Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/791

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EDITOR'S TABLE.

out the country. Dr. McCosh thus stated his main position:

"I don't propose that any portion of this $90,000,000 should be given to colleges. "We cannot aid all, and to select a few would he injurious. In regard to elementary education, the Northern, the Middle, and the Western States, are able and willing to do their duty. I venture to propose that in these the unappropriated lands be devoted to the encouragement of secondary schools. Let each State obtain its share, and the money handed over to it under certain rigid rules and restrictions to prevent the abuse of the public money. In particular, to secure that upper schools be endowed only where needed, I suggest that money be allocated only when a district, or, it may be, a combination of two or more districts, has raised a certain portion, say one-half, of the necessary funds. By this means the money may be made to stimulate the erection of high-schools all over America. These schools would aid colleges far more powerfully than a direct grant to them, as, in fact, the grand difficulty which colleges have to contend against arises from there being so few schools fitted to prepare young men for them with their rising standard of excellence. But I plead for these schools, not merely as a means of feeding colleges, but as competent to give a high education in varied branches, literary and scientific, to a far greater number who do not go on to anything higher. These schools, like the elementary schools, should be open to all children, of the poor as well as the rich. They should be set up, like the German gymnasium, in convenient localities, so that all the population may have access to them. They should embrace every useful branch suited to young men and women under sixteen and eighteen years of age—English composition, English language, history, classics, modern language, and elementary science. The best scholars in our primary schools would be drafted up to these higher schools, and thus the young talent of the country would be turned to good account, while the teachers in the common schools would be encouraged by seeing their best pupils advance."

The discussion that followed this speech brought out difficulties which the doctor had not considered, and, in fact, opened the way to the most vital problem of American education. The colleges of the country represent the old scholastic culture which took its shape at a period when popular education was not thought of, and culture was confined to the professional classes. These institutions are not holding their own at the present time. Their students are falling off, for the reason that there is a decline in the academies by which the colleges are fed; that is, as Dr. McCosh says, "the grand difficulty which colleges have to contend against arises from there being so few schools fitted to prepare young men for them."

But the cause of the decline of the academies is the rivalry of the newly-instituted high-schools, and these are the outgrowth and now an essential part of the common-school system. The modern idea of universal education has become organized in such a way as to antagonize the old college system. The common schools are not constructed upon the scholastic pattern; they aim to give to all a useful practical education, that shall he available in the common work of life. It was found that they did not go far enough in this direction for the wants of many, and so high-schools were organized in which the pupils of the common schools might graduate into the working world with a better preparation than the lower schools can furnish. It was stated in the discussion that but one in fifteen hundred of the population passes through college, while it is left for the common and high schools to educate the rest of the people. As the old academies disappear, therefore, the colleges seek to get control of the high-schools, to he used as feeders for themselves; and this, of course, necessitates a high-school curriculum fitted to prepare young men for college. This is the point at which the two systems are unconformable, and is to be the point of conflict in the future. What shall be the course of study in the high-schools? Shall it be a sequel to the common schools, or a prelude to the colleges, for these are different

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