The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-11-19
WHAT SHALL We TEACH!

The following bold utterances were
made by Superintendent Kickoff, OF
Cleveland. Ohio, before the National
Educational Association, at Atlanta,
last July. They will, no doubt.
challenge The attention ofeducators,
and be read with a csnsidembl degree
of interest: M
five teachers were to look beyond
the traditional demands ofsfhs mar
ket for which we are trainingSthe lii
tie children under our care. and were
to analyze minutely and cciscien-
tiously the knnwIed ge and discipline
OF the best classes of grown-np inen
and women, the m ,ral and mental
habiliments, ifyou please, If weil-tn-
formed. aud inteIiigest slsrssple ofslths
fefent VACATIONS IN fife; and If we
were then t., al lreSs ourselves not to
the supply of Il IN ,rket, the demands
of which are determined by thu ig-
norant III asses rather tn III by inlell-
gence. but to III Aet the real need, of Il
people, there can be little doubt that
thecurriculum OfourcOininOa schools
would be cast aside aS of little value
or as absolutely worthless, and its
place would be supplied by elements
which now scarcely appear on the
program.
But let me he more specific. If the
schoolmaSter, or rather the true edu-
I eater of the race, Were to send COM
mission to its Workshops. its farms,
its churches, its political and religious
conventions, its teachers desks and
its editorial rooms, to make diligent
inquiry of the men and women to be
found there, as to how much of the
knowledge acquired IN the elemen-
tary schools in com non to "a majority
of them-I mean majority Of the
most intelligent-the very leaders in
each class. And il this commission
were to make careful observation of
every remaining trace of the intel
lectual and moral discipline of the
schools to be found in the modes of
reasoning and styles of expression
used by those whom they met in the
course of their inquiries and if, when
this investigation had been COM
pleted, the commission were to set
itself about the elimination of every
thing in the present course of COM
mon school instruction which had
been feusld to have been rejected as
of least worth by a great III ljority
of the most intelligent Workmen,
tradeslnen, and members of the learn
ed professions, how much do you
think would remain of all that is so
laboriousIy taught and so painfully
learned in the schools?
Suppose that when room had been
made in our course of study by throw
ing out that which had been found to
be comparatively valueless, this COM
mission should substitute therefor
more ample courses of instruction in
those subjects which in the progress
of their inquiries they had found to
have been studied at school and to
have been extended by the great ma
jorItv beyond school-life into the self
directive years of manhood and wo-
manhood and, further, if the COM
mission were to add to this curricu-
lum the study ofthe agencies through
which town, county, state and ma
tional governments act, the mere
machinery of the administration, and
few of the more palpable and i'm
portant principles of political ecuno-
my; and still further, if it were to
add an Introduction at least to the
great English and American authors,
whom to know well is itself an edu
cation, anG whom 1t is disgrace not
to know, whose productions are the
richest inheritance of our race or to
sum up in more general terms, if we
were to subject the common course
OF instruction in our common district
and graded schools to a thorough re-
vision. vigorously excluding all that
Is consciously and unconsciOusly me-
elected as valuless by Intelligent men
and women. as soon as they became
free to judge and act for themselves,
and substituting those things to
which every young man and young
woman who is ambitious to become
a worthy factor in the affairs of the
Community, the state or the nation.
is forced to give earnest attention as
he emerges from the school If. in a
word, We were to "prove all things
and hold fast only that which is
good,' we would perform the highest
service to the cause of common school
education which ii is possible for any
association to perform.
What for instance, would be the
result of an inquiry among the more
intelligent tradesInen and members