Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1908 — THE PUBLIC SCHOOL IN AMERICA [ARTICLE]

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL IN AMERICA

A Most Remarkable Evidence of Pro-) gression. ' Within the last decade there have been so many addition's of departments of education that training in the chosen lines of one’s vocation is an absolute necessity. The time has gone by when “ignorant, self-made men” are possible. There can never be any more successful uneducated -men or women in this country. Money getting will always be a ruling passion with Americans, says Mrs. John A. Logan in the New York American, but the standard»of requisite knowledge has been raised and hence decreased the opportunities for suc-

cess of untutored minds. State and national governments and phllanthrophy have provided for the free education of the public, while experience, native intelligence and have inspired persons of means with" the highest ambitions for the education and -training of their sons, daughters and wards. In every community the educational idea prevails and seems to inspire old and young with an Insatiable desire for knowledge. Statisticians have estimated that •there are in the United States 18,000,000 students engaged in the various schools in the business of acquiring an education, some for the love of learning, a majority for the purpose of fitting themselves for useful careers. Including all educators, from the university and college presidents down to the “district schoolmarms,” there are more than 500,000 men and women engaged annually in teaching the students in our various educational institutions. The facts seem tq justify the statement that the teachers in American schools are second to none in the world.