New-York tribune., 1874-09-10

ooored teaher The State Universities are open 70 all
alike without distinction OF race or COLOR or creeo or
politics.
The Richmond Enquirer says: ut must be
acknowledged that large number OF young men are
ruined annually for ali purposes OF good to Virginia py
over education. They forced TO leave the state 10
find field for the exercise OF their requirements OF
they here and lounge or starve on incompetent
salaries" and then proceeds after fashion rather too
sweeping and bitter but which yet holds clever nn'
to teachers: The great difficulty with our virginia
system is the want of of practical common sense
TO control IL. They sufficiently well educated theu
selves too much for practical purposes But tney
lack what far valuable TO wit; common sehse'
II has been established by experience and Is noorous'
that professional school teachers as class have no
practical sense Their learning concede but learn
ing is not common sense"
The Salem Mass.) Observer breaches a small
sermon which glad to read II says OF the present
school system that there is next to nothing worthy OF
the name of teaching about It," Then 1t continues:
Yet this is not the fault OF those who occupy the
position of teachers 1t is the fault OF the SYSTEM
which is built upon texbooks," and made to conform
to the trade textbooks" and s primarily the fault
OF those who do the legislation for our school system
who seem to have no capacity for substituting system
OF real teaching Of knowledge that will be usefm 10
pupils in their after lives in place of the eete system
of memorizlng and parrot-like repetition of words"
and forms from textbooks" which do not reach the
understanding, and most OF which are forgotten III
few weeks or a few DAYS. Our system has become
mechanical and monotonous allowing but little freedom
Of mental movement to either teacher or pupil
President Smith of Dartmouth, in talking to
the students the other day, said in regard TO the en-
poyment Of Dartmouth students walters at summer
hotels that much is said and written In the apsac
nowadays about the dignity Of labor, and 30 little is
hat In ia rpfr
which of so common that IL attracts no
attention district where occurs ana Is scarcev
known beyond that district The students VINO act ae
walters in the hotels at the White Mountains during tne
Summer, come chiefly from that College, where laDor
has always been held Observation-Disclosures from
that institution having served In the Profile House TINS
season. They get as regular wages $40 MONTH which
ia sometimes trebled by donations. "When we con-
sider" added the President the fact that nearly one
third tho students Of Dartmouth teach school during
Winter and work at harvesting during the summer
we need have about the dignity of labor becom
ing an obsolete expression"
The old Chauncey Hall School of Boston
presses upon its students the following course OF read
ing:
Lives OF Washington Franklin, and some one other dis
tingushed persons two novels each Of Scott and Dick
ems; Iiad the Eneid; two volumes OF travels; lne
umes Prescotts Histories; Hiawatha Godsmith's De
serted Village, Traveller, and the Vicar OF Wakeheid
one of COoper's novels; two of Macauays Essays and
the first volume Of his history Of England one epste
each OF Pope's Essay and Cowpers Task two volumes
of Irving; selections from Bryant and Wntuer; one
oantO of Chlde Harold three of Chaucers Canterbury
Tales; two cantos Of the Faery Queen; one Oh inon
sons Seasons.
It NAV be seriously questioned whether this s
course most useful inspiring and suggestive to those
students not intending to lead strictly literary
life Goldsmith, Pope and Cowper Chaucer ana speh-
Ger are not exactly the authors most people wouid
recommend as tending to inspire taste for reading IN
the average youth. Emerson might well be substituted
for Cowper Kingake and Carlyle for Chaucer and spen
GER knowledge OF these English poets Is not ab-
soutey necessary while knowledge Of the substitutes
we suggest is certainly be demanded Of an ordinarily
well informed person.
President Porter Of Yale concludes in the last number
of The College CoRran his criticisms on preparatory
schools A special defect in the operation OF MODERN
schools is he says, the spirit of Journalism and routine
which has grown UP In them-not the Journalism OF ira
dion nor pedantry Of the coster but the pedanry
of spek and span newness the machinery OF marching
and elaborate and unnecessary ex-
PLANTATION, endless and mechanical repet tions OF an
artificial marking system, and worse than mechaheai
reliance upon examinations all those features OF organ
ization and administration which tend to destroy nd-
vduaIy in the pupil and 10 repress humanity IN the
teachers Tendencies and evils ofths kndare not limited
TO secondary and upper schools They are observed IN
college and university instruction and discipline. They
grow out OF the sefndulgent temper OF the times the
ambitious vanity of learners, and the hreling spirit OF
teachers Closely allied to this evil IS the tendency 10
stimulate TO the spontaneous or verbal memory
Further defects, Dr. Porter notices, are the disposition
to developprematurey the generalizng faculty. and
what he calls the comprehensive fault in prepara-
tory traning-a defect its intellectual spirit Teach
ing can never be truly successful unless 1t be given by
thoughtful and sympathzing instructor, who watches
its effect in developing and nsuctng the intellect OF
his pupils, DR.. Porter goes to argue that colleges
should furnish those Of their pupils who propose 10
become teachers with special and ample training In the
science of elementary instruction. and he thinks it not
desirable that any preparatory school should limit
its associations TO a single college.