Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-07-03
EDUCATIONAL NOTES.

EDUCATIONAL NOTES.
The Indiana State University has had $40
students In attendance this year.
- Drawing Is to be allowed as an optional
study in the last two years Of both courses of
study In the Boston high school.
- North Carolina during the last fiscal year
disbursed 1926 $40. IS for the public schools and
had balance on hand OF s147, 1904.
- The study Of bookkeeping has been made
compulsory for two hours and half each week
in the first grade OF the San Francisco gram
mar schools.
- The Ohio Teachers Association will hold
its annual meeting at Chautauuua Lake next
week after. beginning with the 18th. the meet
Ing OF the National Teachers Association win
be held.
After much discussion, the school authorl.
ties OF Hudson. N. Z, have determined to in
aIooGce coeducatlon In the schools of that city.
Inc sexes nave heretofore been taught in Sepa-
rate buildings. Coeducation has just been for
D1dden by the school board Of Louisville, KY
- At Amsterdam there is an excellent tech
n1cal school In which six trades are taught to
another. SO America may take lesson from
Holland. Special schools for technical tnstruc-
ton are what In this country Of M-trained
workingwomen are greatly needed.
- Lord Norton, of the British house of lords.
Is not the only Intelligent man who believes
that In the public schools too much Is attempted
10 the way OF instruction. He thinks 1t unwtse
that common-SchOO children should he taurht
English literature, mathematics, Latin, French
German, mechanics, animal ply Siology physical
geography, botany and domestic economy. at
the expense of the state, as is now done in
England.
= proof Of the diminished hold of the dead
languages upon modern educational tnstitu-
lions Is found in the fact that at the recent
commencement OF Elton school, England. only
one Greek passage, and not single Latin one.
occurred on the program of the speeches made
by the boys. am old enough" adds an Eng
lishman, Ito remember when the rule went the
other way, and even an English passage was
almost an exception"
= The quincy system Is to be introduced in
OF teacher trained In quincy. The Sacramento
Record says that the school children know
nothing of English literature, that they are
Ignorant OF any history besides sketchy &C
quaintance with that of the United States; that
they have had their brains nearly daZed with
lessons III grammar and word analysis, and they
can parse sentence with machine-like prec-
sion. though probably they could not compose
one dramatically, or write five lines without
some gross blunder In photography.
President Hayes said with much force at
the commencement Of Kenyon College last
week: 1.-The student of the small college who
has diligently and thoroughly mastered the
studies OF his course will surely find that he is
at no disadvantage as compared with the great
est of what are known as the great colleges in
training, elementary knowledge and habits OF
thought and study which are requisite for sue
cess In the professions or In any field of learning
or service which he may chance to enter.'' In
other words, the President might have said the
character and thorOughneSS or the education,
not less than the manner in 1t Is applied in after
life, depends much more upon the student him
self than upon the college which happens to
graduate him. Or, still briefer: 1t isn't always
the biggest colleges that send out the biggest
men.
An excellent instance Of the way in which
the children in the average public school learn
without learning is related by the Barnes
Ed,tGattonal Monthly A teacher In one Of our
public schools has been accustomed to require
her pupils to say: 'The equatori is an imaginary
line passing around the EARTH" etc. 1t never
occurred to heI that the boys and girls OF her
school had no idea what an imaginary line
meant, until one day visitor asked them how
Wide they thought the equator is. Some thought
1t was 1000 miles wide, others 1900, and others
SAID they could jump over It, The visitor then
asked how they thought ships got over it. One
pupil said he thought they got out and drew
them over, and another said that he had read
is the name of this canaI?" was asked. "The
Suez canal?" was the answer.
AT teachers institute held in Gold Htr
Nev the other day one speaker gave voice to
making OF detailed maps is waste OF labor
and that compelling pupil to bound every
which teacher should be indicted. He added
that the mere memoriZing OF facts and figures
without the association OF ideas, is OF no benefit
have general knowledge Of geographical
outlines and an understanding Of the topo-
graphy OF the country than to pay so much at
tenttOn to worthless details which load the
mind without improving 1t. Particular atten-
ton, he thought should be given to local geo.
graphy-that OF the state and county In which
the pupil lives. He illustrated the unintelligent
fashion IN which advanced geography Is taught
by this little story: A young woman In the Cal
1forn1a normal school, whose betrOthed Is q
fireman On the railroad, was asked: .sWhat is a
water Shed?" She answered: "a place where
the engine stops to take In water"
The London Spectator says that the great
danger OF the teachers in the primary schools
Is that they may become mere drilling ma
chimes, machines capable Of mechanically i'm
parting to children the proper articulation and
spelling OF words, the proper manipulation of
the pen and the knack Of counting and cipher
Ing" without lmparting to them any of the
desires which these arts were chiefly discovered
to crafty. For there is no routine of
physical labor half so deadening as rou-
tine labor of the rudimentarY mental
kind. A man who works in saW-ptt
has his mind fresh when his work is over; q
man who works at teaching dull children to
arttculate and use their pens, has his mind 1T
terly fat1gued when the work Is over, unless he
can refresh 1t by total change OF occupation
The first OF all requisites Is to get teachers In
the primary schools who are Qufckened by fresh
intellectual Interests themselves. and who have
the talent OF awakening these In others. You
can hardly do this better than by fostering the
taste for studies outside the routine course, and
inviting teachers when they do their routine
work well to share those studies with their