Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-09-11
THE RUTLAND HERALD
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1878.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.


OF all the weeks in the year, the first
IN Sentember has become to be the most
active of all, in the gathering of bright,
rornr faces, to the school rooms after
,be summer vacation, there to lay the
forpdation of a successful business life.
We have met them day by day in the
streets of our village, as they gaily wend-
ID their way to the school house, some
81 intent on their lessons as to be study
inc their books upon the street, without
losing even the time to go from their
homes to the recitation rooms, while
others were cheerfully chatting about
tbe sports and annoyances Of their every
day life. and working out in imagination
heuncertain problem of the future, by
atless expression of the hopes and ex-
pectations of their lives, when these days
of childhood and youth shall be gone
with them forever, and they shall as
slme theresponsibilities of life, and send
their own children to school, as they
themselves are now going.
These school children who are so in
tent on anticipations of the future, al
though they little know it, are engaged
in the various purposes they arc talking
of, the preparation Of their growing
minds and bodies for that time when the
burdens of society, of business, of gov
eminent and of domestic life shall be
laid upon their shoulders. The acquir-
ing of facts and rules that enable them
10 lead in the recitation room, or the
examination at the close of the term, is
of very minor Importance, when com
pared with the discipline and habits of
mental concentration that wilh all
through life, enable them in the shortest
possible time to utilize every subject and
thought that is presented for their con-
sideraton, and by the activity and eX-
clusiveness of their, reasoning. form cor
rect judgments. The memory and the
reason need to be trained to their highest
activity in systematic channels, where
every experience will be made most ad-
yanlagcous in working out the problems
of life. e-"
Much as our schools are improved
year Iy year, we can still see many de-
fpcts In them We are aware that there
is quite difference between suggest
ing defects, and suggesting a reason
able reform, and we should have
great hesitation in putting forward
any scheme Of education, lest upon that
severe criticism that ought to be applied
70 It, there should be found errors that
more than counterbalanced all its adj
yantages. But while we recognize our
inability to work out reform, we trust
that our experience in the need Of a
higher culture and better education,
fully qualities us to speak of what defec-
tive education fails to do, and that so
far as we have learned of the evils of
misSpent youth, we should raise warm
ing against the same failure for others.
In our Judgment, our scholars are cram
med too much with facts and authorit-
les. Some teachers while they instruct
their pupils that text books are only
guides, and should be freely questioned,
insist that their own ipse dirit, must be
received and not questioned. Now we
meekiy urge that the teacher should
court the same criticism and examinar
fiNp r. g. f,,cL,.rf,tsrNso ha iayTc
down, as those found in the text books,
and that he should feel that he is maxi
ing progress every time an error in his
precepts are discovered and exposed by
his scholars.
II is a humiliating fact for our schools
that the largest proportion of the great
est original thinkers, are not those who
have received the highest advantages of
systematic teaching, but are rather men
and women whose intellectual powers
have been trained in poverty, away from
all schools, and have studied and mas
tered the arts and sciences, while earning
their bread at some manuel drudgery.
Rlihu Burrett mastered many languages,
and become one of the finest linguists OF.
his age, while working at a blacksmith's
forge. Farrady, the philosopher of Eng
land, lived and died without any mathe-
matical instruction, yet he outshone all
modern investigators in field where
mathematical knowledge was thought
TO be the most indispensable. These ex-
amples might be multiplied; and they
Illustrate the necessity of different. in
struction. Scholars should be taught
that they can solve with facility any
original proposition that may be pro-
pounded, so they can attack andeonquer
the unknown, instead of glibly reeiting
what has been learned to them. The
best educated can never knows tenth or
hundredth of the wisdom of the world,
and the pupil is best prepared for the
struggles of life that can most success
fully work out and utilize the new oues-
tons he encounters, that are not taught
IN schools, and we plead for such
course Of instruction as will make the
fireworks of the examination room SUI
bordinate to a practical ability to over
come new obstacles as they arise in the
uncertain battle of life.