MORE MEN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 449 



There is no doubt that we owe our extensive system of free public 

 schools in great part to faith in the service of education as a training 

 for citizenship. Webster was a firm believer in the efficacy of popular 

 education to ensure the triumph of democratic principles. " We do 

 not," said he, " expect all men to be philosophers and statesmen, but 

 we confidently trust, and our expectation of the duration of our system 

 of government rests upon that trust, that, by the diffusion of general 

 knowledge and good and virtuous sentiments, the political fabric may 

 be secure, as well against open violence and overthrow, as against the 

 slow but sure undermining of licentiousness." It is on the faith that 

 education has power to prepare for the duties and responsibilities of 

 citizenship in a republic, that government has provided so generously 

 for the public school system in taxation and grants of land. 



Since Webster's time the rapid growth of urban communities has 

 created a most extensive and intricate system of city government call- 

 ing for detailed knowledge. To be merely a good man is not now 

 sufficient to be a good citizen. Good citizenship requires more than 

 ' the diffusion of general knowledge and good and virtuous sentiments/ 

 if the tide of municipal corruption is to be turned back. Here the 

 school fails. The civic function of our school system has no doubt 

 suffered greatly from the fact that teachers are so little interested in 

 current politics. Fear of ' mixing in politics ' has held the teacher 

 aloof from matters of this kind; and the teaching of civil government 

 is often a perfunctory task. It can hardly be expected that those who 

 are denied the right of suffrage should speak with authority on the 

 duties of citizenship. Few teachers are acquainted with matters at 

 issue in local elections; and few understand the real inner workings of 

 party politics. Political patronage, the caucus, the convention and 

 the primaries are little more than abstractions to most of them. It 

 would be interesting to know how far the widespread apathy of educated 

 people as to local politics could be remedied by more adequate instruc- 

 tion in the schools. General education and enlightenment no doubt 

 has much virtue in effecting good government. The entrance of 

 women into public school work, by extending the system to a point 

 beyond what the public finance would have permitted if equal intel- 

 ligence had been secured from men teachers, has been of inestimable 

 value in promoting this general enlightenment. But so far as edu- 

 cating to an intelligent interest in political and economic matters of a 

 technical character is concerned, our educational system has not yet 

 done all that should be expected of it. 



If there were a steady growth in public sentiment regarding exten- 

 sion of the franchise, such as induced the legislatures of half a dozen 

 of our newer and less conservative states to grant women full suffrage, 

 this weakness of civic education would tend to correct itself. But the 

 VOL. lxv.— 29. 



