Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-11-17
OUR COMMON SCHOOLS.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR., ON THE
MECHANISM OF OUR EDUCATIONAL
SYSTEMS.

7 NhAhhho lhANAln n Mss dhHt bN III
MECHANISM OF OUR EDUCATIONAL
SYSTEMS.
[From IIarpers Magazine for Novombsr,l
Huge mechanical educational ma
chimes, they are peculiar to our own
time and country, and are organized
as nearly as possible, as a combination
ofthe cotton mill and the railroad with
the model State prison. The School
! Committee is the board of direction
while the Suporintendent-tho cbiei
executive Otiicer-slts in his central
Office with the time table, which he
calls IL programme, before him, by
which one hour twice q week is allot.
ted to this study, and half an hour
three times q week to that, and twenty
hours term to II third and at such
u time one class will be at this point
and tho other class at that, the whole
moving with military precision 10 a
given destination at u specified date.
Mechanical methods could net be car
ried further. The organization is per.
feet. The machine works almost with
the precision Of cock.work. 1t is, how
ever, company front all tho time.
From one point of view children are
regarded as automatons, from another
as India rubber bags, from a third as
so much raw material, They must
move in step, and exactly alike. They
must receive the same mental nutri.
ment in equal quantities and at fixed
times Its assimilation is wholly i'm
material, but the motions must be
gone through with, Finally, as raw
material, they are emptied in at the
primaries and marched out at the
grammar grades-and it is well
This was the very general-and in
fact, the ineyitablo-result on the
largo scale OF the system of Supern.
tendency in vogue during the last
twenty-five years. 1t was also, per.
haps q natural and necessary phase of
development, something which had to
be passed through, though it immedi.
ately resulted in several things. In
the first place, so far as the child was
concerned, the initiative or memoriz.
ing faculties only were cultivated, and
little or no attention was paid TO the
thinking or reflective powers. In
deed, it may almost bo said that a
child of any originality, or with indi-
vidual characteristics, was looked upon
us wholly out Of place in a public
school. The idea, under the system,
was masses OF children, designated
from usage by names, instead OF more
conveniently by numbers, who learned
certain rules by heart, and applied
them with mechanical promplitude
and correctness. Any deviation from
this semi military method was sternly
repressed as breach of correct disci.
pline, Starting from this point, the
course Of socalled educational devel.
opment up to q recent period has been
natural, logical and commonplace
There have been just three steps to it
it - memorizing, examinations, pro
grammes; the last two the latest edu.
ca;ional hobbies built upon the tradi-
tional foundation of the first. The
way in which these led from one on
to the next is obvious enough In
the first place, time out Of mind, all
knowledge was, educutioually speak
ing, looked upon as vast accumula-
tion OF facts, rules and definitions and
the grand aim and object OF teaching
was to impart as many as possible Of
these TO the youthful mind. The way
to impart was to cause them to be la
boriously committed to memory. Thus
the teacher sat in his chair, sort of
lone fisherman on the shore Of the
great ocean Of things known, and he
hooked up out of it now a rule, and
now fact, and then again a defini-
ton, and he gave them to the children
and saw that they swallowed them,
whether they liked them or not, and
whether they were nourished by them
or not. But, in process OF time, ii
became apparent to the moro observ.
ing that the knowledge thus impaired
was not to oberetained, and the examina-
tion was then devised as means of
assuring the purveyor of knowledge
that the facts, rules and definitions
impaired were held, so to speak, on
the intellectual stomach for at least n
reasonable period. The examination,
however, as it was organized and
gradually ramifed into q iully-devel.
oped whole almost necessarily called
the programme into existence. The
world OF knowledge was too large
there were too many facts and Jules
and definitions for the teacher, as well
as for the taught; and so, for the pro.
lection of the former, it became neces.
sary to stake out from the wide do.
main, by certain metes and bounds,
the districts within which he was TO
search for the hidden treasures. Any.
thing obtained or TO be obtained out.
side was not TO count The programme
was thus q reliet to the teacher,
clearly marking as ho did the limits
within which the examining process
was TO be carried on. IL mado his
work possible. The development of
the system was then complete.
Under these circumstances, educa.
tion being reduced to little more than
a mechanical process of cramming,
with periodical nerve trials TO ascer
tain the degree Of retention, the aver
age child not unnaturally felt toward
his school and what was there requir
ed Of him very much as learned dog
or monkey may be supposed to feel
toward his task master. Accordingly
the sickening dislike of school and Of
things taught at school is with the
majority Of those emanoipated from It
almost the strongest association con.
nectcd with early life.
The work of organization being
completed and the mechanical having
been overdono u new course Of thought
was inevitable. A reaction was Ger.
tain to come. II began several years
ago OF late IL has assumed more
definite shape and is finding clearer
expression. This reaction is founded
on very deep principles. It's direction
is away from mechanism and toward
science. Indeed, the cardinal princi.
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