“15. We have seen that the state allows no private competition in school affairs. It employs its own teachers. All of us also know, if we have ever given it a thought, that the church and state are quite separated in _theory_, but not so much so in _practice_. The teachers of your public school, who desire to retain their position, must sharply and closely follow the course of study adopted directly by the state, and indirectly by the church; and any teacher who deviates from that course, or who attempts to improve on it, from knowledge gained by his longer personal experience, is very liable to lose his position and be branded a heretic and a rebel. Thus you see that thousands of your best and most thoughtful public school teachers are prevented from teaching their best thoughts and their noblest sentiments. Under the head ‘How the transition from the old to the new order of things was accomplished,’ I shall tell you more about this last great evil. “I have here enumerated fifteen vital defects, all of which are fundamentally opposed to the harmonious production of a just, kind, self-reliant, complete individual. Every one of these fifteen defects tend to make mere grown-up babies of your young ladies and gentlemen. But let us not flatter ourselves that these fifteen defects are all, for there are countless others even too numerous to suggest, a few of which will suffice to illustrate my meaning. You have too much booklearning as compared with your practical teaching. Your school-work is nearly always too difficult for young children of their mental capacity; it stunts the youthful mind. Your crowded school-rooms, in which your so-called ‘bad boys’ and ‘bad girls’ are often playing tricks, and in which some are talking and reciting, are no fit places for study. Under these conditions, the mind can not concentrate its powers on the subject to be studied, etc., etc. But let us now return to the general criticisms to this broader and deeper field of instruction.” “But let me ask you, Mr. Midith, how would you get rid of these defects?” asked Rev. Dudley. “The only way you can get rid of them is to outgrow them. First, the masses of your people have to learn that there are defects, and then they have to learn to appreciate _truth more_ and _partyism less_. A system of education is a growth and not a manufacture. I have given our system of education, which does not contain any of these defects and faults, and that is all the guidance I can offer on this point as well as on all others. But I am not yet through criticising. I have not yet entered the more general fields which I shall now endeavor to do.