The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-03-05
THE EDUCATIoE FETCH.

the Journal has learned by experience, finds
itself confronted with the horrible accusation
of Opposing progress" The individual who
ventures to express disapproval runs counter
to many fixed opinions, especially when he
touches, as he must inevitably do, upon the
public school system--a topic almost sacred
in certain quarters In casting doubt upon
its absolute efficiency he subjects himself to
the charge of being an enemy TO the schools,
although he really is actuated by unselish
desire TO do away with the excrescences on an
otherwise admirable plan. Certainly he sell
dom strikes what may be called popular
chord in speaking of this system in other than
words of praise. The schools are the out
growth of the demand for education on the
part of an older generation which had few
advantages for ITSELF and determined
that those who came after should have all
possible privileges in that direction. Educa-
ton became the watch-word and has con-
tinued until the plan for instilling informa-
ton into the youthful mind has grown
to proportions so vast as to excite wonder.
if not awe. The tree of knowledge from
which the children are required to eat-each
and all of them of the same quantity and
quality-contains fruit from the heave MS
above, the earth beneath and the waters under
the earth. IF not an idol absolutely forbidden,
its cultivation has become a hobby danger
ously near being worshiped. There is some
thing pathetic in this anxiety on the part of
parents that their descendants shall have all
the intellectual privileges which they were
denied, and in the cheerful outpouring of
wealth for the purpose of securing them. The
universal recognition of the truth that knowl-
equal right to share it. speaks volumes for tn =
intelligence of the people, but there is, after
all, some danger of making the schools a
fetch. Already the tendency is to live to
educate rather than to educate to live-the
term education being used here in the sense
of an accumulation of facts. The child is
taught that it is desirable to know things
the more the better-not that they may help
him to live, but for the mere sake of knowing.
There is no question that the system in
It is an admirable, a wonderful system,
SO far as this ability goes. An immense
amount of information is poured into the re-
ceptive minds OF the little students. The
child of ten years who does not know at least
twice as much as his parents did at that age is
behind his class. At ten years there are few
illusions left for him. Following the lead of
his teacher he has explored paths of learning
and displays appalling degree of wisdom
concerning subjects of which his elders have
remained in comfortable ignorance The
beautiful myths of childhood no longer exist
for him; practical science" has destroyed them
all. This forced maturity is contemplated
with admiration by many, and is held as a
proof of the value of schools; but to others it is
unpleasant and vaguely alarming some even
going so far as to privately regard the over
educated little ones as intellectual monsters.
For all the disinclination to find fault with
schools, much of this dissatisfaction with their
results certainly exists. Patrons of the schools
who praise them from force of habit and as a
matter Of fashion, but who are at the same
time conscious of doubts, will perhaps have
the courage of their opinions after the profess
sonal confirmation of their suspicious by Dr.
Fletcher, in his address to the medical college
graduates When they fully realize that their
infants cannot be mental prodigies, save at
the expense of physical health and develop
ment, they win agree that even so sacred a
thing as the school system may be modified to
advantage.
knowledge is desirable under proper condi-
tions, but a great amount OF it now in the
school course is not Indispensable. Men and
women have attained the highest literary
culture, and have gone down to their graves
with only that knowledge of mathematics
which is comprised under the first four rules
citizens who never "diagramed" sentence
have written and spoken the English language
with extreme correctness during their long
and useful lives. Multitudes more have
KIN own nothing of their interior anatomy. or,
learning, have done so to their damage. There
are so many things we need not know, and
yet so many we must know, that it seems a
pity not TO omit all the superfuities, at least
in early years. In time the good sense of the
public will insist upon this, and all who, like
DR.. Fletcher. boldly proclaim the physio-
logical necessity of such change do service to
this and future generations
A FEW months ago, when large and re-
spectacle delegation of representative English