El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-09-02
Worthless School Books.

WOrInIcSS SCHOOL BOOKS.
| Texas, like many other states, i
grievously afflicted with too mucl
politics in the management of its pub
tic schools. And one of the wors
| ways in which manipulation is carried
on is in the manner OF the selection O
school books. By state law there is .
state school text book board, which is
composed of the governor. secretary o.
state, comptroller superintendent o
public instruction, and the secretary tC
the last named.
The question of the selection of geo.
graphies for the schools came up and
committee of teachers was charged
with the selection of the best eight OF
ten among those offered for consider
alton. The committee WAS at work
about sixty days, and finally selected
eight, from which the text book board
was to make final selection. The last
on the list was the Rand Mentally Sc
ries. as being the least meritorious.
After about five days deliberation the
board chose this very series, in prefer
ence to seven others that had been de
clared superior by a committee of
teachers.
The president of the city school board
geography for their schools and whenhe
a few things which they didn't like.
The following was heard from Il. T.
Fillmore of Austin. who has done much
for the public schools of the state, and
who took the side of the presiden of
the trustees:
CATER q careful consideration of the
series of biographies make the follow
ing startling discoveries about the
book which the state text book board
has selected for our public schools:
pronunciation of Geographical Names
Here the pupil is shown that Abyssinia must
be pronounced "Ab-is-sin-e-eh;" Africa.
"Af-re-keh;" Bahama, "Beh- hay-mah;' -
Louisiana, "Loo-e-ze-ah-neh;'' Virginia,
''Vir-iin-y-e en- These are few samples.
Now, when the pupil is through with the pri-
mary geography and goes up into the gram
mar geography he is taught that he must
throw away this style of pronuncia ton
and pronounce as follows: Abyssinia must
be pronounced "Ab- is-sin- ia; :" Bahama, " Ba-
ha-ma;" Louisiana, "Loo-e-ze-a-na," etc.
(see pages 15s and 159, grammar school geo
graphy.)
The subject of lesson 2, page 8, is THE size
of the earth.' Here the pupil is taught that
1.-The distance around the earth is called the
and the distance through the
middle of the earth is called its diameter"
that one is 5000 miles, and the Other 5000
miles. 1t requires sixty-twO lines of printed
matter to convey this information to the pu-
pill. There are ifty-fve lessons in the book.
besides the tiny write-up of Texas at the
back of the book These fifty-five lessons COW
er just eleven school weeks. The regular
course in primary geography in the schools
covers over five times as many weeks. This
is mentioned to show its want of adaptability
to our school curriculum.
10 <,fA aG init bod ~ afar
shaped like cape or peninsula is called a
bay or gulf" Page 10 All the pupil has to
do to become befuddled by this definition is
to compare the shape of the Gulf of Mexico
with the shape of the peninsula of Florida or
that Of Hudson bay with Cape Hatteras.
On page 100 there is what purports to be
map of Mexico, Central America and the
West Indies. The text tells the pupil that
Mexico is federal republic. To give some
idea of how much needed information the
text and map fails to give l will ask few
questions, which can't be answered from this
map or book, all of which are answered by
the old geography in use in our schools:
Ia Has Mexico any political subdivisions,
4 so how many and what are they?
o. Where is Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo
Leon, Durango, Sonora, Hfdalgo, Chiapas..
robasco. Campeachy, etc?
(c.) Where is the island of st. Thomas?
Where is Cienfuegos, Cardeuas? This map.
Of Cuba is inexplainable.
3D. Does the map of Mexico and the West.
India islands indicate that there are any
railroads there?
How large il Mexico? page 49, Answer
Nearly one-third as large in area Is the Unit
ed states. Area of the United States in this
book, 500, $50 square miles, Of Mexivo, s47,9Oo'
square miles. page 1857
Uhat l.
,quare miles page 1922 25O,s25 square miles
page 1872 note says page 1881: This es-
innate has been made since the supreme court.
decided that the land known as Greer coun-
ty between the two forks of the Red river
Toes not belong to Texas" As the area Of
Greer county was only 3S40 square miles
United States Supreme Court Reports, Vol,
62, pages l to 81 inclusive) there is still hia-
JUS Of 11Oss square miles.
Leaving the maps there are curiosities in
the way of questions. a mere statement OF
which is all that need be made.
% What gulf is enclosed by Florida:
e, What river, by its branches, drains por-
lions of both the Atlantic slope and the Mis-
,issippi valley? Water running up hill ID
ID
To foreshadow "A specimen of the examina-
ton on geography which the department of
education may be expected to promul gate i'm
future, l group ten questions taken literally
from the book:
Ial What special service does society
need" Up. 3D.
lbl "How are weather maps furnished to-
schools:" Up. AZ
lei "How is the sky and which way d ess
the wind blow at Galveston" Up. 49)
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