The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-03-26
Schooling Versus Education.
[Jane Alden, in The outlook.l

Schooling Versus Education.
Lame Alden in The Outlook.l
knowledge is proud that he has learned
SO much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no
more"
Human nature is complex. 1t has
many sides-physical, social and moral,
as well as intellectual. An education is
Yet for centuries we have been building
up an elaborate system for the training
of the intellectual element, leaving the
others to struggle forward as best they
may. The time has come to ask seri-
ously whether the present methods of
schools do not stand in the way of the
best and most rounded development of
the individual
Teachers tell us that children can
stand the physical strain of school it
home life is regulated to meet the
school requirements; but one asks, Why
should the home, life, which is the more
important, be subordinated to the de-
mands of the less essential and the tenn
porary?
Here are all these strands to be woven
together and harmoniously blended. to
make character; they must all be taken
into consideration. The waking day
of the growing child consists of fourteen
hours; now, are not six or seven of
these an undue proportion to be devoted
to xt-books? Is not the afternoon in
the open air and the evening with
friends as important to education as
the morning in the class room? A
prominent New York physician said re-
Gently to his sons teacher Take my
boy for three hours day. From nine
to twelve get from him all the brain
work of which he is capable. After that
he belongs to me-"
This father recognized the fact that
no boy can apply himself to intense
work for more than three hours, and
that longer time with less application
begets habits of mental dawdling fatal
to success in life, while the prolonged
confinement and absence OF fresh air are
constant menace to physical well-being
IT we include health, we shall all agree
with Patrick that "naiteral parts
is worth all the larnin' on airth. Tt is
pitia BILE sight in the city, the process
ion of specialized school children with
their load of books, each one represent
ing half-hour of work in the house
instead of play in the open air. Lessons
are recited at school. They are learned
for the most part at home. Parents pay
three or four hundred dollars year
for the privilege OF preparing their
children to make a good intellec-
tual appearance N the class room. How
to learn is no part OF the curriculum.
The teachers are so hurried that they
koI no ti,,,o off o1o To Nv
plain to the individual They are too
pressed to initiate the example of a GER
tain shepherd who took time from the
ninety-and-nine well-conducted sheep
to go after the one that had wandered
from the fold. Under the modern sys-
tenn the poor bewildered sheep must find
it's own way back to the fold, and work
extra hours to make up for absence.
The ablest educators, many of them,
sympathize with the parents, but pro-
claim themselves helpless. They say
they are only the turtles who are being
crushed fatter and fatter every year
by the college ALIASES standing OIL them.
The college faculties point to their A.
BIS and justly observe that they cannot
be accused of knowing too much. Yet
we feel that something is wrong some
where when man at twenty-five or
twenty three years of age is only getting
ready for the special training which is
to fit him for his life-work, and when
the thirty-thre years allotted to gen
GRAFTON are often passed before the col
lege man is self-supporting citizen.
Flat heresy as it may seem, some one
must be bold enough to stand forth and
declare that the degree of Bachelor of
Arts" covers too much ground. 1t
means non multi m sed multa.
Relief to the schools must come from
the top Their curriculum cannot be
-. 4 hn dc f1n Il
mission to college be simplifed. Half
the number of studies, and those thor
oughly mastered, would make more
| cultured community than we have
now. One scientifically conducted
course is worth a hundred unscientific
sciences" as mental discipline.
| The time now devoted to text book
education covers an average of ten years
| in school and four in college, and rep
| resents in cities a cash investment of
| five or six thousand dollars. This period
| is too long. 1t is an unnecessary drain
upon the parental purse and positive
| injury to the student. He is kept too
long in state OF tuterage. His receipt
| witty, too prolonged, becomes passivIty.
| He is robbed of that sense of RESPONSE
| bility for himself and others, more val
| liable in it's place than any other train
| ing. One reason for the youthful pessi-
mism prevalent at our principal colleges
| is the absence of the necessity for exer-
ton. Nothing dispels doubts of the
value of life like working for living.
Root, hog, or diet" is plain Saxon, but
| it takes hold on the college graduate
with a vigor which he has never found
| in the classics.
The truth is that in education we are
| all Calvinists. We believe in schools
and colleges as the prescribed means OF
| grace, and if now and then one is saved
to culture by other means. we regard
him as the recipient of uncovenanted
mercies, and consider him rather dan