Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-27
THE RRooKLYN SCHOOLS.

weeks since, which gave rise to much
discussion and led to the investigation
now going on The subject is of inter.
est to all who are concerned in the ed
ueation of the young. and who among
us is not ? Brooklyn is the third CITY
OF the Union in population, and has
generally been supposed to possess an
admirably perfected system of public
schools. Superintendent Fields re-
port, however, shows a sad neglect in
some important matters. The past
year, the Board of Education has con-
Quoted thirty-four grammar, eleven pri-
mary, four colored and six asylum
schools, employing regimentof teach
ers. Besides these, there are nine
white and two colored night schools.
Mr.. Field complains that most
OF the teachers are too young,
that the classes are too large, and
hundreds of children are crowded into
dark and sometimes damp Easements.
He says more than. thirty young girls"
have each 100 to $50 pupils committed
solely to their inexperience for tuition.
He cites ninety other teachers burdened
with classes ranging from 80 to 40
scholars each. The Oldest and most
experienced educators would despair of
doing justice to such numbers. Little
more than routine recitations are pos
sible. Teacher and scholar alike be-
come mere machines. There is no time
to adapt the lesson In hand to the diverse
capacities of such a mental multitude
no time to study the idiosyncracies
that often accompany the mostpromis-
ing intellect, to help the weak, to en-
courage the struggling, to cheer the
respondent, and to guide the quick
witted. Common schools are designed
for the special benefit of the poor, but
we suspect that these unwieldy classes
of from 100 to 200 each, are pretty
much confined to exactly the poorer
children, who are In most need of edu-
cation and have the least help at home
In their studies. The middle and
weather. classes would not long
tolerate or send their children
to such mock schools. Possibly Mr..
Field might, if he would, tell us of
other classes numbering as low as
twenty, with professors of languages,
music, etc, and investigation would
probably prove their locality to be
wealthy neighborhoods, where the pa
rents are amply able to pay for these
extras, but obtain them in this way at
the expense of crowding the poor.
However, We shall not quarrel with the
Superintendent, because he calls atten-
ton only to the neglected class
Another picture Of this Report,
which has elected much more discus
sion than the above, is its opposition
to the mingling of the sexes. Mr..
Fields calls it ''mischievous sentiment
talism, y and says, while the girls may
refine the boys, the latter are apt to
unrefne the former. The following
extract indicates how strongly he in
sists on the moral argument:
A vicious youth whose mind is pre-
cociously matured with the evils of
metropolitan city, and thoroughly ed
ucated in all its mysteries of vice, is
not a rare parsonage IN our public
schools. 1t is a sad truth that he is a
frequent one. Such boy, or such a
young man, may be the child of re-
spectacle parents, who require his at
tendance there; and if the offspring of
the most Vicious parents, he cannot be
rejected. Yet he is permitted to sit by
the side of pure and gently-trained
girls, whose guardians would with less
pain commit her to the grave than per-
NIT her to be contaminated by the
foul teachings of the youthful de-
bauchee.
He also argues that the mixed sys-
TEN does not produce the expected en-
ulation between the sexes, or result
in superior scholarship. The reasons
are novel, but he claims for them the
basis of experience:
l. Because Of the distraction of mind
from study by the natural desire for
social pleasures which is stimulated by
the association of the sexes.
2. The greater diligence Of the girls,
quicker apprehension of details, and
superior freedom from the distraction
of the streets. soon place them in ad-
vance ofthema members of the class,
so far as in effect to create two
grades. The girls have the stimulus of
future employment as teachers, while
the boys are aware that high stand
ard of scholarship will not forward
them a hairs breadth in their future
trades or emplOyments.
3. The intellectual as well as the dis
ciplinary treatment ofthe sexes requires
to be 80 widely different that it is rare
that the qualities are combined In the
same teacher.
He claims further that this forced
association makes an unjust practical
distinction between poor and rich.
The former may be as anxious as the
latter about the welfare of their daugh-
tiers, but poverty compels their attend
ance at these schools.
Both questions-crowded schools and
mingled sexes-are of vast importance,
and the experience of city so large as
Brooklyn cannot fail to be instructive
to other localities. The meagre hints
given by the telegraph of the develop
ments brought out by the inVestiga-
ton now in progress, Justify Superin-
tendent Field in arousing public atten-
ton to the matter, and We shall watch
the results with interest.
TENNESSEE ORATORY AT WASH.
INGTON.
Another Tennessee Congressman has