The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-12-02
A WIDER COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION.

Education" and Harvard, Yale, Cornell,
and almost all the leading colleges of the
country are rivaling each other in the ener-
gy of dealing with one or other of the pro-
blems which the educational needs of the
times present. \ better balance between
the different branches of liberal education
a course of study at once wider and more
free, the admission of women to the same
educational privileges with men-these
questions, and many subsidiary ones, are
receiving due attention; and the next ten
years seem likely to work greater change
in the higher education in this country
than the previous century has done.
This is as it should be, and the move
an evidence of healthy growth in the
educational needs of our people. But it
would he unwise to ornament the super
structure of our system of education too
much without making sure of the founda-
ton. And is it not true that "new edu-
cation " is needed, not for our colleges
only, but for the common schools as we'll?
They are the basis on which the higher
education and our social and political sys-
TENS all rest. But small fraction of the
people ever go inside colleges, or even acad-
emies and high schools, and the average
intelligence of the people, which is the
measure of the strength and safety of our
social system, is largely determined by the
manner and matter of instruction in the
lower grades of our common schools.
1t is said that scholars leave the public
schools, on the average, at the age OF four
teen, or at about the period when, in well
graded schools, they would pass from the
grammer school to the high school. The
greatest immediate problem in education
then is, "What, and how much, can best
be taught in our common schools to chill
dren not over fourteen years of age9"
What is taught9 The course varies much
in different places; but the chief stress is
laid everywhere first upon Reading, Wri-
ting, and Arithmetic; next on geography
and Grammer. There is besides list of
some of them quite generally-like History
of the United States and Singing; some
only in exceptional cases, like Physiology
and Natural History. But all of these are
made of secondary Importance, and are too
apt to be looked on as sort of gratuity to
children who ought to be content with the
more universal studies. We hold that the
times demand wider education, and that
more be taught without frightening the
time of school attendance. To that end
time must be saved and we urge that too
much time is now spent in several ways,
and especially OH Arithmetic and Gram
mer. The science of arithmetic, if proper
ly taught, is not a very difficult one, and
yet it is made prominent, often the most
prominent, study in our common school
course from the first year Of the primary to
the last year of the grammer school, or for
eight or ten years. Can this be necessary?
Nay, is it not as great reproach against
common-school education as eight years
Latin and Greek are to college course?
The subject must be taught thoroughly, of
course, though it is hard to see the value of
circulating decimals and allegation alter
nate in any education, liberal or otherwise;
but we should make haste mole slowly, and
not force it to seon upon an unwilling men,
tai digestion.
Grammer is one of the most abstract of
sciences. Its theory is too difficult for
child of fourteen years, and correct speak
ing and writing can be learned best by
imitation and practice, not by rules. For
tunately, even teachers are beginning to
discover that the. English language has very
little grammer, and that most of the time
spent in teaching that little is wasted. The
time can not be far off when all instruction
in English grammer will be oral, and when
the ugly shade of Lindley Murray will van
ish from our school-rooms, taking with it
the whole pack of that authors metaphy-
steal and nOnsenscal rules OF syntaX.
For the time which can be saved from
these two studies there is abundant use.
No child of ordinary capacity should leave
school who has not been made familiar
with the leading events in his courntry's
history, and with the nature of the govern
ment under which he lives. Neither should
he be allowed to grow up, wholly ignorant
as too many graduates of our common
schools are, of the nature and functions of
the organs of his own body, and the simple
laws of health. Then there is the great
variety of topics Of scarcely less "practi-
cal" importance than arithmetic itself,
usually classed under Natural Philosophy
namely, the mechanical powers, and the
various manifestations of force in Heit,
Light, Electricity; etc. This department.
of knowledge should be enlar-e somew hat
beyond its usual boundaries, too, so as to
include knowledge of the constitution of
Air, Earth, and Water, and some of the
simplest chemical laws; that is, it should
include something of what is known as
age, can a knowledge of the rudiments of
Natural History be spared; and this study
as well as the last named, has the two great
advantages of being attractive to almost
all childrean, even from an early age. and
of cultivating the habits of obvervation,
which ordinary school education fails to
! do.
For the aesthetic culture of common
school children, there shonld be regular
and good instruction in singing, as there
already is in a great many schools, and the
| rudiments of drawing should be taught.
| The great success of the experiment made
| in Boston last year, of teaching drawing in
the public schools. seems to put its feast
bility beyond question. So much of music
and drawing, and great improvement in
the appearance of school-rooms by the
introduction of works of art, is all that
can now be expected in this direction.
| The subjects indicated should constitute
the minimum to be required. They are
not too many, and they do not necessitate
over-work for the ordinary child of four
teen. The instruction in each of them
should be full and thorough. If want OF
time is objected, the remedy lies in saving
the time now wasted by injudicious meth
DDS, of teaching. A much greater knowl-
edge is now needed by an ordinary farmer,
mechanic, or tradesman than fifty years
ago; and Reading, writing, and Arithme-
tic no longer constitute an education for
anybody. The progress of the ration
| req uires new education for all. And it
must be had, even at the sacrifice of old
traditions and systems.
Hearth and Home,
If you want to be IN good humoi
all the week, get your washing nicely done