The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-06-02
DAILY.

| that the master can know what every
! one of his 100 pupils is saying-What
| lesson this one is committing to mem
DRY, (for each treats his memory as if
| it were hard of hearing), what request
! that one is hurting at him. what nick
names the next two are swapping and
what problem a fifth is confusing.
His young Confucians, as he styles
! them, collect at 10 O'Clock, each with
! a piece of turf his tribute to the school
! fire, under his arm. Some of them,
| indeed, are at the school house and
| have successfully brought off a rev
! pugilstic encounters before the teacher
! himself arrives at $780, but these are
/ they who live four or six miles off, and
, got up before the screek O day and
had their breakfast by the light of the
| fire. Others do not arrive till just be
fore roll call at Il o'clock: these are
/ pupils, of course, who live within call
| of the school house and can easily al
| ford to take their leisure in the morn
| ing Most of them are barefooted, I'M
less there is much snow on the ground
but when the weather is good few bur
den their feet with unnecessary cover
| ing.
The first duty of the day is the pun
| ishment of the schemers who remained
from school on yesterday, and, for in
stance, built up Owen a-Dunnion S,
| filing every door and window of the
cottage with snow, and then added in
suit to injury by getting on the roof
top and satirizing Owen down the
chimney A moral discourse from the
master, italicized by two heavy slaDs
of rattan cane on each hand Of each
criminal, disposeS of this.
Then six classes are formed. The
| master takes charge of one and leaves
| the others under guidance of forward
pupils from the higher ranks. Half the
classes sit and half of them stand;
and at the end of each half hour they
exchange positions. The school work
goes on, uninterrupted by play, till
8 o'clock. But, though there is no
officially recognized play hour, the
young rascals indulge in many lessons
not specifically provided for in the
school time table. That bunch of hud
ding heads which the master, good
man, believes to be racking and wres-
Ting with the intricacieS of fractions
only indicate an eager audience to
fascinating Fenian tale and that other
group that he thinks are gathering
grammatical crumbs at the feet OF
Phelimy Owen McGragh, are hardening
in awed aStonishment to Phelimys
recital of how the big eel of Loeb
Peiste chased his father for five miles
over the hills. Phelimy's father, in
deed. had at first faced it with the
scythe and cut it quite through, but
since it united again as fast as he cut
it he finally ran for self preservation
rather than cowardice: and other
schemers are engaged in the bloodless
but exciting war of fox and geese, in
crossy-crowny, in playing pins, or in
the gamble of nanny observation-disclosures
baby.
The Old Hedge School Days.
In the old Hedge school days, which
ended half a century ago (and, indeed,
in still later times), tffe master fol-
lowed the Individual system of teach
ing; that is. whilst the other pupils
sat around the walls assaulting their
tasks" the master called each in turn
to his rostrum examined his lessons
and, appointing new tasks TO be alb
sorbed before the morrow, sent him to
his place. He began with number one
at 10 o'clock and finished with the last
pupil at 8. Then he went home with one
of the students-for he was entertained
a week by each. Where do you stop?'
stranger asked one of these Dere-
grinating masters. Sir" ne replied,
II have as many stops as a Universal
Ia Universal spelling book.'O
In those DAYS spelling (Which was
taught according to the syllable meth
ODD was the test of the scholar-and
he was classified according to the
statute measure of the words he could
tackle and successly negotiate. The
child who started with a, b, alb, grad
uated upon Philadelphia and Antitrini-
tartan.
1t is something more than sixty
years since our, benefcent rules vouch-
safed us a system of public school ed
ucation, called national because our
language, our literature and our his
tory were strictly barred from its cur
riculum. But. thank God, in a few
years more our Gaelic will. after siren
uous efforts, get its place in our
schools. Every one of the rising gene
ration is being educated-by a fine staff
of able and undergrad teachers. Our
enforced ignorance with which our rul-
ers used chivalreusly to twit us is dis
appearing-has disappeared; and the
children of Ireland will soon get the
place they deserve amongst enlightened
peoples.
Half century ago the teachers sal
airy was $50 year, and 2 or cents per
week in school fees from each pupil.