Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-08-08
MODERN CULTURE.

uOOu sui
NO time have more serious attacks been
made upon all systsmsof~ education, and
those, too, by eminent men, and at no
time have more eminent thoughts been
offered and discussed by those capable
Of dirsstiug them thoroughly and i'm
partially. Il is only n few weeks since
we called attention to the "Inquiries"
of the venerable DR.. Bigelow, in which
he showed the fearful mistakes in the
entire school system of Massachusetts,
with the ftightfnl ravages of
the murder of the ~Iunocents by
Herod was according to him, but muir
der On q small scale. Preceding this
was the pamphlet of DR.. Youmans on
the Scientific Study of Human Ma
which awakened great attention
last Fall, and we presented u readers
with the substance of it. But the new
volume by DR.. Youmans, on "The Gull
ture Demanded by Modern Life" just
published by the Appletons, lisa work
that ought to be studied by every parent
who has a son to educate, not only on
account of his own Introductory and
concluding essays on this subject, but
IS bringing together the testimony Of
many of the men whose names stand
high for mental activity in this age in
connection with the claims Of scientific
education. Among these papers are es-
says and addresses by DR.. F. A. P. Bar
nard, President of Columbia College,
John Stuart Mill, Professors Tyndal,
Huxley, Liebeg, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir
John Herschell, ETC., all published with
in a year or two, on the claims and
methods of education. These will show
parents what q difficult and responsible
work they have before them in prepar-
ing their children rightly to enter life.
But what Dr.. Youmans himself has
written is better worth considering, be-
cause more condensed, clear and pro-
found.
All educational inquiries assume that
as man is individually improbable, he
is, therefore, collectively progressive.
Thought refuses to be stationary, inssi-
tutious refuse to change, aud hence
comes the warfare of the old and the
new. The number seven was supposed
to be mystical and sacred, and as there
were seven deadly sins, and seven car
dinal virtues, and seven sacraments,
and days in the week, so the course of
liberal studies must be seveu-the Tri-
vium, consisting of grammar, logic and
rhetoric, and the Quadrivium, consist
ing of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy
and music. or course the modern
sciences, botany, zoology, physiology,
political economy-to say nothing OF
geology, miueralogy, etc.-could find
no place in such a scheme; and DR..
Youmans complains that in nj colleges
and higher courses Of education the old
system had been handed down with but
slight changes from age to age, and has
bred "a regular ant of education"
The exclusive claims of the dead lam
guages and the mathematics as the
great educators of the present genera
ton are very boldly challenged, and
the claims of modern sciences put forth
in their stead.
There is one fault in nearly all educa-
ton which cannot be too much pro-
tested against or Toe soon corrected,
namely -crowdiug the memory with
details of uudigessed facts, and with a
number of technical terms or proper
names not understood or carrying with
them any distinct sense. To begin with
the most simple and well understood
ideas, and lead the minds Of youth in
diligently through the most important
and connecting outlines Of ideas, by
which one fact or branch Of knowledge
is united to all others that is edu-
cation, and as long as the mind
itself is growing and connecting, the
terms by which it does this will be re-
membered easily and naturally. But
where useless details are crowded and
forced upon the memory of childhood
they wear out the attention Of the
young, produce disgust with learning
and study, crowd out other more i'm
portant knowledge, and ipjure the mind
irrsparsbly. As the young have more
sciences to study, the principles Of them
must be reduced to the most simple and
general terms possible, and the minute
details not crammed into a child's
memory as is common with our schools
now. We will say nothing here about
the best way of studying, of English
spelling and vocabulary; but the old
plan of learning page after page Of the
Latin vocabulary, words often not
wanted for months or years, and for
gotten before then, was barbaroas. But
let US take geography. There is some
thing perfectly awful 10 the minute
facts and detailed figures crammed into
the minds of children and young people,
from the last census (ofteu some Older
%census) in most of our large geogra-
plies. Whole pages of figures are forced
into q child's memory as geography,
when even long outgrown and untrue
in fact. The length Of rivers, and
height Of mountains and VOLCANOES even,
would be near enough in round thou
sands and hundreds Of miles or feet.
And yet pale, sickly children are killed
at school yearly by fierce competition
details such as these in every study,
L.,f sf vhych ara false mr. useless, This