The Minnesota fiery cross. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1924-19??, 1924-02-22

our teachers lack proper educa-
tion, training and experience-let
US recognize all these and many
other defects of education too
numerous to catalog. They are
conditions which cry aloud for
reform in the appealing voices of
children deprived Of their rights
as American citizens. They are
undoubted and indubitable facts
which cannot be ignored"
Why a Department of Education
Mr.. Inglis here speaks of "the de-
fects of education too numerous to
catalog." My serious study of the
whole problem suggests one funda-
mental difficulty that is not in any
catalog, a handicap that goes back
to the beginning of the public school
system. In fact, who among you can
say when, or how, our public school
system began? The public school is
the most essential of all American
institutions; we all know that; yet,
unlike any other great American in
stitution, it did not come into exist
ence with clearly defined, distinctive
character. No date or event marks
it's birth. No national document ever
bestowed upon it specific principles
and purposes. Nor was the basic
questian of it's relation to government
ever fully and finally determined.
81 mention these things to
show that in this country public
school education was never right
ly honored by place in any or
ganic act like the Declaration Of
Independence, or the Constitu-
ton; nor was it ever, for more
than the briefest time, given de-
served recognition in any out
standing federal enactment. 1t
just grew, in almost haphazard
fashion, through a kind of va
grant evolution, into what it is
today, with only about one-sev-
enth of the efficiency that our
national needs demand"
For centuries education was ex-
clusively of, by and for the church.
That was yet quite largely the situa-
tion throughout Europe at the time
of American colonization. The first
evidence of change was in Holland and
Scotland, and among the Puritans and
Huguenots of England and France.
Those earliest liberals had vision
of universal education, but there re
manned in their minds the idea of
religious objective.
Then, in the eighteenth century,
philanthropy took an interest in edu-
cation. Next there were charity
schools. After that, thank God, came
the conception of the American COM
mon school, emerging slowly and un-
certainly, because, as I have shown,
it was an organic orphan, and had to
shift for itself.
AS the colonies differed, so did
their schools. But gradually Ameri-
can education took on a type of its
own, although it was not until three
quarters of a century after the birth
of the republic that the public school,
as we now know it, was at all firm
ly established.
No one will deny that it was al
ways the intention to have adequate
education in America. Private and
public declarations of that high pur-
pose are abundant; but the trouble
was, and is, that the cause of pub
| lie education was never given the
sanction and standing, yea, and the
security, that could be obtained only
|
paramount Importance.
Pennsylvania offers good illustra-
tion. Notwithstanding William
PENIS original requirement that the
governor and council should estab-
lish and support public schools, plus
the statesmanly efforts of Benjamin
Franklin, it was not until 1885 that
this commonwealth had partly tax
supported public school system, and
for the next two years there was such
a clamor of objection as to threaten
| its overthrow.
The truth is that half our national
life was lived without a general pub
lie school system and that, during
the last half, public schools have been
pitifully inadequate, to which fail
ures can be traced most of the ma
| tional ills that now beset US.
At the halfway mark two of oul
greatest Americans entered the arena
of battle for this cause. They were
Horace Mann of Massachusetts, anC
Henry Barnard of Connecticut. Tt
them America owes the highest
grandest monuments ever erected tt
her most deserving heroes.
Out Of their craftsmanship and the
labors OF others OF that period came
the effort to give public school edu
cation the standing it should have
had in the beginning. In 1867, James
A. Garfield sponsored legislation t.
create a department of education
Henry Barnard became the commits
sioner of education, but without 6
place in the cabinet. The clock Of
true progress for America was SCI
back, not days, but decades. In ad,
dition to executive duties, this Law
imposed upon that office the task Of
investigating the disposition and mis-,
use of previous national land grants
in aid of education. There ensued a
fight on the part Of the secretary Of
the interior for the right to make
the investigations, because his depart
ment had handled the grants. 1t was
like the story of political manipula-
tion, and probably graft, that is en-
gaging the public mind today. Poll
tics prevailed. The department Of
education was denoted to q mere bu-
reau under the secretary Of the in
terror, which it has remained since
The big thing, the fundamental, all
important thing, to be accomplished