Evening star., 1897-01-23

| 1t can be made. These were some of the
views that he characterized fallacies.
1t IS a melancholy reflection, said Mr..
Stetson. that in the formation of thinking
| habits and in character building. the old
home and the low school house, with their
simple text books and their moral re-
| l!gious ard industrial training, were more
| effective than our modern palatial edifices
| filed to repletien with scientific educa-
| tional machinery, by which individual er-
| fort, impulse, incentive and thinking habits
are discouraged and lost.
| The primitive methods of our fathers
| practically applied the theory of Rosseau,
| that the great secret of education is to
manage it so that the training of the mind
and the body shall serve to assist each
| other. system which, first applied here,
has in very recent years been sounded
abroad and hailed again as a great modern
educational discovery. 1t Is interesting to
note that in 1912 the general court of Mas
sachuSetts Bay, taking into consideration
the great neglect In many parents and mas
| ters in training up their children In learn
ing and labor and other employmentS whicn 4
may be profits bic to the commonwealth
made mental moral, industrial and techni-
! cal instruction and education compulsory.
These interests are primarily and practi-
cally in our own hands, and while We
| spend money freely, even lavshly. for edu-
! cational purposes. we mean and parsi-
monious in the thought bestowed upon the
methods employed.
The southern whites have alone given by
| taxation S6o,G00,GD, to which sum the
| northern whites have aGded SD, 100000 to
| educate negroes. with no consideration OF
| racial needs or differences, with what
| feeble results We all know.
Faulty as Students.
The fallacies are natioral that We as a
People are the most nterate the most pro-
sressive and the most intellectual of ma
| tions; that our systems of education are
| Perfect. and that our schools educate In
| iteracy we by no means occupy the first
| rank; people we are the most con-
| servative in intellect: it is doubtful if We
| have the average rank We held one hun
dred years ago, and our efforts at eduea-
| tion of the masses have resulted generally
in the smotherings and conceit Of half
knowledge" Mr.. Aldrich of Newton.
Mass. at the meeting of the New England
Association of Colleges, October. 1896, de-
| clared that our children do not know what
study MEANS distinguished eX-trustee
| OF public schools in the city of New York.
in "a personal note received a few days ago,
says: I'm the large public school which
came under my authority 1 could show you
Better work than any school in the city of
New York can this day produce"
Why in this particular We have lost
ground may be best answered by giving the
study course for one year of the fourth
grade, averaging about ten and one-half lf
years of age, in a modern city school--a
course OF study apparently arranged upon
the plan of Washngtons Wade Mecum the
Young Mans Companion which included
modicum of all knowledge. from naviga-
| tion and house building. composition of let
tiers and wills, to horticulture, making of
! cider and ink, how to behave and to doctor
| ones family: l, composition: .. grammar:
| ), spelling; 4, reading; ), arithmetic; 8, agr-
cultural chemistry: Z, physical geog-
| raphy: s, sketching natural objects: ..
botany. photographers: 10, studies of
elogy: Is, ornithologv: IA. physiology; Is.
| physics: 16, penmanship: II. drawing geo.
! metric; 1S. modelling; 10. color sense and
| color painting; 22, sewing and pattern
colors; u. paper folding and cutting. water
color painting 23, sewing and pattern
drafting: q, music. reading at sight and
chromatics: "a, gymnastics
This course of study is indiscriminateIy
provided for both races, white and black
l fancy that at the end of the year the
child's mind would resemble the sand gar
dens made in our childhood upon the
beach, laid out in symmetric paths marked
with sprigs of green, beautiful and pleas
urable for the moment, but soon blasted
by the scorehing sun and leaving no trace
behind. 1 once asked a Boston sc hool boy
answered. "A year or two ago" DO you
know ANYTHING of it now?" Nothing
whatever.
Problem of Secondary Education
Another prevailing fallacy which must be
spoken of with bated breath is in the be-
lief that secondary education must be
conducted at the expense of the public
This Is too large subject to be treated at
the moment.
1t will suffice to state that the argument
against such conduct is reasonably ba ased
upon these facts.
First. That the great majority of chill
dren abandon school before reaching the
14th year.
Second. That of the entire number in
school, 961a per cent are in the elementary
department, but 21s per cent in the second
airy, and 1 per cent in the university, col
lege professional school.
Third. That of the whole sum collected in
this country for school purposes, SO per
cent is levied in taxes by the state and
communities.
Fourth. That in the most illiterate Dor
ton of the country the taxpayer is not
only responsible for instruction of which
he feels that he cannot take the adyan-
tage, but Is obliged to pay the expense of
those who are able themselves to pay, be-
sides paying almost entirely for the educa-
ton of an alien race which cannot or will
not help itself.
Fifth. That the elementary school is Thus
made to suffer by shortening it's term, by
inferior methods and incompetent instruc-
ton; condition by no means confined to
the south, as in New England we find
among teachers "bIack abysses of igno-
rance appalhng to contemplate"
The southern states established universi-
ties $50 cailed) and colleges, but neglected
public and preparatory schools and at the
moment there Is In that section one such
college or university for every 124.0OO pco-
pie. while in New England we have but
one III 247,0OO.
This heavy educational burden imposed
upon the few able to bear it by the sparse
ress of the population, and poverty of the
masses. and made heavier by the addition
of elementary and secondary schools is
supported freely by taxation which in pro-
portion to their resources Is as heavy as
shat borne by New England and the middle
states, but not sufficient to prevent the
unfortunate results in keeping the elernen-
tary school term down to three and one
third months annually. which In New Eng
land and the middle states is maintained
at ten months.
The limitation Of the period Of free pub
lie instruction to the age of fourteen, as
In Germany, would be advantageous to the
whole country, and would not result in
hor rdo 10 ola