St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-25
ERRORS OF TEACHING,

To the Editor of the Globe.
The prevailing idea is that children
can acquire little except by observation
and experiment. Everything must be
reduced TO the senses, and teachers (?)
tell US that because philosophers mahe
experiments our children also must
make them. Seeds are put into the
earth and watered and watched before
the child can be taught how the plant
grows. The caterpillar in its self-made
house is hung up IN some corner of the
room and watched day after day until
the butterfly comes forth.
This kind of instruction is wrong
from an economical standpoint. It
takes an age of philosophy to demon
strate what q bright boy or girl will
learn in single hour, and tho children
have no time to repeat the experiments
of Locke and Newton.
Toothpicks and beans are made to
form the basis of mathematical instruc-
ton and many teachers are ready to
confess their Incidence by saying, sit is
so much easier for the little ones" So
vast amount of machinery interposes
between teacher and pupil, until the
one has found an easy chair and the
other has no hill to climb. Incidence of
thought on the part of teacher and
pupil characterizes the school work of
today; the child initiates and repeats,
but does not think. To know the effect
of this kind of teaching, compare Athens
with China. The one, whose place can
hardly be found On the map, has given
to US new sciences and arts; the other
| more than One-third the human race
has added not one particle to knowledge
or taken one step in improvement.
There is no escape from the law of
nature-the mind as well as the body
must work if 1t would grow.
All labor-saving devices in the school
room that come between the teacher
and the pupil lessen the influence of
the one and make helpless and useless
being of the other. Another error in
teaching comes from the assumption
that all minds of given age develop in
like degree, and we have seen pupils
in certain grades forbidden to count
| beyond five because "Grube's Method, u
or some other method, said that all
the combinations up to five must be
| mastered before any larger number
| could be considered. Mary can count
| to hundred, but she is not allowed to
count beyond five in the school room
| in fact, she must not know of any
| higher number until she reaches the
! next grade.
Nothing is more harmful in the child
mind than retardipg its natural tend
in hn re =
| signed. The only grade nature has
made is the individual, and each one
must be guided and directed, but never
controlled or restricted. Yet our would
be educators throw around the children
| the restrictive barrier of "grade,n with
| its imperative "Thus far and no far.
Their" The naturally bright and capable
| ones are checked until indifference takes
! the place of ambition; and the dull ones,
| those who need the most careful train
| ing, are tortured into despair of passing
! with their schoolmateS into the next
| mental prison, from which they again
| hope to escape at the expiration of the
term"
The American mind has never yielded
| to anything in vigor of intellect or
| parity of purpose; but to secure the
best and highest culture we must re-
member that we are to initiate neither
Athens nor China There is no model
for us in all the realm of materialism;
why should there be one for our mental
culture?
1t is admitted by the most thoughtful
teachers that methods and courses of
study are very much out of joint: that
results show US to be far behind the
other nations. But they do not at the
same time Indicate the remedy. The
only conclusion to be reached is that
they are either unable. unwilling or
afraid. They should. then. give place to
others who are able, and who will dare
anything for the free schools of America.
w. <. MULLIKEN.