Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-02
THINGS IN GENERAL.
Personality-OnlyO One Regulation in .
School He Has Founded and That Is for

Personality-On1y One Regulation In q
School He Has Founded and That Is for
the Teachers.
Tolstoi has given an account of a school for
| boys, which Is conducted upon his estates and
under his direction. The purpose of the school
is to train up intelligent and independent citi-
zens. Tolstoi realizes that in q country, gov.
erned as Russia is. there is great danger that
| individuality will be repressed Men will be
| quick at obeying, but slow at thinking. Such
men, indeed, are the necessary consequence Of
an absolute monarchy, and. at the same time
| the necessary condition of its existence. Let
| people begin TO think. and the walls of the
Cars palace begin to tumble.
| Tolstoi wants to teach the value of person.
ality. He purposes like the father of Samuel
Hahnemann, to give bis boys lessons in think
ing. They ought to send him to Siberia. In
deed, 1t Is wonder why they have not, long
before this set upon him the iron leg-chains
with which Russia IS won't to decorate her men
of4etters. her intellectual nobility, and made
him Knight of the Order OF the North Pole
A man who breaches the Chris ian go pei. and
deliberately sets out TO persuade people to.
think, is dangerous citizen for Russia.
This queer school has for its guiding principle
the singular notion that education means more
than the training Of the memory. 1t sets
tasks in the rules of grammar 1t proposes no
geographical statistics. II does not pile the
boys backs withburdens of useless information.
the symbol upon the seal of this school is not
bucket and pump.
The One Regulation Of the School.
There is only one regulation in this school.
and that is meant, not for rhe boys. but for the
teachers: the pupils must be interested. That Is
the beginning and the outline of this remark
able experiment in education. The pupils must
n cfad Thoti io he of lio,i
pline which is allowed Ii the management of
this school,
The school begins when the boys get there in
the morning, and the days session Is over as
soon as the boys get tired in the afternoon.
The hour arrives for the lesson. say, in history.
Enter the teacher. The boys are all
In q heap in the middle Of the
hoor, engaged In grand romp,
needless Of history, intent only upon head
punching. The teacher must smile serenely,
scold not at all, sit down composedly and begin
SO eloquent, tell such facinatIng stories, and
awaken such interest in the subject that one
6v one, boy after boy. will extricate himself
from this tangle nf arms and legs, brush of the
the dust OF the floor and seat himself beside
the teacher. By-and-by, the whole class is IN a
stare OF rapt attention. The lesson continues
until the more restless spirits begin to climb
OUT of the window
There is some sense In such a school as that.
Ire first step in rational education is to inter.
est the pupils. Whatever is learned without
interest is but tiresome drudgery, which does
not really exercise the mind and is forgotten
as soon as possible afterward. If it cannot be
made interesting. either discharge the teacher
as incompetent. or dismiss the subject as of no
is really interested in. The truth is
that every subject which Is worth teaching can
be made OF interest by ft teacher. And the
first thing which a teacher who really desires
teach ShOnl6 ha IA ia fhat tha
open door into knowledge lies along the path Of
interest. How can make his lesson interest
ing? Is equival ent to the question, How can
get this lesson learnedf
James Freeman Clarke said of his school
days that "the first year was wholly occupied
In committing to memory the most abstract
formulas of Adams Latin Grammar There
might be dull kind of discipline in this, he
says, but 1t was an injurious one It was dis
cipline OF the power of crat,ning the memory
with indigestible facts and sounds. 1t taught
us to make strenuous effort to accomplish a
dsagreeable task. 1t had a benumbing effect
on the mind. 1t stupefed our faculties. 1t
gave distaste for stuuy. Latin. Greek and
mathematics taught in tins way inspired only
dislike"
Spelling Damaging to the Mind.
Somebody wrote an article some time ago in
the Popular Sciencs Monthly. the title of
which. think. was "How Spelling Damages
the Mind" The purpose Of It was to show how
ciDle Of arbitrary authority rather than reason
as the guide of life. The spelling book forbids
thinking. 1t inculcates the maxim of the Sal.
vation Army: do as you are told, and don't
argufy"-a good enough regulation for an
army. but a foolish one for school, 1t dis.
cOurages personality. There is no spelling |
book in the curriculum Of Count Tolsroi's |
school.
The robust, though sometimes narrow. |
minded, faith of the EngIsh-speaking race is |
attributed bv this writer to the early influence |
of the spelling book. Anybody. he says. who |
b-o-u.g-h spells bot0. and tough spells tuG |
and h-o-u-g-h spells hok, will believe anything |
The Gar ought to enforce the spelling book in |
all the Russian schools. He ought to forbid |
spell ali the barbarous words Of the Russi9n |
language. The Pope ought to emphasize the !
study of j. in all the paroctial schools.
How Spelling Damages the Mind;' yes, and |
more and worse han thai, How Education |
Damages the Mind" There is subject for |
the TEACHERS in. titutes.
Our system of education is queer DR.. Way.
land says that II still believed. like the old |
Paeans, that there are "malevolent diyinities.
one of whom sent cholera another famine, an
other measles another fever. one might well |
believe that one of the most active and ingeu-
ious and inexhaustible of the malevolents man.
aged at the start to get hold of our system of
education" He instances. as an example of
the unreasonableness OF our teaching the def
nIflOn OF q mile. HOW long IS miller "Well.
that depends; il 1t is a statute mile it is I.76O
yards. II 1t is geographical mile it is 2Oa5
yards, if 1t is measured In Norway 1t is II 1872
yards. if in Sweden, II. $780, il in Germany it may
be the short mile, 6859 yards, or the long mile.
10, l26 yards, or the geographical mile, 8.237
yards"
Opinion of DR.. Wayland.
This, DR.. Wayland says. is as absurd as If it
were taught that what is wrong in winter is
right in summer; and that children ought to
obey their parents in Pennsylvania. but not in
New York; and that two and two make four in
the case of potatoes, but that two and two
make seven in the case of onions, and eight in
the case of carrots.
Prof Huxley says that one day in Belfast he
was in great hurry to get to a certain place at
a certain time. So he rushed into cab and
called to the driver: "N0w, drive fast; am
in hurry" Whereupon the driver brought
down his whip with fine flourish upon the |
backs of the horses and started them off like |
the team that pulls the fire engine at full |
gallop. "Hullor' shouted the Professor, do
you know where want to gor' "Why, no."
answered the driver, "but anyway l am driving
fastr'
There is parable. Where do we want to gof
Where shall this fierce and furious Jehu of
common school education take the boys and
girls? All this unceasing reci alton, all these
long hours, and these bundles of books taken
home to study at night-what are they for?
What il the ideal to- ard which these teachers
are shaping these boys and girls?
They to live in the United States of Amer
ica and in the nineteenth and twentieth GEN. |
turies. What good will dead languages do