The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1895-09-12
OUR COMMON SCHOOL METHODS

President.
President Eliot Of Harvard Col
lege contributed the most interest
ing feature Of the session of the Re-
gents Convocation at AL oany in
June. He contended for the intro.
duction OF many high school me-
thods into grammar school work,
and the pupils in grammar schools
should have chance to study Latin
and French. He also advocated de-
partmental instruction in. element
airy schools and said
"There is much in our elementary
school life which tends to train chill
dren to inattention. For example,
one child can get in one minute
which others require an hour to
master. The result is that the first
child spends fiity-nine minutes in
not attending.
"Children and adults differ also in
their stock of remembering facts,
aud here again natural ability must
be developed and expanded. Chill
dren differ also in powers of COM
parison and judgment, as well as in
powers of expression and in mastery
of vocabulary. Some boys come
to Harvard College with vocabu-
larry of only 200 or 800 words. Every
thing is either nice or bully They
have few nouns, a limited number OF
verbs, and no adjectives to speak of.
"The original variation in children
should be multiplied and intensified.
This bears on the method OF promo
ton, which should never be a mill
process by which uniform products
are turned out in passing through
certain grades. Promotion should
be determined by the capacity of
children, and here the departmental
system bears directly on methods of
promotion. We all know that chill
dren differ in capacity for different
subjects. Some can master mathe-
MATES more readily than others and
should be advanced, as they have
acquired proficiency in the subjects
studied. The present grades keep
poor children from finding out what
they want. They are taught to be
clerks and are made to feel that they
cannot have the privilege OF the rich
mans son, to study language in their
early years.
THE present public school system
does not offer the right studies at
the right time The boy of 8 or 10
years should begin studies covering
the gap between elementary and
high school work. Objections to
beginning these advanced subjects
in early years are:
81. Doubt as to the results of
educating children OF the common
people as we'll as possible lest it lift
them out OF their sphere. This is
is one OF the commonest objections,
and is utterly undemocratic. 1t
should, above all, be the object to
educate children above the occupa-
ton OF their fathers and mothers,
if possible.
~. 1t is wholly impracticable to
have such teachers in elementary
work. This objection underesti-
mates the ability OF the elementary
school teachers. If unable to deal
with advanced work they should be
trained by their superintendents.
The demand should be set up and
supply will then be found. 1t can
be done, for it is being done in New
England schools.
:" A great many principals hold that
the foreign born element in their
schools makes it impossible to un-
dertake such work. They say: Shall
we teach these foreign born children
French, German, and geometryY
Why not? These children are as
bright and as intelligent as American
children; besides, all OF us were
were foreign born some generations
ago. There is no force in any of
Of these three objections. and two
OF them are manifestly undemo-
cratic"
President Eliot devoted an hour
to answering questions suggested by
by his remarks In his replies he
stated that the departmental system
had been introduced into several
Boston grammar schools in the last
two years of the course, when the
children were about II or ID years of
age. In some suburban schools it
had been introduced still earlier
This is possible in the richer schools,
where larger number of teachers
can be employed. 1t is surprising
that, in the present system of educa-
ton, the plan OF supplying teachers
with assistants to do mechanical
work had been neglected between