The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-01-23
Time Wasted in School.

For number of years DIR. J. NJ. Rice has
given his attention to the curricula OF elemen-
tary schools, public and private, with view
to lessening the waste of time now common In
schools. His conclusions as to the extent OF
the waste caused by the undue prolongation
of the study of certain subjects, as expressed
in the Forum of January, are very striking.
The teachers of elementary topics are DIS
posed, Dr. Rice thinks, to make too much OF
such topics, and this disposition on the part
of teachers is encouraged for obvious reasons
by publishers. When it is added that school
trustees and school commissioners, who con-
troll the teachers, are very often, consciously
or unconsciously, under the control OF pub
fishers interested in selling big books rather
than little ones, it becomes toerably clear
that potent causes often cooperate to force
children to spend more time than they should
over elementary subjects. DIR. Rice holds,
first, that mere children should not be made
to learn more on given subject than the
average well-informed adult is expected to
know. and secondly, that the elementary
school course should not be encountered with
matters designed solely for mental gymnastics
Reading, writing and arithmetic are usually,
in his opinion, carried too far. When the
pupil can read an ordinary book or newspaper
article fairly we'll it is time to drop reading
rs Il ulSllHtt ~ JldSbANN eiiS NhAiN
in reading for oratorical effect-to enter upon
the refnsments and elegancies of reading as
a fine art-in superhuous at this stage of the
child's education. So of spelling. When
the child is able to spell correctly the words
in common use he may with profit give the
time of the spelling lesson to something else.
Much energy is wasted on penmanship, which
beyoud certain point has no educational
value A good, legible hand is worth work
ing for, but super6ne penmanship, with
niceties of shading and fourishes, is net
worth the time given to it in many schools.
If the pupil must for any reason cultivate
ornamental penmanship, he can do 1t with
greater success in later life when the occasion
arises for its practical use. In arithmetic
there is commonly large waste of time IN
teaching subjects which do not properly be-
long to arithmetic and subjects which are of
use only to specialists or persons engaged in
certain lines of business. At least two-thirds
of what every child is compelled to learn un
der the head of arithmetic is later in life for
gotten without practical inconvenience. Most
children of thirteen years know vast deal
more of the subject than their parents, even
though the latter possess collegiate educa-
ton.
Technical grammar, with parsing and
analysis, ought, in DIR. Rice'S opinion, to be
pretty well removed from the elementary
curriculum. 1t is an abstract and difficult
subject, for which only the adult intellect is
competent. Correctness ofspeech is the main
thing and this may be helped by learning
something about the forms of words and the
elements of syntax, but nothing beyond that
should be attempted As in arithmetic, so in
grammar, the disposition of the teacher to
make the most of his subject and of the pub
Usher to have big book to sell, operate CON
Jointly to waste time required for more useful
things. Geography is an interesting subject
which is made offensive by the method in
which it is taught and by the lengths to which
certain features of it are extended. DR.. Rice
| is emphatic in his condemnation ofthe practice
of making children memorize long lists of
names of unimportant town and rivers in I'M
important parts of the world. To require of
them the lengths of rivers, the heights of
mountains and lists of obscure ports, he thinks,
is absurd. Four-ifths of the time given to
geography is wasted. Much the same is to be
said of history, when stress is laid upon the
memorizing of local legends of trifing impor-
lance lists of battles, with the killed and
wounded, names of kings, &c, while losing
sight of the main facts. Upon the whole,
fully half the time given to elementary studies
is, it is estimated, simply wasted. If the
pruning knife were properly applied, time and
money would be saved and there would be
scope for subjects now crowded out.