The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-07-27
COMMUNICATIONS.
OUR COMMON SCHOOLS.
THE FIFTH THING.

/ A'hF> fitI THING.
Effort on the part of pupils is wanted in
all our schools. Five times more could be
learned in one winter term fIian is aearned.
Ihefe Is no doubt about this. Just let "A very
Naluaule reward be offered TO each pupil for
q special effort, and then see the result If
'ley can progress rapidly for rewards they
can without them. In our colleges pupils
oiteh have five or six StUdieS ut the same
lhle, Stleh as Latin, Greek, Geometry, Book
keeping, Algebra, Philosophy and History,
WAil heaVV lessons in EACH say n page in
Iasar or SaHust or one hundred lines in
virgil, and they learn ali their lessons. Some
oI IheSe pupils are quite young, the most b.
ing Doys OF from twelve to eighteen years OF
"Sc. How dO they learn so muCh2 They
study. Study is the only key to knowledge
Durihg my thirty-eight years experience in
tetGhlng, it was only occasionally that l met
WIN Wl'h pupils who studied hard. In the year
lofI a boy named Mclaughlin solved all the
sums IN The Western Calculator" in six
weeks, and explained one or two each dav
peSideS attending to other studies. In 1S43
young nau named McKeevcr went thro'
IuInInere's Surveying" in eight weeks
protractlng all the figures and entering in a
pook all the calculations. In 1870 a boy
named Ashton commenced TO study GCogra-
phy, and at first did not know what hem
iisphere was, or in fact anything about this
Ofdhch on study. In two months he could
repeat about one hundred definitions and
point To five thousand places on the outline
maps. These We're rare cases of progress
nAI Nilat has been done can he done. In
th2 NJ -nerSVille Normal School as much Is
learned in one dav rs is learned in any of
our schools i'll one month. Why cannot this
industry be transferred to our Common
NchnoisE Simply because the minds of the
pupils are not bent on study. but are roam
ing over the hills in Il semi-clairvovant state
nave known pupils in schools to spend
lour or i've months in learning to add, sub
tract, multiply and divide simple numbers
a task that ought TO be ACCOMPLISHED in
from IN,
seen reading lessons assigned to pupils of
one tt"e 10 each, when pupils the same age
Will translate a hundred lines in Latin. Read
ing Is acquired, like a knowledge of music,
by dlnt OF practice. Pupils should have die
hOnarleS at hand and should look for the
meaning of all words they do not understand
and they should not consider it a grievous
task TO do 50. Little bows who study Latin
have to turn the dictionary over a hundred
times every day. Why cannot English be
learned IN the same way? 1t is not for want
OF time Pupils have plenty of time to study,
especially III winter. The long nights afford
ample time to consult books, and the louo
walks in the country to school afford time 10
think their lessons over and over again
And this kind of study is of the heaIthfuI
kind. Let body and mind take exercise at
the same time, and no injury is done to either
Great men ami great scholars study more
when exercising than at any other time
Let the pupils of Cambria county make an
effort next winter to excel themselves and
to excel the children OF all other counties
around Begin the firstday of school Have
all the books ready, so that no time be lost
Keep at work from day to day. Labor at
night Methodize the studies Divide the
time properly. Make a greater effort each
succeeding day, and work as hard all the
time as people do on their farms or in their
shops. Teachers can aid pupils. but they
cannot study for them. The effort to learn
must be on the part of the pupil, while the
effort to teach must be on the part of the
teacher. Let pupils spell the name of every
thing they see; read great deal; count and
calculate, not only the problems in the books.
but the areas Of fields, the quantity of ium-
Der in a load of lumber, the number of cubic
feet IN cellar walls, plasteripg, brick work.
roofing, and everything that has length or
length and breadth, or length, breadth and
thickness. Do not stick to the book, except
to find rules. Think outside of the book for
1t is thinking makes the scholar.
ROB Roy.