Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-18

ova conn0N SCHOOLS.
From the sweep which the m,nd take
oyer our educational system and the prid
Inspired BY q knowledge of i!s advantages
let us turn 10 consider, if but for q momen,
tho process BY which it has struggled Ii
growth to It's present a~tupendous pro no,
stons. When We conslder its place in ID
heart OF our national laws, it's perpetu,t
grounded in the constitution, it's liviuI
growth sustained by the sourc of tn,
nation aHd the arm Of its dominion far out
reaching as the limits OF the national bouo
daries, the local option of the state and tn,
pohtlcal economy Of the territory made
su0 idtary to it's benelcent sway. in
TACT the spirit of it's philanthropy pelmeu.
log the very air we breathe, we then are
prepared for the thought that our sys,eu
Of education has become q principle OF oul
growth. vital to our existence and essen
tsal to our prosperity, q possession 10 our.
selves and yet . legacy to mankind. Under
lite work the school room to the school boy,
Is to as. to day. the mirror to the mar, his
schooldsy period the PRECIPITATION of his
manhood and his discipline. under instruc-
tion, the surest index to that destiny that
raises the philanthropist above the citizen
and the philosopher above the boor.
In the stride of the mind through the
centuries, back TO the time when the an
Gent philosopher lectured his peripatetic
school. how strange to observe the yicissi.
tudes through which the school house has
rooted itself to fts present hold on the soil.
From Aristotle to Pestslozzi aud thence
to the present hour systems, multiplied IN
torn but narrowed 10 philanthropy, ars OBJ.
served upon the wave, their popularity
measured rather by the width OF the spos.
ties brow than the breath Of the philosophy
peculiar to his system.
BE it said, however. to the glory of tho
ancien;s, that side by side with the
dedication of their heroes stood
the apotheosis of their philosophers.
No less to-day than anciently
every heroic period casts its literary shad.
ow. 1t matters little whether it lengthens
along the ground from Troy to Homer or,
like Aristotle, shapes itself in the wake Of
his pupils conquests, history pronounces its
truth. II is worthy of observation, too,that
the age which produces a military genius
upheaves a score Of heroes, and that the
period that begets a literary light illumines
the entire domain Of literature. Is it not
barely possible that the spirit OF the school.
work IN the corresponding age has more 10
do with the productions of the period than
ia s,a,,oIIu anoraNitol . - " a.-.l--0 "f
In modern times, until about the second
decade Of the sixteenth century, popular ed
~ucation was a thing unknown in Europe and
the learning possessed by the few confined
in chief to the rich. While we have. every
reason to believe that the apostles who pass.
ed into Europe, like the CHECKLISTS, of Alex.
andria, founded about the close of the Sec
ond century, taught and established schools,
but, If they did, it was only to teach their
pupils the scriptures, or fit them out for the
ministry. How limited, however, must have
been the education which these schools
afforded, other than in the classics, may be
inferred from the fact that from the begin
DING of the fifth century, for fully one thous.
and years their knowledge Of numbers, (for
there was no such thing as arilhmetic.) Of
language, (for they never heard Of a gram.
mar Of the earth, (for geography was new
er thought of,)in fact of any of the branches
of study pursued in our common. schools
was derived from the use Of a single book
We next come to the period Immediately
succeeding the crusades. Cervantes and his
cook of ridicule crushed the spirit of chiv.
airy inbred by the crusaders. 1t is barely
possible, however, that he derived the hint
that prompted this production of his
pen from the itinerant sc%hoolmasters
who wandered over Europe 10 the wake of
the crusades, teaching as u profession, but
n%arauding for q living and nightly leading
their pupils 10 %plundering battle against the
nen roost aud the sheep told.
During the eleventh, twelfth and thir-
tenth centuries "Solomon's cure" appears
10 have been more a requisite to school dis.
cipllne than it is to-day, for the text book
used in the schools of that period was ,nys.
riably ornamented with q schoolmastcr for
ne frontispiece holding a bundle of rods in
bis hand.
The Two circumstances tn t,perhaps. more
than all others combined, impelled the ad-
vance OF learning in Europe were the intro.
duction of paper by the returned crusaders
and the invention of printing in Ger
many. 1t was With these two grea,
aids that the reformation began
aud commenced the founding OF
schools. Broad and systematic teaching,
limitless in its comprehension, took its rise
With the dawn of the reformation. under the
mighty Leadership of Luther and Melanc.
thon. The elector Of Saxony empowered
them to report upon a system of education
adapted to the wants of the people. They
did so, Igna'ius Loyala, in Spain, in op.
position founded the Jesuit schools. The
schools Of the reformers placed no limit to
the range of popular education, the policy
of the Jesuit schools being rather to direc,
what not to teach, and thus, by this, their
very a%ntagonism perhaps afforded the first
hint of system to the school work.
To day, perhaps, each teacher has, OF
should endeavor to have, a method ofin.
struction peculiar to himself, endeavorine
where needs he, to harmonic it with the
VARYING characteristics of hia nnnila (.