The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-04-11
CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION

BY saying out loud what a great
many people had begun to say tim
idly to themselves President Prit-
chett OF the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement Of Teaching
has caused no little cOmmotion in
educational and journalistic cir
cles. No one who pays taxes can
have failed to observe how rapidly
the cost of administering our
public-school system ha S been
rising in recent years. and, though
the citizens who want to cripple
that system by inadequate appro-
priatiOnS are SO few as to be neg
lisible, the citizens who are ask
ing themselves whether the results
of our expenditure, on schools are
worth what they cost are to be-
found in every community,
We spend more than Il billion
dollars a year on our schools
seven times as much as we Spent
thirty years ago, though our pOpu~
lation has nowhere near doubled.
But that may prove only that we
spent too little in 1880. A nation
that spends more than four billions
a year on candy, tobacco coBmut c
and Illegally sold liquor cannot be
accused of unwdrrantcd eXtrava
gance if it spends quarter Of that
sum on the education Of its chill
dren. But it is obvious that, if
the cost OF the schools continues
h.,., i,,
creased during the last thirty
years, ii will amount in another
generation to Il burden that cannot
be easily borne. 1t is necessary
therefore to look carefully into the
matter to see whether education is
advancing in quality as well as in
cost.
Or. Pritchett evidently thinks il
is not, and in that opinion he find
many eminent teachers who agree
with him. A great deal of the
rising cost OF the schools he
charges to the exaggerated EN-
richment' of the curriculum, tot
the attempt to load too much on
the back Of the school system.
Adding one course after another,
each with its separate teacher, has
resulted, he thinks, in increasing
superflciality rather than effic-
iently. Pupils are so hurried from
one study to another that they get
Il smattering OF each but a thor
Ough mastery of none. Vocational
training, as taught in high schools,
he calls an expensive farce, since |
it lacks the incentive to accurate,
responsible effort that actually
working at IL trade supplies. Many
of the courses both in college and
in high school are in subjects that |
cannot be properly taught acade-
micaIly and, though they are pro-
fessional or technical in character, /
are given to pupils who have often
not learned to write or to spell
their own language correctly.
There will be many teachers
who will deny the charges that DR..
Pritchett brings against the mod
ern school, as well as many who
will support them. But the repor:
does well to arouse us all to con-
slider the question, What, after all,
is a school for?" Is it to teach Il ,
child little bit about every con- /
ceivable branch of knowledge-to'
supply him with a fund.- of general
information? Is it to teach him
among other things Il definit,
trade, a particular way to earn his
living? Or is it to ground him
firmly in the knowledge and use
of his own language and of ele-
mentary arithmetic and to give him
enough knowledge of other sub
jects to understand the world in
which he lives and the duties and !
responsibilities Of citizenship? ,
The last was the purpose of the
school fifty years ago, and in those
days it succeeded in fostering in
tellcctual vigor: the Willingness
and the power to think. The mod
ern school offers a much wider
range of studies and distributes Il
good deal more general informa7
ton to its pupils. Does it do as |
much to teach accurate and sus-
tanned power Of thought Most of
wa AS"uSio 'uNG SSCIl ClIOuSl vi
the working of the public schools
to have their own opinion ;on that
subject. One thing is certain: if
the schools are not grounding their
pupils firmly and well,---if they are
encouraging superficiality instead
of thoroughness,-we are paying
too much for them; Youths Com
paniOn. .-L....A ,--n