The weekly Butte record., 1866-07-07
TFor the BUTTE RECORD
School Matters.
BIZ TIMOTHY o'rrxsER.

TIE majority o. County Schools in this State are
unclassided. And in consequence of the censura-
bic iua;tention to educational subjects shown by
most parents and trustees in the several Districts.
WILL am of the opinion. be compelled TO continue
SO for some time TO come. What attempts have
been made to grade interior mixed Schools, have
been attended hitherto with no remarkably oene6
clal results account Of the insgnfcance OF their
character County Superiniendents, Trustees and
Teachers, may have occasionally made feeble en-
deavors toward the graduation Of the Schools in
their respective counties Districts bat as nat
ural consequence Of the extreme carelessness in
Schools must look for assista nee and maintenance
all efforts of the kind have been unheeded and in-
efectual. They generally meet With disapprnba-
ton and opposition, from such possessed with
ideas whatsoever of the meaning of the WORD
classification or Of the advantages that must inev
itably ensue from it. Try to explain and they will
pirate necessarily and learnedly about economy aud
expense; express themselves sapiently and orac
ularly in regard to school matters "a if they
fully informed and familiar with all the details;
and finally conclude in the usual pompous style of
to their ssiisaction-that it is advisable to permit
them TO RI main as they are. As for Timothy, he
would rather teach graded School of 100 pupils.
than an ungr AIDED one of IS. The Lincoln School,
San Francisco, numbers nearly 1000 scholars, divi
ded into sixteen classes and managed by few
teachers, principally ladies, readily and easily
than an uncla>sided couLt Scool of 81 pupils
would be by single masculine pedagogue. But
where every third pupil comes with different
class book-one with Towns Speller another with
McGuff-y's Readers. third with Pixies Arithmetic,
a-half dozen Others with grammars, Biographies,
ETC.. by df erent authors-uniformity becomes i'm
possible. Another immediate cause of this is that
every parent will desire his children to study two
three branches to the total exclusion of all 9TH
ers. and the strict nunctions the teacher to this
effect render him absolutely unable to have uni
form school programme.
Eiocution and composition are sadly neglected in
most schools. No matter how competent the
teachers TO give instruction in these necessary
pupils commonly discourages any endeavors to
make them part of the ordinary school exercises.
They should be introduced into every School as
principal studies, because they constitute valua
BILE requirement and accomplishment. They
are arts which form rich source of intellectual
and add an increased attraction to the
common school routine. No young lady or gentle
man should consider their education completed
without having acquired fair proficiency in their
exercise. We may not all become Walter Scots.
Dickenses. Bulwers, Bancrofts. or Prescotts-Tlays
Websters or Caihouns-but do maintain that it is
in the power of every pupil of ordinary ability to
become ready writer and speaker.
But composition is the Cape that some can never
double. They will evade the task with consumate
ingen uity. If co-erced into brain work they will
in all probability. hand in some mental production
resembling that of papil in one of schools
He skillful in eludins all attempts at driving
into pate more like a sieve than a
knowledge box; but being constrained on one oc.
casion to write composition True Greatness"
astonished his teacher ana schoomates by present
ing paper in which he declared that Washington,
Napoleon, and Wellington, the greatest men
America ever produced. After this wonderful ex
erton of intellect the precocious youth voluntarily
collapsed.