The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-03-10
School Reform.

lion prosecuted in the PRESS and the very
general interest felt by our citizens in the
topic lend local interest to some papers
published in the current number of the
North American Review. One of the con-
tributors to that publication has things to
say about industrial schools that are worthy
Of especial note in view of the agitation of
the subject in Portland. Those who take
part in the North American discussion are |
Professor G. Stanley Hall, Professor Felix
Adler, and DIR. Mary Putnam jacob.
The title they choose is Educational
Needs" Professor Hall would make by
giene and muscle culture the first principle |
to be observed in the education of children.
The Professor argues that a highly devel-
oped brain, when associated with mHscu-
lar system that through neglect has become /
fabby and atrophied, means that melancholy |
type of man who knows a great deal but 1
does nothing. His mental and moral cul- |
ture through physical weakness are not eff /
fective to maintain that energy of will |
which means self control and resistance 10 /
wickedness. The children should be early |
bduSub W bdhc al lulClllSCub AnbCACob
manly pride in their own physical culture |
and development. The desirable thing is
not exceptional gymnastic skill that makes |
the boy the hero of boat race or baseball |
match, but an early pride in physical health
and sense of self-reproachfor sickness that
has resulted from ignorance of or indlffer-
ence to those simple laws of health that any
child of ten years of age can be made to I'M
derstand and to reverence in his work and
in his play. 1t is not desirable that young
girl should be queen of the skating rink, but
that is no reason why she need grow up ig-
norant of thesfact that the guardian angel
of beauty is bodily health; if women only
knew that the mass of decent men are al
ways won by a woman who looks whole
some, because there is rosy health in her
cheek and brightness In her eye, they would
cast all cosmetics into the sea and let out a
reef in their corsets. n uaman with a waist
like wasp never walks well; the free stride
of fisher girl that steps off like gazelle is
wanting; graceful, elastic carriage is impos
sIble when a woman cripples the natural
freedom of the teet and limbs by the artiic-
ial appliances of fashionable civilization.
Professor Halls philosophy, we take it,
, would teach girl from child to care for
her health as jealousy as she would for her
reputation. He would have foar-hours'
incoming for all primary children, with but
four hours school, beginning at a. m.
This is the practice in some German cities.
Professor Hall would have more depart
ment teaching; that is, the teacher of music
shall not be the only special instructor; oy-
erwork, Professor Hall thinks, is generally
nothing but the result of employing teachers
whose wrong methods make things need
lessly hard. Examinations should come, as
in Germany, during the cooler months.
Professor Felix Adler agrees with Pro-
fessor Hall that children in the public
schools of New York city are not SO much
the victims of overwork as of wrong and ex-
hausting methods of instruction. He would
not exaggerate the development of memory
at the expense of the understanding ;he would
reduce the size of the classes, so that greater
respect can be paid to the individuality of
the children. Professor Adler forcibly ar
CUES that when the acquisition of knowledge
has been made irksome to the young, it is
clear proof that the method of instruction is
at fault, for he. fairly says that children are
naturally eager for knowledge, and with
eagerness and freshness seize upon the facts
of the world. If the instruction of the
is in the method and the teacher. Professor
Adler thinks that children can be interested
in instruction if the reason is appealed to,
rather than by loading the memory with
depressing burden, Under this rational
method children will take in knowledge as
naturally as they do food and water. Pro-
fessos Adler would add cheap workshops to
the public schools for elementary training
of the eye and hand, as a welcome change
from the purely intellectual part of their in
struction. The additional expense will be
small, for the materials and tools needed
would be comparatively inexpensive The
beneficial effects of alternate practical labor
and mental application to books is proved
by the English half-time schools. The pu-
pills in these schools are compelled by pow
erty to work in the factory the greater part
of the day, but they learn as much in their
three hours as other pupils in full time.
Prof Adler favors these school workshops
for technical education and art modelling
because it tests and discovers the ability of
the pupil in new direction. Hand and eve
education Is a new means of brain education.
Ii anybody doubts this let him note the diff
erence in the mental vigor and reasoning
power of young mechanic who passed from
the common school to the factory or machine
shop and the young man who passed from
the common school into the store. Prof. Ad-
Ter says that in the Workingman's School in
New York city he has seen young children
hopelessly dull at their books easily take the
lead in the school workshop and "excelling
all their companions in the accuracy, finish
and beauty of their results" In the ordina- |
~ public schools these children would have |
been hopelessly lost and their failure would |
have crushed their mental self respect for |
life. The great curse of the New York pub |
lie schools is that they are not entrusted to
boards of management that include special |
lists in the science of education; they are US
ually appointed because of their politics,
business or social influence President Hun
ter Of the New York School Board seems to
be man of excellent sense. He would not re-
quire study at home until the child had
reached his tenth or eleventh year. He
would divide school time up to this age into
three equal parts--one third for study, one
third for recitation and instruction and one
third for recreation and physical exercise. |
He does not believe in the Evolutionary
method of reading taught in schools, a
method that gives no proper understanding |
of the subject matter of the book, but i'm |
parts disagreeable mannerism to the child's |
reading which clings to him often through |
life. The important thing is that the child |
should acquire information, proper under
standing of language and its correct gram
NAUTICAL expression, as well as pronunciation; |
he does not need to be made an elocutionist |
by the parrot methods of drill. The les
sons to be tudied out of school should new |
er, even in the highest grade of grammar |
schools roouira moro than two hOurg' work |