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Show THE AID OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. The dispatches tell of the enlisting of the aid of the school children of New York City In tho enforcement of tho ordinance or-dinance against spitting on. tho sidewalks. side-walks. The menace to public cleanliness cleanli-ness "and health that Is carried In the befouling of the sidewalks In this manner man-ner is well known, and that serious peril results from such filth is fully proved. It Is, of course, altogether desirable to have the ordinance enforced. But Is it desirable to have tho school children put into the service by enlisting their aid in the work? Some arguments are in favor of it, but at first it strikes one as undesirable. However, when such authorities as President Darlington of the Board of Health and President Henry A. Rogers of the Board of Education Edu-cation unite In favoring the proposition, there can be no very vital reason against it. Indeed, tho argument is used that the school children, In thus taking up a public duty, assume the first obligations oi citizenship, and as the prime object of tho public school system Is to make the students cood citizens, it Is a good thing to engage them as early as possible pos-sible In some public work. In this view of It, an Important portion por-tion of the school curriculum ought to be to inform the pupils of the laws and methods of administration most closely touching them, and Imbuing them with the Idea that it is their duty to see that those laws are faithfully lived up to, not only by themselves, but by their comrades and acquaintances. This very Idea was set forth a few days ago by a prominent lawyer in this city, who also has for many years taken a keen Interest in the school system of tho country at large, as well as in the schools of this city. His Idea was that the laws more particularly brought to public notice here through their violation viola-tion should be explained to the scholars, schol-ars, particularly those of an age to understand, un-derstand, and that there should be teaching to the effect that such law-breaking law-breaking is reprehensible and the persons per-sons guilty of it are not good citizens. That is a further illustration of the idea about to be put into effect In New Yorlc And if it is true, as is generally agreed, that the prime object of our educational system is to turn out good citizens, then it is difficult to see why there should not be such teaching in the public schools, and why the school children should not thus early be trained in their duty as good, law-abiding citizens, determined not only to obey the laws themselves, but that others shall do likewise. It is a broad subject, the consideration . of which has hardly in fact begun. But that It ia an important subject is evident. evi-dent. That there would in general be a practically unanimous consensus of opinion in favor of the broad outlines of the policy of an early enlistment of the pupils in support of the laws, would probably not bo disputed. But it is certain that if undertaken j to be applied here, in the special direction direc-tion indicated, a friction would result- which, while comprehensible In view of known conditions, would kindle a fierce flame of " resentment, and would alienate a large fraction of the population popu-lation from the school system. |