aginable. They need intellectual tools to work
with, and not a smattering of science, botany, drawing and political
philosophy to forget as soon as possible. Pure culture studies are not
a practical gain for them, while the time consumed in pursuing these is
so much taken away from a thorough training in the essentials. Lectures
on science, elementary experiments in chemistry, kindergarten
instructions in water color painting, these are as much in their place
in the education of the average child as an ivory-handled gold pen in
the hand that wields the pick-ax.

A boy is better off learning a trade than cramming his head full of
culture fads; he is then doing something useful and profitable on which
the happiness and success of his life will depend. By the time his
companions have done dabbling in science and have come to the
conclusion that they are simply being shown how ignorant they are--not
a very consoling conclusion after all--he will have already laid the
foundation of his career and be earning enough to settle down in life.
He may not be able to talk on an infinity of subjects about which he
knows nothing at all, but he will be able to earn his own living, which
is something worth while.

If the free high school were more of a business school, people would
get better returns for their money. True, some would then be obliged to
pay for the expensive fads that would be done away with; but since they
alone enjoy these things, why should others be made to pay for them who
cannot enjoy them? Why should the poor be taxed to educate the rich?
Why not give the poor full value for their share of the burden? Why not
provide them with intellectual tools that suit their condition, just as
the rich are being provided for in the present system? The parochial
high school has, in several places we know of, been made to serve as a
protest against such evils and as an example that has already been
followed in more than one instance by the public schools. Intelligent
and energetic pastors, knowing full well the conditions and needs of
their people, offer the children a course in business methods as being
more suitable, more profitable and less extravagant than four years
spent in acquiring a smattering of what they will never possess
thoroughly and never need in their callings in life. It is better to
fill young minds with the useful than with the agreeable, when it is
impossible to furnish both. Results already bespeak the wisd