Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-02
School Omissions and Commits iOns.
To the Editor of The Evening Star:

| School Omissions and Commissions.
| To the Editor of The Evening Star:
The accommodating evidence of ineficiency
| and want of proper instruction in the pub
| lie schools of this city becomes more ant
| more apparent every day. 1t is a fac;
| patent to all that the foundation work sc
| necessary to every superstructure is sadly
| neglected in the methods employed in the
| local system. When pupils reach the agt
| of ten, eleven and twelve years and can
| not repeat the multiplication table, cannot
| write the capital letters of the alphabet
| cannot properly separate a word at the end
| of line, don't know the proper use of the
| hyphen, know nothing about diacritlca
| marks so necessary to correct pronuncia-
ton cannot bound their own territory. can.
| not locate the principal rivers and large
| lakes of our country and cannot add COM
| mon fractions. they do not exhibit the re-
| suits of a very high grade of educational
| talent 1t is no wonder that the people are
| so anxiously discussing the condition of the
| schools and the irregularities so prominent
| ly developed in the recent congressional in
| vestigatfon.
| Text books have always been essential to
! the success of schools everywhere, yet they
| are discarded here. Pupils used to have
work allotted them for the school room
| and the teacher saw and knew that the
| work was properly and UNDERSTANDINGS
| done by supplying the missing links in each
| days Rotations. Now the child Is ex-
pected to create and commit lot of balder-
dash from statements placed on the
| blackboard at random by the teacher. This
| work otter requires half of the night. rob-
| bling the child of needed rest and recrea-
| ton. and reducing it to state bordering on
distraction, liz anticipation of a failure to
properly meet the unnatural requirements
of the teacher.
| When teacher exploits her ignorance OF
| the English language by persistently re-
peating the formula that the word instea'i
! is compound word and should be written
with a hyphen, thus-in-stead-the propo-
sition is almost too ludicrouS for credence
were it not matter of very recent history.
The Spencerian system of writing is the
universal standard everywhere except In
Washington: here it is discarded for its own
perpendicular system of oddity seemingly
| in keeping with the other educational lrres-
ularities.
1t is time enough to make history prac-
| teal study after the elemental branches
have been mastered by the pupil. The en-
| at time of the adventures of Columbus,
| to the exclusion of mental arithmetic is a
| sad commentary in the pans of the Wash
| ington system of instruction.
The great success of the mixed schools In
| the rural districts of the states is due TO
the work with text books in the school
room under the supervision of the teacher
| and not under the guesswork OF casual ,a,
| to the letter; why should 1t be any less in
| the city schools?
When mental arithmetic is discarded in
| the school room it is a long stride toward
educa tional decentralization. The fact can
not be too forcibly emphasized that mental
arithmetic is the great foundation stone OF
| mathematical precision. Why not prepare
the child by thorough course in this great
! fundamental necessity rather than by pre-
maturely crowding along in history. French
and Latin? These will come in their own
proper time, when a foundation has been
| laid of indestructible material.
Keeping the pupils in the school room till
5 O'Clock to practice physical culture" Is
| likely to be responsible for the physical
Ianguor, WEAKNESS and exhaustion and
downright fainting spells and sickness SO
often experienced by the unhappy victims
of such torturous exercises. The efforts of
Commissioner Mcfarland in securing the
suspension of the "inquisition" in the
schools are to be highly commended, for
when the children of school age are requir-
ed to pass judgment upon parents. as to
their lietracy, their habits of life. or the
diseases with which they may be afflicted.
as published few days ago. is nothing less
than cruel, pernicious and inquisitorial, and
it is high time that such practices were
relegated to the shadows Of the past.
A. NJ. BROWN.