The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-08-24
RitIln,oud 1ispatth,
THE CIRCULATION OF THE DISPATCH
is LARGER THAN THE COMBINED CIR
CULATI0N OF ALL THE OTHER DAILY
NEWSPAPERS OF THE CITY.
some Hints on Education from the
5+. West.

The city Of st. Louis possesses school
system IN some respects peculiar 10 itself
The two features of most general interest
are the co-education of the sexes in Its
schools, and system of parallel inStruc
ton in German and English in the lower rs
we'll as higher grades. According to the re-
port Of the Board Of Education for the
year ending July 81, 1870, and which, with
a wholly un-western tardincss, has just
been published, both these features o
the st. Louis school system are ap.
proved by the test Of experience. The
superintendent Of the st. Louis pub
lie schools is Mr.. William T. Harris
without further knowledge of him than
Is afforded by his reports. it is safe to say
that he is careful, observing, and thought.
full man. On the subject of the co-educa.
ton Of the sexes he speaks not only with
decision. but with enthusiasm. Passing
by Mr.. Harris's discussion of the theoreti.
cal claims of the female sex to be educated
in the same classes with the other, we i'll.
yite attention to his report Of the practical
gained in st. Louis. They are precisely
the opposite of the results anticipated-0
pfori-by those unfricndly to the system
MIR. Harris says:
discipline has improved continually
| with the adoption of mixed schools, =
not merely on the part of boys, but on the
part Of girls as well. The rudcness anG
abandon which prevail among boys wEer
separate, at once give place to self-restraint
in ihe presence of girls. The prurieut SEN
timentaity engendered by educating girls
apart from boys is manifested ly frivo
l0us and silly bearing when such girls arc
brought into the society OF the opposite
sex. This disappears almost entirely in the
mixed schools. In its place n quiet sell;
possession reigns. .. Ills found that
schools kept exclusively for girls or boys
require much more strict surveillance or
the part of the teachers. The girls, con
fined by themselves develop the sex.
ual tension much earlier, their i'm
agination being the reisniDg faculty
and not bridlcd by intercourse with society
in its normal form. So it is with boys, OF
the other hand. Daily association in the
| classroom prevents this tension, and sup
| plies its place by indifference. Sud
den likes and dislikes, capricious fancies
and romantic ideals give way to sober judg
mcnts not easily deceived by mere eXter
nails. This is. the basis Of that quiet self
possession alluded to, and it forms the mos
striking mark OF difference between til,
boys or girls educated in mixed school
and those educated in schools eXcl,lsivel,
for one sex. That the sexual tension b,
developed US late as possible, and that al
early love affairs be avoided, is the deside
ratum, and experience has shown that rs
sociaton Of the sexes on the plane of in
tellectual rivalry is the safest course to sc
cure this end.'
Mr.. Harris also believes that 'instruc
ton is greatly improved. We tint
girls making wonderful advances even il
mathematical studies, while boys seem tt
take bold Of literature better for the in!lu
ence Of the female portion of the class"
These are differences drawn by 4 practi
cal man from experiments made under hi
own direction, gradually introduced, ant
finally extended on large scale. The sys
TEN was first tried, where 1t was expected
TO encounter the greatest embatrassments
in the High School. 1t was begun ther
for purposes of economy and better clasSi
hcalion, and gradually won its Wa,
down into the other schools, by virtue O
its success. The testimony of Mr.. Harris
therefore, has an authority which canno
be denied.
The other feature Of its public schools
peculiar to st. Louis, is the method o
teaching German. In Cincinnati, where
there is large German population, and t.
some extent in our own city, the German
element is Isolated, either by combining Ger
man instruction to certain grades, or by
strictly German schools. In st. Louis, III
struction in German is commenced il
the lower or primary grades, and is car
RED on pdri pdSSu with instruction
in English. at first only oral instruc
tion, based on object teaching, is
employed, and from this the pupi
is gradually advanced to more complicated
methods. The study once begun is carried
| on in all the grades of the schools, and the
aim is to make the graduates of tho High
School not only well instructed in the Ger
man language, but possessed of some know
ledge of German literature, and capable OF
pursuing the studies further if they desire
The great merit claimed for this method i!
thai il tends completely to break down tht
feeling of separate nationality, and at tht
same time to encourage in pupils Of botf
races common interest in, and respec
for, the language and literature Of BOTH
| N. Y. Times.