The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1885-01-08

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to suppose that the somewhat forced
revival that led to the systems" of
public education, and to the various
boards in this coun-
try, was really the beginning Of our
success in this time. They are quite
mistaken. While the new systems
have doubtless wrought great benefits,
these benefits have been accompanied
by some losses-losses which perhaps
may never be regained. The first of
these losses is the loss of spontaneity
and originality in the teacher. This
has been admirably satirized in a
brilliant serial story called "The Evo-
luton of Dodd," recen ly running in
the Illinois School Journal" 1.-THE
as the writer of that story
irreverently calls it, takes the place Of
methods, adapted by each
teacher for each child. Indeed, the
first effort of "the machine" is to en-
ploy professional teachers who know
how to run with the machine" In
old times, every intelligent young
man or young woman that had an ed
ucation better than the average, was
apt to spend few months or few
years in school-keeping. To this hour
you may meet people who glow with
pride as they tell you that they were
under the care of Daniel Webster, or
Edward Everett, or Harriet Beecher.
or Lucretia Garfield, in those early
days when such people were giving
the most vigorous years Of their young
lives to school-keeping. But no
teachers of that stamp are asked for
now, in the "true system" There are
certain methods to be followed, which
amateur school-masters cannot be ex-
pected to understand. At best, such
teachers as these only prepared their
pupils for life. Now, as Jules Simon
said so wittily, I'VE do not prepare
our pupils for life, but for examina-
tions."
Another loss, only second to this,
was sustained when the heresy came
in, now nearly universal, which ex-
tended the school course so that it
should cover almost the whole of the
year. In the beginning it was not so.
Fifty years ago it was understood
that a boy or girl had many things to
learn besides reading, writing, and
arithmetic. Thus, it was understood
that boy must know the use of his
hands and feet. He must know what
bushel of wheat was when he saw
it, and how blacksmith shod a
horse. He must know the method of
town-meeting. He must know how
to milk, how to plow, how to cradle
oats, how to drive, how to harness a
horse, how to take off a wheel, and
how to grease an axle. There were
ten thousand other things he must
know, of no less Importance, not one
of which is ever well taught in school.
For girl, it was understood that in
average life she must know how to
make and mend her clothes, and her
brothers and her fathers; how to
knead, to bake, to stew, to boil, and
to roast; how to wash, how to iron,
and how to clear-starch; how to tear
a bandage, and how to put one on.
There are many regions where she
was expected to know how to cut up
hog, and salt his members; how to
smoke them for hams; how to pre-
serve fruits and vegetables. Most of
these things are taught and learned in
schools, only with the greatest diff
Guilty. The fathers and mothers of
the older generations, therefore, re-
served time, away from school, in
which the children should learn these
things. For study in reading, writ:
ing, and arithmetic, they provided
three months of schooling" in win
ter. They also opened the school for
a summer term, and the pupils then
came back to their book-study from
exercise and experience in other di-
rections.
"But the official Superintendents of
Education, naturally enough, detest
this simple and practical system. In
the first place. they have their office
to magnify. They think the school
room is the most important place in
the world, as the blacksmith thinks
his forge is, and the sailor his ship.
From the beginning of the Revival
in American school-keeping, there has
been an effort to break up the healthy
old system of winter school and "a
summer school, and to substitute for
it the steady grind Of a school kept
through the year. That is to say, it
is to be kept so nearly through the
year as to be a permanent institution,
with permanent teachers, and per-
manent registry; and the vacations
and other holidays are merely unwill-
ing concessions to frail human nature,
which sometimes revolts from pot
hooks, trammels, common multiples,
and the analysis of sentences, and
claims some little knowledge Of the
outward world of life.
"What follows from the new sys-
tenn is the discovery, at the end of a
generation, that the children aducated
under the new system have no exper-
ience with tools and no ability with
their hands, and but very little
knowledge of practical life.
In the last catalogue of Rio Grande
College | find the following:
utrc Is SeHcId dl duu Wtll-lOuHu-
ed complaint that scholars leaving the
public schools to enter higher schools,
or applying for certificates to teach,
are sadly deficient in the ordinary
English branches. Colleges have not
always taken notice of this fact, and
students have often been promoted
and sometimes even graduated who
are deficient in these branches. Too
much care cannot be given to the
fundamental branches, and it is the
aim of the Faculty to give them the
attention demanded by the general
deficiency in them, and by their own
intrinsic value. Thorough instruc-
ton in Grammar, Orthography, Ge-
ography and Arithmetic, is given.
All students are urged to apply them
aelves with care to the mastery of the
general principles Of English Gram
mar, to pay the strictest attention to
Orthography, and tc secure skill and
facility in expressing their thoughts
both orally and in writing"
G, ynu s,.a that tho foran,oSt ed H.