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THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM OF
THE UNITED STATES.
[ By Jonkin Lloyd .Tones , General Secretary ,
The Congress of Religion. ]
This is still the hope nml the de
spair of the true patriot. Without
it the United States could not have
readied its present strength ; with it
as it now is , it cannot go much far
ther. Co-operation has reached its finest
maximum in the public school ideal.
The social paradox , which requires
maximum liberty with maximum sub
ordination , the freedom of the indi
vidual and the general good to be se
cured at the same time , here finds its
most perplexing problem.
The public school system is impos
sible without superintendence , and
still over-superintendence is the great
est menace to the public schools of
our larger towns and cities today. It
threatens to reduce the individual
teacher to a piece of mechanism that
works out another's program in the
way prescribed , with minimum re
spect for the resources or the idiosyn
crasies of the individual pupil or the
individual teacher. The fine problem
in the school is how to preserve the
buoyancy of the teacher , the joy of
the school room. When the school
teacher becomes a drudge swayed with
self-seeking motives , ruled by the
"Labor Union" spirit , that is , the
class spirit that assumes an antagon
ism of interest between the employer
and the employee , which in this case
is represented by the public and by
the teacher , our national life is threat
ened at its most vital point.
But not to undertake to discuss prob
lems upon which experts alone have a
right to speak , I ask for space to men
tion some of the civic obligations and
opportunities of public school man
agements which are in danger of being -
ing ignored by this modern trick of
over-specialization. The opportuni
ties and obligations of the public
school are not confined to the hours
from nine to four , for ten mouths in
the year , or restricted to the plav-
ground when the schools are in ses
sion. The school house is the only
' ' ' ' owned the
common ground' by pub
lic , bought , held and improved for
the use of the public in the majority
of American communities. As such ,
it ought to be the home of the intel
ligence and public spirit of that com
munity. The modern "well equip
ped" building should seek to regain
the lost vantage ground once occupied
by the old "Deestrict" school house
on the country cross-roads , or hid
away on the wooded hill. The ' ' As
sembly Hall , "which is now the boast
of every truly modern school building ,
should become a social center for par
ents and grown-up brothers and sis
ters , as well as the children , and the
ground around it should bo a public
park all the year round. In country
places there should be room for ex
perimental gardening and forestry
work in summer , sheds for horses in
winter , that the traveling lecturer ,
the school exhibition , the concert by
local as well as by foreign talent , can
bo enjoyed to the full.
The "university extension" work
calls for a preliminary and more ex
tensive "Public School Extension"
work where science , history , poetry ,
art and music may be expounded with
all the helps of stereopticon , chart
and portable apparatus for the benefit
of the children of the common schools
and their parents , in rural as well as
city territory. The teachers might
well be. excused from some of their
endless examination papers long
enough to act on the lecture commit
tee , and if the lecture course could be
rescued from the miserable commer
cialism that lias well nigh destroyed
its power , even a country community
and small towns might enjoy high
talent dealing with high themes.
Another interest in danger of being
divorced from the public school sys
tem is that of the library. In these
days of ' ' Carnegie gifts' ' the library
is too much identified with costly
buildings , endowments , extensive col
lections and expert librarians. All
these are desirable when possible , but
a few hundred volumes , well select
ed , in charge of the principal of the
high school , or his assistants , or
tucked away in a modest book-case on
the walls of a district school build
ing , may reach thousands of lives to
which the costly library will never
be accessible.
In short , the' public school system
ought to be so conceived and organ
ized that the school house will be
come a social and civic center , whore
public spirit , public taste and public
intelligence are developed , and the
children with their text-books and
recitations fit into this larger plan
which has in mind the intellectual
needs of the grandfather and the
grandchild.
I am anxiously looking for the de
velopment of the town high school in
rural districts with a campus suffic
iently large for the preliminary agri
cultural training , the importance of
which is now so well understood by
the competent. It should be the ru
ral park , the picnic ground of the
community , the "Mote Hall" that
William Morris dreamed of , where
the community gather to listen and
to sing and to look over the latest
magazines , and to carry home with
them the best books drawn from the
library that is pxiblic indeed.
This can never be brought about
while the wealthy and the favored
withdraw their children from the
public schools in the interest of some
supposed "better chance" because I
more costly , offered by "private
schools. " The public schools of
America are not schools for the poor
children , but the best school for all
children , and the necessity that with
draws a child from the public school
is a confession of weakness and in-
competency either on the part of the
child , the parent or the community
that have so misconceived the scope
of the public school and neglected its
interest.
Chicago , Nov. 20 , 1901.
THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OFr
THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL.
[ By Isaac B. Burgiss , Morgan Park Academy ,
Morgan Park , 111. ]
The strength of the high school in
America lies in the hold it has upon the
people as a whole. In the last ten years
for which we have definite figures the
attendance upon the public high schools
in the United States has doubled. This
amazing fact is established by detailed
figures from the office of the United
States Commissioner of Education ,
which show further that all sections of
the country participate largely in the
increase. The close study of almost any
typical community will show that the
citizens are ready to spend money for
the high school and desire to send their
children to it not alone parents , well-
educated and well-to-do , but the poor
and ill-educated.
In many , perhaps in most , of our
towns and cities of from two to ten
thousand inhabitants , the public high
school furnishes the only local means
of securing the grade of education called
secondary. As a result , the children
of all classes of the people recite in the
same rooms , play on the same play
ground and struggle for the same dis
tinctions , which more frequently the
children of the poor attain. The value
of such an open arena as a democratic
social force is beyond computation , and
happy is the rich man's boy whose
