Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1891-01-29

part Of their parents was often riuiculed,
for we knew those boys were dun. They
had not learned fourth part of what
the common school was capable of teach
ing, and to enter higher grades of instruc-
ton seemed much like folly. Yet those
boys, having entered upon new courses of
study, recting lessons from books that
istence, entered at once upon new eras of
progress passed through the higher grades
of learning with great credit to themselves
and families and are now occupying i'm
portant stations in life.
We remember distinctly one boy who
was the esseace of admiration with the
whole school. a good-natured, careless
fellow, who made no trouble for the teach
er, except that for two years the teacher
had done little else than explain dccmals
to him, but he knew nothing about dsc-
mails. He never knew what marked the
tropics, relative pronouns aud relative ad-
verbs were all one thing to him. In a
word he was dull and did not seem to COM
prchend anything. When he was about
sixteen years old, we were greatly sur
prsed to learn that his father had decided
to At him for college aud he sent him TO
| preparatory school for that purpose. In
little less than three years he entered col
ege where he at once took high rank and
graduated among the prize men of his
class. He is to-day successful lawyer
an orator and statesman. If he had
faithfully spent his minority in that com
mon school, | have no doubt he would
have Intellectually fOundered in the fogs
OF decimal fractions, mathematical geogra-
ply and the principles of grammar.
| What ! infer from these observations,
and they have been verified by larger OBJ
servstion. is this. and It is the doctrine
am attempting to announce. the object of
early instruction is not to store the mind
| with facts or principles, hut to train The
| mind to gather facts from observation
| and to deducc principles through ts own
| Intrinsic energy We have no need of
| storing the mind of child with facts If
we have taught him how to see and hear
and feel The object Of early education is
only to make a learner of the pupil II
we succeed in this he will do the remain
der of the work himself The whole
world is then an open book before him.
If the child can be made 10 see the rcla-
ton of cause and effect in al his work it
Is fortunate for grown up people do not
but would not allow him to wait long, if
it is found very difficult for him to asccr
tain this
Let him push along to new fields Of in
quiry and he will come to something he
understands and will like it. II he does
not see why the tropic of cancer marks
the northern boundary of the torrid zone
he will certainly understand, when told,
all about the manufacture of marbles. But
teachers say. 1t is necessary that a child
should grasp a certain principle because
it is the key to another princpIc.'
In mathematics this is to some extent
trGe, but fortunately mathematics is com
ing to be regarded in its true sense. part.
How often it mus appear to every
teacher that he himself, notwithstanding
the thorough drill, did skip hundreds Of
principles that he did not understand at
the time but having trained the mind in
new fields of thought and study, these
principles have all come to him intuitivcly.
SO it is with every scholar. would there
fore advocate that children in the common
schools be pushed along faster, made 10
cover more ground. regardless of thor
oughucss for over wider range of study
more ideas viii be formed, each of which
Is nucleus for thought-bulding. Once
the student is made to think intentlv, to
turn the mind in upon the fruits already
acquired. to assOrt, compare and reason
about them and all the while making fresh
additions to his store, no matter If the
first layers are unripe, he will in time ac
cumulate vast store and his later garner
ing will ripen the earlier.
Give child variety in his mental food
and enough of it and the assimia-
tive powers of the mind will take in all
that is lacking and eliminate that which
was taken in in crude state or rather
tranform it into the solid material OF
We'll balanced mind.
Thorough work" as it is called. is not
thorough work at all To learn auch is to
learn ,reY, for out of the abundance of ma
terial with which the mind is stored it
weaves its own genuine, thorough fabric.
4 SI.pERA ANHI-.IIn LIZ uCIEE-