The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1888-10-18
DR. Ballet on ,common Sense in Ed.
ucaticn.

This is an age in which Common
sense, i'll the best sense of the words,
il demanded. Let us apply it to-
night to school work. Are we always
guided by common i'll our work
as teachers Let us see.
We wish to teach boy to speak
and write the English language cor
rectly. Instead of making him talk
and write, we have him learn defini-
tions of the parts of speech, of case,
person, gender. number, of mood,
tense, etc, and mcmorize rules tell
ing him how to talk.
We have him learn the definitions
'by hear" as we say, but such work
never reaches the heart. We ought
to call it learning by jaw Now,
does farmer teach his son to plow
in this way Does he make him
learn from II book definitions of
plow. plow- share, handles. etc, and
require him to memorize rules for
hitching the horses to the plow We
learn to do thing by doing it, not
by memorizing rules. The teaching
of English grammar below the High
School is useless and absurd A
childmust learn the English language
by hearing it spoken and by speaking
and writing it.
knowledge is the food of the mind,
and the mind has IN inborn desire
for knowledge rs the stomach has
for food. BY bad teaching You can
destroy this appetite of the mind as
by bad cooking you can destroy the
stomach's appetite for food.
Now. after we have spoiled the
child's appetite for knowledge, we
bribe him to study by promising him
Il hundred per cent. for perfect les
sons, or by OBTAINING him after school
or, possibly suspending him. What
would father do whose cook did her
work so badly that his children
would refuse to eat their meals ! Of
fer his children Il hundred per cent.
for eating all the beef steak, the
bread, the potatoes, he dishes out
for them, and would he promise to
put the names of those who make II
hundred per cent. on beef steak,
bread and potatoes, in the county
papers ut the end of the month
Wouldn't common sense lead him to
discharge the cook The time is
coming when we shall have sense
enough to do the same thing in edu-
cation 4 teacher who can't create
II love of study in children has no
place i'll the school room.
We grade teachers salaries accord.
ing to the size of the children. Child.
rem that are two and a-half feet high
can be taught for about S3Oa month
to teach children about three fee
tall, teachers are paid about Sil, bu
to teach children from four and Il hal
to five and a-half feet tall, in higl
school, we pay all the way from 81
to $500 per month. Teachers of lit
tie children we stagmatize rs 'simpl.
primary teachers"
Now grade the fees of your doctor
in the same way and watch the IT
suit. When your physician attend
your babe, offer him % cents visit
when your grandfather is sick, pa
him -. He can afford to do pr
mary work for % cents, when yo
pay only 50 to do the most advanC
ed' work. Or, get Il cheap doctor
doctor who makes primary med
cine" II specialty-when your child
sick, and II good physician whe
your grandfather is sick and you wi
do what we are doing III school fo
your child III every school district i
the United States, What does con
mon sense say to all this ?
A little more of good sense apple
to school work would revolutioniz
our teaching. What we need is til
methods of the business man j
education and less of those of the oil
fashioned DedagOgue.