THE ETHICAL PROBLEM OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.* 



BY WILLIAM FREDERICK SLOCUM, JR. 



The political instincts of the people of the United States 

 have led them to seek the best possible system of public 

 schools, and the supreme motive for the expenditure of the 

 vast sums of money that have been voted with great willing- 

 ness for their foundation and their continued support has 

 been the education of the youth of the country for citizenship. 

 The final test of all citizenship must be an ethical one; and 

 especially is this true in a democracy where the stability of 

 its life depends upon the character of its citizens. With this 

 fact in view, it is pertinent to ask whether the public schools 

 are fulfilling the mission for which they were founded. 



There has been for some time an increasing interest in 

 the moral aspect of the public school problem. One indica- 

 tion of this is seen in the appearance during the last two years 

 of seven rather notable text-books upon ethics, especially 

 designed for schools of lower grade. The question that is 

 now asked, however, does not find its answer in any reply 

 given to the query raised as to the wisdom of publishing 

 these books, for it seeks to go behind the inquiry, Should 

 ethics be taught at all to boys and girls of the age of those 

 in the public schools? It asks whether the problem of public 

 morals is involved in the very nature of the system as such. 



No one denies that the education of the thirteen million 

 children in these schools has much to do with the destiny of 

 the republic, nor that the country has placed its future, for 

 good or evil, in the hands of the public school teacher. 



The church may have the capacity for the moral training 

 of the youth of the country; but, great as is its influence, the 

 ethico-religious movement is not at present far reaching 



♦Reprinted from The Atlantic Monthly, May, 1894. 



