New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-02-26
NOTES ON EDUCATION.

II Is asked ia England, with ~ much ssreusnesss
..re whether it would not be well to add English 70
n. ,st of taught in the schools, and especial
noint Is given to the query by the statement OF the
Archbishop of York that he never, when boy read an
English grammar nor, indeed in the whole course OF
his education saw such book. Yet beginning before
he entered his teens, HIS Grace doubtless spent much
of his time for years in tile study of Latin Greek ano
Hebrew. The same fault exists In American ednca-
tional systems Scholars arc drilled with untirng
tiresomeness In classic tongues and foreign mouoiu
languages and largely left to scquire ;t
their vel naeular By sort Of happy htu-
ton The disastrous results of this system are gar
inpiy obvoas every who has eyes 10 read or eas
to hear and mind 10 understand. Societies lot INC
nrcseryation of the mother tongue may do good but
every school aud college should take up the work 40
know the classics Is well ana OPINION no"aaays ~
clines hold that to be master OF modern
better but to ones native language with correct
ness direetness and grace is decidedly the best OF ALL
moyeu ent is on foot to found Christian University
in the Northwest under the patronage Of the Young
Mems Christian Associations OF ChiesSo' I"n"""S''
Dubuque and st. Paul.
The University of Kansas is doing good educational
work although il has escaped the carpng criticism
<of utilitarians Chancellor j. A. Lppincott thus de-
serbes the benefits il is comforting upon the state
"The university draws its raw materal-h one may
use a manufacturers phrase-from every class IN
society," and redistrbutes the finished product with tho
creates. possible impartiay. That it is not rich
mans school is concusvcy proven by the fact that
than half the entire number OF students nave oeen
entirely largely selfsupporting, only one,thd nav
ing depended entirely their parents while securing
their education. 1t should BIO remembered again, IN
This connection that about half of students are
young women; and this fact should be Kept ih mhu
when noting the total number who have become
teachers The high character of university work Is
shown in the grade of teaching followed by Its gradu-
etes-ess than oneifth being in the common schools.
The old cry about the unversity turning out nothng
brt LAWYERS and clerks is completely slenced by the
totals under thus head even In the face OF law de-
partinent"
Herr Won Gossler the German Minister of Public In
struoton has issued the following rules in regard to
the practice of vyisecton in the universities ~ Ex-
periments with live animals are only admi'sabe Tor
purposes Of scientific investigation or instructive
demonstration ~ at lectures these experiments are
allowed only in so far as they may be required for
full understanding of the instruction impaired at such
lectures; 81 the preparations for expermcnts az
lectures are as rule to be made previous TO actual
demonstration and in the absence OF the studentsi l4l
the experiment shall only be made by professors OF
teachers under their special supervision and re.
snousbity (5 experiments which. without detriment
10 the result can be made animals OF lower order
shall only be practised such, and not on more va'u
able animals aud 90 in all where 1t is not abso
utelv incompatible with the end and aim OF the expert
ment. the animals must previously be an@sthetozed'
The action of Harvard University in regard to the
classics, is regarded as a great victory for the OPP
ponens Of the classics who say that other colleges VIII
speedily fall into line This however 70 not so certain
bic example of what a college should not do.
. Mr. Charles j. Bonaparte, of Baltimore in lecture
delivered by him the other night called attention to
some defects the system OF public education. lie
thinks the tendency in this country is to leave manual
labor to foreigners. Americans are partial to intel
lectua cang but go into them very imperiecty pre-
pared We lose good carpenters and Smiths, he sad
to get worse than worthless clerks and booAkeepers
Our public schools so far to convert this tendency INTO
Fill olr1
dren to be unhappy and dangerous IL the puphc
school makes more competent voters, what we spend
for them the best Of Investments But DO they urLish
us competent voters Most in urous 10 society gov
erned by universal suffrage the belief that one man
opinion is worth about much as anothers IN puoIc
affairs. Men who half understand are LED astIay Dy
mere huency or empty fattery of their hobbies The
public school pupil can tall youbly about SUBJECTS that
the old man who never heard OF them In bremen or
Cork must listen TO perplexed; and IL an easy step
for the Young to persuade himself that be Is an
authority topics of current interest while in reality
the father is the better citizen. lie knows too little TO
be easily misled and will ceave to the truth because
too stupid to be acted on by sophisns The tendency
is 10 superficial knowledge"
Agriculture is the newest Chauauqua idea, and it is
thus described in The Christian Union v; " This
new Chautauqua idea includes home garden for town
snd country course OF reading for winter evenings,
and rtelass farm that will be the headquarters Of
the new school The new circle is to be called the
Cbautauoua Cutivators Circle and for any one and
every one who cares to know something, to be some
thing and to do something. Any young person. boy
or girl who can read join the Circle at any time in
the year. There will be entrance examination no
requirements whatever except Willingness to take up
one or more of the Circles easy and entertaining
labors read its few books and pay its yearly Zee OF
Twenty-Five cents for two years The novel feature OF
the C. &C. is the programme OF work. Every young
person who Joins this town and country club will be
expected to do something on the farm In the garden
the greenhouse, the window garden hsh pond Kennel
fine poultry yard bird house. barn or dairy or home.
The pupils viii be given list OF things TO do from
which, whether he she lives In town country s at
home or in school, at work at play each will select
the most convenient and pleasant Each will faith
fully carry the work selected under instructions
from The headquarters and will send IN report OF the
ing and at the end of the second year every who
has passed the examination read the books, and per-
formed each year of the works will be entitled to
diploma as q graduate OF the I. Z. T."
The Rev. A. d. Mayo thus describes the prevalence
of literacy in the South: You read for your
selves the figures of Southern teracy that appear in
the national census in 1880. There you will that
In the sixteen States the fifteen slave States there
are nearly fourmlion white children and youth under
twenty-one with little than two million enrolled
ia any school; that not one-half of the million
eight hundred Thousand cclored children and youth
are enrolled in schools that the attend
ance on schools is far below the enrolment and that
the majority Of these pupils in public schools
which, at best, in Virginia give five months, but in
several of those States do not represent three solid
months OF annual instruction. that the teachers IN those
schools paid more poorly than the servant and
nursery girls in any large Northern town that the city
of Boston, with four hundred thousand people, pays
YEARLY once and half much for education as the
great State of Georgia. that one third the voters even
OF Kentucky cannot read or write, and onehrd OF her
children are in school; that not onetenth OF the
co,ored voters or thirds Of the white voters of the
whole South make any appreeiabe Of reading and
writing when they can lead their ballot or write
their name"
Saws d" The Lewiston (sfe.) Journal" v: The high
schools of the State to be experimenting with
view to increasing their usefulness. One of them
,oeantlv held An industrial exhibition with prizes for