The Portland daily press., 1893-02-28

These statistics are for the year ending July
1, 1892.
After giving these statistics, Mr.. Lord
goes on to say that the schools have been
doing we'll during the last year, the
teachers especially showing a good de-
gree of interest. The grammar schools
are still in need of supplementary text
books, and Mr.. Lord recommends that
certain measures of weight, length, ETC.,
number tables, and other appliances.
be placed in the primary schools to as
sist in teaching the scholars concretely.
On this subject Mr.. Lord continues:
President Eliot, in a recent article,
very forcibly pointed out that the
Three Things Most Important
for the public schools to accomplish are
that pupils be taught to observe accu-
rately, to tell in good, correct English
what they have observed, and to draw
correct differences. He also points out
the fact that very few of the studies in
the public schools are well adapted to
accomplish these results. A glance at
the course of studies will convince any
one that his point is well taken. If
these things are to be accomplished, and
the present course of studies is not well
suited to this purpose, it is plainly our
duty to revise or supplement it SO that it
will be. Accordingly / suggest an out
somewhat as follows: Let each teacher,
two or three times week, take into her
class room some familiar natural objects
such as leaves. flowers, plants, ETC., suffi-
Gent in number, it possible, to give each
pupil one, and have him observe the
characteristic features of the object and
state the same to the teacher.
In the more advanced grades let him
write the result of his observations, and
when feasible let him make a drawing of
the object. This of course is very
brief outline of what we would have
done. In order to make success of this
work the first requisite is, that the teach
ers shall know what to do and how to
do it, that is, that they shall know what
they want the children to see and how to
get them to see it; the next requisite is,
that the work shall be properly graded;
the next, that it shall be persistently and
faithfully performed by the teachers.
This work could be carried on and the
requirements fulfilled aby employing an
the High school and permitting Mr.. Cas-
we'll to employ part of his time in ar
ranging the programme, ssuperintend the
work in the various schools and teaching
the teachers.
There is at present in the scientific de-
partment in the High school too much
work for one teacher and not enough for
two. and therefore but little extra ex-
pense would be incurred by
this arrangement. If this plan
should be carried into operation [ would
confine it for the first year to the primary
schools; after that l would extend it to
the grammar schools and have the ele-
mentary facts of chemistry land physics
taught. A course such as I have outlined
would be an experiment only in the sense
that it has never been tried here; it has
been tried and proved successful in other
cities. If properly taught it certainly
must tend not only to teach pupils to OBJ
serve carefully, state the results of their
observations carefully, and draw correct
differences, but also to put them IN the
way of acquiring large fund OF useful
information about familiar objects and
the habit of investigating for themselves.
I commend the whole matter to your
careful consideration.
The System of Promotion
from the grammar schools to the High
Schools by written examinations de-
mands few moments attention. In or
der to be promoted pupil in the gram
mar schools must obtain an average rank
Of Is. He is ranked in the following
studies. reading. spelling, writing and
drawing. physical geography grammar,
arithmetic, English history. In the first
four Of these studies the average child
easily obtains rank of from s. to 100,
which permits him a rank of from so to
GO in the last three studies, which are the
most difficult, and yet he secures
his promotion to the High School
on an average rank OF 70.
He enters the High School and is rank