The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-12-11

is taught to read 60 in two or three years
about five times the time required under
national system of teaching. Then comes
the ifeless study and recitation of the ru-
raj school, And here the main advantage
is on the side of the bookseller and the In
do,ent teacher More than one half of
the books used in the country schools are
worse than useless. There are too many
reading books; too many primary arith-
metics too many costly writing books;
too many primary Biographies and gram
mars. l have samples of children's writ
ing from the best city schools and also
from the average country schools. The
average child from the city, at seven, aft
err ten months instruction, can write as
well as the average pupil in the country
schools at fourteen.
/ have taught eighty terms in the cOun-
try schools, and for the last seventy terms
l have never used a primary arithmetic;
in fact, nothing below the practical or
third part. primary geography is equal
ly useless when the teacher has maps and
charts chose now in use in the country
schools are excellenO. Primary gram
mars are a nuisance because they cause
the teachers to neglect language lessons,
which should be taught Ito pupils from six
to ten years of age.
1t will be necessary here to give to your
readers the true condition of the country
schools of Ohio, in order to propose the
remedy after the diagnosis. The excep-
tions are few.
A large majority of the children in the
country schools reading in the third and
fourth readers, cannot read properly in
the first reader at all. Children from ten
to twelve, and sometimes up to fourteen,
are studying the tables found in the baby
arithmetic. | am we'll acquainted with
one teacher who teaches primary arith-
metic orally; entirely so. She is the most
successful OF all the country teachers l
know anything about. 1t shows what all
might do.
Now l give my plan to all who are in
terested as parents, teachers or taxpayers:
First, use less books; let instruction and
practice take the place Of study and reel
tatiom in the primary department of the
country school. Do more with the tablet
and blackboard.
Second, if the booksellers fail to come
down to your terms, use children's peri
odicals for primary classes; first lessons,
of course, from charts or black boards. A
good, first class magazine may take the
place of the higher grades of readers.
You can club and get the best monthly at
the lowest rates. Each township can be
Independent Of the others.
Third, buy only one erode of school
arithmetic; except, occasionally, higher
arithmetic may be necessary for few in
a township. A high school will be estab-
lished in every township in few years
after the ungraded schools are thorough
ly reformed.
Fourth preserve the one director sys-
tenn by all means. Taxpayers have in
past years suffered more from ignorant
directors than they ever can under the
present system. Under the old plan the
responsibility was divided among unin-
formed men who generally got into office
by having the honors passed around.
Fifth, buy one grade of grammars, and
the same biographies, histories, physiol-
ogies ETC., if the book company will do the
fair thing, otherwise let these branches be
taught orally. This may mean a revolu-
ton, but it is legal one; let it come; re-
peat let it come! The book monopoly
ought to be educated. The taxpayers are
asleep and ought to be awakened.
JONATHAN HUNT.
Curon,Ron Ohia Nov