842 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



can be found combining tho rare quali- 

 fications needed in a State Superintend- 

 ent of Education; at the very best 

 these qualitications can only be secured 

 in a partial degree, but this makes it all 

 tbe more necessary that no eftort shall 

 be spared to secure the best talent avail- 

 able for so responsible a trust. It is 

 needless to say that this desirable ob- 

 ject is impossible under the political 

 regime into which our popular educa- 

 tion has now passed. The superin- 

 tendency of schools of the State of 

 New York has become a foot-ball of 

 partisan faction among the politicians 

 of the New York Legislature. The 

 former Sui)erintendent resigned some 

 weeks ago, to take a more profitable 

 oflBce; and the temporary incumbent of 

 the place will vacate the office in April, 

 to be succeeded by whomsoever the 

 Legislature appoints. A crowd of ap- 

 plicants of all sorts are after the place, 

 lobbying and intriguing in Albany by 

 all the means that are necessary to se- 

 cure " success " in the scramble for a de- 

 sirable position. That a competent man 

 will be appointed under these circum- 

 stances is virtually impossible, for no 

 thoroughly competent and self-respect- 

 ing man would enter the lists of compe- 

 tition under these circumstances. The 

 appointee will win because he or his 

 friends can beat all competition in the 

 questionable arts by which politicians 

 are influenced, and the result will be le- 

 gitimate — a natural outcome of the sys- 

 tem by which the instruction of the 

 young lias been brought under political 

 and therefore, of course, under partisan 

 control. 



Another exemplification of the influ- 

 ence of politics upon education is seen 

 in the " Blair Bill," which proposes 

 that Congress shall make a gift of sev- 

 enty-seven million dollars, to be divided 

 among the States of the Union to help 

 them maintain their schools. The suc- 

 cess of the bill, as we write, is said to 

 be uncertain ; but, whether it pass or 

 not, it has had so extensive a backing 



as to well illustrate the sort of influence 

 which politicians Avould bring to bear 

 upon education. The tendency to make 

 education a charity, and to bring 

 school-houses into the same category 

 with poor-houses, is sufficiently strong; 

 but this measure, by an audacious 

 stretch of constitutional power, would 

 give tho stamp of nationality to the 

 charity policy. The scheme proceeds 

 upon the peculiarly American assump- 

 tion that anything can be done with 

 money, and that the Central Govern- 

 ment has only to scatter millions enough 

 and all the people will be educated. 

 But the assumption is false : there are 

 things which no amount of money can 

 do, while the evils of its lavish distribu- 

 tion are not only palpable and certain, 

 but may result in the absolute defeat 

 of the object intended. That the dis- 

 tribution of this seventy-seven million 

 largess among the States would be pro- 

 foundly injurious to tho interests of 

 popular education does not admit of 

 a doubt ; and the American Congress 

 would have to make the experiment 

 but once more to paralyze and destroy 

 the existing common-school system of 

 the country. For, by the results of 

 all experience and the very necessity 

 of things, those who expect to be helped 

 will depend upon help, and put forth 

 less effort to help themselves. "What- 

 ever lessens the interest taken by par- 

 ents and citizens in the working and 

 character of the schools, whatever tends 

 to diminish their direct responsibility 

 in regard to them, and to weaken the 

 sense of obligation to make sacrifices 

 for the instruction of the young, strikes 

 a demoralizing and deadly blow at the 

 springs and incentives of all educational 

 improvement. Our people have yet to 

 learn that one of the highest benefits 

 of a popular educational system is in 

 training parents and citizens to the efl3- 

 cient discharge of their social duties, 

 and a national policy which undermines 

 these obligations can not be too strong- 

 ly reprobated. 



