Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1873-03-12
A SeasOnable Talk with Teachers.


Before many weeks The disiric, schools
will have opened again for the Summer
term. The children will gather once
more to resume the iuvsriablc round OF
reading, writing, geography and sriihme-
tic. IL isthe same old story. term after
term and year after year; and il is no won.
der that even bright boys and girls some
times fsd it a dull routine. Especially is
it so when the schOol-ma 'am simply keeps
school aud 'hears lessons without teach
ting at all Not that the keeping and the
lesSon.hearing are not part Of the teach
er's dnty; but We mean to imply thst they
do not constitute the whole OF it,-that
both these things combined do not make
a teacher. ..a.. ... ..-.
When VIC consider how much time is
devoted to the two staple studies, arith-
meIic and geography, and Jet how poor
training and outfit in them is furnished in
most schools, We are disposed to inquire if
better use cannot be made of portion.
at least. Of the time usually assigned to
them. 1t is jnsi possible that geography
is introduced to soon-ihat is, geography
as generally first presented, in text.
berk; and also the processes of logical
MISUNDERSTANDING and the rcst--6nd
place at too early point in theN educa-
tional course. Certainly the average out
come seems slight, when we consider at
what an outlay Of time and labor i, has
been produced, 1t is safe to say that both
these branches could be deferred for Two
years, and grammar for still longer pc.
riod, and yet the pupils be furnished at
the age of fifteen, with tnler and more
scientific and norc useble knowledge of
all three than they now possess. The
poverty ofresults accruing from, our schools,
as now managed, is due patty to false
and unproductive methods of instruction.
hut partly also to the fact that the ct time
for beginning these studies is uuwisely an
ticipated. Weariness and disgust arc The
too frcqae Mt rasults of the effort to farce
the infant mind. Unable to grasp the
subjects presented, getting but empty
words in place of ideas, failing to get
through the husk to the kernel. it con.
ceives an indifference or an aversion to
the uncomprehended science that seldom.
often never, wears wholly away ..u ..
But what does the ordinary graduate
of the public school-say it fifteen years
know Of the world in which he finds
himself? How unskiled he Is in the
three Rs everybody can testify. He
finds himself surrounded with countless
objects of sigh. and touch, with most of
which he has the slenderest acquaintance.
The curiosity that was SO qnick and rest
less at the age of FIVE, Is now langlid,
lstlcss, all but dead, repressed by the ar
tGcial drill of the school-room. Before
the school seized upon him he was ever on
the aler,. al! eye, all ear; experimenting
with touch ana taste; by actual trial solv-
ing his own questions SO far as he was able;
and puzzling his elders by his incessani
What and How. ........t. ...,.
He was working out his own education
hour by hour, getting wider knowledge
of things. and by contact with thurs con-
ftantly developing and strengthening his
powers. What knowledge he gained was
frst-hahd; it was his own. 1t was real
knowledge: that IS, knowledge OF realities,
and no mere say-so of book or teacher.
He understood as far as he went, and went
as far as he understood. HIS parents
may have thought he was wasting his
time; but he WAS learning faster and more
thoroughly-we are sure of it--than after
he came under the hand Of the profcssorof
A b G Under the guidance of, his five
senses, he learned facts; or if he did not,
he was in the way of correcting all his er-
rors. AT school he got signs and symbols,
whose use and meaning we're but dimly
perceived. He ceased gradually to learn
FROM things, aud came more and more to
trust to books. The sun rose in the east,
for "rhe book said so." In an arithmcti-
cal computation he multiplied or divided,
because ".the rule SAID Sc" If he wished
to know hcw many bones there were in
his hand, or how many legs fly had. he
looked in book to see. He had become
the slave ofthe book. He had ceased, in
q great measure, to use his own ewes and
hsowi Judgement, and had como to mis-.
take words for things, and sentences for
truth. In the schoolrodm his sels.reli-
ance, his mental independence, dwindIed
away; and his knowedgc-and SO his pow.
er-was conditioned on what he could re-
men,ber Of his lessons and rules. This
representation may seem unfair and one
sided. We could wish there we're no
grounds for it. We know there is gen.
eral movement ia the educational world