Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-10-21
Common Schools.

IN nlgO terms OF our tuuca'loHdt au'a"-
tages. And we induce ourselves, by this
habit of speaking into the belief that our
School system is about what it should be.
But our good Secretary Adams comes
around once a year and says some things
about improvements in our common
schools.
When he begins TO talk we shrug our
shoulders and sit little uneasy; but as
be proceeds we become aroused and in
tercsted. We admit the defects and have
a good laugh over the amusing blunders
he points out. True, it is little humil-
iating that it really appears fact that
poorer readers and spoilers are being
made by our schools now than years ago.
1t is little too bad that words of the
most common use should be frequently
missed by whole row of teachers on
examination day and that the ears of
the superintendent on visiting the schools
should detect, as the current talk of the
/, school room, expressions like this The
teacher says to class after recitation -
"How fur can you git? q say it pro-
duces little momentary uneasiness to
him that there are defects in our school
training that produce such results as
these among those whose opportunities
have been best, and who are supposed to
have made the best use of their advanta>
ges, since they aspire to the high office
Of teacher, But we seem to comfort
ourselves about this matter very soon 3
supposing that TO know the evil will be
sufficient, we seem to expect the remedy
to be forthcoming of its own accord or,
to think the evil small one, and though
the spelling. book made up the backbone
Of education in old times, now it is not so
much in use and what the teacher
knows of algebra and National Ar
ithmetic' and the Sciences short,
his learning will more than make up for
his not being very good speller, nor
reading very dnderstandingly. Hence,
we are quite willing to let the whole af-
fair alone ourselves, and let Mr.. Adams,
or some superintendent who is little
harder than others, point out what is
wrong.
We al most only say, "the hit was a
good one, and the teacher deserved it !"
provided the blow does lot come too IN
comfortably near US.
But we ought to 60 into our own
school houses and see if these errors in
education are not being practiced upon
our own children. If they are, we ought
to reflect that this wrong teaching is not
TO end with the simple blunder-it is
fruitful of further mischief 1t may be
that the teacher who spells faulty, and
reads without expression, has never yet
learned the alphabet of any science, so
that be can put its syllables correctly to-
gether, and cannot comprehend at all the
language it speaks though he may utter
one after the other the words of its rules.
1t may be fact that the great learning
so commonly shown in the solution OF
difficult problems comes from special
study of these questions and their given
forms of solution. The h0V is remem-
bered-the aChy not thought of; hence
there can be no real explanation. All
that can be said is to tell aChdt has been
done. The only reason that can be Civ
en- for it is that it will get the answer.
Now it happens tina! in practical life
those old branches of learning, reading
and spelling, and spelling, are of prima-
ry Importance. To be able TO give the
thought of the printed page with just
clearness and life, is no mean acquire
ment. To be able to write a page of al
letter without errors in spelling is, it,
must be confessed, rare attainment
among those now quitting our schools
Cor active life. The mathematical ques-.
lions Of life are not so much where, ia a.
triangular garden, a ladder must be-
placed TO reach the top Of three towers
in the corners, as they are TO show how
many gross of pens can be bought for 81
when they are cents dlzen. If any
body doubts which of these questions
will meet with the readiest solution lett
him 60 into our schools and academies
even, and read the one from Greanleaf,
and state the other without any book
The result will be curious. But the fact
is, questions of practical life have not
the dnsocer given, and many Of them do
not appear to come under any of the
rules in the books. They must be solved
by minds that have the artificial power
to put them under the principles to
which they belong. In the kind of train
inn cnitad IN oiva The noyror s,.. II 1 Il