Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-30

0t'AtSG, tACy ACfCA nOIlQ LaNC tCCA l-CdAS
; OF gain.
|, As Tor Whitney and Fulton ard Howe
aud Morse and Mccormick and Ellison
they were born. anywhere from fifty 10 one
hundred years 100 early in our A. D.
INSPIRED HOBBY RIDERS.
Seriously, some of these very practical
people are the most absurdly impractical
people to be found. They would have
connected with each school bakery, 8
sinithy, dressmaking establishment. 8
bank, Mint, ETC.. all because one out of 8
thousand of our pupils may follow some
of those callinesl 1t seems not improba-
bic tia, some inspired hobby-rider may set
clamor for the establishment of an insane
asylum in connection with our system OF
public education And it may De needed.
We may yet hear some such questions as
these on the return of the children from
school: well, Caroline (the much prettier
diminutiTe Carrie not being quite prac-
teal enough, did you learn 10 mske any
Few kind of pie to-day? Does your teacher
allow the eggs to boil little more or o
little less than three minutes aud thirteen
seconds? John, did you get those steel har.
row teeth, which you took to practice on,
nicely shagpene6?" That
POLYTECHNIC SCHOOLS ARE RIGHT.
auu SOOu VOTE, ~ one
That high schools snd colleges and uni
ver>ities are right, and are doing good
| work. no one disputes. But to attempt TO
establish an epitometof either.in every COM
mon school, or any common school, is, |
| hold, not only Unwise but dele;erious. II
| we would attempt less and do more or do
| better what we do. we should not receive so
much adverse criticism.
| II cur educational structure the common
school has or should have definite place,
and should not attempt to ape higher in
| siitutions. Intelligence is the subsGucture
| of statehood. The State them claims the
right, for her own perpeiuity, 10 demand
1 this; she does demand it and provide for it;
and when her schools accomplish this,
! they accomplish what they were created
| for and there they should stop; and any at
I tempt TO extend their office TO any special
lines of work, or to fit boys and girls TO gain
living, except so far as a knowledge Of the
common school branches fit them, is. l BE-
! lieve, unwarranted.
THE PRESENT STATE SYSTEM.
| deny the wisdom or justice OF the ad-
vanced grade in our schools. l am not
theorizing; l speak from experience end
observation. If but one pupil takes this
| course, he nece5>itates more work than, and
requires as much time as any full grade
| in the school. l have known Just such
| case. Here the State was loser, the district
was loser, and the advanced pupil was not
the gamer be would have been hsd he at
| tended the high school.
| do not think the Caminettl bill evnces
wise craftsmanship, CT indicates any clear
| conception of our educational needs. l do
not know whether the Senator was ever q
teacher or not; but do think there should
be few level headed pedagogues in every
Legislature, if for nothing else than to look
| after school legislation. Pedagogues would
certainly be less dangerous than dema-
gogues.
| Could the average intelligence of our
| teachers have been consulted, we might
have been spared the catastrophe of the
most impractical grammar ever foisted upon
patient public.
| We should have q book whose aim is to
lead the pupil to the use of good English !;
not one whose apparent aim is to show
how much its suthor knows, and to leave
| the impression that he knows great deal
| more than he tells.
This msy seem u DEPRESSION, but it leads
| to
| ANOTHER PHASE OF THE QUESTION
Under consideration. l have taken some
pains to get the views of some of our bust
ness men on the work done by our schools,
and they are outspoken in their condemna-
| ton of much that is required, and of our
| failure to obtain results commensurate with
the time spent in, and the cost of, our
public schools.
They may be wrong; they doubtless
under. estimate the good they got from the
school, yet their criticisms deserve notice
They say our pupils leave school without
| the ability even to add rapidly and accur-
L IL l. e.,
| it. Such should not be the case. They
say our pupils leave school with but a
vague, intangible knowledge of our history.
That should not be, and begging the pardon
| of Boards of Education am going to be so
audacious as to charge that they are partly
! TO blame here.
! Our graduates from the common schools
are only boys and girls. 1t is therefore un-
reasonable to expect them to have that
mastery of the subject that should be pos
sessed by the candidate for license TO
teach. Our questions, conceive. should
| be such as to ascertain whether the boy hiss
a fair, general knowledge of our history or
not.
| From rough estimate, should judge
that the history in our State series contains
about thirty statements, assumed facts and
| dates to the page. AS 1t contains 400 pages,
! that gives US 1900 things to remember
| and look out for in examination No
wonder the poor victim is dismayed.
| HOW THE MISCHIEF IS DONE.
| If he tries the useless task of committing
half these things to memory, he has no
| time to think; no time to assimiate; no
| time for comparisons; no time to follow out
| the cause to its effect no time for the
philosophy of history. Teachers will
teach, as pupils study, with an eye to final
examination; and if they know they are to
be held responsible for unimportant things,
they will give undue prominence TO such
| things.
may be wrong in making these charges
! but have seen lists of questions sent out
| on this study that evinced no more grasp
| of the matter in hand than ought to be
shown By a well-taught fifteen-year- old
boy.
One list, 1 remember, contained this !:
Give concise account OF the battle of
| Charlottesville"
Now, was old enough at the time of
our civil war TO flee to the hills on the ap-
proach of Morgan's men, and the scenes
Of the war would naturally be little
more realistic and vivid to me than to chill
dren born since those terrible times; and
l am frank enough to aamit-and maybe
should do it with shame and blushing-
that l, the teacher of the boys and girls
that were being put through the mill,
could not give a concise account of the
battle of Charlottesville.
Let me say, in extenuation, that l was
raised peace loving Quaker, and maybe
passed too lightly over the sanguinary cpl
sodes of our irrepressible conflict.
THESE STRUCTURES
Apply equally to some questions l have
seen sent out on grammar. One list con-
tanned, for analysis and parsing, sentence
about which even grammarians differ.
speak my convictions when I say do moi
believe that any two members of the Board
from which this sentence emanated would
have disposed of it in the same way. Yet
this was sent cut for boys and girls of Is to
wrestle with.
Shades of Murray We certainly do beg
for something practical in English. If the
State can dispose of its copyright TO oul
English Grammar at twenty per cent. on
the outlay by all means let it do so and il
, there is not talent enough in the State to
compile a textbook that will meet oul
needs-the needs of the common schools
let Us send abroad for one or do without it
But l must conclude, and in doing sc
. permit me to voice the sentiment that in
the future. as in the past, our grand, free
. common schools will be a most potent
l Al. Al f-<a