The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-06-07
Changes In Text Books.

Changes In Text Books.
Among the bills on their way through
the New York Legislature is one pro-
viding that changes in the text books
used in the common schools shall not
be made oftener than once In five
years. The measure is aimed, the
World tells US, st one of the worst
abuses connected with public educa-
ton, and has the defect of all special
legislation, that it attempts to do by
arbitrary enactment what the honesty
and good sense Of the people should
be trusted to accomplish. The text
books should be changed twice or more
in FIVE years, if they are very bad and
much better ones are presented; and
where no necessity for another series OF
text books exists, there should be no
change for score of years. The matter
should be left to the discretion OF |
our school officials, untrammelled
by statute. In saying this we are
tempted to add that this discretion has |
lately failed to protect the patrons Of |
the common schools from undue ex-
pense and the pupils from the evils of |
q continual change in authorities, be-
ing sometimes deluded by false pre-
lenses to excellencY on the part of
publishers, and sometimes corrupted
by bribery on the part Of book agents;
the aforesaid discretion should, there
fore, be kept constantly on the alert by
watchful criticism. The making of
school books Is the steadiest source Of
profit to Publishing houses, and it is
great point for a firm to get q series
of any kind established IN the Oohonla
of State or even in large city. 1t
is probable that the author of q single
series of successful reading books is
paid larger royalty by the publishers
than Lowell, Holmes, Whittier and
Longfellow are paid for all their works
This fact indicates how immense the
sales are and how enormous the profits.
To attain such 8 reward, ingenious ed
ucatOrs, as they are called, are e. er
busy inventing new methods of dong
old things, and produce every year
gramnars. arithmetics and geogra-
phies, which, by means of some
petty shifting of rules or the ap-
plicstion of little contrivances, are to
revolutionlze the whole system of in
struction. Publishers take hold of
these works, issue them in q neat shape
and then send active, intelligent and
not overscrupulous agents throughout
the country to push them upon the
public schools OF various towns and
cities. Some of the school commits
sioners are over persuaded, and not
few of them are actually bought, and
when the house whose books are
threatened with exclusion learns of
their danger and rushes to the rescue,
the community in which the rival firms
meet becomes a scene of indescribable
confusion and intrigue. Newspapers
are subsidized, clergymen are invoked
as references and charges of undue in
fuence are banded about with great
freedom. If change is made in the
textbooks the least evil that results
but that which is the easiest to appre-
ate-is the loss to parents in being
Obliged to purchase a new stock for
their children. The damage done to
the pupils in the schools is more
serious matter. They are disturbed In
their habits of study by the change of
textbooks, since at their age the
slightest variation of methods is a
puzzle; and no sooner do they grow
accustomed to one author than another
is thrust upon them, who makes the
old familiar things look new and
strange. The hurt to teachers is still
worse. They get into the habit of
presenting and explaining subject in
the fashion of the textbook, and
their effectiveness depends greatly
upon their thorough acquaintance with
| it. Not the least part of their duty is
the guidance of the pupils In the use
of the book; for on their ability to
handle that source of information
their progress must depend. The in
structor with a textbook fresh from
the printing press is like the master of
a vessel cropping his way into a strange
river by soundings. He has nothing
of the certainty, freedom and rapldity
which a teacher should have. In con-
clusion, we may say that there is a
fundamental fact with which all liter
a-y people arc familiar, that school
commissioners should consider be-
fore changing the textbooks in schools
under their control. 1t is only essen
tial that student should know book
perfectly, and IN learning it he gains
. knowledge of its defects as we'll as
Of its excellencles. By familiarity,
for instance, with all the corners and
crannies of good grammar, he is bet
ter qualified than by partial acquain-
lance with half dozen different gram
mars in which the arrangements of
parts are varied and the phraseoloey
of the rules is changed. This is true
in broader sense. The usefulness of
q library depends, not upon its COM
pleteness, but upon a mans familiarity
| with it. For this reason every scholar
wants to own books and gets accus-
toned even to particular editions,
much of his knowledge depending
upon his perfect command of the lin
tied sources of information at hand.
The same thing may often be found in
q thousand books, and he who has one
of them and knows its contents, is bet
ter off than he who has the thousand
and is ignorant that they contain what
he wants. In his ordinary work, a
scholar with few hundred books can
| do better than with the treasures of the
London Library, the very vastness of
which confuses him. We should aim
to have school children deal with few
books, but those should be good ones
and thoroughly dealt with.