Remarkable Indictment of Our Public Schools

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 8, 1908

Remarkable Indictment of Our Public Schools

Probably nowhere else can the general effectiveness of our public schools be so well gauged as at the government academies at West Point and Annapolis, remarks Col. Charles W. Larned, of the Military Academy, since “their candidates are drawn from every Congressional district of every State and Territory in the Union, and largely from the class of our citizens who send their children to the primary and high schools

supported by the States.”

Applying the results of this year’s entrance examination at West Point as a measure of our public-school efficiency, Colonel Larned reveals a most depressing condition of affairs. Out of 314 who took the examination, 265, or 84 per cent, failed in one or more subjects; 209, or 66 per cent, failed in two or more subjects; while 26, or 8 per cent, failed in everything. The subjects in which candidates are examined are: elementary algebra through quadratics; plane geometry; English grammar; English literature and composition (very elementary); United States history (high-school); general history (high-school); geography (descriptive, common-school). The minimum mark allowed in any subject is 66 out of a possible 100. To quote further from Colonel Larned’s paper, which appears in The North American Review for September:—

“Examining the failures by subjects, it appears that 154 failed in algebra, 44 per cent; 237 in geometry, 67 per cent; 129 in grammar, 37 per cent; 144 in composition and literature, 40 per cent; 73 in geography, 21 per cent; 54 in history, 15 per cent. . . .

“Out of the 314 examined mentally it appears that 295, or 90 per cent, have been educated in public schools, and that the average number of years of attendance in these schools was nine years and eleven months. Separating this into primary and secondary attendance, we find that the average attendance in high schools was three years and three months; and in grammar schools, six years and eight months.

“One hundred three candidates had private schooling wholly or in part; 135 had college education of one year or more; 189 studied the classics. Of the 135 who had gone so far as a college education of one year or more, 82 failed to enter. Eighty-two failed and were rejected on physical examination, and 18 were placed on probation; making a total of 100 physically defective. . . .

“That 314 youths, nearly all trained in our costly public schools, with an average of almost ten years’ attendance (supplemented in the case of one third of their number by private schooling, and in the case of 43 per cent by college training) should show 84 per cent of failure and the various deficiencies analyzed above, is surely a state of affairs that should make the judicious grieve, and our educators sit up and take notice. That about 30 per cent of these lads were physically unfit is, perhaps, the most serious feature of the exhibit.”

The results, says Colonel Larned, indicate a weakness in our methods of instruction which must result in “a vast waste of time on the part of a great portion of the student body;” and he emphasizes his argument by citing a number of “shocking examples” from which we select the two following for quotation:—

“‘F,’ from New Jersey, had been ten years in grammar school and five months at a technological high school. He made in algebra 33; in geometry 15; in grammar 36; in composition and literature 46; in geography 52; in history 52—failing in everything. He was under the impression that the Seine is in northern Russia, the Ebro in western France. He writes ‘orbet,’ ‘gess,’ ‘orther,’ ‘cival,’ ‘barbarious,’ ‘cural’ (for ‘cruel’), etc. He conceives of Rome as embracing ‘all Italy the Holy Land or Jerusalem;’ and of feudalism, as ‘one family making war on another in their castles;’ of the War of the Roses as between Cromwell and the king; of the Reformation as the changing by the people from ‘the evil ways to a more Christian way of living.’ He is severe on the Inquisition, which he reprobates as ‘barbarious methods resorted to in order to try and a person’s religion, these methods were very cural.’ As to the causes of the war for the Union, he judges that ‘slavery was the main aggrization. So Carolina done most of the disputing and finely conceded’—which can not be gainsaid. His grammar is no less original in conception. ‘If—is an infinitive. It gives ground to make the sentence possible, and if removed causes to become inoperative.’ . . .

“‘M,’ a young man from Mississippi, of good family, after eight years of mental effort—five in the grammar school and three in the high school—made a clean sweep of every subject. In a buoyant flight over the fields of general history, he finds Athens and Spärta ‘on the Tigress.’ His memorandum on the Spanish Inquisition is a model of succinct statement: ‘Spanish king tried to make every one join the Catholic Church, but the Spaniards protested against it and was carried as planed by the king.’ In geography, he is without bias or partiality. Cape Cod is assigned to the eastern coast of North America; Look-out to the northeast coast of Brazil; Hancock, to Japan. The Ganges goes to South America; the Ebro, to Austria; the Seine, to England; the Dnieper, to Canada. Hongkong does duty as the capital of Japan—a sinister suggestion; Cuba settles west of the Philippine Islands, with Hawaii just north; while the Kongo River, disgusted with the performances of his Belgian majesty, flees sadly to China.”

Says the writer, in conclusion:— “Thirty per cent of physical deficiency in our youth is a condition of our civilization which may well give concern, more especially in view of the increasing tendency of population to urban centers. What are we going to do about it? Does education have anything to do with it; and, if so, what does an educational system amount to that shows this percentage of deficiency in its output? If education is concerned with mental development alone, it is fair to ask: If 16,596,503 boys and girls, taught in our public schools at a cost of $376,996,472, average no better in intellectual attainments than is evidenced by the foregoing, does the result justify the outlay and the ten or more years’ apprenticeship of youth it demands?”—Literary Digest.