The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-11-08


TO report upon II.
The high school is filled to its full
capacity with pupils, and all recitation
rooms, even to the principals once,
occupied. The recitation rooms are now
too small and classes too large for con-
venient handling. The high school
teaching force is worked TO Its utmost
capacity and given work of very
high order. In a little more than two
| months the class OF nve-eighth grades
will be ready for graduation when, &C
| cording ITO past custom, they VIII emer
the high school. This class will repre-
sent nearly a hundred pupils. ADDING
| not only that number TO the high school
but necessitating the hearing Of addi-
| tional rechations there. The question
| to seJtle Is, shah these eighth-grade
pupils be gradua ted before the close of
the year, and n so. how shall they be
provided for?
TN behalf of the teachers, as we'll as
myself. desire to express our appre-
I citation Of the faSthfulness on the part
4 of the trustees in providing the equip
ment. repairs, teachers. etc. needed.
and our thanks for the sympathy and
encouragement given us by the board
individually and officially, all of which
I tends TO make our success easy ana
certain"
Mr.. Kern also submitted the follow
ing report and suggestions on the text
book questions:
cat the last regular meeting Of the
board II was arranged to have me pre-
sent a report at this time embodying
criticisms and suggestions regarding
our course of study for the primary
and grammar grades. The course OF
study now in use was prepared to ac-
! commodate a set of text books adopted
by the legislature. and is fully as good
as any in the state. excepting at Hell
ena, where the course has been recently
revised and greatly improved, adapted
as IL now Is. to other and far superior
text books than the ones we are re-
quired to use in Butte.
people with advanced ideas regard
ing the educational processes that are
now approved by our leading school
men and having the true interests of
school children at heart. cannot con-
scientiously endorse the course OF
study now taught in the grammar
schools of Butte and also some Of the
text books our teachers are required
! to use.- So many of your teachers have
! voluntarily expressed to me their dis
satisfaction that / am convinced there
Is an almost universal desire for a
change. Teachers cannot afford to be
| handicapped by text books that are
| inferior. out of date or inefficient,
even though competent to select from
them the material that will be most
valuable to their pupils. Life is short
and school life is shorter and we are
under a moral obligation to select and
arrange the studies and exercises so
that each pupil may employ his time
to the best advantage. The children
of to-day need and demand live, prac-
teal matter, interesting, disable and
hence valuable. and not merely the
scholastic compilations that smack of
the dark ages.
j The psychology of the teacher of to-
day is not made I'D from the musty
manuscripts. that have been buried in
copper cylinders; its data are gained
from observing the childs living.
growing. active mind. Cramming facts
and hearing Rotations is not teach
ing. but that Is what our teachers are
doing when they follow some of the
text books now in use. Some of these
text books withhold that class of facts
that would do the pupil the most good
and in their stead. give those that are
dfstasteful and harmful or they have
proper subjects in the wrong way or
in a wrong order. The law of mental
progress is always from the concrete
to the abstract. and the law of mental
development is through leading out
and not a examining in. During re-
cent years throughout the country,
the question of reform in educational
matters has been directed largely to-
wards these vital matters and II Is
high time that the metropolis of this
great progressive. practical North
west puts its schools in line with the
improved systems of the East
Language and mathematics are the
principal and most important studies
in the common school course, or at
least they have been generally so con-
sidered. and unless these are taught
properly the whole education super
structure must rest upon an insecure
foundation. Language should be
taught so as to give the maximum of
practice in oral and written expression,
with the minimum or theory in the
way of meaningless technicalities COW
ering the philosophy of the science
which no child can apprehend, appre-
ciate or apply. A child should be
taught to speak and write the En-
glish language correctly. learning the
simple laws and rules incidentally
with the practice. The language series
now in use fails to porperly correlate
the science with the art. Like our
arithmetic. IL was made a quarter Of
a century ago and is sadly out of date.
The same publishers are now introduce
ing the Maxwell language series, writ
ten by one of our modern masters in
this subject. and there are several
other series admirably adapted TO our
use, notably the Reed & Kellogg. rec
commended by the state board and now
used as a supplementary book by near
ly all Of our teachers. Without a
change to something better than the
Barnes-Harvey series now in use. /
must ask for a supplementary series
and prescribe course radically differ
ent from the one we now pursue.
Books are now ava1lable which give
the limited amount OF grammatical In
formation required by example and
practice, rather than by technical rules
and philosophical precept. 50 that the
/ greater part of the time we are spend
ing on befuidling and mystifying alb
stractions. may be saved for more prof
itabel uses. The Robinson series OF
arithmetscs we are all compelled 70
use is simply a revision and consolida-
ton by Professor d. w. Fish of Brook.
lyn, ". Y. in 1883. OF the old three
book Robinson series In popular use q
wears ago throughout the country. The