File:Report (1906) (14756519576).jpg

Identifier: report00mary_37 (find matches)
Title: Report
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Maryland. State Board of Education Maryland. State Board of Education.
Subjects: Education Education -- Maryland.
Publisher: Annapolis (etc.) Annapolis (etc.) 1867-
Contributing Library: University of Maryland, College Park
Digitizing Sponsor: LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

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n with increasing persistency.They are entitled to a fair and frank answer, for they do not raisethe issue in the spirit of the hypercritical public busybody pursuingthe vocation of professional reform and flitting from one crusade toanother, as the limelight of popular sentiment may chance to shift.They are anxious and sincere inquirers whose deepest concern is thewelfare of their children, and it may as well be confessed, at thestart, that there is cause for their anxiety. For one thing, the trouble with our common schools is that tKeyare not common enough. Of late the educational atmosphere hasbeen clamorous with the cry: ^Democratize the common schools IWhile I may differ in my definition of the phrase from those who useit most, I am heartily in accord with the doctrine itself, as I under-stand it. To me this phrase means making the common schools morecommon; bringing them closer to the common people, adapting themmore practically to the needs of the great body of pupils; bringing
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STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 713 them into truer range with the life-work of the average boy and girleducated in them. Some educators may see in this statement a lowering of ideals.The gunner who sends his shots high above the head of the enemymay have exalted ideals of patriotism, but he would do his countrygreater service if he would lower his aim to a point where his shotstake effect. There is no denying that our public schools are doing too muchoverhead shooting. This may have a sensational, almost heretical,ring, but I believe that the soundest educators in the country willconfess to its truthfulness. The great Huxley declared that The educational ladder shouldhave one end in the gutter and the other in the university—and soit should. But that does not qualify the statement that our highschools, for example, have been closer to the colleges than to thepeople—nor does it render the fact less unfortunate. Probably thistendency to overshooting in our public-school educational system

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