The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-11-16
CARL SEIZURE.
Lecture on Educational Problems.

Tie Town nail last evening 10 nsten 10 Gar
Schurz lecture on Educational problems.
Beside good representation of the more
cultivated people of Rutland, there were
people from several surrounding towns
AS The speaker entered he was greeted by
ahearty burst of applause. He was intro
duced by Henry Clark, who stated that the
next lecture of the course would be de
livered by William Parsons, Nov. Goth OF
the "Seven Wonders of the world
The speaker was greeted with applause
and after brief introduction proceeded tc
TO the discussion of his subject.
There is no more serious subject than that
of education. There is no country where
education is more generally discussed than
in the United States. The people of re-
public should be thoroughly educated.
Education will do much toward remedy
ing crime and corruption. Thus far we
ali agree. 1t is only when we come to the
discussion of how this education should be
applied that there. is any substantial differ
ShOS VI oplhiOuS.
In presenting my views l shall say many
things that are not new, but there arc
many things which have been said often
that may be iterated and reiterated to adj
vantage. Education should be directed TO
teach children first how to think to learn
after they leave school, and how to enjoy
what they learn. ,s
Our ancestors learned only few things
and got along very well indeed some of
them became great and able men. We
Cen not get along even tolerably on the
same amount. The circumstances amid
which we live are SO different from theirs ;
the scientific discoveries and developments
of this age are SO tremendous, that no COM
parison can be made between them. A
man can not get along now without all the
modern Improvements.
The requirements now are much greater
and yet the time for study is the same.
Boys and glrls leave school so early that
the question how to teach them while there
becomes of paramount importance. The
idea that great amount of specific knowl-
edge should be impaired is wrong.
1t is of vastly more importance that a child
be taught how to acquire in the great fu-
.ture after he leaves school, and that he
shoul b. given a strong desire to learn.
| went through, in Germany, what they
call higher course of education. We
learned there many things which have
since forgotten. Was the time devoted TO
these studies then thrown away? By no
means, If we learned at the same time how
to think for ourselves. Thorough mind dis
cipine is worth more than any quantity of
specific knowledge acquired without disci-
pllning the reasoning faculties.
We can begin with children at very
early age When John Stuart Mills auto
biography stated that he learned Greek
from his father at three, there was gen.
eral exclamation of horror at the idea. But
we must remember that it is no more diff.
fcult at three to learn Greek sentences
from his father than for German child OF
the same age to learn English of his play
mates, or French from French nurse
One of my little girls at very early age
learned French, English, and German-io
the extent Of a childs vocabulary of course
in this way, without injuring her brain
in the least, and am confident that Greek
might have been added by the same method
if we had tried. We have haye little idea
of the enormous receptive and retentivt
faculties of children's minds if the methods
of imparting instruction be such as will not
strain them.
Children should be taught, first, to see
and hear correctly and to reproduce their
impressions of objects intelligibly. 1t is
not all good eyes that see. The fault lie
not in the eyes, but in the perceptive
faculties back of the eye. If dozen
people see tree and attempt to
describe it they will have almost as
many different ideas as there are people
only one or two will have complete idea,
and many will have seen objects on or
under the tree actually not there at all.
Only the trained eye will have taken 1t in
correctly. A trained eye will do wonders.
A lady meeting an acquaintance with
new dress, will take in at glance, not only
the material and color of the fabric, the
style and every particle of trimming, but
at the same time estimate the cost. Too
much stress cannot be laid on the thorough
training of the perceptive faculties. The
half seeing and hearing cause no end of
trouble in the world 1t is the duty of
every father and mother to see that these
faculties of their children are thoroughly
trained. This is the object of the kinder
garden schools which | am glad to see are
being introduced into this countryto con.
siderable extent
This training of children's perceptive
faculties is the first part of education.
Next should come the schools. The
teacher should teach how to think and how
to learn. In the schools of this country, q
great many things with big names, such as
astronomy, natural philosophy, mental
philosophy, chemistry and what not, are
taught. In these studies with the big
names, literal recitstions from the text
book are required, and the boy whose reci-
tation is the most literal, is the smartest.
This system is vicious and it seems to me
must have been especially designed for the
development of human stupidity. Instead
of interesting the pupil it disgusts him
The training of the memory is a good
thing, but training the memory alone at the
expense of the reasoning faculties is in
furious You can't teach child to think
by memDrizing. Take the question,
"What is cloud?" One boy jumps up
and runs through the definition
in the book promptly, without stop
or break. Another one gets mp
and tells not promptly at all, but
hesitating and stammerlng, how vapors
rise from the earth and are condensed. Tue
first has made good recitation, but the
other knows what a cloud is. In two or
three days suppose the first boy forgets thu
first line of his definition. how much does
he know about clouds Pupils should moi
commit the language of the text book, bul
reproduced IN their own language the ideas
OF their author.
1t is sometimes asked If teachers of