The Portland daily press., 1875-05-26
School Economy.

President Eliot of Harvard contributes to
the current Atlantic a paper entitled "Wise
and Unwise Economy in Schools"-a paper
of as much interest to the citizen and tax
payer as to the professional educator. Sug
gestions from so high authority upon mat
ter of so great and immediate interest call for
attentive consideration.
President Eliot recognizes the strong set of
public opinion in favor of economy in city
aud town expenditures, and recognizes too
that the public schools are oftenest selected
as the department in which retrenchment is
to be made. While acknowledging that there
are opportunities for wise economy in the ad-
ministraion of our educational system he de-
precates those measures usually taken which
go far to impair the efficiency of the schools.
To start with, he objects. 10 those large
buildings, where thousand children are
brought under one roof for che sake of saving
expenses of several lots, and roofs, and fires,
and servants. The more children the more
repressive must be the discipline, the
greater the risk of contagious disease, the
more dangerous the influence of bad children.
He complains too, that great agglomeration
of children in a single school tends to make
the product of the school an averaged prod
uct. which is a very undesirable thing in ed
ucation. No community, he says, can afford
to rank its duards with its geniuses; and it
dious children should be kept back by the
dull and lazy. Every step in perfecting the
mechanism of great school as mill for
grinding out children who can read, write
and cipher is slip towards abridging childish
spontaneity and individuality. ''The common
notion that all children should be taught alike
is eminently unreasonable, when the chill
dren have different inheritances, propects,
and, capacities. Now large school tends to
make children alike, because it moulds them
to all one rigid pattern; but IL is the interest
of the community that each child's special
not oblterated. We Americans are so used to
weighing multitudes and being ruled by major
tiles that we are apt to underrate the poten-
tial influence of individuals. We must not be
led by our averages and our majorities to for
get that one life may be more precious than
other millions, that one heroic character, one
splendid genius, may well be worth more to
humanity than multitudes Of common men,"
Another measure of economy to which he
objects is the reduction of the proportion of
teachers to pupils. There can be no good
teaching of children without quick sympathy
and perception in the teacher, and strong
personal influence going out from him. The
greater the number of pupils allotted to a
single teacher, the less chance has the teacher
to know and help each pupil, the less chance
has be to recognize and foster peculiar talents
in individuals. President Eliot thinks it
mistake to suppose that it is the teachers
duty to treat all his pupils alike, to give as
much time and thought to one as to another,
or, if any distinction is made, to take most
pains with the dullest. "On the contrary"
the community and to his pupils, is to favor
and help to the utmost the bright children.
While he ought not to neglect the duller chill
dren. he should take the most pains with the
finest of his material. The teachers of ele
mentary schools have it in their power to
pick out and help forward all the children
who are of fine intellectual quality. This is
function of great Importance, and the teach
ers should have full opportunity TO make this
selection; for whenever they fail to detect
child of this quality, and to put him on the
way to a thorough education, the community
suffers grievous loss. Twenty-Five pupils
are as many as any teacher, who is not an
angel or genius, can teach WELL"
A common measure of economy to which
he objects is the substitution Of incompetent
and cheap teachers for competent and ex-
perienced ones. Salaries should be increased,
not diminished, and made so large that peO'
pie can afford to make life-business of
teaching. Otherwise experienced teachers
will be constantly leaving, and inexperienced
ones must take their places. He objects to
| the great proportion of women teachers be-
cause so many women adopt teaching as
temporary expedient. He forgets, or does
| not choose to remember, that a large proper
| ton of men teachers, notably those who are
| studying the professions, teach only as a
| temporary expedent.
Turning to the opposite side of the subject
President Eliot discusses two methods of
| wise economy in schools, one looking to re-
| warding teachers for their services with GER
| tain valuable considerations besides money,
| and the other looking to the expenditure of
less money raised by. taxation. He remarks
| that there are several considerations which
| lead men and women into certain employ
| ments, besides the money they expect to earn
| in them. The chief of these are security,
| quiet, prospect of promotion for merit, in-
| dependence, and public consideration. The
| security or permanenee of livelihood is a
very great attraction to many persons, who
constitutionally prefer moderate living with
security to any chance of great gains with
out security. A position reasonably inde-
| pendent within well-defined bounds, and ore
not subject to the caprice either of an indi-
| vidual or Of a multitude, has many attrac-
tions. Consideration in the eyes Of the pub
| lie may replace money to a large extent as an
inducement to enter an honorable service
He argues that by the illjudged method oil
electing teachers in the common schools eV-
III tNnhl n