The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-10-29
Radical Notions Of Education.

Its interesting to notice. says the New Orleans picayune hat, soma VOW.
-dcal changes in the education Of youth ire being urged
Not long age, attention was called in these columns to article NV Grant IN.
| i the October number Of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, in which was set forth the
Acuntion that the entire system Of education in use today is medieval monk.
q sptquahd and wholly unfit for any useful purpose in this advanced aga
Mr. Allen processes that the time spent in colleges and universities hs wbouv
-.Asd. and that the money spent in the endowment and maintenance ~ thl,
n,dtuious is entirely miappied His idea of an education is that children of
nth exes, as soon - they can read and write with ordinary facility the mon,er
.nvuea and shall have attained some knowledge of arithmetic and ysorr,rlr
a 70 be taken travelling in foreign countries This fills Mr. Aliens de,oands e,
Liberal education, and while parents who are rich enough to send their W
.h1dren travelling should do So the money invested in universities and coregos
.hord be withdrawn to furMah ! fund for sending impecuneous cbfsr .hrsa
In the Theosophy Magazine for October, Mr. James L. Hughes insne.hro Of
~AoJs for Toronto, in an article entitled THE Twentieth century scboo, ~o,ons
lis discourse with the following:
The schools Of the twentieth century will be free The nineteenth, untrr
rhools are called free because attendance at them is free. The child win be freq
n The twentieth century school. Free growth lis the only full crowtb. suron5i
r rny fe men till the children are made truly free f" A"e" VIA !" III
It's not easy, il, indeed, I'll possible, for the ordinary min tn rrauu..u,
that is meant in the paragraph quoted, nor is there my definite exnI,n,,inn
d,en Of it in the article in question; but the idea of its writer SEEM to he thar
here shall be no fixed rules OF regulations and no specific courses Of tudv in bis
IDEAL schools; but that each child shall have perfect liberty to deyplon r,ysr,1Ir
reuhly and morally, according to its aptitudes The DEVELOPMENT of vb, to
rite ouoted calls "selfsm" is to be encouraged in every pesirlp vov
But this view is further elaborated by Mr. Frederick Burk in the October AT
hdc Monthly Mr. Burk. in an article IN the Training Of Teachers ~ i,us,s
thai the present methods of teaching are no Improvement on those o. the M,1r,
Ages and are, indeed, the same, only elaborated by the increase Of the stores, If
n wlelse. He argues that children are taught from the no5nt NJ via, NJ .
,dt mind; whereas the infantile intellect is purely natual, while tbs adnr
mind ha thing created by the artificial means of teaching
His idea seems to be that the natural intelligence of the child of fonda oa
ought to be allowed to develop in its own way, and should not be nterfera5 will
by the imperhnence OF adults No attempt should be made to direct the after.
ton of the child to any object o. to attract tit to any idea. The iufanile int,1G
gnces should be allowed to point out the direction to which it wants TO cxrise
stwty, and then the efforts of the teacher should be emploved in le,nh,r n
that spontaneous movement
Mr. Burk, in the course Of his argument insists that if the human being as
bs today, is the result OF an inherent spontaneous self existent devhorinp
force then his mental education ought to b e. nj the direction of that natma1 do.
nhpment He says:
But the cause Of education is too important to the highest interests of the
s state "a, and w of tine i NJ aSscnaa th Mn fa cfm apes it. nn permit personal respect for good
upon a basis Of the hanucinahona Of medieval mystcism-on the assumption
lion constitute the solution" '0"D'
He continues: -