The Newtown bee., 1894-04-13
HoWTo SECURE BETTER COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

First, what is the object of the coun- try schools? It is to grind given Dum- Der of geographical definitions and arith- metical problems into the head daily, or Is it to help the child to that education which he must, or should acquire while going through life? If the former, then some schools have reached the height of perfection, if the latter, there is much to be done. The true object of teaching should be to lay foundation on which the child shall build as he grows older; to help him to choose that which is the most useful to his future life; to teach him that the school is not the end of ed ucation, but merely the beginning.
 The general idea of the correct way of conducting schools seem to be that the teacher should make the pupil commit to memory, word for word, long, dry his- torical descriptions, arithmeticar prob lens worked out and explained by'set rules, constant and continual drilling in parsing and diagraming. These are means not ends, or should be. These above stunt the brain, and kill all orig inality and imagination. No wonder that people complain of ''old fashioned teaching and that the teacher is "cross." ," Those who are familiar with the Normal methods will tell you that these have long ago given, place to more modern and sensible ones.- That the ''fittest will survive" and the ''old fashioned teacher" must go with the old fashioned methods.
 Let the teacher be 'monarch of all he surveys" while in school. Let him be autocrat. If he cannot perform his tasks dutifuliy then he is unfit for the office. If the parent sees something in the man. agement of the school machinery which needs repairing or can beimproved upon. 1aA I.s el, n 4lxV The parents meddle altogether too much in minor matters; which they can under stand very little about. For instance, I have had pupils come to me saying "Their mother said they need not write but six lines in their writing books, daily" or, "Their father said they need not spell in such and such class" or ''Their mother said they might read alone, as they did not like to read with such and such scholar" Another par ent wants to know A'what is the use of learning definitions in reading when the time might be better ( D employed in studying arithmetic.."' That seems to be the important of importants with some people. Arithmeticl Will the under standing of the science of metric system, or cube root be of more use to person (often the employee of shop, or farm er) than knowledge and acquaintance of the commonest English words? !? Arithmetic is valuable as a means of de- veloping the reasoning powers, but other ways it is of not so much importance as some other studies. It may safely be said that hardly one-tenth of the people often have occasion to exercise their knowledge of mensuration, of the diff ferent methods ofscomputing interest and bank discount, of percentage, etc., avnr rIGn if I have had pY1nilG yhr had been through-all the branches of .arith- metic, time and again, who could not tell the meaning of the words used in ordinary conversation, and who could not write a letter correctly, whose parents wished them to spend one. and one-half hours in arithmetic and one half hour in reading. This Is the parents fault, not the schol- ar's, nor the teachers. But these things are what hinder andstliseourage. A bet. ter system. of schools will never be while parents think that reproduction stories and compositions useless, calis- thenics foolish, and a study of natural history waste of time. Most young teachers, especially those teaching the | first year, think they must listen to the parents and do as they say. or their sue cess will never be, established. They must develop independence. Most par ents who limit the number of lines to be written, decide at which desk their chil- |dren shall'si and with whom they shall or shall not recite, are absolutely with out any education whatever. They, many of them, are unable to write. their Town name and address correctly. 1t stands to reas6n that they can not be versed in the methods of school manage ment.
 Teachers, do not confne the pupils en-