Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-11-14
Our Common SchoOIs-..the view De-
parture" az Quincy, Mass.

Schools Of Quincy, Mass, and other papers
on Educational Topics" is the full title of
| ffty-one pages in pamphlet form Of as valu-
able matter touching the common schools as
it has been our fortune ever to meet, That
town is fortunate one which has such a cit
zen as Charles Francis Adams, jr., the author
of this pamphlet. And it is a wise town
which has so far outgrown its idolatry to n
time-honored system that it is willing to al
low such citizen to experiment with its
common schools. We say experiment adj
yisedly, for Mr.. Adams and his coadj tutors on
the school board did not claim that they had
a theory which, If adopted, must improve the
schools. Indeed, they disayowed having any
theory. They had positive knowledge that
the cost of instruction had steadily increased
from 1864 per scholar in 1859 to S19.24
in 1873, and they also knew that for ten
years there had been no noticeable improve
ment in the schools The tax payers felt the
increasing burden of their taxes, and there
seemed no reason to question a continued in
crease in the future as in the past. This set,
not only the school board, but doubtless 9TH
crs, to seriously think, and look the problem
of education fearlessly in the face. The an
nual examinations of the schools, when con-
Quoted according to the time -honored and
universally adopted method, exhibited mar
velous aptitude and attainment on the part of
the pupils. In reading they could render a
passage from any one of the masters of
thought and composition with wonderful of-
feet. In grammar they could analyze and
parse n sentence with facility and celebrity
to fairly take the breath away from their as
tonished elders who had assembled to hear
them. In geography they could bound con-
tinents and States describe peninsulas, trace
rivers with amazing accuracy and prompt
ness. In spelling they could exhibit famil-
iarity with the orthography of the English
tongue which made the very school board
feel well-nigh ashamed of their own ignor-
ance. All this went on year after year to
the apparent great delight Of all concerned,
and yet observant and thoughtful men failed
to see correspondingly valuable practical re-
suits. The glib grammarians Of examination
day miserably failed when they attempted to
write an ordinary letter, and even when they
attempted TO express themselves orally The
facile geographer was found wanting the mo-
ment he got out of the school-room The
accomplished olocutionary interpreter of the
English masters was found to have little
taste for other reading than dime novels or
the spiciest blood and. thunder newspapers.
All this seemed but a sorry outcome for the
years Of care and outlay.
Mr.. Adams was during those years also
trustee of the public library, and he had made
a study of what food the graduates of the
schools delighted in, or whether they sought
any that the library could furnish This
set 'Lim and his coadjutors to thinking,
till they finally dared to question the wisdom
of the methods of common school instruction,
and they began to experiment At the next
public school examination it was resolved that
they should depart from the time -honored
custom of having the sch GLARS, by an exhibit
ton of their marvellous attainments, startle
and dumfound the committee and the de-
lighted parents. The committee divided the
work of examination am ong themselves, and
for the day set the teac hers aside. Instead
of listening to the sententious speeches Of
the great Webster, or the liquid verses Of the
sweet LCngfellow, rendered from the pages
of the Dodel reader by the youthful prodigies
of the school-room, the committee dared to
set the reader aside, ana opened the pages
of ordinary book and asked the scholars
to read at sight. The result showed Just
what had been accomplished so far as reading
was concerned. Instead of having their
breath taken away by the glib rafting over of
the conned rules of the gram marian, the COM
mittee set the scholars to work to write a let
ter or some simple piece of compost ion as
dramatically and orthographically correct
as they could The result was equally as in
structive as that in relation TO the reading,
viz. that the common school system was a
practical failure so far as Quincy was con
cerned.
What was to be done? That something
ought to be done every thoughtful person
felt and saw. Was the fault in the teachers
Would more expensive teachers or a multi
plication of teachers remedy the defect? No
one thought so. And, moreover, the schools
We're now costing more than was felt to be
enough. But what to do The committee
were men who could not give their time
wholly to the schools nor, if they could, did
either of them feel competent to the task of
accomplishing what seemed plainly to be
needed-to graduate children from the gram
mar schools at the same cost, or less, and yet
better fitted for the ordinary affairs of life
than by the ordinary system. In this diem
ma the committee were fortunate in finding
a man who had not only become dissatisfied
with the popular system, but had actually
gone in the spirit of patriotic missionary to
Europe to study the common school system
and methods of Germany, perhaps the best
educated nation on the earth. Mr.. Parker,
for that is the gentleman's name, was willing
to try the experiment of his new and daring
system in the schools OF Quincy. He was not
n mere theorist, as no member of the COM
mittee was, but painstaking and patient ex-
perimenter, and all plans were regarded as
but tentative. What was the plan? First,
the model reader, the perfect grammar, the
scientific copy books, and the systematic
spoilers, were quietly packed away, or as Mr..
Adams expresses it, Immediately "hustled
out" They were surely brave men, and we
can readily imagine many teacher thought
them mad. But what was to take the place
of all this, hitherto considered necessary, ap-
paratus? The pamphlet shall tell
Reading at sight and writing off-hand
We're to constitute the basis of the new sys-
TEN. The faculty of doing either the one or
the other of these could, however, be ac-
quired in only one way, by constant practice.
Practice took time, and neither school days
nor school life were endless. Economy of
time, therefore, was above all else necessary
and economy of time was wholly incompati-
BILE with multiplicity of studies. Under the
old system everything had been taught sep
arately. The reading lesson the writing les
son, the spelling lesson had, in regular order,
followed the lesson in grammar, and in arith-
metic, and in geography, and in history.
Two afternoon half-hours a week, for in
stance, would be devoted to the copy books
a blotted pile of which on the masters desk
g,1 !