Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-01-15

SUGGESTIONS from able and expert
enced educators concerning the man
agement and the methods of teaching of
our public schools are always useful,
whether one sees fit or not to adopt the
sentiments expressed We find the fol-
lowing extract from the annual report
Of Superintendent Findley, of the Akron
schools, in the Sunday Gazette of the
21st:
The experience, reading and thought
OF nearly thirty years in public school
work have lead me to the eOnclusicu
that more is attempted, and less really
accomplished, in our elementary schools,
than should be. The terdeney, for
some time, has been to a display of Os-
tentatiOus learning, rather than solid at
tainment in practical knowledge and
useful culture. Teachers and school Of
icers, ambitious to occupy the frUnt
rank in educational matters, have gon q
on step by step until the courses of study
prescribed for the elementary schools Of
some of our cities have contained bota-
ny, zoology, physics, chemistry, phSiOlO-
gy, and what not. Imitation has ruled
the hour in education as well as finance.
The schools of our city, though not ell
tirely without fault in this direction,
have never occupied the extreme ground
which some have.
But what with all the light we have at
present, shall be considered judiciOus
course of instruction for system Of
graded schools? For the purposes of
the present inquiry shall not include
the High School. What, then, are the
attainments which the average pupil
should be expected to possess who has
passed through the grades below the
High School? The essentials, the bread
and meat, so to speak, of a common
school course of instruction and train
ing, seem to me to be included in these
four:
l. Language.
III. Penmanship.
III. Arithmetic.
w. Right Moral Habits.
That is to say-Less fancy and show
work and more real, genuine, practical
culture. By Language" we understand
the Superintendent to mean instruction
and drill in writing and talking, which
involves practical instruction in the
rules of constructing sentences, so that
pupils shall be taught to know when a
sentence is correct, or incorrect, and
why, and how to make it correct when
it is not. The fourth item is one Of more
Importance than anything else connect
ed with school work. As the boy is to
become citizen and to exert an infiu-
ence in society and in the nation when
he becomes man it is of the utmost i'm
portance that he forms good character,
and If he is not helped to do this at
school it is very often the fact that he
is not helped to do it at all. And it is
even more important that girls should
have proper and adequate moral train
ing. Both boys and girls should be
taught to be honest and courteous-to
be considerate and kind kind to each
other on the playground as well as in
the school-reom-to be so trained that
they will, regardless Of their condition
in life, grow up To be ladies and gentle
men, in the true sense. exerting a whole
some influence in society. Thorough in
struction in rudiments. with thorough
drilling. and the formation of right hzb-
its Of study and good moral character in
the pupils, should be the aims of teach
ers and of Boards of Education. Pupils
who nave been so taught and drilled can
readily help themselves to knowledge in
higher branches if they have natural
taste and capacity for appreciatiAg and
understanding them.-lSpringdeld Re-
public.