274
��The Free High School.
��ing ornaments, to the flower-decked stage where she read her essay. Her parents weep tears of joy at the height she has reached. One or two of my friends renaark that it is ex- tremely creditable for a poor girl like her to have gained such an education. It might be, if it had been by any effort of her own. Not one sacrifice has she made to procure her learning. She has been a passive instrument in the grasp of the public-school system. She has continued her course because the school was pleasanter than any other place, because it cost nothing, and because she must always be dressed well to appear there. She lias had no industrial training : she could not very vvell have obtained it had she wished it, for the schools absorb so much of the time and ener- gies of their pupils.
Having once conferred its diploma, the high school washes its hands of its pupils. I felt somewhat concerned for Miss O'Hafferty. I wondered what she would do. I understood that, like the seventeen other girls in her class, she wished to teach. Even if I had not known this. I should not have dared to approach her with an oft"er of domestic service. No, indeed. By virtue of her much learning she is raised completely out of lier natural environment, and ex- pects to be forever freed from the necessity of toiling with her hands.
Some months afterward I was call- ed from my work by a summons to tlie parlor. I found Miss O'Hafferty seated therein. Having failed in her efforts to obtain a school, she had decided to become a book agent, and slie offered a gilt-edged volume for my inspection. I do not know what
��she will do when she finds that she cannot support herself in this way.
Here is another instance : The fa- ther is a painter ; the mother before her marriage was a dressmaker. They have a boy and three girls. The father has no idea of having his son follow his trade ; few American fathers have. At the age of fifteen the boy drifts into the high school because that saves the parents the trouble of deciding what other occu- pation he shall follow, and because they fondly hope that the learning acquired there will be in such demand that it will procure him a thousand- dollar situation immediately u|)on graduation. He graduates. After some months of waiting he becomes a clerk in a drv goods store at a salary of two dollars a week.
Since most Americans must work in some way for their bread and meat, it would seem that training for this work ought to begin during the school age. In large cities, where everything is carefully specialized, children often grow up without know- ing how to use their hands. City homes offer so few opportunities foi* manual labor that if industrial educa- tion is not provided in the public schools, we may have a race of beings born without digital appendages, be- cause their ancestors' have dwindled away from lack of use.
Some German schools pursue the admirable plan of instructing children from text-books during one half of the day, and from tools the other half. This system has results similar to those of the country district-schools. The children bring to their books sharpened wits and a persistency learned from a contact with things.
�� �
