The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1892-03-11
SOME JANGLING NOTES.

j 0ueSClunCd WDeLHpT you HlIgHt HOt UD
tempted to say the sarie thing of me, for
my mission to-day, selfconsttuted of course,
seems to be to find fault. Nothing seems
easier than to critcise, but to point out ex-
listing evils is one thing, and to provide a
remedy for these evils is quite another thing.
We judge of an educational system or any
other system by the results produced. "A
tree is known by its fruit" is an old, old
saying, but it is just as true as when it was
first uttered.
Our common school system m ay be COM
pared to large manufacturing institution,
where the quality Of the commodity pro-
duced depends on two things-the perfec-
ton of the machinery, and the skill of the
operatives. However finely constructed the
machinery may be, if the manipulation does
not understand it, he will turn out bungling
work, while on the other hand. the most
skillful workman with poorly adjusted ma
chlnery will fail of the best results. Even
the superficial student of educational his
tory from, the TIME OF the Reformers to the
present, or those whose memories go back
to the schools Of a Quarter of a century ago,
in all departments of education. The rip
plies started by Locke, Rosseau, Pestalozzi,
Froebel and others have widened and
widened until the waves have reached from
shore to shore of the great ocean. When
we see the vast array of professional books
covering all departments Of education, also
the multitude Of educational journals scat
tering broadcast among the teachers Of the
land the newest and best methods of pre-
senting truth to the youthful mind, and
when we examine the mass of appliances
for school use, from the kindergarten ma
terial for the primary departments to the
apparatus designed for use in all grades
even to the highest, we feel like exclaiming
''Surely, the educational Millennium draw
eth nighr' But when we begin to look
around for the finished products of this
grand, this much glorifed institution-the
common school system, what do VIC find?
Every thoughtful, candid person, it seems
to me, is forced to admit that the results are
not what we have right to expect. I say
this advisedly and believe the facts will
bear me out. Whether this failure is
chargeable to the institution or the opera
tives or to both is question for later con-
.sideration. Let us first ascertain in what
the failure consists.
Charge number one is that our close
graded system tends to destroy the indi-
,viduality of the child. It is monster
machine of which the teacher holds the
crank, and the children are turned out as
nearly alike as so many clothes pins. 1t is
averitable, inquisitional iron bedstead. IF
the child is too long. cut him off; if too
short, stretch him out. Children are made
for the children. (?) Nature starts out
every child with certain capacities-not all
with the same or equal abilities and it should
be the business of the educator to furnish
conditions favorable to the development of
these God-given faculties; but after some
of these children have heen run through our
educational mill, if they were stood up for
the inspection of Mother Nature. she would
fail to recognize her own Offspring. San
all round symmetrical development" is a
very good thing no doubt, provided it does
not interfere with natures plans, but the
world needs men of one idea, and must have
them. What il Edison were ''an all round
symmetrically developed" man? Would it
be an improvement, think you? He might
be more comfortable to live with, but would
the world be the gamer? There is an i'm
mense satisfaction in being able to do even
one thing we'll, and it surely must have
discouraging and disheartening effect upon
child to be continually thwarted and held
back from doing what he knows he can do
well, and urged on to that which he feels he
can do but indifferently. There is certain
discipline in it, grant, but whether the gain
will compensate the loss is an open ques-
tion. A prominent educator at our summer
institute told us if child had special
talent in anv direction, he would never hold
it back, never, but would urge it forward in
that line. He failed, however, to tell us
how this could be done under our ''iron
clad" graded system.
Ny second charge is too crowded cur
riculum. Our makers of study courses evil
IDENTIFY believe in ''division of flabor''-such
a division as shall give but an infnitesimal
amount of time for each particular branch.
We might proftably follow the example of
our German neighbors and study how to
make reduction in our courses of study.
Under the present state of things teachers
are almost compelled to resort to those often
and Justly belabored methods dubbed the
''stufing" and pouring in" process. But
what of the innocent victims of this hot
house system of education? I cannot an
swer this better than by quoting from Mrs.
Kellogg in the teachers institute. "We
can easily imagine the future caricaturist
illustrating the nineteenth century hobby by
"a cut of some poor little child with pale
face, large head, distended eyes and mourn
full expression, with the explanatory lin be-
heath it, This child survived it,
The third charge shall touch briefly and
it is this: A too slavish dependence on the
text book. This may be partly due to want
Of time, but to take daily doses of an in
fallible (?) text book unquestioningiy is to
crush out the spirit of Investigation in both
teacher and pupil, and defeat the very end
for which schools are established. Rather
should tire statements IF the books be veri-
fed or disproved whenever it is possible tC
do so. Neither should the dfetum OF thu
teacher be taken as the ultimatum, bu
should be testedin the same crueible as the
text book.
Ny fourth charge is, our public schools
fail to properly train to self reliance. Ar
ancient teacher once said, 'sThere is no roya
road to learning" but it would seem tba
a. e L. lr~.<