Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-03-23
The HELPS AND HIEDRAECEs OF POP
ULAR EDUCATION.


The HELPS AND HrEDRAHcEs OF POP
ULAR EDUCATION.
We published yesterday a communics.
ton from an "Oid Citizen" referring to
our city schools and criticising the
quantity of work proposed for the Gen.
tenniaL. We think the writer thereof
assumes the correct position. So far as
the quality Of the work is concerned We
gave it a very fair, Though necessarily
brief, notice sone days ago, The
teachers and pupils have no doubt
worked diligently to produce the result
described. The children, We learn, have
also been taxed q small cum each, q
nickel perhaps, to have the work bound
in an attractive style. For two months
at least they we're engaged in preparing
specimens Of what they had learned in
the city schools, and knowing that it vas
for the Centennial. the great event Of
the age, they must have bestowed I'M
usual pains upon their maps and other
work to the neglect Of other studies. As
q result We venture to say that the
classes. or at least many Of the pupils,
have fallen behind, and il they stand the
test OF a fair and impartial examination
ct the close Of the term it viii be
the result Of extraordinary pushing and
examining between nov and then. The
idea uppermost in the minds of the
pupils has been that they we're
preparing something for display and
shov-not for utility or practical pur-
poses. This kind Of training has the anne
0feet intellectually IS special prepare
ton. more popularity knOwn as cram
ming" for q commencement coca
sion. Such requirements are not
only no benefit to the mind but 3
positive injury. In many schools
ambitious teachers devote the last
month or two Of the session to drilling
their classes for the 6nsl exhibition.
A superficial review is had every day,
and the brighter pupils are made to
commit certain difficult examples or
passages to memery. When examina
ton day comes on, the parents
discover that their children are ~prodigies,
and the public. which Of course is not
critical, is delighted. This is q most
pernic;Ous practice, which prevails more
or less in colleges, academies, select and
public schools all over the land. The
students are Hsttsrsd, their parents
deceived aud the public ~humbugged
Young ladies graduate at sixteen
young gentlemen at eighteen, with 8
smattering Of a dozen or more studies,
and real excellence in none. Hence it
is that so much Of what we call educa
ton is defective and imperfect. Young
ladies who amaze their parents with
glib remarks in French if left alone on
the streets Of Partisan improperly we
admit-could not inquire the way back
to the hotel in the language of that
country; and so it is with many other
studies in about the same proportion.
Our education in the public schools and
many others is too much for a show at
the end of the term. Nine times out Of
ten the children pursue studies which
their parents never did,or have long since
nearly forgotten, which gives teachers
az opportunity to take advaEtage otboth,
especially in the higher studies. This per
hapsis less the case so far as the teachers
are concerned in Memphis than in most
cities, for the teachers are better educa.
tors and better educated in many 10.
stances than the gentleman who happens
to be over them as superintendent. His
aim seems to be at o~stentatiau, and to
disprove the old saying, that there is no
royal road to learning, at a sacrifice Of
the severe training which gradually
strengthens and expands the mind,
rather than fills it with a mass Of unsea.
soned intellectual p%rovender beyond it's
capacity to digest, and without reference
to future use. His course Of study is
evidence Of this. His sndeavor for two
months Of valuable time to get up q show
TO send to Philadelphia is a most CON
InciuG proof. This has been a very
costly piece Of business, not contemplated
nRder the popular theory Of public
schools, or the law establishing them,
and Of very little benefit to anybody, but
detrimental to the efficiency and value OIL
the city schools The time Of the pupils
and the money Of their parents and Of
the public, are too precious to allow pro.
Gciency TO DO subordinate to sensational
display.
THE UNION DEPOT QUESTION.
A 0anfIaman connaotad w;,h o,.A.