Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-01
The SCHOOL.
A Little Learning Beeomiug n Danger
cusEhfuE-Fhe Great Problems Of
b FufaEo-HOW Eenaphis
Feels Upon the sehO-
lastte Question.
PedasOgues and Pedantry, FeruIes and
Flash-GenerRE and HeteFOgene-
Gus Keeps of D~ryasdust-
The Lady Question.

49, 49, -
distributed and the coveted treasure be-
CONFESS as IL were, common property. fla
gold or diamond mine is discovered how
much blow is there over it and what
general and particular s~quabbling takes
place for months and years! Darwin
has discovered an invaluable mine in
the labyrinths Of human physiology,
and the world at once gets itself into a
big passion about it.. What fierce war
followed the first geologic discoveries? 1t
was piously thopghtSt that timethat the
pleocine period al combination with
primary rock would overthrow the dec
alogue. Then see what furious times
we have now about spiritism. The in
PRODUCTION Of the Nicolson pavement
was at first considered downright anti
Macadam blasphemy. We get along
tOlerably well with it now, and feel
comfortable in the reflection that II ia
c~ilitates the movement Of cotton in
Memphis in a wonderful manner
WHERE TO BEGIN AND WHAT TO
TEACH.
The question of education is still a
thorn in the kidney OF the public. 1t is
full Of all sorts of difficulties. Education
is a treasure about which the squabble |
still goes on. It has not vet been def
nitely fixed whether young babes ought
to be taught logics and the higher math-
ematics, or base ball, at the start. Why
"school-marms1 should commence with
a b c's, and not with an algebraic equa-
ton Of seven unknown quantities, IS
what emo fellah can find out" And
why the infantile mind is considered Ca
paciOus enough to take in lessOnsin mu-
sic, dancing, drawing, foreign language
- A. A.-L-.A-- a.sIa--C-l- -
native tongue, together with a
few hints on "deportment,n and a pro-
miscuOus pile of history, religion and
politics every day we have not vet
met a stickler for education that can
tell. Has any authoritative body de-
cided that do re mi is better for growing
girls of ten or twelve than practical elu-
cidatiOn of the mysteries of the cuisine?
Nearly all old, experienced ladies will
agree that a certain pretty taste in dress
ing goes a longer way toward making "a
woman charming and attractive than
almost anything else. In view of this
fact, Is it not una%ccOuntable that there
are no classes in public schools for the
PRONUNCIATION Of fashionable profundity? /
Where is the school in which lessons are
regularly given on the sad-irOn and the
washbOard2 What young lady leaving
a bOarding-schOOl, carrying a long, stiff
piece Of p~astebOard wrapped around with
a blue ribbon, and known as a ''diplO-
ma" can tell all the peculiar excellen-
ces of a stove, or demonstrate the gas
Economical Utilities of a pound of bacon?
AS there is a general fight going on
about education, it is but proper that the
press, the most effective educator in ex-
i~stence, should have a hand in it.
STUPIDITY IN THE sCHOOLROOM.
If this is an age of progress, let
US see that the spirit of progress has
free scope to act in every department
that is not already perfect. Let the in
quiry be set on foot to ascertain If women
would not do as well in the School
Board as men, and if as well in that
board, why not in the Adermanic
Board, the State Legislature, Congress?
In the way of education, for instance,
there are only q few names given of
great men who sought to discover the
meaning and extent of nature in refer
ence TO intellectual development. \
Swiss, of penetrative genius,
and Horace Mann wrote upon this topic,
and no doubt said some good things, but
still the system of education is a crude
one when it takes an ordinary student
or seventeen years grinding at
the hands Of "marm," pedagogue and
professor before he can get his diploma
Of master of arts, it appears that there
might be a few kinks and knots taken
out of the line. The path might be
straightened out a little.
A GOOD TINE TO REFORM.
Now is a good and marvelously proper
time to discuss this topic. There is a
in the very atmosphere presaged.
