hich "one teacher
teaches from twenty to thirty classes a day;" against "courses of study
ill-adapted to the interest of country children or the needs of country
life;" against "a small enrollment of the total children of school age,"
and a school attendance so low that "the average of the entire school
population is only 80-1/2 days per year."[15]

The tone of these statements is certainly not reassuring. Perhaps it is
high time that the citizens inquired into the status of their
educational securities--their public school system.

V Have We Fulfilled the Object of Education?

The object of education is complete living. A perfect educational system
would prepare those participating in it to live every phase of their
lives, and to derive from life all possible benefit. Any educational
system which enables men to live completely is therefore fulfilling its
function. On the other hand, an educational system which does not
prepare for life is not meeting the necessary requirements.

Charles Dickens, in his characteristic way, thus describes in "Hard
Times" a public school class under the title "Murdering the Innocents:"

"'In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but
Facts.'

"The speaker and the school master swept with their eyes the
inclined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in
order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them
until they were full to the brim. So Mr. M'Choakumchild (the
school master) began in his best manner. He went to work on this
preparatory lesson, not unlike Morgiana in the Forty
Thieves--looking into all the vessels ranged before him, one
after another, to see what they contained. Say, good Mr.
M'Choakumchild: when from thy store thou shalt fill each jar
brim full by and by, dost thou think thou wilt always kill
outright the robber Fancy lurking within, or sometimes only maim
him and distort him!"

Is the picture overdrawn? Are there grades in our large American cities
where conditions similar to those just portrayed may be found? Every
parent who has a child in the public schools, every taxpayer who
contributes to school support, has a right to a direct, impartial and
honest answer to that question.

Among educators as well as among members of the general public a spirit
of educational unrest has developed. Everywhere there is an ill-defined
feeling of dissatisfaction with the work of the