The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1872-03-06
EDUCATIONAL.

The report of the United States Commits
sioner of Education gives the following
statistics number of school districts, 49,
$50 number of teachers employed, l05, IA;
number of pupils, 4,75O. .432 number OF
colleges. 337; number of theological SEMI
naries, 2S number of law schools, Is ;
number of agricultural colleges, lG; num-
Der of medical schools, 30.
PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION" ou
would, then, If / understand yOu," said l.,
shave the children learn English, even in
schools, by reading good authors, and by
writing down their thoughts the best way
they could, without regard to rulesy'
Yes" said he, ''under the guidance Of
teachers who, being taught to think and
feel themselves, know how to make the
children feel and think. How do you write
yourself? Do you square your elbows and
say, now l will illustrate my subject by a
metaphor? or, now l will be sublime &C
cording to the rules of the much-tO-be-dis-
commended Mr.. Quackenbos Do you
keep that vast abortion, Mr.. GoOld Browns
Grammar of English Grammars,' constant
ly by our side. and search painfully through
his ll02 pages to see whether by chance
you may not have violated one of his, say,
10000 rules? think you do no su IN thing.
You know well enough that the two con-
ditions of good writing are, first, clear
thinking, aud second, the command Of a
copious vocabulary, gained through Low.
ing familiarity with good authors. Now
would have that sort of training begin In
the primary school, just as would have
the children's training in science begin
there"
"Training in science begins in the prima-
ry scheol :" exclaimed |. ''Is it not enough
| to begin rhetoric there? You surely would
! not bring in all those formidable OlOgieS be
sides:"
"Indead would" said he; zoology
ornithology, entomology, ichthyOlOgy, pal
eOntolOgy, and all the rest of them. They
contain the very objects the Creator has pro
vided as the stimulants of childish curiOs' 'ty
and-what is not so often Observed-they
are the main and proper subjects on which
to b gin the exercise of the child's faculty
/ OF language. Which would you prefer as {
| his last shooting excursion, or girls fain
"reminiscences of last Sundays sermon on the
virtuolsness Of virtue? Are yeu going to bl
taken in by pedantic Greek names? Wha
| is entomology but catching and examining
| bugs? And can'ta baby catch q bug, an(
wonder at its curious form and ways? AnC
does not all science grow out of that very
wonder? What is the youthful mind curious
about-at least till we deaden 1t with ou;
prepesterous schools-but about these very
marvels of creation which we do our best tC
spoil for him with our learned jargon and
our grammar rules? Why, every village
school should be an AgassiZ museum In
miniature, and the children should be con
tinually writing learned memoirs upor
its contents-learned to them, though not
perhaps, to the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences"
"There is certainly something in what
you say" said l; ''and suppose, as yor
would haye natural history begun in the pri
mary school, you would have physical, and
perhaps mental science begun there too
for there seems to be no limit to the number
of studies you would introduce into thii
brave primary school Of yours ?''
"Indeed would" said he, "and In ont
sense there is no limit, save the possible
subjects Of human knowledge. Children
are even philosophers and metaphysician!
in their own childish fashion, and ask ques
tions sometimes which 1t puzzles their el
ders to answer. Iwould, therefore, include
philosophy among my primary-sch0Ol stud
les. And surely the unspoiled minds o
children are 'ot Imagination all compact,
and a first and foremost primary STUDY
should be poetry. Our schools ought to b
represented by series Of concentrfc circles
which should have the primary school for ,
center, and then the little human SOU
should take its first feeble steps in all direc
tions out into the vast domains of knowl
edge, and no farther In one direction thai
into every Other.-From English II
School," by WILLIAM ATKINSON, In Har
per's Magazine.
The discipline of our Public Schools
wherein punctuality and regularity are en-