Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-12-17
The Quincy Experiment---NO. 8.

So daring an experiment as this caD how
ever, be tested in but one way by its prac-
tical results, as proven by the experience of
a number of years, and testified to by pa.
rents and teachers as well as observed in
children. The method has now been four
years in use in the schools of Quincy and
has ceased to be an experiment; its advan-
tages are questioned by none least of all by
teachers aud parents. Among the teachers
are those who, having for many years taught
class after class in the old way, found them
selves called upon to attempt with deep
misgiving the new and to them mysterious
process. They now join their testimony to
the others and confess that, to human be-
ings, even though they be children, the ways
of nature are the easier ways. Only now do
we deign in imparting knowledge to give
any attention to natural processes, which have
forever been going on before our eyes and
in our families, and yet we profess to think
that there is no science in primary educa-
tion, and that all that there is to it can be
learned in few hours The simple fact is,
however, that within these few years it re-
quired man of absolute genius to discover
how TO teach the alphabet.
The new departure, therefore, started
with the Quincy primaries, and it left little
in them that had not undergone change.
The reorganization was complete. This,
however, was entirely the work of the super
intendent the committee simply gave him
free field to experiment in, and the result
fully justified them in so doing. The re.
suits of the old system, as brought to light
through the earlier examinations, have al
ready been referred to; the ridiculous knowl.
edge, for instance, of parts Of speech and
abstract rules of grammar, acquired 10 order
to be able to parse complicated sentences,
but combined with an utter inability to cor
rectly write or decently spell the words of
the most ordinary letter.
Under these circumstances the general
policy outlined by the committee was suff-
cienty radical. Its execution was entrusted
wholly to the superintendent. Education
was to recur to first principles. Instead of
being multiplied, the number of studies
should, they insisted, be reduced. Not
much was to be attempted but whatever
was attempted was to be thoroughly done,
and to be tested by its practical results, and
not by its theoretical Importance. Above
all, the simple comprehensive processes of
nature were to be observed. Children were to
learn to read and write and cipher as they
learned to swim or to skate or to play ball.
The rule by which the thing was done was
nothing; the fact that it was done well was
everything. As early as 1873 the committee
had, in the report already quoted from, ex-
pressed the opinion that, Gas now taught in
our schools, English grammar is singuarly
Improbable branch of instruction" 1t was
now Immediately hustled out of them and
the reader was sent after the grammar and
the spelling-book after the reader; and the
copy book after the speller. Then the pro-
cess of simplifcation began. Reading at
sight and writing off-hand were to consti
tute the basis of the new system.
Under the old system, everything had
been taught separately. The reading lesson,
the writing lesson, the spelling lesson had, in
regular order, followed the lesson in gram
mar, and in arithmetic, and in geography,
and in history. Two afternoon half-hours
week, for instance, would be devoted to the
copy-books, a blotted pile of which on the
masters desk testified unmistakably to the
inadequate results reached. The children
then could glibly tell what peninsula was,
but they did not know one when they lived
on it; they could stand up and spell in
spelling bee, but put a pen in their hands
and the havoc they made with photography
was wonderful. Seven studies have been
enumerated; all considered elementary. In.
stead of adding yet Others to these, the
direction of the committee was that they
should be reduced to three, reading, writing
and arithmetic.
The process by which this was to be
brought about was simple enough. Read
ing and writing were to be regarded as ele-
mentary; as such they were to be taught in
the primary schools. They were to be
taught by incessant practice, book and pen
Gil in hand and no scholar who could not
read at sight and write with comparative
ease could be considered ready for promo
tion. Instruction in reading, writing, gram.
mar, spelling and, TO very considerable de-
gree, in history and geography were COM
bined in two xercises-reading and writing
The old reader having disappeared, the
teacher was at liberty to put in the hands
of the class Biographies or histories or mag
azne articles, and, having read them first,
the scholars might write of them afterwards
to show that they understood them. Their
attention was thus secured, and the pen be-
ing continually in the hand, they wrote as
readily as they spoke, and spelling came
with practice. Yet this was exactly what
was done under the old system of the Quincy
schools as respects reading and writing.
The grammar and the copy-book effectually
put stop to all chance of facility in either
for children are slow to learn, and The time
giUen 10 The study Of formulas is time lost in
practice.
In arithmetic no great changes or i'm
proyement in the methods of instruction as
yet seem possible But as respects geogra-
ply 1t is by no means so, and in no study
has the new departure in the Quincy schools
been more marked than in this. The old
methods all are familiar with, for there are
few indeed who have ever been into reg
ulation school who have not heard child
after child glibly chatter out the bounda.
ries and capitals, and principal towns and