The Bismarck tribune., 1925-04-15
j. S. SCHOOL
SYSTEM BEST
IN THE WORLD
American Education EXcels
in Availability; Not
Strongly Centralized

Washing ton, April 15-"Though
| Americas school system is in process
of readjustment to meet modern
needs, and just now is disorganized
| by it, to some extent, yet" said
! United States Commissioner of Ed
ucation John J. Tigert, "it is the
| best school system in the world to-
! day.
"True, a few countries outdo us
| in the matter of literacy.
"With one exception, however,
they are small, with homogeneous
populations, like Denmark.
"America is vast. It's population
is very mixed. including compara-
lively newly illiterates from
many lands. That these people are
uneducated is no fault of American
! schools.
"1he single exceptional country of
large populations, if Of no great area
is Germany. But Germany's edu-
cational system was much like her
military syste em-highly centralized.
Germans were driven to school prac-
tically at the bayonet's point. In it's
final result, this didn't prove very
satisfactory.
Developed Powerfully
"American education excels in
availability. 1t isn't so strongly COM
pulsory. 1t can't be SO much the
latter, because it isn't centralized
like Germany's.
"The glory of our schools is that
they are not centralized. They have
developed powerfully because the
them, created them for themselves
10 nf hn, 10r
Their growth was natural, not forced.
At first there were communities
where public education was opposed.
If the federal government had tried
to force it on them before thew were
ready, they would have rebelled.
Such policy wouldn't have pro-
NOTED education. 1t would have re-
| tarded it.
"The change in education, in our
| own time, was inevitable.
"Many of us who are not yet old
can remember the first electric car,
the first incandescent light, the first
| telephone, the first phonograph, the
| first automobile, the first airplane.
All of us can remember the first
radio.
1.-THE old life was simple. Educa-
tion ran on one track. 1t was aca-
demic, cultural. 1t was preparatory
to colleges of liberal arts and higher
professions.
"Todays education has had to
adapt itself to the demands Of indus
try, commerce, agriculture, many
sciencesT-to the preparation of the
young for our present complex exist
ence. =.
| Mn.. Weed Out Studies
"In rasronse to all these new re-
| quirenerts, on schools have added
! more ansl more studies until, un-
| a"oidrbl,. they. are less thorough
ben t'rv we're. Many of the. addi-
| ito 5. '"era indispensable. to make ed
"cns..or practical, uscfuE---to make
| it g. ~" times. Yet, with such a
| mTtioEcity of subjects crowding one
| another, careful scrutiny is neces-
sarv. and perhaps a wedding out.
'Indeed, this is being. done. !
doubt if the average individual real
ICES how highly technical calling
education has become. It was moth
ing like so much so in the school
days of the present-day adult and
few laymen have time to keep in
touch with the schoolroom. after
leaving it themselves. The educator
at work suggests the farm expert
watching, testing, experimenting
] with adjoining patches to determine
the relative values of different soils
fertilizers. kinds Of seed, ,tempera.
tures, methods Of cultivation, in pro.
dpcing, say, crop Of corn. But
needless to say. STUDYING tho hui.
man mind takes more time"