New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-25
NOTES ON EDUCATION.

on Primary Reading" IN which ne saiu'
70 gain success in teaching arises nom iau''y
methods and want of systematic presentation VI
the subject The oral analysis OF speech shou,u 20
the teachers first work. Sounds are nrse anu .o'
ters second. The sounds Of the English iahguaso
have natural order. and this order forms good
bas;s for systematic instruction. The primary VOW
ella should be taught first the children peing inauo
IN reneat the sounds after the teacher until .ney
are clearly recognized and may be reaaly piVuue tS
by all. To be able to utter asG Ind onlv snrs step
toward mastery Of the English tongue Inc Pio-
nunciation Of the consoDants, separately anu III
groups was then explained I'D Sihh"i a""S W '""'
used with the yOweis.
The annual meeting of the Massachusetts, Society
for the University Education of Women took place
last week in Boston. An interesting report OF INC
movement in Europe and America for the highei
education of women presented by the Commit
tee on Correspondence, from which the following
extract is taken 1T is painfully evident tha' Ino
privileges that are open to women are not useu Do
generally as is desirable for the best good Oh soce'y
This appears TO be specially true in Italy. In otner
localities superior advantages, which ior twenty
wears have been open to women have recently been
almost completely closed to them. Such for IN
stance as the opportunities for instruction and OBJ
servation in the great hospital of Vienna. Official
recognition and instruction by the professors may
no longer be obtained Private lessons can be taken
from such of the assistants choose to give thehi'
The University of Leipsc withholds the rare priN-
lege which few women at one tlme e"JuSo"'
Possibly there may exist an indifference OF al ieast
n negative attitude of mind among the educated
women of these countries as TO the va!ue Oh tnis
superior mental discipline TO be home-keepers' ~
cannot be expected that the great universities ana
schools Of Germany will consider the convenience
and desire of foreigners to avail themselves OF their
tla
sistent in their demand that for them the highestis
also the best The ann OF disciplinary training III
schools is doubtless much the same III az ehhgnt-
enel countries. We wish to teach our youth DS long
wears of drill to concentrate their attention npon
worthy objects to tram their faculties 10 DC aIeI
and equal to the emergencies OF ne, 10 see e
n mental noise and spiritual Insight ana 10 see
these results in our daughters as wei as our SONS.
The majority OF parents adopt course Oh Ia'1lns
for their sOns that has proved larry eihce't anu -
liable and something entirely different for tier
DAUGHTERS, that Is nelth her trainlnR nor uIeclPiu0
But in this country and England there mas appeaftu
"a DECIDED awakening to the Inconsistency ana !hi-
reasopa bleness of this lack OF method Ia training
girls IL will give you encouragement TO ilS,en 10 20
lie facts which will be presented IN relauoh 70 me
DEVELOPMENT of the higher education III Ulcat
Britain and to the very interesting report " .ne
work American girls are doing not only as students
IN the classics but teachers III our hItlnS scnoos
and professors III our colleges and universities
From the statistics of ilhteracy given in The CEN
gus of 1880 it appears that the range OF iilterdcy
among the whites of fifteen ex-slave States Is from
81 per cent in Maryland the most northeriy OF inc
late slave States) 315 per cent IN North Carolina
and the average 20 per cent The range OF Hitter
ocv among the coored people in the same States Is
b39 per cent in Missouri to SIG per cent III
Georo1a. with an average of ~ per cent Tor the
whole. In the twenty-three remaining states-al
of them being in the North and West-the average
of illiteracy among the whites is little over oper
cent and among the colored population little over
10 per cent Oregon shows the lowest percentage OF
jlliteracy among the whites being only 8 per cent,
while that of Rhode Island is the highest-lO9 per
cent. The ratio in Illinois 80 per cent In Iowa
az iuslndiana g. and in Nebraska 35. As gen
erai rule the new Western States show higher
average of intelligence-which is, no doubt due to
The general enterprise of those States, as well rs the
fact that large proportion OF the population are
adults though something may be due TO I'M
perfect statistics. The lowest ratio OF lilteraey
among colored people Is III Massachusetts. when
reports 15.1 per cent, while nnapsnae connds
next with 1873 per cent, and Delaware slanas
highest with 81 . per cent, over oDe-half OF It's
coIorei population unable 10 read and write. HE
ratio in illinois is 312 per cent OF 1te over one
third.
Southern gentleman, in letter to The Nec-
Orleans Times Democrat deplores the fact that cult
ure il waning in tho South. Time was" he SOS,
"when an educated Southern gentleman meant the
peer of the educated gentleman anywhere. Nor ala
he bleneh i'll comparison. as to culture and
scholarship, (which, whatever your practical
men man may say, will always be ranked highly by
the highest types of cvizationl with the graduate
of Harvard or of Princeton. But We fear 1t Is not
sonow Poverty seems to have made people so
intent apon retrieving their fortunes and devel-
onino their material resources that no education
10 ,,uch valued that does not to tend directly
fo those ends. We say directly. for no student OF
history doubts that, in all tunes and countries
those ends have been best and most certainly
reached by the most enlarged and liberal educa-
ton and culture of the intellect, rather than the
physical forces OF people. But tns MASSES s are
narrow in view and jealous OF superior culture
taxes are in some Southern States heavy and
above all, demagogues are mighty.
A hill ia TO be introduced in the Indiana State
Legislature to endow the State University
In the February number of The Popular Science
bfopfhIy Professor Youmans discusses the evils OF
..machinen education. By this term, he says, eve
mean the rigid mechanical, lawesablished routine
enabled to great mulitudes OF children of all con-
ceivable sorts who are got together large estab
ishments and submitted to operations that go under
the name of mental cultivation. Machine education
Ia of the very lowest Sort and the best that can he
said of il is that it barely better than nothing at
MI The worst difficulty is. that 1t is notcapable OF
Improvement. The method itself Is radically false
NO that the improvements of it but make it worse
At the same time 1t borrows influence from its
Enormous extension and the authority by which 1t
ia enforced The education-factories run IN series
each has complex grading ana the dihereht INST
ali driven by the motive power of legislation. As
might be ex pected, the whole system 10 run with
view TO popular effect which is necessarily fatal to
the best results.
The Vest Vrgisam is responsible for the following
In reference to the University OF West Virginia I:
1--WE were told recently that a student Of the uni
vers,ty at Morgantown, desiring to read the life OF
Charles Sumner, applied to Professor Harvey, the
librarian, for the same. He was told that the book
was not in the library, but that If 1t were he could
not get it, as he, Harvey, regarded 1t as not being
ct book for him to read. VI course not luis
g.. hooL NJ patriofism liberty, philanthropy aud