The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-03-26
PUBLIC OPINION.

PUBLIC OPINION.
Special studies, such Is business col
leges furnish, may be u necessity, but
they are poor substitute for Il thorough
education. They will, perhaps, make a
clerk, but they will never make a man.
-DaDid SUiny.
There are few educational means or
methods which may not be properly
used. A wise variety is preferable to Il
rigid adherence 10 any one; but were |
to advocate one TO the exclusion of all
others. that one would be the textbook.
S. Laura Ensign, IoDd.
1t is very common assumption in
this country that all Germans of some
education are able to speak French flu
emily. 1t is the exception. The pre-
judice Of the learned against modern
languages is almost rs great in Ger
many as it is i'm this cOuntry.-C. 4.
Eggert. M. ID.
1.-THE public schools have repeatedly
been made the attempted panacea for
this thing and that thing. Hobbies of
all sorts have been brought in one after
another for some practical purpose, such
as the effort to throttle intemperance by
teaching physiology. "-Cot.E W. Parker.
The opening OF free public library
is most important event in the history
of any town. A college training is an
excellent thing: but, after all. the better
part of any mans education is that
which he gives himself. and it is for this
that Il good library should furnish the
opportunity and the means. | have
sometimes thought that our public
schools undertook to teach too much,
and that the older system, which taught
merely the three Rs. and taught them
well, leaving natural selection TO decide
who should go further. was the better
James Russell LoWeH.
An eminent French chemist, under
examination i'm Il court of justice con-
corning the effect of minute doses of 4
certain poison, was asked by one of the
attorneys derisively, Gould you tell lis.
professor, the exact dose of this medi-
cine which could be safely administered
to fly" 81 think ] could" he re-
Piled, ''but should need to know the
particular fly under treatment. Ishould
want to know his size, age, state of
health, habits of life, whether he was
married or single, and what had been
his surroundings in life hitherto. All
these bear on the size of the dose to be
administered i'm any given case" 1t
would be well if teachers had modi-
cum of the Frenchman's caution. in adj
ministering TO their pupils. -Educa-
tiOnal Weekly.
As soon as the managers of our public
schools can arrange, in addition to sys-
tematic instruction in drawing. for sys-
tematic instruction in handiwork in
paper, pasteboard, soft wood, clay. and
needlework. the problem of manual
training for the lower grammar grades
will be solved Were the teachers sufli-
GENTLY well trained themselves to take
charge of such work, the expense of all
the manual training it would be wise to
incorporate with the present course Of
study, for our first seven grades, would
be SO trifling that it would not stand in
the way moment. For the still higher
grades, more formal and more expen-
sive additions are necessary, and yet it
will be found that whenever such addi-
tons are judiciously made. there will
spring up powerful and wide popular
support of all the higher work.-C. N.
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