Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-02-08

OUR WINTER SCHOOLS.

cHllufen, Inc winter term OF MANY QlS-
trict schools is now about to be commenc-
ed--Parents should not only use their in
tluence to secure for their children the
best teachers, but should see that they
have all the books and apparatus that will
AID them in their studies This will cost
considerable. But the cost of education,
as well as OF living, has much increased
OF late. The modern system of teaching
requires more books and other appliances
than the system formerly pursued but the
education of our children is the last de-
partment in which we should economize.
A good education is the best investment
we can make for thenl-the best inheri
tance we can leave them. We must keep
up with the times and conform to the
fashions of the day. 1t will not do to
complain that schooling, that different
studies and different methods are pursued,
and to say that we did very well on the
old plan. The world is moving, whether
it is improving or not, and we must move
with it, or we shall be left behind in the
race.
! There are some very important differ
ences between the school of TODAY, and
schools of forty and fifty years ago. Fe-
male teachers have taken the place of the
male teachers in our winter schools as
well as in the summer schools. Our nor
NAL schools and our high schools have
trained female teachers for the work of
teaching, which has now become a pro-
fession. Females now have higher wages
than males formerly had. They have
spent three or four years in fitting them
selves for the work. They have to pay at
least twice as much for board, and other
expences are in proportion, and they are
in general more thorough teachers than
males formerly We're, and why should
they be not paid in proportion? Instead Of
attending school five or six months in a
year, children now attend nine or ten
months and with better books, with the
blackboard and other apparatus, they 90
over the course of elementary instruction
by the time they reach the age of fifteen
or sixteen years, when those who are not
going to study professions or prepare them
selves for teaching, consider their educa-
ton completed. Formerly lads of four
teen or fifteen left the schools in the sum-
mer, and worked on the farm or in the
shop with their fathers, and attended
school in the winter until they were eigh-
teen or twenty. The same course was
pursued by many young women There
were some advantages in this. Their
minds were more mature. They were
capable of thinking and reasoning. They
understood better what they studied
Probably the last winter of their atten-
dance, when they generally reviewed
what they had previously studied, was
more useful to them than any two years
which had gone before, owing chiefly to
greater mental maturity.
Now all this is changed The young
men who remain at home on the farm, do
not attend school taught in the winter by
females. A large proportion of the boys
leave home for the city, or the mill, or
workshop, at sixteen. If they do not,
they spend the winter in some city mer-
camille school, attending to penmanshp
and bookkeeping. to fit them for the
counting room; or in schools oftechnology
or science, to fit them for some scientific
pursuit or for engineering, or some other
business than farming.
There is much greater demand for i'll
struction in the Natural Sciences than
formerly. Unfortunately this demand
has sprung up just at the time when fe-
male teachers have occupied the desks in
all our schools. They have not been
trained to teach the sciences. The teach
ing in the normal schools even, does not
fit them for this work. Here is defect
in our school system, which must be met
by more scientific training of female
teachers, or by restoring male teachers to
a portion of our public schools. Males
seem to have greater facility to acquire
and impart a knowledge of the natural
sciences than females, owing doubtless, in
some degree at least, to the more practi- |
cal direction that has been given to
hnir Of oh tha;,
application of observed facts.
The theory of our school system is that
our high schools are to furnish free in
struction in all the higher branches pre-
viously taught in academies and special
that only the children of more wealthy
could enjoy the privilege of such instruc-
ton. Owing to the change in teachers,
and to the greater demand for instruction
in the natural sciences, especially such as
will fit young men for engineers and skill
ed workmen in the merchanic arts, this
theory fails in practice Our high schools
were established to impart classical ill.,
struction and fit young men for college.
But this is found to require too great pro-
portion of the time and labor for two or
three fitting for college. In school of fifty |
scholars, it requires at least two hours daily |
of the teachers time, leaving but four
for the remainder of the school, which is
obviously unjust. Instruction given in
schools wholly devoted to classical studies,
is, in the nature of the case, better than
can be given in our high schools, where
the attention of the teachers is given to q
variety of branches. Hence very few
boys go from our high schools to college.
They must all spend from one to two
years at some classical school, or under
private tuition. Those who need scien-
tiiic instruction, spent the last year of
school life at the school of technology or
some other scientific school. Our system
then fails in his respect.
We would not say word against our
free schools. They are the glory of New
England. To them are due in great de-
gree, the character and prosperity of our
people. They are preparing thousands
OF our young men and women, who never
go to any other schools, for the business
of life and the duties of citizens But we