The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1895-02-15

and phase of the moon; and of the time
of rising of the sun. The children had
planted seeds, and they related wha
progress their plants had made. Lastly
they had an arithmeticlesson, which
was interesting because it was simple
and practicable.
So much for the German school.
shall now speak of the school in New
York City.
With the picture of those happy little
children singing songs on the top of the
mountain near the spring from which a
little stream arises, entered the A. B.
c class of New York public school.
What did find? Sixty children-with
heads, arms, and legs fixed staring at the
teacher, who was talking to them at the
time. All was silent as the grave, and
the children resembled statues. Soon
after entered, drawiDg-lessOn was
commenced. But the children did not
draw objects, as in Elberfeld: they drew
vertical, horizontal, and oblique lines.
A lesson in numbers followed; and the
children who had been in school but a
short time were obliged to deal with
large numbers, and in the most abstract
manner. Next there was language
lesson, during which the children learn
ed how to pronounce the English
language correctly by studying the
philosophy of the elementary sounds in
a manner Ineligible only to mature
minds. l asked the teacher when
Obiect-lessOns were given. She said
that object lessons were the last to be
considered, and that consequently but
very little time could be devoted to
them. She then, at my request, gave an
obiect-lesson. She chose for the object
a chair, and taught the children that a
chair has seat, four legs, and back,
and that it is used to sit upon-all of
which they knew when they were three
years old.
l next visited the lower grammar
grade in order to witness geography.
lesson. The children in this class had
been studying geography no longer
than seven or eight months, and they
were already reciting the most abstract
form of definitions: for example, ''The
axis of the earth is an imaginary line
running through its centre, upon which
it revolves;" "a zone is an imaginary
belt extending around the earth;'' and
so on. But the children saw nothing OF
fields, trees, and rivers. Although there
are few places so well adapted to the
objective study of geography as New
York City.-where they are within easy
reach of islands, rivers, hills, lakes, a
sound, a bay, an ocean, and a magnificent
harbOr,-yet the children attending the
public schools of that city are obliged TO
study between four walls, from globes
and maps, those things which they
might so conveniently and advantage
Ously study from nature.''
SECOND DIVISION.
The Moral-Prof. Newcomb, of
the John Hopkins university, says:
''There is particular epoch in each
life after the age of entire thought
lesness, and before that when mental
habits have crystallized when the iron
is hot so to speak, and when the
character can be hammered into any
shape. If we accept mod
ern theories of heredity to their fullest
extent, we must admit that the in
fuences which form the man may be
gin to act generations before his
birth. This obtains undoubtedly in
the mental and moral as well as the
T hysical sphere. The expression
she's chip off the old block" is Il
popular recognition of the likeness Of
the child to his ancestry. A child
may at very early age understand
the difference between right and
wrong; but 1 think it safe to say that
not before the age of S do they com
prehend the moral principle involved
in wrong doing. Prof. Newcomb
says: cat the age of 5 ny mother
a woke for the first time the faculty
of conscience. From that time forward
my discernment of right and wrong
was keen" The early and sometimes
brutal punishment children receive
before the period of moral conscious
ness cannot but arouse their rebellious
spirits and the latent Adam Cor Eve)
with which they are usually abund
antly endowed. and thereby thwart
the very purpose for which the chas