The times., 1899-09-24

OF the course. Even IN THIS case IL mas DE-
come possible to enter ION certificate"
from certain schools. and if student has
taken a course at preparatory schools well
known to the college he is not required TO
take entrance examinations. If our educa-
tional system were thoroughly organized it
might be possible to establish such schools
in all parts of the country. so that any
student could come TO college with the
certainty that he would be allowed to stay
through the first term.
Again, when lectures are given, consti-
tuting a course in some study, an exami-
nation is naturally held at the close Of
the course to ascertain the amount Of
knowledge gained. But the present system
of our public schools, which requires the
teacher who has worked over all the pupils
each, day throughout the year, to hold ex-
amEhations every term or oftener, to deter
mine the standing of these pupils, is not
only pernicious but ridiculous As most
people who have studied human nature are
aware, many children who really do good
work in the classroom, and are thoroughly
interested in their studies. fail utterly
when it comes TO an examination, either
through nervousness or inability to think
quickly Meanwhile, those who gain a
merely superficial knowledge of their
studies, but have plenty of self possession,
come through with flying colors. Add to
this the fact that the important examina-
tions of the year are generally held in
June, the most trying month for both pupils
and teachers, and that another period of
high pressure comes at about the time of
the Christmas holidays, and another in the
debilitating early spring, and it looks rather
barbarous. all things considered.
Another turn of the thumbscrew is the
regulation which in some cities. requires
the teacher to be examined at stated
periods, as well as the scholar. It is prob
able that the American female school
teacher is one of the most severely over
worked individuals on the face of the
earth today. 1t is from the ranks of these
| teachers that the sufferers from nervous
prostration and other diseases of the
nerves frequently come and if it were
not for the law which governs women's
WITH anu ludheS II pUSSlDit tOi ldi &c
percentage of the workers to escape from
their toll. by marriage, the number of
broken down teachers would be consider
ably larger than it is. 1t is more posi-
BILE to stand an abnormal strain for ten
years than for twenty.
With a machine-like system governing
the process of so-called education-a pro-
cess which, above all things, should be
adaptable to all kinds of various condi-
tions, but which our intelligent boards of
education have made inie8ible as cast
| iron-with the numberless different ma
| tionalities, types, races, traditions, ethno-
logical, mental and moral variations
among the pupils which are TO be found
in an American schoolroom, and must be
harmonized under the ''system"-it is
rather matter of surprise that all teachers
do not graduate into the insane asylum.
together with a large proportion of the
| children. Fortunately. most children have
not an abnormal development of con-
science. and, at certain point of pres
sure. they generally stop studying and be-
come ounces. But what waste of energy
all this is,