The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-07-10
PUBLIC OPINION.

In recent speech Sir Stafford North
cote said, "For that sort of examining
which puts into boys mouths q certain
amount of knowledge, which never gets
into their brains, he had the greatest
contempt"
am tired hearing about the "New
Education" 1t is misnomer. There
is no neiO education. Methods md
theories and practices spring up, -four
ish, and fade; they continually change,
but education is forever the same.-Aa
"Old FOgy" IN Educational NeUs.
The latest appliances in electrical
| apparatus are no sooner invented and
tested, than they are brought into use
| and supersede what were good appli-
ances yesterday; but the antiquated
way of teaching arithmetic and read
ing is still almost universal, in spite Of
its having been proved again and again
that they can be taught by scientific
method in half the time.-Science.
The progressive teacher of our day is
he who seeks to develop and improve
self, who studies methods and princi-
pies as laid down by educators of all
ages and countries, who seeks by self
culture to be broad and liberal and un-
biased, worth of the name of teacher,
and who then makes such application
of the knowledge acquired as the wants
of his own school demand. Educa.
tional Nes0s.
A recent number of the Marion hide
pendent has the following ironical eulo-
gy on the ''new education: "Onc of
the great advantages of the new edu-
cation is that it makes scholars with
out study. The drudgery of study
does not comport with the spirit of the
nineteenth century. Study does not
comport with the buoyancy and vivaci-
ty OF youth. 1t Is unnatural. The thing
must DO poured into the minds as q
gentle rain-shower, amid the aroma of
flowers and the gentle flow of the
whispering breezes."
Unfortunately, however, an impress
sion prevails, to considerable extent
among our public-school authorities,
that any educated person is qualified
to teach school. 1t might as well be
claimed that any person who Under
stands mathematics and astronomy is
therefore qualified to navigate ship.
A person may be we'll educated in the
common acceptation of that term, and
yet be failure as o teacher. -Supt.
Thomas II. Paine, Tennessee.
claim as the fruits of manual train
ing, when combined. as it always
should be, with generous mental and
moral training, the following: l. Lar
ger classes of boys in the grammar and
high schools; /. Better intellectual de-
velopment; 8. A more wholesome NOR
al education; 4. Sounder judgments of
men and things and of living issues;
5. Better choice of occupation; 6. A
higher degree of material success, in
dividual and social; z. The elevation
of many of the occupants from the
realm Of brute, unintelligent labor, to
one requiring and rewarding cultiva-
ton and skill; 8. The solution of
'.labor" problems. q. M Wood
soard, 81. Louis.
1t is as easy to talk correctly, and to
teach children to do so, as to talk in
correctly. No study of grammar as
science is needed for the purpose of
learning to talk correct English.
Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Dryden,
Scott, and a multitude of the best En-
glish writers never saw an English
grammar. The best use of language,
by the best scholars and writers, was
their guide. They learned TO speak and
write the English language correctly,
not by studying textbook grammar.
but by initiating good models. This is
the proper method, in fact, almost the
only method by which the use of good
language can be acquired. -E1change.