The Portland daily press., 1871-07-22

will surely show itself III the nation, Gambet.
ia says that France can be placed upon ee-
cure foundation only by properly educating the
great mass of the people He is right, and
there is 20 nobler work to which the states
man and patriot can devote himself than pop
ular education. - l-- ''''1'-
The poor agriculture of Maine, giving us the
present short hay crop, is mainly due to the
inadequate education which the common
schools have hitherto given the boys and girls
That education has been, in almost every point
literary; there has been scarcely an industrial
element about it from begirning to END. IL
met quite we'll the immediate wants OF the
people, when our land was new and produce
tive, when our manufactures were few and
rude, and there wa, no pressing demand for
skilled labor on the farm or in the workshop.
But that is all changed now; the times are
not as they were. The common schools, how
ever, 90 on as of old, pretending to teach the
same things. Let us acknowledge the dsa-
greeable truth; with few exceptional cases
that show Improvement the public schools of
to-day differ from those of twenty five years
ago only in using more aud larger text books
and giving poorer instruction. Yet tue times
demand better education. When our decay
ing farms began to call for skilled labor, we
gave them heroic dose of Arithmetic in the
shape OF Greenleai's National Mount Katah-
din. When onr multiplying manufactures,
brought into sharper competition with the
world, began also to call for skilled labor, we
gave them bigger grammars and bigger geog-
raphies. That is what we did, and nothing
MORE Publishers fattened and the State fam
ished.
Of all the overgrown text books, which have
been made without airy reference to the actual
4 wants of the people, AMI which have cursed
i the State of Maine, Greenleafs National
1 Arithmetic has inflicted the most damage. 1t
was the pioneer OF the Blunderbore giants IT
held its ground for some twenty years, until
the County Supervisor gave it the death blow.
More of precious time was wasted by the large
boys and girls over Greenleaf than over all the
other huge text books put together. 1t was
| the great bar to the successful introduction in.
o the common schools of the natural sciences
which bear upon agriculture; it shut out all
those studies which are of direct service to the
manufacturer and mechanic, and which all
regardless of occupation, should be. taught
Though Greenleaf itself has been driven out o.
nearly, all the schools, yet other oyergrowr
text books, of which Mount Katahdin was thu
pioneer, now stand in the way Of successful in
PRODUCTION of the new studies so urgently de
manded by the times. f.ss.s ..,,rst-.z.-.e
/ believe any cOnsiderate person, looking tn,
ground all over, will agree with me in saying
as have said before, (greatly to the amaze
ment, indeed, of Educator" who appears t,
be so much more concerned for the welfare O
book publishers than for popular education
and who SO venomOusly attacked me in tn,
columns of the PRESS sometime last month,
that Greenleafs National Arithmetic has don,
the State of Maine forty millions Of damage
Furthermore, believe any considerate person
will agree with me in saying, that, if suitable
course Of study, with suitable instruction, hal
been put into our schools twenty-five year
ago, when that impetus, which did not spent
itself for fifteen years, was given to public edu
cation in the old channels, the population o
Maine would have been one hundred thou
sanu, and her valuation one hundred millions
greater than they are to-day. Labor on tn
farm and in the workshop would have beef
vsstly more productive; our young men woul,
not have fed in such swarms from the State
And furthermore believe any considerat
person will agree with me in saying that tn
educational revolution which should hav
taken place twenty-five years ago. SHOULD no
be put off another day, if Maine is to make tn
most Of the possibilities before her. Into tn
schools must 60 whatever we wish to appea
in the State.
Our leading citizens who have the publi
confidence, should take this matter in han,
and determine now, as leading citizens did il
4 the past, what shall be the course of study il
the public schools Let the State be author
lied to secure the copyright of books adapte'
to this course of study, the publication an,
sale of the same being left to whomsoever ma,
choose to engage in the business. Let tn
school laws be revised in whatever other par
ticulars they may be found seriously defective
respectful. ly submit that these things shout
not be held as beneath the care of the frs
men of the State, whether they are engage
in public or private emyloyments.