick and keenly observant he can
use his school education to such advantage
that he can catch up and even outdistance
men and women who have been born IN
homes where education Is q matter OF course.
Ms can eventually be more than merely
cultivated man; he can be scholar. But
ne is cruelty handicapped in his self -educa-
ton II he has not had reasonably thorough
public school foundation. It can be done,
put 1t 10 done with a great waste OF enort
without that BACKGROUND, and also, being .
adjusted, not quite balanced judiciously.
pUT what are you going to do, If to earn
- the very bread you eat and some that
work just at the time when your mind Is
beginning to grapple with ideas and to have
thoughts that can follow the big thoughts
of other minds? How are you to learn 20
speak English dramatically all by yourself
what has gradually been training your ear
about you? How are you to guess where
to find the A b C's of literature and Of art
and OF history, II you come home too tired
from your job to focus your mind on any
thing but play or dancing or the MOVIES
There are public nbrssies; there are
few good plays; there are museums and pic
ture galleries; there is Nature just outside
the city; there are the churches, and there
is the Bible, and there are also the Sunday
education. But even the ambitious boy or
girl has to be away above the average to
know how to absorb knowledge out of those
great means to an end.
T ASKED Miss Mcguire, who has nearly
i a thousand extra pupils in the school of
which she is principal, who are part time
or continuation school students, what she
felt was the important study for those boys
and girls who have been cut short In their
education by the stress Of earning living
and are compelled by the law to study
certain number Of hours week to salvage
at least part Of the education Uncle Sam
is supposed to give all his children.
Miss Margaret Mcguire Is never person
n hn oOuOht M nnfnO othpr IN a thpOrv n
a tried -out experience, and she was ready
ON the instant with her answer.
'What they must have is taste for
reading put into them, so that they read to
they follow the thought bf what they read
to the temporary exclusion Of all other
thought-get lost in book, as we say
and so that one book or set Of interests leads
naturally and inevitably to another, SO that
from the Henty books they can 60 to Steven.
son and even to Scott or Dumas"
IL as omnivorous readers one set of inter.
ests could easily lead to another, and all
that remained was to guide those interests
into more and more worth while stages Of
thought, until the mind just naturally struck
out for itself along the path best suited to
its particular bent. If the boy had il in
him to be a chemist or the girl actually had
the makings Of teacher in her, she would
have enough keys to her necessary equip
ment in her hands from a love of books to
send her on her way in spite of handicaps.
DUT isn't 1t very poor economy to compel
ID boys and girls to use up the years of
their best acquistiveness-between fourteen
and twenty-in working at jobs that merely
put bread in their mouths when they should
be using those years to put ideas into their
heads? And isn't it poor economy to try,
school work few hours week what should
be slowly absorbed five days Of the week,
though far be 1t from me to "knock" the
continuation school, which, to say the least,
is the best of bad bargain?
i he probably will tell You. that the ones
who leave school and get a permit to work
are not the ones who could take an educa-
ton.
And If you ask some Of the truant officers
they will tell you that most of those who
leave school could take an education but
do not want to.
And If you ask the parents of the children
desiring permits to work rather than study
they will tell you that the boys or girls
have already more education than they know
what to do with, more than their parents
own wherever they 60.
II you ask the children you will get yery
little satisfaction for the asking at the time
later-years later-when they are men and
women, they will tell you that at every turn
they have had to take a poorer job on
account of not having an education. and
some will tell you how bitterly they resented
leaving school.
Suppose they are right about that, and
the employer and truant officer and parent
and they, as children, have been wrong
Who is to find 1t out and prove 1t? And
when it is proved what is the remedy?
WELL, so far as I can see, the only way
w to find out and to prove it is a patient
review of the case Of each child leaving
school before the high school grade in order
to discover whether he or she Is fit to 20 on,
end, If fit, whether he or she has the requi :.
site will power to go on, given real oppor. +.
tunity.
Then, when it has been found out and
proved to be clear case of must rather than
desire to leave school, the public owes that
child an education. Whatever the sins OF the
fathers into the. third and fourth genera :