54 



ROBERT A. WOODS 



Another significant aim of educational philanthropy is 

 that which was suggested by Dr. Fehx Adler when he said 

 that just as there are life saving stations along the seacoast, 

 there should be talent saving stations along the shores of pov- 

 erty. Throughout this country I believe only about six per 

 cent of the boys and girls get beyond the grammar school. 

 In a city like Boston, possibly as many as twenty per cent go 

 beyond the grammar school, though that is perhaps a high 

 estimate even for Boston. This means that eighty or ninety 

 per cent of our boys and girls do not get beyond the grammar 

 school. Take twenty per cent for Boston. That is, roughly 

 speaking, the proportion of the population which may be cred- 

 ited to the professional and commercial classes; the working 

 classes amounting to about eighty per cent of the population 

 of a great city. Speaking roughly then, the children of work- 

 ing class famihes do not go beyond the grammar school. Any 

 one who has worked in a crowded district in any of our great 

 cities knows that there are numerous cases of exceptionally 

 bright boys and girls who are prevented from going on into 

 the secondary school on account of the poverty, or ignorance, or 

 indifference, or all three combined, of their parents. It is cer- 

 tainly an anomalous situation that if a boy or girl can persevere 

 through the secondary stage and get as far as the collegiate 

 stage, he finds very great resources to help him on through 

 the collegiate stage of his education; while large numbers of 

 promising boys and girls are stopped in the course of their 

 education, at the beginning of the secondary stage. It seems 

 to me there could hardly be any better investment of money 

 than through the provision of scholarships by which exception- 

 ally bright boys and girls whose parents are poor, too poor to 

 second them through the secondary stage of their education, 

 could be sent on through the high school. Some efforts are 

 now being made in that direction, and there is certainly no 

 more interesting Hne of experiment for educational philan- 

 thropy. 



I feel very strongly that it is necessary for all of us to 

 take upon ourselves the responsibility of educating the 

 thoughtful people in the community as to the place which 

 education has in the building up of the commmiity. We take 



