The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1896-02-29
Paragraphs Pertinent or Other
wise.
EDITOR TINES:

longer we live the more we realize how
little we knew in those old days when
"srhooIing" meant the cold naked work
pber. We had no normal school pro-
fessors, in those days, to scientifically
organize the ''systenatic knowledge
necessary for daily use" Children just
went to the district schools and learned
to read and write. Around the bust
ness was thrown no mysterious talk in
regard to so-called ''inductive process
es'. What these educators Of the pres
ent time are pleased to term "the cor
relation and concentration of studio"
was unknown Clay-modelins, sand
molding, nature study and singing and
marching mad not been thought of. The
children simply went TO school to learn
to read write and cipher and most gem
orally succeeded. OF course they,-the
children Of those days, are to be pitied
because they did not have chance at
these modern appliances, these "in-
duCtive processes to great learning,
but it cannot be helped now, and we
can only send back to those little strug-
CLING souls, III those dark days, our en-
lghtened sympathy. And now a new
step is to be taken, by the educators,
more important than any taken before.
There is to be a department of Child
study.
This is a new thing, knocking at the
educational door, and Judging from the
zeal and interest displayed toward it,
by the Normal school professors, it will
be allowed to enter.
Parents, saws a recent circular, are
expected to cooperate with the bureau
in studying the nature of their child
ren, Indeed That's good A system
that did NOT let parents study the ma
ture of their own children would be a
stupid one. The main plank in the plat
form of this new system is this; We
quote:
The systematic and conscious carry
| ing forward of what has heretofore
been done IN an unsystematic naive
/ and unconscious way What is already
A.
ers, aptltudes and growth is to be sys-
tematically applied to securing work
/ ing familiarity with the individual
! children in our several schoOlroOmS.
This and this alone, is the new feature
of this study.
There are many outlying topics re-
/ lated to Institutional and parental ac
/ ton. Such as the way little girls treat
! dolls aud little boys horses and other
. imaginary animals, crying and laughing,
/ giggling, atieCtation and simpering, toys
and playthings, pets, signs, omens and
I charms, children : ways of curing warts
/ molcs, hlCcOugh, headache and sneez-
ing, spontaneous singing, the sense of
self, the strength of the time-sense,
| children's ideas of punishment, etc.
! Most of these questions possess great
/ interest, and their answers give most
( important insight into the real nature of
child-Hfe".
To carry out in detail the beneficent
plan here outlined an organization has
been effected embracing every promin-
ent educator in the State. A list of
/ corresponding Secretaries, one or more
! in each county, is published, who are
/ expected to ''act as stimulators and pro-
meters of the organization" Then
there is an executive committee, and an
/ advisory board of specialists, all ply
/ sicans, and good ones too, all cement
( ed, held together, and crvstallized as it
were into sohdity, Ny all the Norr,ql
! school professors and school superin-
tendents on top as practical inspirers
] a lnnloro NarIlx. g al
step in a direction where it is very
needful for educators to go, and we
shall watch with great interest the first
report of this organization, especially
on that most perplexing question, or
| topic, the scientific cOnneXion of a
] child's sneeze with its mental develop
mcnt.
As the printed platform SAYS, all these
| other questions are full of interest; 1.-THE
giggling, the simpering, the hiccough-
/ ing, the CRYING, but we do hope that
/ the first report of this august body to
/ expectant public will give it something
of positive value on ''instruCtional char
acter and scientific possibility of the
''sneeze", After that in there order
! can be taken up the rest, ending, if nee
essary, with an Institutional treatise"
on the way children cure their wants
4$4H
! Lo. the nilsson work goes forward into dark
est fields extended:
/ Great enthusiasm spurs US TO the worlds re-
hottest verge;
Not with cannon but with preaching IS each
dusky fortress rended.
. Upon every patient pagan we our bible read
iuE urge:
Good enough indeed the practice on the
heather. yet | wonder.
While christian like convert them by
reading Christian rules.
Ifiti i not inconsistent, something like stu
pid hlunder.
To press the bible on to them yet drive it
from our schools
xxx
In this connection we note the recent
effort made in Chicago, by members of
all religious denominations there. to fix
up a Bible that shall not be objection
able, to any b,got, for common school
purposes.
1T does seem, To an outsider. as lfthey
all could agree that Christ's sermon on
the Mount might be read in the public
schools without seriously endangering
the usefulness of the schools. If. after
suitable mature deliberation, the re-
ligious bodies of Chicago do decide that
the ten commandments of the Old Tes-
lament, and Christ's teachings in the
New, may he read in the schools, it
may be possible that such a book as,
should Christ come to Chicago" by
Mr.. Stead, could be supplemented by
another, showing what He did after lie
got there. On the whole it does look
extremely absurd to see grave and rev
erend doctors of DIVINITY soberlv dis.