Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-11-17

as mucn science IN developing III
more ordinary faculties of the human
mind as there is in raising crops or ex
tracing minerals from the earth
There is an easy, natural and attrac
tive way Of training the intellect o.
there is Of training the body, if you
philosophy could but find 1t out. 1t il
not tho way to find it out, however, L
analyze the thing to be taught, divid
ing and defining, and taking to plecei
and putting together. On the con
trary, the work must begin at th,
other end The operation of the child'i
mind, the natural processes Of growtt
and assimilation which go on in it, its
inherent methods of development anC
acquisition must be long and patiently
studied. The Superintendent of The
future is thus Baconian ia his phIloso
ply. He rejects at once all mechan
ism, all tradition, all a priori theories,
all military methods. lie has recourse
to slow, patient process OF induction
Believing that the human mind is
something more than cabbage, he
argues that if their is a science
in manuring and growing cabbages,
there is probably science OF mental
development. Accordingly, he watches
the child in its mothers arms and at
play. He secs 1t learn to speak and
to walk, and analyses the processes
through which it does tit. Then he
follows the schoolboy out to the ball,
ground and the skating pond.
Wherever he goes, he notices one thing
that every age, from infancy to man.
hood, the child is continually learning
TO do with infinite ease and skill things
most difficult to do-tbings which be
himself would in vain attempt If he
questions that fact, he has but care
iulIy to study the principles OF equii-
brium and momentum; and then, hav-
ing thoroughly mastered them, and
got them at bis tongues end, let him
go upon the ice and try to follow some
boy through n little fancy skating
He has taught the boy the Iules Of
grammar, and then called upon him
to write the English language why
is it that he having taught himself
each principle Of speed and balance
involved, cannot now slide Off on the
outer edge ? To skate is as difficult
as to write; probably more difficult.
Yet in spite Of hard teaching IN the
one case, and no teaching in the other,
the boy can skate beautifully, and he
cannot write his native tongue at all.
So the Superintendent of the future
learns lesson on the skating pond,
and goes home from il with new con.
ception Of the little worth of formulas,
and more faith in practice. Thus ii is
in everything, The processes be APP
plies to the child he finds that be can
not get any results from when he ap.
plies them to himself Take base ball,
for instance. He teaches the child TO
write by putting it in certain posi-.
tion with pen in its hand and caus-
ing it to initiate with up.and. down
strokes a printed legend at the head
Of page Of copy.book. This is done
three hours a week. Then he himself
studies the rules of base ball, and takes
bat in his hand, aud initiates blows,
and runs imaginary bounds, and keeps
it up painfully ard conscienliously-as
good boy writes-three half hours a
week, for the entire term he can no more
play base ball than the boy can write.
Then he turns to the examination of
papers ofthe Norfolk shoots IN Walton's
report, and no longer asks himself
Why is this soY 1t is all clear to him
now. He has been expecting of little
children what he could not do himself
So he goes back to the beginning, and,
before he undertakes to teach, sits
humbly down, grown man at Ma
ture's knee, and patiently cons the al.
phabet of her methods. The scientific
superintendency is, however, as yet in
its first infancy. 1t is wholly uuor-
ganized. How completely it is in its
infancy, how wholly it lacks organiza-
ton, becomes very apparent when the
single indisputable fact is stated that
in this country the development of the
average human mind is not recognized
by our highest institutions Of learning
as a scientific study at ALL They pay
no attention to it--make no provision
for it. They have medical schools de.
voted 10 the study OF mans body
they have dental schools devoted to
the study of his teeth but any one
who is not fool, the learned doctors
tell us, can train the child's mind All
there is TO know on that subject can
be told in half an hour, and learned by
practice at an older teachers side in
few weeks. Is not this cuIious2 That
ii is a fact is indisputable. There is
science of law, and schools and profes.
sors to teach it. There is a science of
agriculture, and colleges devoted to its
study. There is a science of mining,
and institutes OF technology in which
it is taught. 1t is even claimed that
there is a science of divinity. But
when il comes to the educational de-
velopment Of those who are to consti-
tute the future state, though we spend
millions on millions upon it, the uni.
versities turn their heads away, and
class them as something less than the
grass of the field. They grade the
child's mind as lower than its teeth.
They assume that any callow youth,
fresh from his graduating course, and
with the ink hardly dry on his degree,
Is quite competent to train the first,
though not to take care of the last.
We thus turn over our children to
those whom we would never dream of
intrustiDg with our potato patch.
Do THEY MISS Me- 2-Does the world
miss any ono2 Not long. The best
and most useful of US will soon be for
gotten. Those who to day are filling
largo place in the worlds regard
will pass away from the remembrance
Of men in month or at the iarthcst