The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1938-09-01
PAGE EIGHT
Public School Will
Open Next Monday
Continued From Page One)

The distinguished DR.. George e
Vincent tells that when, a boy, hi
left his home community to go away
to college the neighbors shook theil
heads and wondered whether
George would come to any good
with so much learning. But when
finishing college. he continued or
into the graduate school they sadly
concluded, George has gone to
school until he doesn't know enough
to quit"
That was a long yesterday ago
and times have changed. The edu-
cation that was a luxury then has
become a necessity now. Go back
a few generations and only small
part of any community had second
ary school education. None but
those destined for the learned"
professions went to college. Hitter
acy was so common that it carried
no stigma, the "three RS" were the
accepted measure of the average
mans education.
But see what has happened.
While in the year 1900 less than
100000 of our young were enrolled
in secondary schools there are now
more than 100000, or one-half of
the total population of high school
age. In this earlier year less than
a quarter million of American
youths were in college, now the
number is well toward one and one
half million.
The boys and girls who are start
ing out to secondary school and col
lege this fall will be running the
world in 1910 and 1850. Those who
compete with them will be in fast
company. The meaning of this Is
clear; those who today in their
teens and twenties miss their
chance at education will mostly be
out of the running.
Against this conclusion it is fair
enough of course to call attention
to such men as Lincoln and Edi-
son, who without formal education
became leaders of men. But after
all those who achieved these results
were Lincoln and Edison and the
one-in-a-hundred- OIL her s
whom nature had stamped for
greatness at their birth. Only those
who have the I Q's and whatever
else goes into the making of Lin
coin or an Edison can afford the
risk of being self-made men today.
Yet not just any education, the
putting in of four or eight years in
school, will serve. I believe that.
taken all-in-all, America has the
best schools in the world. I say
this not in the spirit of my coun-
try-right-or-wrong but as one who
has looked about a bit and consid-
cred the schools of other nations.
But after this testimony am fore
ed to make an admission, which re-
quires a word of preface.
The first third of the present CEN
fury has been the golden age of
American education in which edu-
cation has become the newest
science" True to their nature
these educational scientists have
pried into every nook and corner
of the mind. They measure native
intelligence. They know exactly
how many three-column examples
a child should add in eight minutes
without error and how to make him
add that way. They have hunted
out the demons" in spelling. They
tell us the number of words per
minute read by the average child
and the degree of comprehension
that goes with the reading. In fact
there is little about the skills of
learning that these scientists have
not thrown light upon.
And while this has been going on
education on the financial side has
become big business. At the be-
ginning of the century it cost twen-
ty dollars to school child for a
year; now it costs over a hundred
dollars. Then our total current ed
ucation bill was a little over $780,
100000; now it has been multiplied
by ten and is $1,000 900. Our
school plants and equipment repre-
sent an outlay of between five and
six billions.
Now to get back to the admission
one must make, during this golden
age when education was becoming
universal and making science out
of itself things have not been going
well with our ideals and conduct;
that is, with our national charact-
err. The details of this are too well
known to require particulars.
Everyone knows that the number of
juvenile delinquents has multiplied
and that crime Of every kind has
increased at an unprecedented rate.
1t now requires ten figures to ex-
press the monetary cost of crime
in the United States. Vice and vio-
lence thrive, while established codes
give way.
OF course education should not
be charged with all the shortcom-
ings of society. It did not produce
Capone, originate bootlegging, in
vent racketeering or plan the kid
mapping of babies. The point Is that
education, busted with its narrow
skills and procedures, has made lit
tie consistent effort to balance
sharpened wits and trained intel
lects with character outcomes. In
this day when 1t is probably harder
for the young to be good than ever
before in human history education
has not concerned itself enough
with the total personality 1t was
producing.
So IL were choosing a school I
would look about bit. For there
are schools md Schools First of