Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-23
Fifty Years Ago.
In The Star

An open letter TO Supt. Wilson, printed
In The Star Of November 20, 1880,
registers q bitter complaint against thu
so-called present system" Of school i'd
ministration. The letter, signed by
OLIVIA" is, in part, as follows:
Your attention Is most respectfully
called to the deplorable intellectual cul-
ture and moral discipline with which
the public schools of Washington are
am1cted. More than three years ago
you informed the writer that within q
snort period OF time the public schools
OF the District would equal any of the
noted universities of the land The
years have flown, hundreds of thou
sands Of dollars have been expended on
the so-called public schools, and what
are the results? We have q coming
generation Of intellectual pigmies, turned
out like so many patented articles of
the same kind. slightly permeated with
smattering Of almost everything which
smacks Of scholarly culture, with no
thorough understanding of a single
branch which pertains to practical life,
with only now and then a solitary
youth able to read a paragraph aloud
with the idea to make its meaning plain
Out OF this dead level of poll-parrot
glibneSs Of Superflciality scarce q pupil
can be found who can write and spell
correctly dozen consecutive lines. It
was Abraham Lincoln who said that
round pins could never be made to 1T
square holes and no system of edu-
cation can be devised which will At
every individual mind.
THE awful machinery known as the
present system as applied to the pub
lie schools Of washington, engulfs all
the children in the same process, runs
them through the same mental COM
plicatton OF pulleys, files and teeth
the toughest survive, whilst the masses
are weakened in Intellectual fiber, If not
reduced to semi-idiocy as the fearful
result. Not content with the present
sacrifice OF the innocents, you now pro-
pose to keep the abominable system re-
volving by bringing upon the theater
OF action trained priestesSes, graduates
OF normal schools, to keep the lurid
lights burning until the iconoclast's
work Is done. In the immortal words Of
Patrick Henry, What way have we of
judging the future except by the past?'
Has not experience taught us that all
great physicians, lawyers, architects and
artists are not made by their fellow
men, but by Almighty God, and do we
not know the teachers vocation eclipses
THE teachers are not set to work 10
study an insidious disease, or to defeat
the ends Of justice, to plaster canvas
with paint, to dig out the stone, but
they. are employed to mold, chisel and
develop the most subtle Of Gods creative
forces-the intangible. 1ndescribable, in
destructible human mind. The brief
time the children Of poverty are per-
mitted to remain In school (and for
these alone the public school system
was devised) should be- spent In pe7-
fecting them In reading, spelling, writ
ing, the ruder elements Of mathematics,
elocution, morality, and last, but not
least, decent manners When the chill
dren emerge from this ordeal thorough
ly trained they are fitted for cttisen-
ship, but If all this Is thoroughly ac-
quired and time is left, let us have one
more grade which includes physiology,
that the child may learn to treat It's
stomach with respect; geography TO
broaden and deepen its mind history
to give 1t characters to emulate, and
with these branches thoroughly tncul-
Gated public school education should
be done. These latter studies should be
given In lessons that can be assimiIatad,
not q solitary idea more"