The Portland daily press., 1895-07-12

Shaulu he be religious? Yes, in the Des6
sense of the word.
The soul of religion is reverence, and
no man or woman destitute of this quality
should assume to mould character. The
teacher should be q Christian in spirit and
practice. This secured, it matters not
whether he be Protestant, Catholic or of
un- named persuasion. Such a teacher
will find constant opportunities to appeal
to ethical motives. If he have both boys
and girls as pupils he will teach the for
mer chivalrous politeness, tact and manly
appreciation ;the latter modesty, unaffeced-
ness and womanly dignity. He will know
how to point a moral while he adorns
tale He will make studies as psychology
more than dry anatomy of faculties
and emotions. .Under his instruction
habit will give its own fearful warning,
and enforce it's own clear morals
1t Is plain truth, without eXaggeration,
that the schools of our country are shaping
the moral forces that will ultimately rule
or ruin our free institutions. And there
are some elements in sound character
for which the school is almost solely re-
sponsible.~ One of these is that sense of
obligation to the community which will
make private interests seem small and
mean when balanced against the common
we'll being. The development of this
sense in his pupils should be to every
teacher the test Of his success.
gether the great debt which they owe to
the community, and the perfected COM
monWealth, happy in itself and in its
healthful relations with all the world,
should be the goal of their fondest hopes,
their most cherished aspirations. Let the
10, OOO, 900 pupils in our land and their AGO.
600 leaders feel the grandeur of such
hopes' such aspirations, during our next
year, and the school will have begun in
good degree the payment of its debt to the
community.
Walter p. Beckwith, Superintendent of
Schools Adams, Mass, spoke in sub
stance as follows on Department In
struction:'
Department instruction was treated by
Walter 2. Beckwith. superintendent of
schools, Adams, Mass. He said:
The. application of this system
OF instruction to the primary schools is
not proposed by anybody. In colleges and,
to a large extent, in high schools, it ap-
pears to be inevitable. These facts leave
ground. This topic is further limited by
the existence of rural schools, where it
Is impossible; while in other places the
system is encouraged by the manner in
which the schools are organized The real
question for discussion is not the pleasure
or the convenience of teachers but the
good of the pupils. The amount Of avail
able experience is not sufficient to furnish
an 1ncontestable answer There are many
arguments on both sides. The differences
In ability and taste among teachers seem
to indicate that in mere efficiency of teach
ing there would certainly be an immense
gain II each teacher could be assigned to
such subjects as wo uld be most agreeable
and for which the teacher is best pre-
On han i, md
that the tendency of teaching in limited
field is narrowing to the teacher and that
this would be injurious to the pupils
But 1T should be remembered that the
tendency of the present grade system is
also narrowing, and it may well be
doubted whether the departmental method
OF instruction would be more open to
criticism. One objection arises from the
supposed difficulty of making correla
tlon of subjects under this system This
danger can be at least somewhat obviated
by making the departments consist of
groups of related subjects rather than
separate branches. The principal of the
influence to unity the work, and where
his tenure is comparatively permanent
this could not fail to be the case Both
pupils and teachers will also be led to re-
gard the course as a unit and the school
as whole; and, while some teachers
nlSu0 Seelu 10 De InuS deprived OF 1nQl-
vidual and personal power to some extent
the corps as a whole would have greater
power, and really good teachers would
gain, rather than lose, in influence.
good understanding among teachers
would be absolutely necessary, and this,
in itself, would be great gain.
Again, all schools are to be regarded as
places of transition from lower to higher
schools. High schools have been SO radi-
cally different from grammar schools that
an immense number of their pupils have
lost interest in school and have dropped
out during the first one. or two years of
the course. The departmental system
would make more gradual and easy
transition and would thus tend to retain
a greater proportion of the pupils for a
high school course.
1t would not be wise to force, suddenly
and radically, a change to this system.
Tt should be encouraged. where the con-
ditions are suitable and favorable, and
allowed to grow into use easily and
naturally. If so adopted it will shortly
become great instrumentality of pro-
gress.