Education and Any City appear before the curtain.
Any City. A very much exaggerated picture. I am sure that children never were so tortured in school.
Education. An exact picture of Dame Weary’s school in Colonial days. And you have not seen half the tortures inflicted on her hapless pupils as recorded in authentic records. When force rules, a despot reigns, and a despot can beget naught but despotism. The strong bullies; the sly escapes; the unscrupulous gathers the spoils. There is no foundation laid for a true brotherhood of man. In short, there is nothing in the teaching or in the discipline in a school of force that fitly trains pupils as present and future citizens of a democracy.
Any City. No, not in the school you have just shown me. But what of the little red schoolhouses? There we had true training. The pupils were not helped over-much. They had to solve their own problems. Those pupils could spell. Think of the good old-time spelling-matches! They could recite the orations of America’s great men. Those little red schoolhouses turned out scholars and patriots.
Education. All honor to the splendid men and women, teachers in the little red schoolhouses of the past! Far be it from me to decry in any way their work. But, methinks, the ruddy glow of the exterior and the mellowing influence of time have thrown a warm glow over the cold hard facts concerning the work that was carried on in the interior of these buildings. And, even if the little red schoolhouse was all that fancy has painted it, it has served its time; it is as inadequate to the work of training the boys and girls of to-day as are the primitive stones to the task of grinding wheat for the people of America in the twentieth century. You say that the little red schoolhouse turned out patriots. The first of these schools were built by English-speaking people who sought civil, religious, and educational freedom. They built their fort, their meeting-house, and their school at the same time. I tell you, the little red schoolhouse received patriots, patriots bred in democratic principles. Our schools to-day receive people speaking many languages, bred in ideals far removed from those of a republic. When you speak of the schools of the past, you think of the best; when you speak of the schools of to-day, you speak as if you knew only the worst. How long is it since you actually visited a real American public school?
Any City (embarrassed). Why, I—really—I must confess that I have not visited a school since I was a pupil. I left when I was in the sixth-grade.
Education (with light shining on tax paper). And you presume to pass on present day educational needs with a hazy idea of what education has wrought in the past, and absolutely no knowledge of what she is accomplishing to-day?
Any City shows signs of embarrassment and discomfiture, but does not answer.
Education. Come with me. We will visit a sixth-year grade of to-day.