Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-06-28
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MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS
An Able Paper on Modern
Educational Methods.

| LNluCdUlOll"I
Written by Mrs. Lew Wallace, Copyrighted
by the Curtis Publishing Company, and
Published in THE ENQUIRER through the
special coustesy Of The Ladies' Home
Journal.
Bethlehem was little among the
thousands of Judah. We are told that
probably not over 80 children fell I'm.
der the order of Herod. The murder
of the innocents Of the nineteenth
century is a march to untimely graves,
not by order of wrathful king, but
under what is claimed to be the finest
free.school system in the world Go
into any public school and you will see
girls pallid as day lilies, and boys with
flat chests and the waxen skin that has
been named the school complexion.
Every incentive and stimulus is held
out; dread of blame, love of praise,
prizes, medals, badges, the coveted
flourish in the newspapers-the strain
never slackens. Watch the long lines
filing past, each pupil carrying books
three, four, fve-to be studied at
night in hot rooms by fierce, sight.de-
stroying lights. Time was when spec
tacles went with age. They are no
sign of age now. Many must wear
glasses to help eyes worn prematurely
old by night work.
Said a thoughtful father, "My chill
dren have no chill ID life. They are
straining up a grade, talking about
examinations. When is their play
time if not now, and what has become
of the light. hearted boys2 School is
never out. Even in the fields the but
terfly and the tree-toad are turned into
object lessons, and the grasshopper is
torn to pieces in order to be instruct
i've. When I was a boy, and school
let out, we were gay and free. We
studied in schooltithe, and in playtime
there was no thou ght of anything but
play"
I do not undervalue education; it is
greatly to be desired, but over-educa-
tion is Staying its thousands.
The burden is books. The tasks
imposed on the young are fearful.
The effort seems to be to make text.
books as difficult and complicated as
possible, instead of smoothing the hill
so high and hard to climb.
Said a mother, 1.-TWO and two are
what"
| Th1 kox, fofo
"Surely you know that two and two
make four"
ayes, mamma; but I am trying to
remember the process"
Process, indeed
A child of nine years is required to
define and understand such words as
these aphocrasis, apocope, paragoge,
paraleipsis, diocrasis, synocrasis,
tmesis. There are famous speakers
and writers who never saw them.
Lest the gentle reader be as ignorant
as the writer mention that these, and
more of the same sort, may be found
in many modern English grammers.
One day Mary was bending over a
tablet writing words on both sides of
a straight line, like multiplied numer-
ators and denominators.
"What are you at now?" asked
grandma.
Mary answered with pride, II am
diagraming."
"In the name of sense, what's dia-
graming?"
"It's mental discipline. Miss Cram
says have a fine mind that needs de-
veloping. Look here, grandma, now
this is the correct placing of elements.
'Fourscore' and seven are Joined by
the word 'and,' a subordinate connect
i've copulative conjunction. 1t modi-
fes years, the attribute of the propo-
sition. Ago is model adverb of past
time. The root word of the first clause
| is"
"Why, that's Lncoln's speech at
Gettysburg. keep it in my work
basket and know it by heart"
"Indeed! Well, Our is simple
personal"
That's enough. If President Lin
coin had been brought up on such stuff
that speech would never have been
written. He called a noun a noun,
and was done with it.
One day Mary came home at noon
too sick to eat dinner. What had
happened to the darling? She had
seen cat dissected in class.
Are our daughters being trained for
surgeons?
Other moons she was required to find
who was the author of ~ sat by its
cradle, followed its hearse," and what
caused the fall of the feudal system,
and bring back the answers for the af-
ternoon session. She was too hurried
to eat anything but banana while
making dive at the reference books,
and said, II only remember these an
swers few days. There's so much
more coming Oh all the time" OF
course by far the greater portion must
be forgotten as the waves of yester-
day.
The whole family go and laug b
themselves to death at the "Milk
White Flag" while Mary stays in to
do her problems, her head bound with
wet cloth. Having no turn for
mathematics, she will never get any
sense out of it. Naturally, she hates
the hypothenuse Gf that's the name),
and it's kindred torments are foreign to
her as monkey talk. With red eyelids
and nervous fingers she ciphers whole
evenings over partial payments-sums
not 10 men could do and for which she
can never have need.
uMental discipline." Not any more