The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1895-09-26
EDUCATIONALCOLUMN
NOTES AEOuT SCHOOLS AMI
THEIR MANAGEMENT.
Tanning a. an educational Metnod
Oldest Living Graduate OF iaie
Co,leoc The study of Children
First Day Hints to Teachers.


ducati0nal method in common U.s.
call it "Cramming." This is usual
V applied to packing the nina Win
actS in orGec 10 pass an eXalllila-
ion. | would apply it more widely
% a % include all reception OF
ormal statements of facts or prin-
| ,plcs without a clear perception or
heir meaning and an understanding
If their relations.
This method SsumoS that the chlet
nd Of education is knowledge. and so
torres the mind with statements ana
cunts the ~ Il scholar who can repro
iuc, them on demand. Judged by TINS
standard. the valedictorianS of a dec
tde ago. who have since been Gus!
with other things. are failures: for
iew Of them could on demand pass eX-
animation in algebra. chemistry, or
calculus. But the chief end of cduca-
ion is not knowledge, but training
md power and character. Memory Is
only one faculty of the mind and needs
10 more training than every other fac-
lily. Prrceiving. investigating. dis
covering. classifying, combining. reach
NJ conclusions these should all enter
nto education. higher and lower. and
f they do not in proper proportion,
hen the method must SAVIOR Of cram
ming. The man who is taught to
.hink and keeps ut it grows stronger
and stronger for any intellectual work
with passing time. though he leaves
| Jut Of his thought the subjects of the
school curriculum. We find the mem
Dry very receptive and %retentive be-
'ore the other faculties have received
| much training: but it was evidently
Intended that the power TO think
should relieve tie memory of much OF
is burden.
The evidences oft~hecramming method
are sometimes vcry interesting. l once
found a class nearly prepared for col
eye who supposed that there was
some !nficXible necessity for the dcci-
nal system of notation. 1t had neve
occurred to them that a system of
Fights and twelyes would be in some
respects better. \. young man natural
Y bright, who had completed arith-
netic and algebra. could give no rea-
son for the process of multiplying n
traction by another. and was confound-
ed when asked why III dividing II
fraction by another the terms Of the
iiviSor are inverted. though he could
repeat all rules and perform all exam
| pies correctly. OF a large class in ply
sizes. no one could tell what We mean
BY fire, and all seemed greatly helped,
not by looking for a definition in the
dictionary, but by investigating and
discussing the subject until they agreed
that fire is o i substance, but the phe-
nomena which We call heat and light
attending upon combustion. A class
In chemistry did not know why a light
ed lamp ceased smoking or where the
smoke went when the chimney was
put on, or that a rusty nail and a rot
ten apple result from the same cause.
A class in economics did not suppose
that it could even cost the Government
anything to make and issue paper
money except the cost for paper and
printing; but this was no so strange;
for 1 heard Wendell Phillips say the
same thing to an audience Of students
more than twenty years ago. / have
seen students so taught hat they did
not think it possible to discover any
thing in Cicero or Virgil which could
not be explained according to the
statements of Andrews and Stoddard's
Latin grammar. They felt, although
they never heard it expressed in this
absurd form, that the grammar ante
dated the text.
The crude and half false statements
We sometimes hear from platform and
pulpit would indicate that many STU
dents of ethics, political economy and
sociology do little more than accept
the statement Of principles which they
can neither interpret nor apply. Only
q few days ago l heard a prominent
speaker describing trusts as if they
We're almighty. and declaring that they
ought to be killed. 1t was a relief TO
some of his hearers to feel that monop-
olies nave natural and necessary limi-
%tationS. and that in this country they
tend to correct themselves. The at
tempt to make systems has many times
forced men beyond their depth in the
OlOgy. and it Is no strange that there
Is some fOundering in attempting to
apply the principles Of sociology. which
Is still a new subject for American
students.
Along all lines the real trouble is
that many college graduates, so-called
educated men, always take their knowl-
edge Of any subject by the handle as
they would a jug, and the handle is,
as nearly as they can remember, the
exact form of words IN which the
knowledge came to them. No man has
made such attainment in his knowl-
edge Of anything, until he can state il
In language different from that In