The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1886-07-01

which many people think is the most pic
turcsque spot in all this grand mountain
country.
No six days of my life have | spent more
pleasantly than these six days at Black
Mountain, and | am sure that a whole life
time could be spent III the same way at 50
picturesque spot with 50 Jovlal party,
but all thing, however pleasant, must
have an ending and | must take my de
parturc. +. B. y.
Chips from Il Teachers Workshop.
THE NEW EDUCATION OLD IN THEORY.
Especial Cor STATE CHRoNICLEl
In point of theories, nothing remains to
be said upon the subject Of education; i'll
matter of practices, the world is yet far
from being salted unto salvation in its ed
ucational methods The man who thinks
that the new education involves principles
much younger than the everlasting hills,
may be said, in common parlance, to be
somewhat Off Moreover such principles
began to be promulgated among men at a
very early day.
Some one Of late has found that there
is excellent training for the child in max
ing it the teacher sometimes The plan
ticc, III India from the remotest ages. 1t
antedates by centuries and centuries Ma
dame Maintenon, Rollin, La Sale, Pesta
liZZi, Bell, and Lancaster, all of whom
practiced it, and the last two of whom
claimed to have invented the system of
instruction based upon It. It is the old
docendo discimus idea Seneca'S.
one might read the simple tale Of Ger
trude's hOme-lifc. and of her motherly in
terest in her own children and those Of
her widowed neighDor, without suSpectIng
that there was embodied in that tale the
.profoundest theory of the great PestalizZi.
kAnd yet the chief characteristic of the ed
hcation Of the early Hebrews was that it
was essentially domestic. So the idea was
not anew one to the world when centu
ry ago this mighty Swiss educator an
nounced that the instruction and educa-
ton Of the people was best sourced in the
home and he borrowed the idea from
COmmeniuS.
Now a-days we hear much about Indus
trial Education by the State; but twenty
three centuries ago Solon provided in his
laws that the poor Greek youth might re-
ceivc instruction in reading, SWIMMING
and a trade"
Very much is said of late about the
harmonious development of the powers Of
the man. but that was the Greek idea. =
harmoniously constituted was Plato 5
phrase. In his laws he omits reading
and writing till the tenth year. Till that
time the State was busy making the child
what Herbert Spencer says the child ought
first to be, "a good animal" But the
training in the palaestra and the gymna-
.,,, y
! cal basis only for intellectual greatness,
and the staple of instruction for the mind
| was wisdom, that ethical and prudential
knowledge which was to express itself in
| the right action of the individual. To
know, to be, and to do the right was the
end Of the ideal education of the Greek.
/ Is such a thing claimed for the new edu-
catonl believe it is. If 50, we are twenty
odd centuries late.
1t is only a late thing with us that music
Is taught generally in our schools. But
! every man that was not a musician was
thought a bOOr by the ancient Greeks. The
education Of Themslocles was regarded as
having been neglected because he had not
been taught music.
''Not 50 much the getting at knowledge
as the getting of strength of intellect OF
getting knowledge" is, | believe. favor
ite dogma of the new educationists.
But among the Greeks it was considered
the highest office of the teacher to lberatt
the thought formed by the active enersie.
Of the pupils own mind distinctly to trair
the faculties of mind rather than to i'm
part information, the most care being be
slowed upon the reason, the least upor
the memory. one hears much about ;
teachers needing to have the genius of in
terrogatiOn, about the skilful putting o
questions, leading pupils in logical orde1
from the known to the unknown, from
facts to their relations, from illustration
to law But this is only the Masentic ar
of Socrates, which needs sadly enough t,
be heralded abroad at any time in the land
Education is Il very okilful discipline
which, by way Of amusement, leads th
mind of the child to love that which is t
make it finished Then use no yiolenc
toward children; rather, cause them I
learn while playing" The lesson that
made to enter the mind by force will no
remain there. These quotations read lik
extracts from the writings of some rabbi
new educationist; but they may all b
found in Plato's Laws, the work of hi
old age, in which he soberly discards man
Of the chimeras Of his Republic.