The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1888-05-22
THE NEW EDUCATION.

cago, an old pupil of the Brlmmer
school, Boston, has taken up the
cudgel in defence of what is known
as the New Education, In the Boston
Herald. IN reply to a letter from his
old master, Mr. Joshua Bates, in
which the latter assumed a hostile
attitude to the new system. In view
of the increased attention which has
recently been devoted to the educa-
ton of the rising generation In these
islands, it may be for the advantage
of those Immediately engaged in the
work to read some extracts from Mr..
Alderson's letter, especially as they
give utteranee to the latest ideas of
educationists in communities where
public free schools were adopted as
integral and indispensable factors of
civilization long before the natives of
the Hawaiian Islands had learned
the use of clothing.
A pardonable pride in our old school
would instinctively draw the attention
of an old Brimmer school boy to any
utterance of our respected master. We
well IilC OllCh-4o1d 1iOf 1JS
prison-like iron fence, the mystic
symbols on the walls of the building,
telling us where to form in ranks, and
we can almost hear, even after many
years, the sharp gong which babe us
stand like so many statues, not daring
to move muscle even, lest some
eagled-eyed monitor notice our misde
meanor and we be sent to the dismal
corner under the stairs, there to be
warned, lectured, or thrashed, as the
enormity of our crime demanded. We
had a rhyme, sung by every schoolboy
then, which well described in brief our
school government:
" l know the rules of the Brimmer school.
When am late or tardy,
Down comes Fatty Bates,
With his stomach fell of dates.
And gives ME rub dub, darby"
From an examination of some of
Boston's schools, more than a year
ago, ] know that the tendency in Bos-
ton is in the direction of this "new
education but such was not always
the case. Rational methods of instruc-
ton had veritable beginning in the
time of Horace Mann. When Horace
Mann wrote his celebrated seventh
annual report he found much to criti-
else in the forms of education. The
plan of teaching little children the
alphabet before the words was then
universal Horace Mann describes the
practice thus: "In regard to all the
other sources of pleasure-beauty mo-
ton, music, memory-the alphabetic
column presents an utter blank. There
gfn, L. ~, 81 o,,1 1aafh ho 81
perpendicular rows of characters, lank,
stark, immOvable, without form or
comeliness, and, as to significance,
wholly void. They are skeleton
shaped, bloodless, CHASTITY apparitions,
and hence it is no wonder that the
children look and feel so death-like
when compelled to face them" Ho-
race Mann's onslaught upon the ala
phabetic method has had its effect,
and to-day not prominent educator
indorses it, and only few scattered
fOssilized teachers employ it.
But in 1874 there was violent oppoS
sition to this ''new" way of teaching,
and thirty-one of the Boston masters
signed long article of forty-four pages
in answer to Mr.. 'Mann's report. I'm it
they say: eve are prepared to say
unhesitatingly that the mode of teach
ing letters before words is the only
true and philosophic one. To this new
method of teaching we are opposed for
the following reasons: First-Teach-
ing whole words, according to the new
plan, to any extent whatever, gives
the child no facility for leaning new
ones. Every word must be taken upon
authority until the alphabet is learn
ed. Second-Since the alphabet must
at some time be acquired with all its
imperfections, it is but poor relief to
compel the child at first to associate
700 different arbitrary forms with the
ideas which they express, and then to
learn the alphabet itself.n
The fallacy in these objections has
been completely shown by the expert
ences of the past forty odd years. The
child learns the oral word asa whole
associates it with the object, and never
thinks OF the sounds composing it,
long before he enters school. The
plan of teaching the written word en-
tire is but a continuation of this nat
uTal system. Indeed, so far has peda-
gogical skill advanced that teachers
can, at the very beginning, teach the
whole sentence, and that. too, as can
testify from having seen it in Ne
braska country school.
Educational ways have improved, are
improving and will continue to inn
prove, despite the opposition of Mr..
Bates or any other Boston master. As
in 1874 be objected to this "new"
method so in his recent letter he de-
cries this "new educationr merely
because it is new.n There is abso-
lutely 30 "new education and my
honored master only knocks down a
man of straw when he hurls his edu-
cational javelyn at this pseudo-phan-
tom. Science teaching is to-day
making an earnest but feeble effort to
gain recognition in our grammar and
primary schools, yet science teaching
was advocated by Rabelais 300 years
ago.
In regard to this new education,n
Col. Parker says, in his Quincy report
of 1876: 1.-THE methods that are now
being introduced into the schools of
Quincy are by no means experiments.
They have been tested for so years in
Germany and for years in parts of our
own country. Their application has
produced as great change in teach
ing as HarVey'S great discovery did in