The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-05-20
COMMUNICATIONS.
OUR COMMON SCHOOLS.


| branches, and they are taught only TO the
few. This is as true Of nearly all common
schools in the State as of our own. Now.
does this kind of education fit the rising
generation for future usefulness 1t does
not Many pupils leave school unable to
make any calculation correctly in square or
cubic measure, such as the plank in house,
the shingles ia a roof. the stone in a base
ment wall, or the plastering in house.
After spelling and reading and penuan-
ship are pretty well taught. every bov in
school should be taught bookkeeping. This
is what everybody practices during life. In
order to introduce this, blank books, pro-
perly ruled. should be furnished for every
school. Single entry should be taught to
every one, and double entry to the best
scholars in writing and counting.
Next to this the functions Of the circle
should be taught. The relation of sine,
tangent and chord. with all the other func.
tiops that enable one to count trigonoma-
tiically. The reason of this is that there
are many calculations which cannot be we'll
made without this knowledge. Some one
knows that road on his farm rises three
degrees, or that water falls three degrees,
and desires to know how many feet that
will be in mile. Such questions arise
every day in practical business
Again, surveying should be taught to all
who can count tolerably. Those who are
not far advanced SHOULD be taught to calcu-
late the contents of land by triangles, par
alelograms, trapezums, etc. while those
further advanced in arithmetic should learn
to make the same calculations by latitude
and departure Then laying cut and dvid-
ing land in certain proportions should be
taught. for the simple reason that nearly
every body owns land. These things can be
taught almost as easily as arithmetic, pro-
vided the teachers understand them. But
how many Of our teachers know that the
chord of 60, the sine of 80 and the tangent
of As degrees equal, anything about
the other proportions of the functions of the
circle. or of logorlnthims? There's the rub
Plotting surveys and drafting buildings.
ETC., should be taught. 1t is nice thing
to make the lines of fifteen sided tract of
land meet on paper, with the protracter,
and is a nice thing to draft a building, retain
ing all the proportions and putting in all
the ct ceferas. How many of our teachers
can do such things? Yet our scholars in
the common school should be Taught such
things ..-
Civil engineering should be partially
taught, at last. To take all the elevations
and depressions of coal fields. rail road lines.
etc, and calculate the carves according to
Gunter, as we used TO say at school. is just
what young men want ~ know now a-days.
but in the name of education where are
they to learn such tbings2
Grammar ought to be taught in our
schools. Some people say that it is taught
We deny it. The parts of speech is taught
and some silly, useless analyses. But the
figures of speech. transpOsition. elegance of
diction, ornate composition, and even para
graphing and punctuation, are not taught
! That grammar which will make the rising
generation useful as writer's, speakers and
teachers should be taught.
| Physiology should be ta1ght, especially
to females Many of our people who are
! teetotaIers in some respects. might learn that
there is not a more prevailing or dangerous
| intemper in the land than that Of going
all year with the feet clad in nothing bnt
gauze stockings ard cloth CATERS. Cold
/ feet-nay, even damp feet-are to be dread
! ed. Look at the annual victims Of consump-
| tioni The simple physiological fact that
the lungs are made to breathe pure air, and
! to breathe as much as they can hold, is worth
/ knowing.
Music ought to he taught. We do not
| mean sin ging without time, pitch, harmony
| or measure, but the science of music should
/ be taught. The blackboard is good place
| to draw long lines, make the staff, divide It
into bars, mark the clefts, sharps and fats,
shape the notes and place them on proper
letters, teach the scales. etc. Even practice
on an instrument might be taught to females
without interfering with other studies.
IF all these things were done people would
be more willing to pay tax and send to
school. But when it is known that the boy
who was half through his arithmetic last
year must begin at addition again, and
/ that nothing was taught this year that was
not taught last year, but little inducement t
| is furnished for exciting spirit of interest.
! We think we hear some one saying. "Give us
a chance" "We are only beginning" etc.
| Yes. we have been beginning for thirty-fve
! years, and we are still at the beginning
! The schools were established to fit men for
/ practical business, but after third of acentu-
| ry's experiment we see nothing but failure
Even the Philadelphia Board of Education,
says of that place, where schools ought to
/ be good, That the common school has
| failed, SO far, 70 make practical scholars -
/ If it has failed in the city what has it done
/ in the country
We write as friend of the system that
| was wisely designed to reach rich ard poor
! alike-wisely planned, but wretchedly exc
| cuted. The expenditure of six millions OF
! dollars in one State annually ought to be
| prolific of greater results, and would be if
the object was practical improvement. But
we fear it is not. When we see more than
a hundred thousand dollars thrown away
annually in paying officials who never teach,
! but who merely gather statistics that no.
body reads, and print reports that all have
read before, we see something that looks
more like gigantic swin0le than a common
school system. TIP.
JoHNsTowN, May Is, 1869.
! THE LADDER.
Mister Edfor-Did you ever go up and
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