Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1874-10-01
COMMON SENSE IN ORR Conway Scuooy .

COMMON SENSE IN OCR COMMON SCHOOLS
Ono one the frs. things which strikes a
fsreigner-says an exchange-con,emp,
ting our common school system. is the va.
riety of,suhjects taught in our schools -
A hasty glance at the common curriculum
would give out the idea that the growing
generation would form nation of schol.
ars. but upon reflection the question nat
urally arises, "How can the young mind
grasp at aud hold fast the numerous STU
dies thrust upon it almost in infancy 7"
Experience has shown that they who
have passed through the ordeal instead Of
knowing the variety Of topics. know COM
parativcly little. and that minds instead
Of being stored with knowledge. arc sim.
ply c!ogged with bewildering array Of
hazy ideas about q thousand different
things. This is the result Of cram,aiug
learning into young niuds-a system SO
common in our day. not only in common
schools, but in academies aud colleges
Adaptation for study is never considered
by the guardians Of children nor by the
teachers.
There is the curriculum and there is
the child. The latter has got to run up
the scale as If it wcre q musiea! instru.
ment whether the notes are comprehend
ed or not. and more studies the former
contains Of course the better the school.
This is the popular fallacy. People think
it great thing to have their children
learning to spell, read. write. study gram-
mar. geography. philosophy. astronomy.
Latin, Greek, German. Choc.aw aud
mathematics all at once. while the fact is
that they cannot give an Ineligible rem
dering Of an ordinary newspaper para
graph.
There is depth Of wisdom in the words
Of the philosopher who said he feered
''the man of one book" 1. is by far pre-
fcrablc to be perfect in one study than to
have wasted a lifetime in studying the IT,
tie pages of various volumes on innumer-
able topics. The strain upon the capaci-
.y Of the children in the upper grades of
our schools are far in excess of their avail
able resources Children have not the
judgment to assimila.e the mass Of info--
nation that graded courses Of study usu-
ally prescribe.
There are two periods in mental pro
gress. namely. the mechanical and the
thinking period. Too often a grievous
mistake is made bY trying to anticipate
tho latter period. Certainly. children can
be taught to do wonders. but their minds
must not be overcrowded, nor their efforts
paralysed by any amount of analysis and
classification for which they do not pos.
sess the faculty, nor the material where
With to exercise the faculty. nor the ex-
perience to guide them in such exercise.
II, is faculty to shake the trees before
the fruit is ripe. or to strike the iron be-
fore it is bot" says an excellent writer.
The application Of this trite expression,
was never more opposite to anything than
to our ue(hod Of endeavoring to extract
from the urripe mind that which it has
been deharred from acquiring. By forcing
upon it crowd Of branches of learning
and not giving it time to contemplate the
beauty Of one branch. By ali means. If
possible. let every branch be ,augh, in its
place. let Us have common sense in the
Of our common schools.