Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-11
The Public schools.

The Public Schools.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS, Feb. 9,-Some
days since an article appeared in THE
GAZETTE under the caption of Schools ,
and signed Southside, in which the
author 'airs his or her eloquence'
/ in a very profuse, and, / suppose to her
very satisfactory manner, In her eff
| teen years experience in country
| schools, she has learned all about the
management of our city schools.
The article speaks of prescribed limits
and would give the impression that every
| grade is surrounded by an impregnable
wall which no pupil can scale in less
| than nine months, or III other words we
say TO pupil ''thus far and no farther
| shalt thou CO. Now, this is not the
case, only last week two little girls in our
building were promoted from the third
TO the fourth grade, and the week pre-
ceeding one boy was promoted from the
| fifth to the sixth grade, thus demonstrate
ing the fact that pupil can make two
or more grades in one year, If be or she
has the necessary ability and application
| to accomplish the work. Whenever a
teacher has pupil that should be pro-
NOTED, she informs the principal of the
building, who examines said pupil and
orders promotion if in his Judgment he or
she should be promoted The author
objects very seriously to the object
method. "'The way to do anything is to
do it, so she says, or do thing before
one knows how, and learn how he did it
after it is done, or, IN other words, q
child must read before it knows how.
She would place the stones in the edifice
and then prepare them and lay the
foundation afterwards. In regard to the
''stick method few words. In early
childhood the pTeceptive faculties can
only be cultivated by the object method;
he must see in order to believe. The
order of development of the mind is first
the preventative, next the representa-
tive, then season. A pupil must first see
certain things, then after awhile he can
represent them by numbers, and lastly he
can use his reasoning faculties about
them. The author would have the child
write the figures and learn their signifi-
canoe afterwards.
1t says we try to get ready to learn
them something. This is mistake, the
act of learning must be the part of the
pupil, we may teach them but we
can never learn them anything,
''but to go to the fifth and sixth grades,
can You find one that can read a page
correctly?' If they could, we have no
use for them in school, we need only
those that are not absolutely perfect that
we may help them on to the goal of per-
lection expected. In regard to the
spoiled handwriting l ask any unpreju-
diced party If larger percentage of the
pupils in the city public schools write as
good hand as in those schools where the |
oral method is practiced. Compare the |
pupil S writing with that of some parents |
from whom we receive notes. Ask |
one to correct an ungrammatical phrase |
and he knows nothing about. - The |
reader will please note the quotation OF !
the word learn above. In many families |
the children cannot be kept in school un-
she says. This is not the fault of |
either the teachers or schools. If |
the parents require the services of |
their children before graduation, that is
their fault, not ours. Besides it is not |
necessary for boy who expects to follow
manual labor as means of livelihood to |
read Virgil, learning how the Greeks
succeeded in destroying Troy, or that the
poet Horace had some matrimonial
trouble. These belong to the eleventh
grade. The practical work belongs to
the intermediate grades. What is more
useful than learning to measure lumber,
the amount of flooring, paper
or carpet required to fit up a house? This
belongs to the sixth grade. In the fifth
and sixth grades the elements of the
natural sciences are taught. '"When
you go into the schoolroom you will OBJ
serve that the entire walls are covered
with drawings of all classes and grades. -
They must be artists indeed We only
teach the drawing as prescribed in our
In the building in which 1
am there has not been a drawing except
for the purpose of illustrating something
on the wall this year.
The author speaks of the pupils being
poorly instructed, as hint to the pub
lie, will say that some may be out of
employment for that reason. The public
schools are accomplishing their mission,
they are educating the masses. do not
know who the author of the article was,
nor do care, but l will suggest that it
would be well to be informed better in
'egard the city public schools before
writing another such article.
4 SOUTH SIDE TEACHER,