The National tribune., 1896-10-22
THE RELIEF CORPS.
Gleanings from National Headquar'
ters---Notes from Departments.
.ArRIoTIC TEACHING.


Development of the Child-Extracts from
Mrs. May Wright SewalPs Lecture on
"Current Tendencies in Education.
National General Orders Missing
Misunderstanding of the Liberty Tree
in Massachusetts, Monument to Loyal
Women.
PATRIOTIC TEACHING.
Mrs. May Wright Sewall, late President OF
the National Council Of Women of the United
States, and Principal of the Girls Classical
School, Indianapolis. Ind, has given several
comprehensive lectures within the past few
months on the Current Tendencies IN Edu-
cation" both from the public school and uni
versty points of view.
The broad spirit in which the subject has
been treated is in accord with the advanced
educational thought of the times, and recog-
nizes the fact that education, to be promotlve
of good citizenship, must build upon the sure
foundations of symmetrical physical, mental,
and moral development in the child.
Mrs. Sewall, who is member of the W.R.C,
is doing the work of patriotic teaching noble
service in pressing her high arguments, since
its promoters strenuously hold that the intro
ducton of the flag into the schools Is but the
setting ap of a standard around which may
rally all the ennobling and regenerating forces
of the Republic, together holding common
counsel concerning the best methods OF rear
ing the coming citizen to take his place as a
factor in free self-government.
By permission of Mrs. Sewall, extracts will
be given from time to time from an admirable
paper before US, in which the kindergarten, in
dustrial education, physical culture, co'educa-
ton, Independent research, and SO on, are
touched upon in a way to suggest wholesome
thought 1t may be mentioned again that the
kindergarten, to an even greater extent than
the primary, has been potent means for inau-
guratng patriotic teaching good citizenship
among our school children.
FROM MRS. sEwALL's LECTURE.
| 1t is common observation with publicists
| that the most striking feature OF our form of
| Government is its elasticity. This character
| istic inheres not alone in the Government, but
is found in all phases of institutional life in the
United States, and is no less characteristic OF
! the church and the school than it is of Munich
pal, State, aud Federal Government. Elasticity
is a necessary quality of growing civilization.
Mr. Brice in his American Common wealth, says
that our form of Government and our civil IN
stitutons fit US like loose suit of clothes. Car
rying his simile further on, one may say that
they fit us as suit of clothes might TIT Its
owner had clothes the quality of lasting and of
| growing with their owners growth from H.
| fancy 10 manhood.
One who studies the origin of the public
school system will see that from the beginning
the education of the children of the State at the
cost of the State resulted from the instinct OF
self preservation. 1t was early realized that a
| popular Government could be maintained and
administered only by an educated people.
That the Government ShOlId educate only
that portion of its people which would be called
upon to support and administer it, and that 1t
should educate that portion only so far as a
strict Interpretation Of its citizens duties rem
dered necessary, is shown i'll the two facts:
First. That III the beginning the public
school system made no provision for the edu-
cation of girls; and, second, that the cnrricn-
lum of the public school was long limited to
the arts of reading and writing and u very
elementary course in arithmetic.
As tho conception of the duties of citizenship
has expanded there has been corresponding
expansion of the public sense of responsibility
for the education of citizens. 1t is in this ex-
banding sense of public responsibility that we
find an explanation of many of the present
tendencies III ed ucatlon.
The period which pupils may remain in
school at the public expense has varied as
much as the curriculum itself. In the early
part of this century the majority of Americans
thought that the public schools should be ac-
cessbe only to boys, and to them only from
the age Of six to that Of IA years.
Up to 1860 there were few States where
schooling was provided at public expense be-
fore the age of five or later than the age Of 1S
Pupils going to the public schools after the age
of is were compelled to pay tuition. and while
the great State universities Of the Western
States are in the main the irnit of the Crdi
nance OF 1857. only few of the most peneirat
ing and far sighted of our early statesmen saw
AS a fruit of that ordinance such institutions
as the universities OF Michigan. Wisconsin,
Kansas. California, and others of their class.
; If some of our most penetrating statesmen
saw the State University within that ordi
nance, it may be doubted il anyone then saw
, the kindergarten as part OF the great free
. school system. That the State is responsible
{ for the child from the time it can toddle from
its mothers arms until i'll mature manhood i
can graduate from the professional school is
relatively recent proposition, and one by nj
means yet acceded to by all our fellow CT tiZens
However, the struggle to get the kinder
e garten adopted as a part of the public-schoo
/ system in our large cities, and the further
{ struggle to put the professional schools Of ou
r State universities par with correspond
ing schools in privately endowed institutions
, marks one important tendency in education.
In no respect is the education of the presen
more distinctly differentiated from that Of thu
immediate past than in the attention given t.
physical culture. The education that ignored
2 the chld's body and regarded him simply as
= mind. as a mental capacity, was product 0
the monastery nurtured by Puritanism.
In his austerty, his severe sef-denial, tn
Puritan was merely modified anchorite, ant
= as in the mother church the monastery was til
. school and monks and priests the only rccip
y tents of the privileges of learning, SO in late
u period the almost sole aim of the Protestan
'. university was to produce an educated clergy
In these reflections find reason,
y not an excuse, for the excuses to which colleg
athletics have led. But though there has bee
fear that as the gymnasium became more an
;, more necessary adjunct to the school and tn
- college, the chapel would fall into dsuse, in
u vestigation shows ground for the fear; an
d the fact that the Committee of Fifteen in il
n report on program, correlation of Studies etc
10 recommends that at least one hour week
\ shall be devoted to physical exercise, may dis
pei any apprehension that physical culture
10 taking too exclusive possession of the mind
. of educators.
~ AS population tends to center in cities an
n towns, thus bringing the children away fror
u the country's constant solicitation to und
Is rected physical exercise more and more press
ing will become the problem of how best t
Of secure symmetrical physical development.
IS As every great university now finds it nece
al sary to supply gymnasiums, swimming pool
" bali grounds, tennis courts, and other acce
30 series of the sort, surely the time is not r.
=, mote when the public schools, as well as til
private. in the great cities at least, must pre-
" vide not only gymnasums in every schot