Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-24
THE YOUNG IDEA.


THE YOUNG IDEA.
Amusing Instances Of How It Shoots
Under Aiisdirected Effort.
The Listener in the Boston Transcript has
given several extracts from q book by Miss
Caroline r. LIE Row, Of Brooklyn, called ''The
Young Idea," which contain examples OF the
results Of mechanical rote instruction.
Miss LIE Row begins in the middle Of things
with a sample school scene, which simply serves
to illustrate the intelligence Of the average
tenement-house pupil:
The definition Of the word wicked" occur
ring in the reading lesson, is asked of class Of
children from ten to twelve years of age, Of
foreign parentage, and living in tenement
house ward.
what does wicked mean? Some one tel"
"a sick person"
'Oh, no. Wicked means very naughty, very
bad. Tell me what wicked persons do"
Thieves, robbers, murderers, niggers,
'Oh, my dear children! There is no such
thing as a ghost, and negroes are not all
y y know niger that steals. Our dog steals.
rs it wicked for q dog or rat to steal9''
mo, ma'am."
"Why not?'
"'Cause they amt got no manners"
The point in the introduction of this little
colloquy is this: That the teachers grade"
obliges her to teach q great many words and
ideas which are utterly beyond such pupils
comprehension. They attempt to learn the
words before they do the things. The rote-
teacher exclaims: Dictionary when the
pupil asks the meaning Of a word. The pupil
looks it up: for instance, the word monopoly"
1t is defined: "Monopoly-from two Greek
words meaning alone and TO SELL Sole permits
sion and power of dealing in any goods or with
particular country; exclusive command or
possession" And then come the children's
exercises which show how well they have
understood the definition:
"Our grocery man is a monopoly because he
keeps on q corner all alone"
Monopoly is something to clean the floor
with"
And here comes in chance for little moral.
The boy may be ''sick with information" but
would he, the author of ''The Young Idea"
wants to know. if he were asked about things
which are to him real things, tell You that a
pair OF skates was something to eat, a bob-sled
some thing to wear and piece of pie some
thing to play with? ''This early and persistent
use of words without ideas" Miss lie Row
thinks, sis the worm at the root of the educa-
tional tree. and its blighting effect can be
traced through every branch of the child's
mental labor. He is from the first in state of
bondage to words" 1t isn't only in the matter
of definitions that this bondage shows itself. It
is-carried into all the branches of the school
work. The child studies all his lessons in the
light of new words. 1.-THE Young Idea" tells
how studying is sometimes done:
Not long ago little girl was studying half
aloud lesson in grammar, rocking herself to
and fro, as her glib tongue kept time with the
movement. Applications of the Deity should
always begin with a capital. Applications of
the Deity should always begin with capital"
An older sister. sewing near by, ventured the
question, What do you mean by appellations2"
A blank stare. 81 don't know. That's what the
book says" "What do you mean by Deity?"
Another stare. ~ don't know. Teacher didn't
got to study my lesson" So the intellectual
exercise was resumed. accompanied by the
rocking and the muttering, .'Appellations of
Deity should begin with a capital" until the
lesson was declared Learned"
Here is the way scholars learn their impor-
tant facts in arithmetic, which, by the way, one
OF them beautifully defines as 1.-THE sins of
numbers
satisfaction is the minuend and the sub
stracted end"
"A partial product is one of the things you
Brokerage is the allowance for the braker-
age and leekerage of bottles"
insurance is when you die or burn up your
money and the insurance Office pays you for it."
III there are no units in a number you have
to fill it up with all zeros,"
Principal is not valuable like interest and
is never paid
No man will live long enough to be insured
unless he has great expectation of life.''
Miss LIE Row comes valiantly to the support
OF Gen. Walker, and maintains that about two
thirds OF the instruction in arithmetic in the
public schools is useless and in the way of more
valuable instruction.
Here are some characteristic grammar def
nitions:
Grammar is something to talk good and is
divided into diagrams on the BLACKBOARD l cant
never learn no grammar"
"A Pronoun is when you don't want to say a
noun and SO You say pronoun. 1t is when it
Is not pronoun but noun"
a conjunction is your very much surprised
at something"
IAN interjection is throwing words into a
sentence dear is interjectiOn because you
can't pass it with anything"
"Adjectives of more than one SYLLABLE are
repaired by adding some more syllables."
An adverb is used to mortify noun and is
a person place or thing