Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-03

| Talk on Flowers" Oral language, motlon song
gymnastics, reading, written language, motor
song. physiology, number observation and i'm
! agination-
Here we have q desultory fuddle of music
botany, rhetoric, gymnastics, physiology
and mental philosophy for children whom
it is fair to assume cannot spell words o
| three syllables; and also we may assume
that since September these infant scholars
have been in special training for this special
| exhibition, to the exclusion of those studies
that come within tine range of their mental
capacity, to wit, reading and spelling, and
in consequence nearly five months time has
been thrown away.
In writing, the copy for each room is
written on the black board, instead of in the
children's books as formerly. In iil-Iighted
rooms and in all rooms in gloomy weather,
the strain upon the eyes of weak or short
sighted children must be highly injurious.
Grammar, geography, history, physiology,
may or may not be recited three or four
times a week. Such days as recitations are
had clssses of 20 or 80 present themselves,
but only some six or eight have time to re-
cite.
Now it is easy to see how this will work.
The scholars having the greatest aptitude
for the branch will do the reciting, both as
means of saving time and because they
will make the best showing at the yearly
examinations, and the care due the whole
class will be layished on them.
No Time for School Study.
In the schools during school hours there
is really no time for study. All branches
requiring study are sent home, to be studied
during the evening and night. Besides the
children are often kept in during noon re-
cess and after school closes.
One OF the chief purposes of our costly
school buildings is the separation of the
children from the distractions of their home
life, and the attractions OF their childish
play, and so give better opportunity to
study. But like all other purposes this too
is defeated. The school hours are now al
most wholly monopolized by exercises that
have no relation to a useful education,
the one great purpose for which
the system was originally founded
giving all the people a good practical
education at the least possible expense;
prevents the active exercise and amuse-
ment out of school hours absolutely neces-
sary 20 maintain and mature the mental and
physical health of growing children, and
we have on every hand loud lamentation
over excessive nervous strain, enfeebled con-
stitutions, and the alarming prevalence of
In the majority of children the really
useful branches are hard, uninteresting
study. By the introduction of music, draw
ing and the other various fantastical exer-
cises that flood the school hours the interest
of the scholars centers on these, to them, con-
genial entertainments, and this distaste to
the really useful and needful branches is
confirmed. So far as education is concerned
the years between and ID are the most i'm
portant In life. Memory is most receptive
and almost wholly unIncumbered, and all
other faculties are undistracted by the cares
and occupations of life. To the children of
the poor and middle class the loss of those
years is irreparable, for these are not only
the best. they are the only years in which
they can obtain an education, as they must
as early as possible earn their own living,
and the smattering of the really useful
branches they now get is for that purpose
practically useless.
APertinent Case Cited.
OF the manner in which th - educational
fandangos are introduced we see a specim.a
in the case of the teachers on the Southsida
quietly introducing calistheni' 5 into those
schools as a part OF the schoI. routine We
also see BY this that il IS their practice to
them without consulting the
school authorities, VIII, i they can do so
what are We to think of TIE capacity of those
authorities for holding the position they do.
Does the Board of Control think these
things of no moment, seeing they only
squander the taxpayers money and their
time? Of this proceeding they can
not plead ignorance. 1t was duly published
in the papers, and they must surely know
that the five daily school hours are more
than overloaded already with like imbecil-
ties The fact is that any one with hobby
that will afford prete1t for employing
new batch of supervisors, superiniendents
snd teachers, find no difficulty in riding it
into the schools. Witness the cooking
school. In any book store any citizen can
buy good cook book for % cents, and the
rich epicure for 50 or S. can have the best
results yet attained in culinary science in
either this country or Europe. And this |
experiment cost last year S1,017, and the |
levy for next year is 81 $50, and this money
in part out of the pockets Of people who find |
1t much harder to get enough of boiling |
beef for themselves and their families all |
The year round than to get it properly |
cooked. And in the face of the fact that |
real estate and all business is overburdened |
BY taxation we learn from the following |
clipping, January %, that Sowing to the |
of the cooking school the indus
rial committee will soon have to establish |
another one, probably on the Southside,"
md concludes by asking: "Why not have |
/ cooking school to train teachers for the |
work in Pittsburgh"
Are Parental Expectations Realized?
At the end of eight or nine years steady
at the public schools the children |
'ome home to their parents. But are the ex. |
,ectatIons of those parents realized? Do |
hese boys and girls have the multiplied |
ion, addition and subtraction tables in |
memory ready for instant use without slate |
ind pencil? Can they write receipts for |
moneys received? Can they make out bills?
Jan they fill up the printed forms of obliga- /
ion in common use among all classes? Can |
hey write business or any other letter or
correctly as to spelling and |
definition of words without spelling book, |
dictionary or grammar at their elbows? |
Alackaday! But they can outline (not
lraw) lions, elephants, giraffes, horses, |
heep. and just lovely Swiss cottages and pict- |
iresque styles and rustic gates. With col !
,red chalk they can delineate tulips, roses |
md lilies. and with their pens convolutions, |
md whirls, and fiourishes, and they can sing
uch charming songs and accompany them |
With admirable gesticu1ations. These to |
hem, so far as earning a living is concerned,
IRE worthless Accomplishments, and an indif-
erent smattering of arithmetic, geography,
history and physiological, ex.
epting arithmetic. altogether worthless
makes their stock of useful knowledge. The
leluded parents find their children fit only |
o deliver messages and carry packages. At
be ages of IA and 15 they are too often only
for cash or Office boys!
The Finishing Touches.
Those who can afford it pay for tuition to
me of the numerous private colleges. The
numbers and crowded condition of the So