The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-03-07
NUMBER 10.
EDUCATIONAL.
CONDUCTED BIZ PROF, $. $. nABcocK
WHERE Do YOB BELONG,

II "From the frying-pan into the
fire." is, we do not know how old
. but at least very respectfully old
!; saying, while its triteaess seems to
: be as Juvenile as ever. The mean.
ing conveyed seems TO be that the
} condition Of being in the fire is
more uncomfortable than that OF
, being on the fryingpan There
5 is, however, 8 situation OF greater
discomfort than either Of these,
. and that is in being between the
, two. The conservative, if he be
J an honest man, is doomed to suf-
fer more than any other martyr,
for, like Mr.. Pickwick, he must
receive the thwacks Of the carpet
: Ebag, swung by the yalorous Mr..
Slur of the Eatonsvills 1ndepend-
; ent, and the thumps Of the broom
stick so dexterously welded by
the bold Mr. Potts of the Eatons-
vile Gazette.
Teachers are susceptible of be-
ing divided into tkee classes,
which comprise, If Ne may use the
terms without offense, the 'ton.the-
frying-pan" kind, fogies-those
remnants Of the past who are met
with sometimes in unlocked for
places-the in-the.fire kind" who
believe nothing OF the past worth
notice in the present. and the
conservative" who would make
only such progress as seems to
give evidence Of y permanent char
acter, The first class embraces
teachers of twenty-five years ago,
whos being made to believe in
their youthful days, by admiring
but foolish friends, that all the
wisdom of the ages was in their
possession, ceased to study, and
have in consequence lost ground,
until they now appear as q sort of
standing advertisement Of the gen
Grafton just gone. They remind
as of the teacher of English liter
AZURE who taught his students that
the Bible, Shakespeare and Milton
we're the only authors worth read
ing, but that if they wished to recrc-
ate their minds little they might
read the Spectator; and who fol-
lowed his own precepts so closely
that he was wholly ignorant OF the
great masters of language who
lived in his own day, and was so
utterly ignorant of the current lit
erature of his time, that he sup
posed one of his students had done
wonders, in hunting up and COM
hitting to memory an extract from
a poem that nearly every school
boy in the land knew by heart.
The most of this remnant of fos-
sis try to keep the run of the
times by catching here and there
an idea, and then asserting, with a
wise look, II have investigated
this method, or that work, but do
not think it equal to the plan that
we are now pursuing; a plan which
was followed in the Pumpkinvilie
College when 1 was connected
with it twenty years ago." II
makes no difference for you to ar
que that the old plan has served
to render the Pumpkinville Col
lege blessedly unknown among the
institutions of the land, while 9TH
er schools, which had no existence
until after the Pumpkinville Col
lege was well advanced in years,
have become famous, both at home
and abroad, by leaving the beaten
track. The great trouble with
such teachers lies in the fact that
they acquired only e given amount
of mental strength in their youn-
ger days, when their minds were
elastic and capable of expanding,
and that now, when there is a ne
cessity for enlarging the borders
of the educational territory, they
have not the ability to do SO. They
are, as a rule, poor teachers, even of
such studies rs make up their spe-
cfalties, because they are forever
holding their students back from
the onbounding Investigations
which the times demand, not. that
they suppose such Investigations
viii be hurtfnl to the student, but
because such advance on the part
of the student is too spt to lead to
questions not found in the worthy
fossils stereotyped list; such teach
ers, also spend great deal Of time
on little things, reserving but little
time for great things. They de-
mand more time for learning the
list ofprepositions governing some
case, than they do for the study of
the language in which the case oc-
ours. They are constantly offer
ing the food of infants to young
men and women whose mental
muscles are weak only because
more nourishing diet is withheld
from them. Students are driven
from the institutions under their
charge, since having got to the
top of the little ladder, they are
told they must not try q higher
one, because the students OF GER
tain places cannc. stand so much
hard work, and are not 90 iatelIi-
gent as students are in other
places.
| The second class Of teachers so
easily grasp the salient points in
any scheme proposed, that for
want of due consideration OF the
work to be done, they often bring
. really valuable method Of educa-
ton into disrepute by their impet-
Mostly. They are 50 anxious to let
the world see that they know all
about il, that they exercise them
Il =
selves only in the more fascinating
and the more obvious labors Of
J instruction. and leave ont th.t