3O0 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE AMEEICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL 



By JAMES P. MUNROE 



BOSTON, MASS. 



HORACE MANN", speaking in 1841, said: "A practical unbe- 

 lief in the power of education — the power of physical, intel- 

 lectual and moral training — exists among us, as a people." Two 

 generations later are we still, as a people, unbelievers ? We extol with 

 fervor, with acclamation, with volubility, free schools ; we pay our taxes 

 not too unwillingly, spend an occasional session in our children's 

 schools, help John and Mary, spasmodically and ineffectively, with 

 their harder lessons, send them at some sacrifice to a high school or 

 perhaps to college, and then thank God for the priceless blessing of a 

 liberal education ! 



Having thus, with characteristic amiability and liberality done his 

 duty according to the custom of his neighbors, the average American 

 proceeds to exalt the " self-made " man, to deride the college and even 

 the high school graduate, and to wonder why, with free schools and 

 compulsory schooling, crime, folly and corruption flourish so amaz- 

 ingly. As in 1841, there is a " practical unbelief," not in education 

 itself, but in the thing called education which most schools and col- 

 leges give. 



We Americans pride ourselves upon being a practical people, yet 

 fail to treat education as a practical question. Therefore, as a rule, our 

 public schools are neither practically governed nor fitted in a practical 

 way for the ends which they should serve. Blinded by time-honored 

 fictions, we ignore the plainest facts. Paying vast taxes for the sup- 

 port of schools, we act as though the spending of that money would be 

 guided by Divine inspiration. Making this upon education one of our 

 largest outlays, we are content that such an enormous expenditure 

 should be in the hands of changing and irresponsible boards, to most 

 of whom the problems of education are as remote as the wisdom of Con- 

 fucius. Setting in motion the machinery upon which we depend for 

 the quality of future citizenship and therefore for the very existence of 

 the republic, we are, as a rule, quite heedless whether that machinery 

 turns out youth well fitted or totally unfit for the duties of men and 

 women. The public schools are a business investment which stern 

 necessity taught the founders of the nation the wisdom of making; yet 

 the hardest thing to impress upon this nation of business men is that 

 simple and fundamental fact. 



