Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-08-13
NORTHERN SCHOOLS.
A Strange Economy.
New York Tribune.

-NGM AoAh LA4NuACs
The formal arrangement of three
small boys upon a chair intended for
one would undoubtedly be picturesque,
but it would scarcely be comfortable.
Yet this is the spectacle which Is meta
phOrically presented in the great ma
jOrity of American public schools,
and especially in the primary
departments Of these schools. A
correspondent, in urging the Tribune
to condemn the custom of giving to an
inexperienced teacher an unmanageable
number of pupils, tersely calls that
custom a sin and fraud. 1t is little
else. Putting aside the question Of
health, which all the late medical re-
ports agree is seriously endangered 10y
crowding our school-rOoms, it would
not be easy to speak too severely of
the extent to which the moral and in.
tellectual natures Of the pupils
are 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 ne
cesssry brain.food and moral discipline.
What, then, can be said Of the half
baked uphill work of the young in
structor, unqualified by any natural
talent and sometimes herself badly
taught The perilously large numter
of such teachers makes one wonder that
the children IN the packed and careless
schools should know even imperfectly
anything beyond the barest rudiments.
1t is impossible to teach each
child-he is simply one of many
who are drilled collectively by rote like
so many parrots, and more or less inef-
fectively as the capacity of the teacher
shall determine. 1t is the picture of
three boys on one chair. How can the
unframed urchin acquire IN this fashion
a keen, intelligent, 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 toordin-
airy branches In which so many young
mechanics, tradesmen, and farmers go
to their workaday life. The recitations
they have kept up for FIVE or ten years
were matters of rote, and matters of
rote they viii remain. AS for the
discipline" in the large city schools,
the discipline which is 90 loudly prlised
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 a 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 a 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 a noble one.
These daily performances are only
worthy Of a set Of machines, or a COM
pany 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 ten.
derby needed by the average taxpayer
and, in truth, economy is 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 frightful
atmosphere languid 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 bril-
liant economy which continues this
crowding In the face of its results, and
devotes the money in the treasury to
the introduction IN these schools Of the
German language, the art of draw
ing, 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 It 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 is quite as necessary to the
young American as the brad he eats,
shall thus be given him, it will be time
enough to teachthe outside branches,
which now in divers cities absorb
school appropriations to no wide prac-
teal end