Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-01-09


world in which they 1--we, and out of which
they must not only live themselves, bit must !
provide the living for all its other human !
population The reason is, because the old |
scholastic education, which still maintains
its sway, though Weakening in all the higher
institutions of learning throughout the world,
laid the foundation also of our common
schools, aud laid them entirely in accordance
with its own principles and ideas. ltfounded
them with very little cognizance Of the dill
ference between the needs of the philosopher,
the poet and the theologian, and the neces-
sites of working people. Mathematics aud
grammar, not in their concrete and practical,
but in their abstract aud metaphysical
FORMS are made the fundamentals, and our
young farmers and mechanics are started
on exactly the same studies as the youth de-
signed for professional life, and in exactly
the same way.
Now we do not ignore the need of mathe
NAUTICAL or grammatical knowledge to the far
mer On the contrary, they are as essential to
him as to anybody. But they should not be
taught abstractIy. They should be concur
rent with aud auxiliary to instruction that
is of practical character, and strictly rela-
tive to the development of those powers and
faculties which workiug-men have the most
use for. II is of no use to cry out that this is
a degrading, vulgar utilitarian view of the
question. We grant the utility, in the wild
est sense, but we contend that il any system
is TO be made universal this is the best of
all. Yet we would make no Procrustean bed
for all minds and classes we only ask that
none be made-that the one that is made he
altered, on the extension plan.
1t would be folly to expect the change
that is required in our public schools shond
be started and engineered by the masses of
the people. They feel that something differ
ent is needed, but they do not clearly see
what. The movement which will bring US
what we want is already beginning. and be-
ginning in the very centers of the old learn
| ing. In Oxford and Cambridge, in Old Eng
land, and in the German and French schools,
the spirit of the new time begins to work
powerfully. Even Gladstone, "a man who is
a classicist if there is one, comes boldly for
ward and says "While the correlation of
the natural sciences renders it desirable that
the votary of the one should have some gen
eral knowledge of the rest, the correlation
of all knowledge shows that no education
can be complete which ignores the study of
nature. A mind fed only on one particular
kind of lore, however excellent that kind
may be- must fail of proper nourishment.
| am not going to say word against philo-
logical studies | am too fond of them my
self for that; and could wish that modern
languages were taught more, and the classic
languages were taught better than they are
at present. What do contend for is, that
chemistry (or some cognate branch of science)
should have an honored place in the educa
ton of every English lady and gentleman
OF course scientific knowledge is
indispensable for large number of manu-
features and for the medical profession
while it is extremely valuable to the farmer
the miner and the engineer. II will also be
readily granted that information about the
air we breathe, the water we drink, the food
we live upon, the fuel we burn, and the vari
Gus common objects we handle, must be OF
service To every man. But we are met by
the advocates of the old system of educa
ton with the remark that the value of school
teaching does not depend so much upon the
information given as upon the mental train
ing. This we admit; though it seems to
me that if the same training can be secured
by two studies. the one of which (ike the
making of Latin verses) gives no informa-
ton at ALL and the other (like chemical analy-
sis) imparts useful knowledge, we should
educsting the mental faculties that chem
istry, .tdhtfuliy taught, has in many respects
the advantage over literary studies There
is superintendent scope for the exercise of
memory; the powers of observation are de-
veloped by it to wonderful degree the
reasoning powers may be well disciplined
on the philosophy of chemical change; while
the imagination may be cultivated by the
attempt to form a conception of the ulti-
mate particles Of matter with their ATTN
tiles and atomicities, as they act and react
upon one another under the control of the
physical forces.'
Now it seems to us that Gladstone here
comedies all that is asked in regard to a
change in the methods of instruction. 1t
only remains for the mon Of clear and pro-
gressive ideas to reduce these conceded prin-
ciples to practice, for the benefit of the in
dividnai pupil, and the prosperity OF the
whole people.