St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-17
TIMELY TOPICS.


| The defects in our modern modes and
sys TENS Of education are cumulative. In
the Union school system, all over the land,
the ''cramming'' process everywhere pre-
walls. Studies are numerous and various.
Their number is legion. a given amount
must be accomplished in a given time.
Every pupil without regard to age, capacity,
adapta bility, or natural facility, Is laid re-
lentlessly on the bed Of Procrustes, and all
alike must submit to the required measure
ment. The result is Injurious to health and
life, and bege:s unavoidable superfciality.
Many a bright, young mind has thus been
weakened and ruined forever, and the pupil
driven from the school with education un-
completed, to save life itself by absolute rest
from mental exactons, often with educa-
| tional tasks never to be resumed. These
overburdened, oYertasked processes give
only form of knowledge and education
without the substance. 1t is time revolu-
! ton had been wrought in our schools, sem
inaries and colleges. Instead Of endeavor
| ing to accom- plish so much and doing hardly
anything well, the whole system should be
revised and cut down, non-essentials 4elimi-
mated, and the salient points only seized
upon to be Calculated and enforced. AS a
hum BILE illustration, take singing, Emusic
as taught in the schools. Every scholar
must devote given amount of time each
term and each day of the term, to this
branch without any regard to the natural
taste or aptitude Of the pupil for musical ac-
| quirements. Some succeed, where more
fail And this mode Of examining and i'm
perious exaction issapplied to every branch
alike, and under-teachers and pupils are
driven and burdened by exhausting exac-
lions positively hurtful and beyond all rea-
| son.
1t is time to cry halt and, bring into
vogue due modicum of common sense in
modes and systems Of education The de-
| fects here limited at seem to run through the
entire system Of education, whether in the
| lower or the higher grades, whether in the
common, or the graded schools; or in the
higher sem!naries or colleges. The fnical
and iron-clad modes of teaching the classics
| in our colleges are bringing the study Of the
| languages into disrepute, and threaten to drive
them from the curriculum altogether. To spend
two or three years on the classics to prepare for
college, and as many more in college devoted
to the ''dead languages" is regarded as a
useless and indeed criminal waste of time
in this short life of ours. But there is bet
| ter way, and 1t is high time 1t was put in
force. The old, plodding modes and the infn-
| itessimal minutia applied in gaining scho-
lastic lore, should be at once abandoned
We have at hand not only sensible but
brilliant criticism on thislmode Of teaching
the classics in colleges, but-it applies with
equal force to every branch Of education ;
hence we give 1t, and ask for it the careful
attention it deserves. Professor Chamber
lain, himself for long years college profess
or, in a recent address before college al
umni, vigorously arraigns this minute, non
essential, hnical, microscopic mode of teach
| ing, saying the slime was wasted that was
ten years of teaching spent in the micro
SCOPE study of Greek accents, manifold di-
alect, forms, multiplied rules and exceptions
| in quantity, and in Latin and Greek compo-
sition." Professor Chamberlain illustrates his
theory, by giving sign al instance in the
case Of girl Of sixteen, who desired him to
have her overtake a class that had been
studying Greek for two long terms, he says:
81 told her she was to study Greek as old
English or as one source of English, to learn
it by its resemblances to the English and to
| the Latin which she had studied year. The
alphabet was conquered in an hour; not
committed, but Its letters learned to read at
| sight. For the characters, as she was shown,
are nearly all essentially like the English, or
at least suggest the English equivalent. Ac-
cents were ignored, except in few cases
where they are help and not hinderance.
Then she took page Of the Anabasis and
pronounced the words exactly like English
words Of the same spelling. Persistent read
| ing with assistance and correction, gave her
| fairly fluent pronunciation in three hours.
| The next evening translation began. She
hunted for English and Latin words, and
| found the root of almost every second word
to be an old acquaintance. Then infections
and coniugations were studied, not commit
ted, until the various cases, genders, moods,
| lenses, etc., were recognized at sight by
| their examinations or c0nsonant or vowel
| signs. The resemblances to the Latin in in
Election, and to both the English and the La
| tin in root and meaning were constantly
noticed and explained. The grammar and
lexicon were used exactly alike as books of
| reference. Nothing was given or taken on
trust If it had reason that would explain it
or fix it in the memory; and nothing was
passed over till it was understood enough for
the end in view. Augment and reduplica-
! ton were explained enough to enable the
pupil to find verbs in the lexicon. Euphon-
| ic changes were shown to be like ours, only
more full and frequent. After ten evenings
of such coaching If you please, with few
hours private study each day, the pupil en-
tered and kept up with the class that for
about thirty weeks had been laundering
through the labyrinth Of regulation Greek
lessons with double translations of short
sentences, with endless microscopic work
! on accents, and what not. And think that
at the end OF three weeks flor the coaching
was kept up few days. she had better
use of grammar and lexicon and better
power of translating than her father had
suAi y years ocioIe, oAsei Auu Jcoi VI OicCA
| husks and chat had been crammed down
his unwilling throat At all events, she
| graduates next week first in scholarship In a
class of sixty-five, having taken the four
years. course in three years."
The same common sense applied every
where, in cutting of minute, useless, incon-
| sequentiaI excresences, would revolutionize
the whole system of education, shorten the
period of study, give US better educated men
and women. better adapted to the practical
| ends of life with souuder minds in sounder