The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1876-09-29
STAMFORD. X W.
rr,ss, nor",ns. september 20. 1870.



county, and read before the Teachers
Institute held in Stanford last week,
She was called upon by the Ins,itut,
managers to furnish copy Of it foi
publication in the INTERIOR JOURNAL,
and we are glad that she complied with
the request. 1t is most admirable
document, and will well repay perusal
by every parent and teacher in the
country;
There Is no subject more talked
about, or more written upon, than
schools; and yet, perhaps, none so IT.
tie understood. In the days Of Soc
rates and Plato, school was under
stood to mean a place devoted to intel
lectual awakening and Development
a place where not only youth, but even
grey.haired sires sat at the feet Of these
great philosophers to gather and treas
ure up words of wisdom as they fell
from the lips of these searchers after
truth and, in those day, there was
no dearth of brain.workers or thinkers.
The shallow-brained youth with intel
lectual air, hair parted in the middle
and mouth full of set phrases stereo-
typed for the occasion, would have
found but little encouragement to make
adisplay among those earnest workers ;
bot schools were rare in those days.
In the present day, when schools and
school.teachers are as plentiful as
stones on the hillside, and where the
child Of the peer and the peasant enjoy
like advantages, what a different type
is presented to an observer of such
thingsl How few thoroughly edu-
Gated persons one finds among the
number who have been to schools
How few deep-thinkers there are :
and how many meu and women there
are, who, if put in the crucible of
thorough examination by really edu'
Gated person, would turn out more
dross than pure metal The fault lies
not in these individuals, whose minds
were, possibly, capable of as high
degree of development as those eminent
thinkers and writers, the brilliancy Of
whose intellects has dazzlej the world,
but it lies in the system pursued in our
schools. How many youths and maid
ems do We see leaving school at the
ages of seventeen or eighteen, FIN
ished, as they term it, and many Of
these 80 out in their turn as teachers,
when they efiectually succeed in flush
ing their pupils as far as any advance
'ment in knowledge is concerned.
Many Of them are too ignorant to be
aware how little they do know; while
Others. who, by mere chance, have &C.
quutdsa limited amount of knowledge,
havepo more idea of how to train the
young mind than Hottentot would
havesf the airs and graces Of polite
society. Thus generation sue leeds gen
erafion, without any visible advance
Of intellect. Some one exclaims
That is a mistake; for we are GER
tainly making discoveries and improve
ments in the arts and sciences. and we /
are fa,' ahead of the ancients in these
things" That statement, if taken in
Il limited sense, is true. orc s.;:lds !
here and there some deepthinker who
startles the world with his disco verles
and researches, but are they in pro-
portion TO the number who have en-
joyed the advantages Of schools ?-or
have the ages, as they passed since the
days of Socrates and Plato, brought a
corresponding increase in the march of
intellect? Why should we not surpass
them in knowledge of the arts and sci
ences, since the mind of man is equally |
as capable of development, and since
he has the experience Of the past to
guide or to warn him? A school, now
a-days, in many instances, is a place
where the intellect il dwarfed instead |
of being developed; a place where
children are tortured by q System Of
examining; a kind of inquisition for
the innocents, where nind.murder is
carried on by the wholesale. though
yelled in the garb Of education where,
instead Of awakening and developing
the dormant intellect, the teacher over
burdens the memory, and overtaxes
the mind until there is no power OF
thought left. A school, instead Of be- !
ing a place where the child finds
pleasure in the gradual awakening Of
its dormant faculties, is, in many in
stances, a place Of punishment, where
the poor little body is constrained to
a rigid position without the privilege !
Of moving its tired limb, and where
even a childish laugh is considered a
criminal ofiense. Lessons, too difficult
Tor comprehension. are as igned to it
md, if unable to repeat, parot-like, the
Try subject of textbooks, it meets with
punishment. Many teachers seem to
rave forgotten that they, too, were
nee children, and have no patience
With. or sympathy for, the little
n