The Republican journal., 1892-06-16
Something About Schools.

but | do wonder if the problem of public
instruction in the cities is in any degree
similar to that in the country. 1t Port
land teachers are eXtravagantly paid, it is
something out of the usual course, and
vet Portland schools may cost too much,
even if salaries are low. In sparsely
settled section it would cert ainly take a
teacher many hundreds of years to ac-
cumulate the wealth of, well, say Jay
Gould, and yet, when results are taken in
to account, the schools are the most ex-
pensive luxury known to the rural dis
trictS. And why?
remembers bright little girl from one OF
our academies whose first term was taught
in district where she registered three
scholars and where, on some occas ons. the
school room was occupied by the teacher
and a single pupil. This extreme case
may serve to illustrate many similar ones
As for instance, one country district
where in oldcn times 30 or 60 scholars
were wont to assemble. but where no
school has been kept for some years, SIM
ply because not more than SIX scholars
could be found III the district. Facts like
these tel more than do whole chapters
written on the industrial problem, for they
are supplemented by the deserted farm
houses which one may find on nearly every
country road.
Again much has been written and said
about child labor in city factories and the
spread of illileracy in the land: while very
few know Of the number of children whose
services on the farm are an absolute neces-
sity in the years when children should be
at school, These facts, added to the cir-
| cumstance that wages are higher than in
the days when a teacher had a crowded
school room on two to four dollars per
week. OF even less and boarded round,
make school problem of no small size in
the country There is not the least doubt
that in our earlier days. country schools
of the same grade were in no way inferior
to those Of the Cown Indeed, the writer
| has known Instances where the country
| boy or girl We're in advance of their city
cousins of the same age. But under con-
ditions which now prevail the rural dis
tricts have the problem of a very expen-
sive school system coupled with beggarly
| returns.
1t is not quite clear that frequent
| changes in textbooks. and furnishing
them by the municipality, are either
economical or beneficial. Acquiring a
common education is in some respects
like acquiring trade OF profession.
|
pline The lawyer would welcome a new
work on law but his Coke or Blackstone
are for all time and the carpenter still
uses the fore-pane as did his fellow
craftsmen years age \ new textbook
may be better printed, OF bound. OF it
may have a new electrical discovery by
| Edison. but certain fundamental princi-
| pies III natural science are no better known
to- day than they were in the time Of
| Franklin; while in mathematics, the null
! tiplication table is as old as PythagoraS.
possibly older. Change is a disadvantage
if the result is simply novelty The child
should have a sense of property-of OWL
crship-in his text books, coupled with
the assurance that its teachings are per-
manent Frequent change gives one a
sense OF Instability and lessons the value
of the property. The pupil should be
thorough master. not simply OF what the
book says. but he should make it an OBJ
icct to understand principles which the
book can only hint 1T.
Deserted country school districts mark
4 decline in the numbers and character of
our rural population much more distinct
| ly than do deserted farm houses, and eff
fectually refute the assertion that it is
only old buildings that are deserted and
| lltl lalIlS. WHY, Ju'SIHS ny Nlt,l 'ily
school children say, the tendency there is
to attempt too much, and the process of
examining commences. The State stutfs
education by contract into the pupils, and
| being in a desperate hurry to complete its
Job, it employs expensive labor saving
machinery to do it with. Teachers are
like attendants upon a lightning press or
employees on an express train-trained au-
| donations whose business is to keep them
selves and their pupils up with the engine.
| But, unfortunately for the system, the
human mind, like the soil on which | SOW
grain, is only capable of producing one
crop in a season.
| The mighty mechanical forces of this
century have greatly increased the power
of communities, and the tendency to con-
| centraton is shown by our schools quite
as clearly as in our industrial system
| The country cobbler made boots and shoes
| for his neighbors, and his dozen children
helped swell the country school. The
| cobbler of to-day pounds his lapstone with
a steam engine, and his two or three child
rem are denied the privilege of lifting them
| selves to be his successors with their own
| tools. because the State has established
| system that is deemed to be too expensive
for the individual, but not too expensive
| loI INC community. Anu SpdfSely SCI
tied community may be said to gain in the
concrete while it loses in the abstract.
But, i'll city or country, is not the present
system much like transferring valuables
from one pocket to another? There is some
exercise attending the operation, but no
real gain.
AS a country school officer. the writer
has often taken pleasure in comparing
the text books of 80 or 40 years ago with
the dozens sent him in recent years for
examination.
My old text books carefully preserved,
We're poorly printed, and the binding was
not nice looking. But if a mental arith-
metic has been produced in recent years
that in any way excells Warren Colburn'
First Lessons. have not had the gooi
fortune to see it. IIoughton Miflin 4
Co., still advertise it: and only few years
ago it paid profits to the heirs of Warren
| Colburn.
In readers and in American history
there has been decided Improvement, be
cause in the old days both American his
tory and American literature were stamp
ed by the crudeness which seems to char
acteriZe all new countries. Many Selec-
| tionS in old readers are excellent, but why
is it that nova days in an average com
| munity a larger portion of those who pat
ronize public libraries seek for the very
lightest reading matter? OF the young
boys who read as an exercise Phillips or
Sumner, or Blaine OF Lincoln, probably