Conservative ,
father insists that he measure himself
by the powers of will and iniud and
body in this competition rather than by
extraneous advantages which ho has not
earned by his own fibre. The value of
the high school as a social force is
greater for those who attend it than
that of the common school , because it
is more conspicuous in the community ,
because its requirements demand a
higher order of ability , and because
here the boy of unpromising anteced
ents is rising more plainly above his
past.
A Citizen's Duty.
A potent force , too , in any commun
ity , must be the attitude of the well-to-
do citizen taxing himself willingly and
heavily to provide the means by which
his poor neighbor's boy may rise to his
own position or a higher one. His atti
tude is alike admirable whether it
arises from native generosity of heart
or from the high conviction that the
welfare of the state demands an open
road for the talents of all.
The existence and spread of the high
school idea in spite of determined and
able opposition in the past shows that
democracy in America aspires and does
not grovel. It grasps the ideal and be
lieves that among the masses there are
those who can attain it. Such a state
of things promises a higher level of
popular intelligence in the future a
promise already during the last ton
years being fulfilled in a higher grade
of popular reading and a warmer , more
widely diffused interest in education.
TJhe Danger.
The weakness , or at least the danger ,
of our high schools arises from their
close union with the people. They have
the defect of their qualities. It is
illogically argued that because the
high school is for the good of the people ,
therefore every man's son should be
admitted to it , and that after he is ad
mitted he should be graduated in four
years. Thus , pupils who have not
earned admission by a grammar school
course of sufficient length or merit are
thrust into the high school , and many
who are indolent and indifferent are
allowed to be a drag upon classes in
which they have no right to be , and
are given diplomas which they have not
earned.
Again it is argued that because the
school is of the people , therefore its
course of study should be determined by
the people , and so we have high schools
with three year courses giving full
diplomas , high schools with a large
number of grammar-school subjects ,
high schools which give only so-called
"practical" courses to the exclusion ol
both culture and mental training. The
people want higher education , but they
do not know \\nat higher education is ,
and under unfavorable conditions they
go for afield in search of it.
They find it hard to learn that a dem
ocratic community is one in which ev
ery member is free to attain the highest
ends of which he is capable and not one
in which every man is equal to every
other in all respects. The practical ac
ceptance of the latter view destroys
merit in the school and in the individ
ual , and by rendering the brightest and
best of the community inferior because
of the denial of the highest ideals is
thoroughly undemocratic. This is at
once apparent when the boy trained in
such a school comes into competition
with one trained in a more wisely dem
ocratic community such competition as
he is sure to meet at the portals of ev
ery good college or professional school.
Friends of the Common Schools.
All this is corrected when the com
munity learns to trust in men uniting
in themselves both broad sympathies
and high ideals ; men who are in close
touch with the people and yet have an
experience and an ideal in education far
above the people. Such should bo the
local clergyman , such the local college
man , home on his vacation or settled
down in his native town to practice
medicine or law , such above all the high
school teacher , whose business and priv
ilege it is to know the highest truth
and to bring it within reach of the
lowest boy or girl.
We all know such men , we know
many communities in which they are
quietly and patiently at work , raising
standards of education and inspiring
effort toward those standards. The sta
tistics of our public high schools show , in
spite of much that is very weak and
very crude , that while the number of
schools is growing , the course is also
lengthening and leading in more coses
to higher institutions ; also that more
substantial subjects like Latin and
mathematics are being pursued and for
a longer period by each pupil. Thus
we may hope that the pretentious , the
ephemeral , the gaudy , the demagogical
in our higher schools of the people may
pass away , and the sound , the lasting ,
the beautiful , the ideal , may take its
place.
THE HIGH SCHOOL COURSE OF
STUDY.
[ By Allen G. Fling , Superintendent of Schools
Nebraska City , Neb. ]
A great cry is coming from different
parts of the country for elective work
in the high school. Some seem to think
that progress and improvement demand
a constant change in the existing ordei
of things. In education it is well to
prove all things and hold fast to that
which is good. Conservatism has a
legitimate place.
A few years ago the elective system
was hardly known in our colleges , now
it's supporters are crowding it down to
the ninth grade. We ask ourselves
"what next ? " The pendulum is swing
ing to the opposite extreme.
Each year I collect certain data from
the senior class of the Nebraska City
High School ; one of the questions asked
is : "Why did you take the high school
course ? " The answers , not very defi
nite in themselves , are usually to the
effect that they wanted a better educa
tion , wanted to fit themselves for teach
ers , for life , or it was their parents' wish.
Do such pupils know the educational
value of different studies ? Do they
know what is needed to develop their
latent faculties ? Freedom of election
without such power of discrimination
and knowledge is mere caprice and un
bridled fancy.
The Real Object.
The legitimate aim of our high schools
is to train for true American citizenship.
Those who advocate the elective system
would sift out the few boys who have
found their "calling" and let them pur
sue their special subjects to their heart's
content. The true goal of a high school
is a general education. We should train
the pupil to do the right thing at the
right time in the right way. We should
train him to think , perceive , judge , dis
criminate and reason.
It is a fact that those studies in our
high school curriculum which have
the strongest psychological and peda
gogical reason for being there are most
often called in question. The superficial
observer can see no reason for their be
ing there. They do not appeal to his
reason for he does not know their con
tent. Great harm has been done the
cause of education by the cry "imprac
tical. " To many "impractical study"
is synonymous with direct exchange in
to dollars and cents frequently cents.
Are there not studies which from an ed
ucational standpoint should be in every
course of study ? Generally accepted ,
these are language , history , mathematics
and science. A knowledge of the En
glish tongue and literature is essential
to every individual. Whether one can
have a good knowledge of the English
language without an acquaintance with
the Latin , I am inclined to doubt. His
tory demands recognition in every cur
riculum history , not only of our own
country , but of other nations which
have influenced our growth and develop
ment. For disciplinary reasons , I would
hold mathematics in every course.
Finally , how can we omit the sciences
from our high school courses ? They
are-really the most practical studies of
all. Professor Huxley says : "Science
is nothing but trained and organized
common sense. " These four lines are
embodied in the three courses in the
Nebraska City High School : Classical ,
Latin-Scientific and German-English.
These names signify what these courses
contain. The student is allowed limited
electiues in each year of his course in such
subjects as Book-keeping , Commercial
