New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-08-09
A STRANGE ECONOMY.

The formal arrangement of three small boys
upon a chair intended for one would un-
doubleday be picturesque, but it would
scarcely be comfortable. Yet this is the
,pectacle which is metaphorically presented in
the great majority of American public schools,
and especially in the primary departments OF
these schools. A correspondent, in urging IHE
TRIBUNE to condemn the custom of giving to an
inexperienced teacher an unmanageablc num-
her of pupils, tersely calls that custom sin
and fraud 1t is little else. Putting aside tho
question of health, which all the late medical
reports agree is seriously endangered by
crowding our school-rOOms, it would not be
easy to speak too severely Of the extent to which
the moral and intellectual natures of the pupils
arc defrauded. A teacher of Unborn aptitude
and one owning long and valuable experience
must be defeated in an attempt to give to
each pupil IN the listless swarm the necessary
brain food and moral discipline. What, then,
can be said of the baked, uphill work OF
the young instructor, unqualified by any natu-
raj talent and sometimes herself badly taught
The perilously large number Of such teach
ers makes one wonder that the children
in the packed and careless schools should
the barest rudiments. 1t is impossible to
teach each child-hc is simply one of many
who are drilled collectively by rote like so
many parrots, and more or less inetfectively as
the capacity of tho teacher shall determine.
1t is the picture of three boys on one
chair. How can the unframed urchln ac-
qure in this fashion keen, intelli-
gent, and Interested idea of what he
is gabbling 1t is exactly this keen and
intelligent idea that our school children lack
as may be seen by the state Of dense ignorance
as to ordinary branches in which so many
young mechanics, tradesmen, and farmers so
to their wOrkaday life. The Rotations they
have kept up for five or ten years were
matters of rOte, and matters of rOte they will
remain. AS for the discipline" in the large
city schools the discipline which is SO
loudly praised by unthinking Boards of
Education, it is in many regards the most de-
plorable feature of all What sort of moral
training is that which consists in ordering
roOmful of children to pick up their books at
one note of the piano. to entomb them In
their desks at a second to fold their arms at
third rise at fourth, and walk out of the door
in procession at a fifth This is the meaning
given to the word discipline" in American
public schools, and it is scarcely noble one.
These daily performances are only worthy OF
q set of machines, or of company of parrots
and monkeys.
OF course economy" is the reason given for
all this Over-crowding, and the excuse for all
the defects it brings. Naturally enough, this
excuse is tenderly needed by the average
tax-payer-and, in truth, economy is a wise
and gracious virtue. But it is sometimes false
of its kind Such is the economy which packs
the whole range of badly ventilated school
rooms so full that pupils come out of their
frghtful atmosphere langrid and diseased.
Such is the economy which leaves this
ignorant young crowd upon the hands of
one inexperienced teacher, and bids her
ground them well in morals and the English
education. Such is the brilliant economy
which continues this crOwdng i'll the face of
its results and devOtes the money III the
treasury to the introduction III these schools
of the German language, the art of drawing,
and, in some cases, a variety of OlOgies. These
studies are good in their way, but
their way needs hardly lie through our public
schools as they are at present arranged and
conducted. 1t is surely common sense which
would give to children what they chiefly need
in the most healthful, intelligent and thorough
manner. When the English education which
il quite as necessary to the young American
as the bread he eats shall thus be given him,
it will be time enough to teach the outside
branches, which now in divers cities absorb
school appropriations to no wide practical
end.