Evening star., 1897-06-07
"MISS BROWN" AGAIN.
Reply to Her Remarks the Enter
tainment Epidemic Analysed.

tatnment Epidemic Anal yHed.
To the Editor of Tie Evening Star:
l have just read the reply to my remarks
on the entertainment epidemic and must
confess that il fills me with unholy Coy.
Attacks which unfounded as to
be permitted to pass as the idle wind"
do not usually produce such replies nor
are they remembered long enough to be
reviewed and argued against after years
have passed since they were printed. In
my latest remarks l only stated the fact
that teachers of the higher grades found
their pupils deficient in spelling and lack
ing in powers of memory. The reply de-
nies the spelling Indictment. and then scat
ters over and around all the just comments
l have ever made anent our schools. thus
leading to the suspicion that some one
treasured these same comments. instead
of letting them pass the idle wind"
No one. to my knowledge. ever denied
that our schools We're the best in the land.
They are; and they ought 10 be. Here is
population large percentage of which
consists of brain workers-govcrnment
clerks. members of the learned professions.
and students generally. Naturally. the
children of such parents are the finest ma
terial ina aginahe for educational purposes
and are bound to do credit to almost any
system. Then. the corps of teachers is.
with few exceptions. the outcome of
long continued course of competition, W hich
must necessarily produce the finest results;
and added to these, We have. as the writer
says. IAN enlightened board of trustees
and an intelligent and painstaking corps
of supervisors" Given all these adyan-
tages it would require enormous amount
of misdirected energy from above. indeed.
to bring our schools to the point where
apology becomes necessary: and there are
dozen men in this city today who, il
either one took the helm. would be within
very shCrt time classed among 1.-The best
superintendents in the United States" if
not as the best one.
Not Experimenters.
The writer of the reply claims that all
the bright lights in the educational firma-
mcnt were experimenters. OF the others
he mentions L do not know enough to be
entitled to opinion, but Pestalozzi and
Froepel certainly do not belong to that
class. 1 saw the workings of Froebers
methods In Halle and Berlin before kinder
garten teaching was thought Of here and
met disciples of Pestalozzi. from whom
gained a pretty fair idea of the man him
self. Their work was most decidedly no
mere experimenting, but well-considered ac-
ton, based upon wide experience and
boundless love of little children, and has
consequently left its impress upon the
whole educational world.
In former reply to some OF my re-
marks there also figured third grade
pupil the exponent of spelling. Is il pos
sible that that poor child has been kept
at that third grade spelling ever since?
However, let us have no levity; but permit
me to say that sets of papers or compost
tions from this or that grade 10 not furnish
that convincing proof of excellence to me
which they might to others. They are very
much like visits of inspection to reforma-
tory or other institutions-yoi see what is
prepared for you 1 based my assertion
upon the statements of teachers made in
private conversation and upon my own in
spection of sets of compositions not prepared
for exhibition. AS to the writer's state
ments regarding himself and his child I can
only say that l would not presume TO ques-