Wichita eagle., 1889-06-12
THE PARIS EXPOSITION.
A Study of the Educational Exhibit
Countrys Work


in the thought of the world concerning
the means, methods and objects of school
ing. The evolution in education has been
from the minority in the highest social
plane. AS it has proceeded the standards
have been subjected to revolution COM
plete and, without doubt. permanent.
The model of the academies of Greece,
with their abstract disputations, served
| the little area of rejecting mankind
until the invention of printing.
| The inoustry of secluded students
and the zeal of enthusiastic copyists pre-
served the texts which constitute 1or al
ages the foundations OF culture: but their
multiplication by machines dId NOT Ior
| two centuries seriously affect the conven.
tionaI procedure of training few out OF
| every thousand for the duties appertalnlng
to professors of sacred and protane learn
ing. who in turn passed a few others In
each thousand along the beaten paths OF
Hellenic and Roman authors, and pre-
scented them upon the threshold OF meta
physics, which few crossed except for prof
itIess wrangling
The idea of including within the scope OF
education the industries of civilization re-
NAMED for later ages, when the daring OF
the sailor and the tread OF armies
brought the distributed races face to
face. Democracy and commerce, and the
slowly operating spirit of Christianity,
which they have in part antagonlZed and
in part promoted, combine IN our own
time to establish a new order.
The total effacement of the antiquated
and exclusive privilege OF higher culture
is shown in every portion of the EXPOSE
ton. Higher instruction there is preServ-
ing the monumental works OF earlier
genius in literature, but the new epoch,
h nrl,n l,1r thnSa n r.
ent as well as complimentary means OF
developing intelligence. 1t is resolved
that creation shall accompany reflection.
1t is not merely literary; it is industrial.
1t is not solely for the refinement of the
minority; it is for the good OF the entire
people.
Its most benefcent quality is its devo-
ton to beauty and truth. While aggran-
dizing the material, and recognizing the
fact that education, like liberty, is uni
versal right as well as universal pru-
dence, the principle of the new epoch Is
that thought shall be turned into skill
This may not be the noblest idea OF cul-
ture. 1t is doubtless more sublime to
write a great poem than to discover
secret in chemistry, to construct perfect
machine, or to furnish textile manufac-
turers with more distinguished colors and
richer designs.
The question of the time is not how to
immortalize rare spirits, but how to
render life happier, more reflect
ing and more virtuous for the great
body Of people, to whom the arts and
trades are as indispensable in modern ages
as was the meditation of old to the Ceno-
bite or pomp to the privileged participa-
tors in courtly splendor. The rule of the
abstract is past, Socrates contempt for
initiative arts has been smiled into practl-
cal philosophy. The French educational
exhibits presents this revolution in educa-
tion with remarkable comprehensiveness
The first country to cast off traditional ex-
elusive library training, its prominence in
fine industrial art and its monopoly of the
most profitable industries into which de-
gn enter, are explained.
In addition to a representation Of the
entire school system of Paris, seventy Of
the eight-seven departments of the repub-
lie have respective places in the education
fold auspices, manifesting the ceaseless
activity of the people The national sys-
TEN finds augmentation through benevo
lent societies, through municipal and
organization, and through pri-
yate enterprise; but whatever the form Of
the process and principles
are Identical. Mind training beginning
with the primary grades, and passing up
through high schools into colleges and
universities, is constantly accompanied
with the training of the eye
and the hand throughout all
the sciences and all the arts. The
exhibit, ramifed through every division
with inventive, decorative and construct
i've industry, is a school where all nations
may study with advantage. Were Ger
many represented, the righteousness of
this national combination of literary with
executive for the discipline of the people !
in thrift and thought would be not less
clearly demonstrated. That it will be-
come the code of the most enlightened,
and conservative nations of
Europe is apparent in the unity which
pervades the various international con-
tribUtions Belgium, combining in her
economic character the greatest density of
population with the largest diversity OF
occupation and the most uniform dis
tribution Of wealth with the minimum of
ranks after France. Closely
following are Holland and Switzerland.
Abreast Of them are the French colonies
in Asia, Oceanica and Africa. American
visitors should seek these colonial sections.
They are not in the exposition buildings
proper, but in structures illustrating the
aboriginal architecture of the oriental peo-
pies along the Esplanade des Invalides. In
the composition of their contents primi-
tive antiquity is side by side with the most
refined evidences Of modern subtlety in
L
nished by Japan. Nothing more delicious
and more gratifying in quaint variety can
be imagined than the kindergarten work |
of japanese children.
The venerable Elizabeth Peabody, who |
Froebel's system in the United |
States, has not lived long enough to see |
American children as happily occupied in |
to their numbers as is the lit le |
world Of the presumably benighted east. !
The accompanying statistics show that |
there are nearly three million children and |
seventy thousand teachers in the elemen- |
tary schools of Japan. The exhibit pre- |
sents view of the entire system, from the |
up to the university, and is /
as scientific and orderly as the system of |
France.
Particularly important is the work !
shown by japanese schools for the blind |
and for deaf mutes. \ relief alphabet and |
various series Of models are in use. In the |
former the letters are in pressed paper, and |
are sautifully reproduced in wood by the |
pupils. The have also a relief apparatus |
combining syllables on the principle of the |
wood method in vogue in our primary in
struction, and which was borrowed from
in wood carving, painting, modelling in
clay and in designing for ceramics, textiles
and iron is almost phenomenal.
The British and American exhibits are
iisappointments Their scantiness and |
relative inferiority are due TO the obvious
fact that English speaking nations have
longest adhered TO all but exclusive liter
ary instruction, which is fossil reminis-
,ence of rejected pedagogy. Great Brit
ain, which was the last OF all enlightened
countries to establish a national educa-
lonal system by taxation, is reluctant
about it, but she must 20 to Germany or
France for the science OF teaching. The
practical instruction given in her primary
schools is meager, bur it is more general
than in the United
states. which can not plead the