We are to have an election for School
in a month or so. Let the
people think at least two hours on the
important question, "What are
he requisites of a good School
VisitOr?n before voting. The great
questions of chastisement and
IF development of young minds, are only
yoing to be considered. 1t is a debatable
matter whether the rattan is beneficial.
VISITORS TO LAY DOWN THEIR
PRINCIPLE.
Let every candidate for the position of
School Visitor, be required to give his
Dr. her views on the rattan question; and
# IN favor Of the rattan, then how and
where it ought to be applied. 1t is nm
important and mOmentous question with J
who have children going TO
to know whether the rattan is to
be used judiciOusly, or used at all;
whether it is to be applied this way or
that. Let every candidate also give his
Or her views OF the proper system of
teaching; whether dancing is a neces-
sary branch of public culture; or, wheth-
geography ought to come in with
writing, or go out with geometry;
whether a child is to be compelled to
study ten or twelve branches of erudi-
ton at once, or 90 at the trunk of the
tree in the beginning, and wear out his
shins, so to speak, in trying to
climb up its rough bark. Above all, let
every candidate say whether poetry or
medicine is the most useful to mankind,
and whether a little learning is a dan
thing or not. Let them
come out with their cards e~Xpounding =
their educational faith. The matter Of
dress ought not TO be neglected. We
want a prOn0unciamientO on thin stock
ings and l~ow-necked dresses, and also
3 disquisitiOn on the relative merits Of !
the piano and the door mat. These are
questions, and ought not to be
overlooked. :
THE CH-ASTIsEMENT FEATURE f,
must be fully treated of. 1t is fraught {
with difficulties. Formerly, to pop away {
1t the pedagogue, from the safe ambush :
If q distant counter, was considered ex- /
morning sport-spirited, appe-
.izing, sRfe-and attended with great :
Improvement of the craftsmanship Of
he pupil. But for some reason or other, (
possibly from lack of pluck OF the high
Price Of ammunition, the custom has
apsed. The teacher is still, at intervals, /
JOmbarded with furtive and mysterious :
pins are skillfully adjusted in
lis chair, and he is liable to be contra
point blank by the "big girls"
But he is rarely tarred and
Gathered, and almost never shot,
fact which we cite with pleas
Ire, as evineing a gratifying revisiOn G
md ameliOratiOn of the educational gus n
oms prevalent in that region, comes h
eport Of a Georgia instructor who came Z
nto serious collision with a female pu- n
ii ion the subject of the photography
f the word marriage The tutor
maintained the correctness of the FORM
la .m~arridge;' thepupil, with great per- .
insisted upon the authenticity q
{ marriage and the dispute waxed so =
lot that a brother of the young lady en- =
cred upon the scene, and, after testi- L
wing to his im~partiality and freedom
rom bias by saying that he did not care
low 1t was Spelled proceeded to spin c
D gyratiOns of hostility toward the s.
who ineontinently fled, leav- a
ng the genealogical question IN Il
but the enemy in fun
Ossession of the field. BrOOding
pom this discontinue and still fired a
18th a noble desire to vindicate and o
aaintain the purity Of the English Ian V
a the teacher borrowed a neigbor- il
ne deriDger and wended his way to an
ndustrial evening "blow-out," known
4 those regions as q Communicating 81
here he found his refractory pupil still 3
assessed with irrational views of or n
biography, and there also doomed the Y
still dispassionate and unpreju-
iced as far as the literary aspects of the
uarrel were concerned, but still evinc- p
lg an energetic desire to ''put a n
eadr. upon the obstinate and IN al
sasonable pedagogue. This not IN Sd
inclination was frustrated p
v the explosion of the deringer, s
'hich deposited something like an nj
unce Of lead in the young mans elbow, q
no, thus plainly and expeditiously 8,
roved 70 have been IN the wrong, went
ONE, and it is believed to have adopt
| the teacher mode of spelling. "
The substitution of the birch and fer ~ =
lie by the deringer is an innovation = :,
hieh not even the widest zeal in the
lterests Of accurate scholarship, or the
tioDaI aDd apnrouriafe avarSion IN hiO