Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-07-14
LARGELY in support of the JOUR

NAILS views of our real pedagogic
leeds it is indebted to thoughtful
gentleman for the extracts below.
The first is from an article in the
June issue of the North American
Re0iew by Briscoe E. Mann:
1t is rare thing now to find in the public
schools living teacher. The old race of
pedagogues, who came directly into contact
with the minds of children, and fashioned
not only the mental powers, but also the
characters of their pupils, is dying out. In
the City of New York, for example, the sup
ply of teachers by the regulations of the
public School Commissioners is practically
limited to the young and inexperienced girls
who swarm out of the Normal College
These girl graduates have been brought
up in the New York public schools, and are
acquainted with no methods save those which
have prevailed in these schools during their
attendance. "They go into the schools with
the idea that they have right to the empty
places, and their crude and machine-hke
work, modelled solely on what they have
seen, serves only to intensity the constantly
accumulating evil tendencies of our schools"
And if an experienced and wise teacher comes
from some town outside the city, his every
movement is cramped and fettered by some
one of the petty regulations of the Board of
Education.
Under the regulations of our School Com
missioners the reputation of the teacher de
pends entrly upon the number af good MARKS
which the scholars attain upon e examination
The physical well-being of the class, the
moral character and strength of intellect
which the teacher has inculcated, count for
nothing. The teacher who has succeeded in
embedding on the tongue-tips of his pupils a
certain set Of cutand-dried facts and figures
is the teacher who is considered most sue
cessful. There is no free play in teaching.
There is no opportunity given to teacher to
study the capabilities OF. characters of pupils
A certain number of facts dates and cut-and-
dried information must be crammed into the
heads of the pupils, or the teacher loses his
place.
This is all wrong. There must be less CEN
tralization and more individuality in the
pedagogic system. The present system of
examinations must he entirely done away
with. There must be a change, and a radical
change. There must be an increase in the
personality of the teacher, and decrease in
the red-tapeism of the Board of Education.
A recent editorial article in the
Century entitled disappearance of
the School Teacher" shows how Greg
ulations" circumscribe the teacher
somewhat as the Cumberland Times
makes marionettes of the trustees by
claw :"
DR.. Arnold himself could not be DR.. Arnold
if he had been required by board of educa-
ton to teach the greatest possible amount of
arithmetic and geography within given
time. 1t is probable that DIR. Arnold would
have been considered wanting in the require
ments of an American school-teacher of the
present day. 1t is certain that he would have
found himself hopelessly trammeled, as
many an inspiring teacher finds himself
trammeled: by the expectations of his en-
rloyers. The teacher who would be less of a
machine-who would like to take time to do
some thorough training, must bring the
largest possible crop of arithmetic at the end
of the year; all his better work will count
for nothing with the Board" The
schoolmaster finds no place on which to
stand. His individuality is utterly repressed.
He is a mere cog-wheel in great machine.
He sinks down at last to the level mediocrity
which machines always produce he becomes
a hearer of lessons, a marker of registers a
worker for examination week. 1t is not
chiefly his fault that he does not do higher
work. There is hardly space for it, and there
is no market for it,
But here comes from Prof. Thomas
Hunter an answer to an objection we
have heard urged against the JOUR-
NAILS suggestion to equip all the
schools with the best teaching force
that can be obtained
But some man will say, surely you do not
mean to supply the district common schools
with professional teachers the cost would be
enormous; and the people would not stand it.
In the first place, it may be stated in reply
that poor teaching is very costly-is very
dear if given for nothing-nay, is dear if the
poor teacher should pay a fee for the privi-
lege of trying to teach. 1t is always true
economy to employ an able teacher at a fair
compensation; and the more remote and
ignorant the people are the greater
the necessity for such an instructor
'They that be whole need not "A physician.
but they that are sick
do not care to discuss the question of edu-
cation from financial point of view, nor to
repeat the trite sayings concerning the money
saved by education, in reducing the cost for
the punishment of crimes resulting from ig-
norance. 1t is not question of money, but
question of morals. Public schools and re-
publican liberty are one and inseparable :;
the existence of the one is interviewer with
the existence of the other; they live or die
together. Hence | have no patience with
those who dole out money for the public
schools as miser doles out his gold to the
physician who has saved his life.
In order that the great system of pubic
schools should be economically administered
it is essential that trained and educated teach-
ers only should be employed. But another
man will say, what is to become of the poor
graduate of college who wishes to earn a
little money bV TEACHING whiIa ba 10 otnd,,