Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-09-04
DRIFT

Yet IL isn't altogether Pheasant either. for
l 500 good many OF the children trudge
along In anything but merry mood. They
look moro like little worn out mon
and women than gladsome, joyous, healthy
and rollioking boys and girls Tothem with
tho advent OF September othe melancholy
days have come, tho saddest of the year"
What's the matter with them !? Why, just
that! They are little worn out men and
women, NO far M their mental condition is
concerned. The freshness OF childhood, the
spring and bouyancy, have been educated
out of them. Tney have had too much
"srbooling." They are suffering from spirit
ual dyspepsia They are mentally worn out.
Before the close OF the year you will soc a
good many rlore OF them. ! pity them all
from the bottom of my heart
wnESEvER see this ever-growing num-
Der OF victims to our educational system I
feel towards our schools almost ~ good old
Bishop Comenius did towards those OF three
hundred years ago. "They are the terror OF
boys" he says, Sand the slaughter houses OF
minds--places where n hatred OF literature
aud books is contracted, where ten or more
years are spent in learning what might be ac-
quired in one, where what ought to be
poured In gently is violently forced in, and
beaten In, whore what ought TO be put clear
ly and perspicuously Is presented in con-
fused and intricate way, as IL 1t we're a col
lection OF puzzles-places whore minds are
fed on words" And yet | know, and am
thankful TO know, that this Is not true OF our
public schools to-day. / know that where
they wear out and ruin one chiid's m ind,
they succeed in improving and strength en-
ing a score OF others, perhaps hundred OF
them. I believe that our system Of public
instruction as such IL the best that has yet
been devised anywhere. lrealize thatit con.
duces To ''the greatest good of the greatest
number" educationally- y-at least / try to
realize this. In spite OF 1t ell, however, i
cannot help plying the smaller number, the
one child out oi every score or hundred,
whom this wonderful system is sacrificing
for the good OF the rest And l can't help
asking myself, Is II really necessary, this re-
lentless sacrifice To the education OF hun
dred must there always be one to whom our
schools becomei.the "slaughter houses of
minds 90 1t would almost seem So and yet
! don't believe It. That's what bothers me.
RATHER suspect that in education, as in
many other things, that popular principle,
''the greatest good of the greatest number"
Is nothing buta piece Of treacherous sophls-
try. To make it the great and final goal of
government, OF individual conduct, or of
public instruction, Is radically wrong. "The
greatest good of the greatest number" Is not
all that il needed. IL dare not be the end
and aim of human effort We dare not stop
when We have attained It
The few have rights "a sacred as the many.
We have duties to them as binding as our
duties to the latter. TO injure the few in
beneiitting the many is surely nothing to
boast of. 1t IL barbarous, and To Justify 1t is
crime and n sin.
SPEAKING OF that old Moravian, John
Amos Comenius, the greatest educational
genius the world has ever seen, wouldn't it
be a good thing for our school directors, SUI
perintendents and teachers, now that new
school year IL opening, carefully to study his
principles and instructions? True, he lived
nearly three hundred years ago, but then he
was more than three hundred years ahead of
his times. We are even now Just beginning
10 catch up with many of his ideas. In fact
am not quite sure that we have fully caught
up even yet with this fundamental truth Of
COmenius
"The right instruction of YOUTH" he de-
| clares ''does not consist in cramming them
| with a mass OF words, phrases, sentences and
| opinions collected from authors but In un-
folding the understanding that many little
streams may flow thereirom as from "A living
fountain. Hitherto the schools have not
! labored that the children might unfold like
the young tree from the impulse OF its own
| roots, but have been contented when they
| covered themselves with foreign branches.
| mus tney nave tauSnt inc yOutn, hlt6r inc
manner OF -EsOp's crow, to adOTn themselves
| with strange feathers, Why shall we not,
instead OF dead books, open the living books
| OF nature ~
| CONTINUING he lays down the second fun
damental principle, whose truth we are only
| beginning practically TO recognize. "Not the
shadow Of things, but the things themselves,
which make an impression on the senses and
| the imagination, are to be brought before
| youth. BY actual observation, not by verbal
| description OF things. must instruction begin.
| From such observation develops a certain
| knowledge Men must be led a. tar as pos.
| sble to draw their wisdom not from books,
but from consideration Of heaven and earth,
oaks and beeches; that Is, they must know
and examine things themselves, and not SIM
| ply be contented with the observations and
testimony OF others"
| THROUGHOUT Comenius's writings may
DO found truths, many of which are worthy
OF being inscribed in letters of gold and hung
up prominently in every school room OF the
land. Let me mention only a few of them
| Education IL a department of tho Who'll,
man.
Educational methods should follow tn,
order of Nature.
Both sexes should receive equal instruc
ton, since the end of education IL individua
| development
Learning should he made agreeable.
Many studies are to be avoided as dissipat
ing the mental strength.
Studies should be adapted to the capac t,
of the pupil.
Nothing should be learned by heart that i
not first thoroughly understood.
Let nothing that admits of sensible o
rational demonstration he taught by author
ity.
Things to be done should he learned by do
ing them.
Discipline should aim at improving III
character.
Tho teacher should be an example, i
person and conduct, of what ho requires c
his pupils.
Religion il OF supreme importance, and |
, addition to religious instruction, the youn
should be accustomed to the exercise of tn
. | Christian virtues, such rs temperance, ju
tice, compassion, patience, and so on.
n THERE are n few school officials hero in OF
: city to whom would specially commen
= the noxt to tho last OF these principle
o about the necessity of the teacher
Q being an example of what he requiI,
n OF his pupils. Parents have rigl
q 10 expect their children to be taugl
at least the elements of gentlemanly an
@ ladylike conduct. And this can only
/, done by the instructors themselves ber
70 gentlemen and ladies' in speech and actio
l. To teach petite ness the teacher must fir
It and always be polite. l have heard of one
l. two who are pot-nothing like it, in tact-wl
ii | never salute "A pupil in a courteous way
* the street, never say, "lf you please"
ID "Thank you" to scholar who come in