Education monologue — The light: An educational pageant

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?