Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-11-06
Our Common schools.
from the Paper by Charles Francis Adams, jr
the November Harre-ss I

Francis Adams.
the November Harpec's
Huge mechanical educational machines. they
are peculiar 70 our own time and country, aad
are organized, as nearly as possible. as como-
i nation OF the cotton mill and the railroad with
the model state prison: The school committee
is the board of direction. while the superin-
tendent-the chief executive oficer-sits in his
calls a program, before him, by which one
hour twice a week is allotted to this study. and
half an hour three times week TO that, and 90
hours term to q third; and at such time one
class Will be at this point and the other class
al that, the whole moving With military prec'
sion to given destination Of n specified date.
Mechanical methods could not be carrie FUR
ther The organization Is peri t. The machine
works almost with the precision OF clock work
IL II, however, company front all the time. From
one point or view CHILDREN are regarded as au-
tomatons: from another. as india rubber bags;
from third. as so much raw material They
must move In step, and exactly alike. They
must receive the same mental nutrIment In
equal quantities and at liked times. It's assimi-
iatioh is wholly immateral. but the motions
mus. se gone through WITH: finally as raw
IL Ia well!
This was the very general--ln fact, the inev-
lthble-fesuit On the large scale or the system
OF hipertntendency in vogue during the last rs
Yeats. IL WAS also, perhaps natural and
necessary .,', phase OF development; something
which ha1 TO be pass I through though IL i'm
th,tdlately Resulted in several undesirable
things In The fist place, so TAR a the child
was concerned the Initiative or lnenOrizing
faculties only were cultivated, ana little or no
attention was paid TO the thinh ng or renee,
i've powers Indeed, u may almost be sad
,h id.h Ghia OF any Originality, or with indi-
wholly out OF place In public school. The
Idea, under the system. was masses OF children
designated from usage by Names instead of
more conveniently by Numbers, VINO learned
! certain rules by helrt. and applied then with
mechanical promptitude and Correctness. Any
deviation from this semtmilitary method was
cipline. Starting from this point, the course
| OF socalled educational development up to a
recent period has been natural logical, and
common place. There have been lust three
steps to it-memorning, examinations, pro-
gramS-the last two, the latest educational
hobbies built upon the Traditional 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 educa-
t1onaliy speaking, looked upon as vast acca-
grand aim and object Of teaching was to i'm
part as many as possible OF these to the youth
Jul mind. The way to impart was TO cause
them to be laboriously 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 1t now
rule, and now fact, and then again a def1nt-
ton, and he gave them to the children, and
saw that they swallowed them whether they
liked them or not, and whether they were
n 1,1d by them or not But in process OF
that the knowledge thus impaired was not re.
tanned. and the examination 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 intel
lectual stomach for at least reasonable period.
The examination, however, as it was organized
and gradually ramif1ed into fully developed
whole, almost necessarily called the program
into existence. The world OF knowledge was
too large, there were too many facts and rules
and definitions for the teacher as well as for
the taught: and so, for the protection of the
former, 1t became necessary to stake out from
the wide domain, by certain meteS and bounds
the districts within which he was to search for
the hidden treasures. Anything obtained or to
De obtained outside was not to count. The pro-
gram was thus relief to the teacher, clearly
marking as it did the limits within which the
examining process was TO be carried on. It made
his work possible. The development of the syS-
tenn was then complete.
Under these circumstances, education being
reduced to little more than mechanical pro-
cess OF examining. with periodical nerve trials
to ascertain the degree Of retention, the average
Child not unnaturally felt toward bis school
and what was there required of him very mucn
as learned dog or monkey may be supposed to
feel toward his task-master. Accordingly, the
sckening dislike of school, and OF things caught
at school, is with the majority of those enamel
pated from 1t almost the strongest association
connected with early life.