The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-12-16
LIBERATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL

LIBERATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL
How Our educational Methods Have
Changed for tho Better.
"a Paper Read before tho Glorious Club by
President Chase.)
"Is not the b iR hest problem of educa-
tion how to hberats the genius Of the
pupilT 1t was our United States Com
missioner Of Education, DR.. Vim. I.
Harris, who asked this question twenty
four yenrs ago; and the history of schools
aud colleges in our country during the
last generation shows that the conception
of DR.. Harris has been the working n.y.
pothesis of the nations educators. Nor Q
that his function is to help bis pupil to
| enter into full possession of himself. to
| become actually what he is potentially.
He has learned to try to see.in the child
what God sees; and his effort is not to
remaks or reshape, but to remove what
ever impedes growth, whatever warps
the soul from the normal direotion-and
to take care that it has room, light and
nutriment.
as.All this is in striking contrast with
the conceptions and methods Of thirty
| years ago. In the school of our boyhood.
the pupil was subject to be vigorously
controlled and subdued. Then it was
the word teach that was empathio; TO-
day 1t Is the worc learn. Then 1t was
the part of the teacher to give, of the
pupil passive to receive; today the teach
er is merely tho leader in party OF ex-
ploration; the pupil is his fellow investi-
| gator. The methods pursued in every
grade, from the primary school to the
University, have been revolutionized in
accordance with this principle, and the
children now start out with proper guides
and equipments to discover and subdue
their universe. Contrast English gram
mar ia the schools Of our boyhood with
language study in the schools Of today.
Tedious classfcations, abstract definitions,
meaningless limitations lin our sharply
analytic and almost inflectionless speeoh)
of the imposing paradigms of Greek
modes and lenses, of Latin declensions
and conjugations. carefully memorized
and seldom applied rules of syntax,-
these were the attractions that appealed
to the would-be student of his mothe
tongue. But in the good schools of to-
day language study is from the first es-
sentially a creative process, the pupil
forming his own rules, setting up his
own standards and carefully applying
them to the expression Of his own
statement OF the thought of OTHERS. The
process Of composition has been vitalized
by the infusion into it of personal expe-
rienoe, thought, emotion and fancy. The
child has become duer OF the word and
no longer forgetful hearer. The genius
of the pupil has been liberated. Con-
trast the old fashioned spelling lesson
the words isolated from their connexions
and meanings wish that absorbing atten-
ton which unites thought and form by
natural and viyifying associations. And
the geography lessonsl A mass of use
less "details about mountains, rivers, is
lands, capes and promontOries! With
eyes glued to his book the pupil labori-
ously locating, tracing, bounding, and
memorizing mere dots. lines and areas,
| all RS vaRu5 and meaningless to him as
| the inter-stellar spaces are to us! Our
school boy constructs his own geography,
beginning with the school yard and the
natural and artificial features Of his own
landscape. ii makes his own maps, in
the kindergarten, rears his own noun
tains and scoops out his own valleys,
and in every grade in which the study is
| cr,odl ,rfn MI
industrial and commercial, into come
relation to himself and his own interests
And SO this mosu impressive phnge Of
/ modern education might be exemplified
in the teaching of every study, and in
every schoul where natural methods pre-
vail.
Nor have the College and University
been less amenable to the spirit of
change. Why, scarcely thirty years ago
the mathematical genius who should at
tempt IN original demonstration was
frowned upon, even at Harvard, as one
| lacking due reverence for Euclid and his
disciples. Today no student is regarded
as well prepared for College who has n ct
! taken the originals Twenty-Five years
ago rhetoric at Harvard meant simply q
dreury recitation from Whately, and
English Literature a dly history of
epochs and a catalogue of shadowy
| names. Even that great scholar, Prof.
Child, at that time introduced his SUI
dents 10 no English authors except Chau-
Ger and Shakespeare; and to these only
| by technical analysis of the verse OF
the former, and the application of Alb
bots Grammar of Shakespeare to the
variations from the normal blank verse
of the latter. 49,. Prof. LOuns-
hurry, of Yale. writing about that time
| for the New Highlander, said it Was NOS
uncommon for students to graduate from
that institution without having read a
play of Shakespeare or line OF Milton.
Now there are few colleges which stu
dent can enter without familiarity with
some Of the works of these and other
great writers, American as well AZ Eng
lish. While the favorite courses in all
our institutions are those which bring
the STUDENT into direct communion with
the personality Of our representative au-
thors az expressed in the wit, the hnmor.
tie pathos, the fancy. the passion. the
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