264 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



I will have to tell a story on a gentleman from his locality. He 

 purchased a new span of mules and put them to drawing potatoes. 

 He had loaded up a wagon and had to draw them up a hill to 

 get them to the house, and he started along and was becoming so 

 infatuated admiring his new span, that he had not noticed that 

 the end board had fallen out and the potatoes had all rattled out. 

 He got half way up the hill and his long-eared friends refused to 

 go any further. He looked around and saw that the potatoes were 

 all gone and a very disgusted expression came over his countenance 

 as he uttered the words, "By Golly, stuck and nothing to unload." 

 I can assure you that that is exactly the position of the speaker 

 at this time. The good member of the Board who asked me to talk 

 this evening, told me he didn't want me to say very much and I 

 am sure he could not have picked a man who was more sure to 

 fulfill those qualifications than the one he has at the present time. 



It is my purpose to discuss with you for a very few minutes, 

 the public school system in respect to its origin and purpose, its 

 good qualities and its short-comings, some partial remedies and what 

 we are doing and have done at Mansfield along the line of practical 

 education. As probably the greater percentage of you know, the 

 public school is not American in its origin, but has come to us 

 from across the water and is principally of Dutch descent. It is 

 about 155 years old. It was grafted on our national life at a time 

 when ideas and conditions were vastly different than to-day. It 

 was promoted with the purpose of universalizing education. The 

 books were few and the colleges were few and were for the few. 

 The college authorities saw this and conceived the idea that if they 

 could import a sort of a free public method of education which 

 would be classical in its tendencies, it would prepare students 

 straight for college and increase the number of their students; so 

 you see the public school system was promulgated with the end to 

 treat every one alike, to achieve this particular purpose and pre- 

 pare people for the colleges. 



I heard Dr. Windship, of Boston, speak on the subject of public 

 schools, etc., and he said that it was a rare occasion when we 

 allowed our cattle to go for many months without giving them some 

 change of feed and yet, he said, we have not changed the feed of 

 our public schools in the last 25 years. This is somewhat far-fetched 

 in its meaning, but, nevertheless, it opens an avenue of thought well 

 worthy of our consideration. In discussing the proposal to build 

 a new |50, 000,000 Union Kailroad Station in Chicago, a certain 

 editor came out in his paper and said he thought it would be very 

 nice if we knew where our grandchildren wanted that station lo- 

 cated. The second editor said that he thought we ought to go very 

 slow with the public school and not have anything in it that our 

 grandfathers would not sanction. I am convinced that we cannot 

 build railroad stations for our grandchildren and schools for our 

 grandfathers. 



The State Department, as you have heard to-night, is advancing 

 some new ideas along the line of education, and in every case are 

 willing to back those up, yet there are lots of people who are not 

 willing to accept those ideas just because their grandfathers and 

 grandmothers all the way back to the ape, have always lived under 

 those ideas and always will. Such people are dead from the chin 



