The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-01-24
KEEPING IN,

Many Of the teachers of our county.
weary and half worn out with the practice
of keeping children in after school to study
and recite neglected lessons, will be pleased
ard perhaps profited by hearing an able
and experienced member Of the profession
talk out after the style given below
Teachers who adopt this practice through
desire to do their whole duty are fire.
quently nonplussed by the fact that the
longer they keep children in the less they
seem to know. The idea of throwing
pupils as much as possible on their own
responsibility is the true one. Minds
forced into premature development by a
sort of dollhouse culture will only become
withered and stunted when they 60 out
into the open air of society. A youth
raised to manhood with a multitude of
false supports to his mental application,
moral integrity, &C., will only founder
and fall when these supports are of neces-
sity removed. But here is what the man
of the Chicago Teacher says upon the sub
ject:
Few practices are worse than that of
keeping children after school to make up
lessons in which they have failed. The
old plan of whipping learning into them
was founded on more philosophical princi-
pies; for the whipping stirred up sensa-
tons and emotions which set the blood
circulating rapidly, causing increased &C
tlvlty of the brain. But there is net one
argument in favor of OBTAINING children
after the time of dismissal. AS punish
ment, it falls more heavily upon the teach
er than upon the negligent pupil; it units
her fer the next days work. and eventually
undermnes her health. Its effects on the
pupils mind is bad. The truth is that the
only education is self-education. Compel
ling children to learn certain phrases is not
educating them. When children are
obliged to make up imperfect lessons, they
learn only patches of the subject, and do it
in llfeless manner, without interest, with
out unity, without comprehension of the
whole design. The worst scholars are
those who come from a school in which
keeping in for lessons is the practice. 1t
is trait of human nature to put off what
is to be done as long as possible; and if
children discover that it is in order to learn
and recite their lessons after school hours,
they will put off their study to that time,
so the result is that school-time is turned
into play-time and play-tlme into school,
time. What, then, shall We do with
careless pupils?" cries the weary, discour-
aged teacher. We think it not out of
PLACE for teacher to show displeasure at
the failure of her scholars to do their duty.
But the best way is to throw the response
blllty OF promotion upon the children and
their parents, giving them to understand
that pupils must study at the proper time,
if they would be advanced, that the only
alternative is study or failure. Better that
few children be dropped into lower
class than that Il whole division be made
stupid, logged and inert by an attempt to
impart knowledge by hydraulic pressure.
Detention after school for lessons DESTROYS
the individuality of the child, makes him
hate his lessons, his school, and his teach
err. This is free country; and the sooner
we adapt our school management to the
genius of our institutions, the better off
we shall be. Individual responsibility is
the true doctrine to hold. Study or fat.
behdCe or 1cnhdra,n, is the best platform to
stand on, the easiest for the teacher, and
in the end The best for the child. Lessons
should be learned voluntarily and for a
good object, not under compulsion or for
the sake of repeating certain number of
pages in book. This evil is so great in
Chicago that we hope the Board will pro-
hibit the practice. 1t would not he true to
say that good teachers never detain pupils
for imperfect lessons; but it is true that
the worst teachers do it the most. The
only failures that the teacher is in duty
bound to have children correct are failures
in written examination; and for this work
the time Of a regular recitation should be
taten