St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-17
GRADES VS.. INDIVIDUALITY

A shrewd observer returning to New
York city after long Western sojourn
noted, as indicating a tendency towards
homogenety, that. as the crowd of peo-
pie poured out of Trinity church. there
was a striking similarity of dress among
the men. The same cut of coat and vest
and trousers, the same style of hat, each
wearing boutonniere and carrying a
cane, even aSameneSS of gait-all tended
to create an impression that they were
all made in the same mold. and in it
had sunk their individuality. Over on
the East side, among the slumS. poverty
is setting the same marks Of sameness
on its subjects. and thus wealth at one
end of the social scale and poverty at
the other are tending to submerge the
dissimilarities which constitute what
we call individuality in the monotone
of homogeneity.
1t requires no clOseness of observation
TO detect in our system of school grades
tendency in tine same direction, operat-
ing, though. with greater power be-
cause of the plastic material on which it
makes its impress. Nor is the leveling
effect confined wholly to the pupils,
but it is noticeable, though in less de-
gree, among the teachers themselves
This is recognized by them. and there
is something pathetic in their struggles
against the narrowing tendency in the
cOurSeS of reading and studies they Im-
pose on themselves. 1t is probably due
to more or less conscious recognition
nj nf ta in off ,nti
character that all these side studies
and exercises, contemptuousIy termed
''fads," find so firm foothold in our
educational system. They at least al
low some play for the many-sidedness
of the pupils and the teacher. They are
relief from the monotony of the
grades.
Every man and woman is but the de-
veloped germ-coming from who can tell
where?-implanted in the child, contain
ing the unequal aptitudes which, when
fortunately developed, make the person
an adept in some one of the varied
forms OF human activity. Education i'll
its only true sense is the development.
of those aptitudes, the bringing out of
the best powers with which the child is
endowed. 1t does not consist in a re-
preston of one leading faculty while
duiler one is being prOdded into activ-
lty; of blind attempt to thwart the
wise purpose which endowed the child
for capacity for usefulness in some d.
| rection, in the vain hope that it may be
useful in any. One of the facts of life
which the designers of the graded sys-
tenn have not given due weight to is that
| the strongest characters that have i'm
| pressed humanity are, for the most
part. those on whose youth the baleful
effect of all educational system did not
do its depressing work. The question
how much less these men and women
would have been had they been educat-
ed after the orthodox plan is certainly
as broad one as is the mooted question
how much greater and stronger they
would have been had they passed that
| ordeal.
| The repression of the Individual, the
production of mental monotone, is pre-
cisely one of the effects of the graded
system of our schools, and one of its
most widely reaching and Injurious
effects. The injustice to such pupils as
| that which we noted a week ago is in
significant compared with its effects
upon the children subjected to it as a
whole. in the repression Of those facul-
ties which are stronger in the effort to
| develop those which are either weaker
or non-eXistent. When children are
grouped in platoons, all given the same
stddies, each expected to be alike pro-
flclent i'll all. all expected to move in
platoons from one grade to another, the
inevitable tendency is to sameness of
product, medium of dizziness, in which
each child is neither the best nor the
worst it might have been under proper
educational methods.
The effect, unfortunately, runs far
beyond the schools. These children,
thus nodded on one common form, be-
come the men and women who in very
few years will constitute the greater
part of this nation. They will be lis
citizens who will shape its destinies by
| controlling its affairs. The greatness.
the strength, the virility of any nation
depends on the fullest and best develop
ment of the best faculties OF Its citizens.
with the freest opportunities for their
play In the multifarious affairs of men.
Whatever tends to such development is
to be encouraged; whatever tends 10
| prevent Or hamper it should be abol-