The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1900-11-02

year Of age. The second requirement Il
that 1t Is the primary school that mus,
be taken hold Of, since 90 per cent o,
our children never see the inside Of any
other school.
What should be the character Of thi,
national education2 First, 1t must b.
democratic; that Is, all children mus
be partakers Of it. and they must all BE-
made into all-round men; and, next
they must all be made into specialists
capable specialists, each capable of fll.
ing his niche in a perfect democracy
Every child must be taught to do some.
thing supremacy we'll; that is, because
education means the adaptation Of
human nature to the social state into
which we are born.
Our present primary education 4,
purely mechanical. 1t simply consists
In learning by mechanical means to
read, to write, and to cipher. The ma
tional education should adopt two
principles-the principles of the kinder.
garten, to be predominant during the
first five years. and the principles OF
manual training to predominant during
the last five years. That is the reason
why the tender years from four to seven
can be made so very fruitful.
Kindergartens should be attached to
every primary school. They should be
made an integral part Of the public
school system-that Is, the first heavy
expense to be involved: secondly. a
manual training class should be at
tached to every primary school, that is
the. second heavy expense, and thirdly,
there must be many more teachers than
now, especially many more male teach
ers.
What should the kindergartens do?
They should organize the plays of chill
dren, SO that they will really work
while they think they are playing. They
will gather the squalid children, teem-
ing in our tenements. into their sunny
schools, teach them neatness and gen.
tleness, open their eyes to beauty, train
their hands in useful activities and de-
velop their minds naturally and by an
orderly method; thus the gravest dan
gers to u civilization will be averted.
The boy especially is now exposed to
great Generalization, both at his home
and in the street.-the will here be sub
mitted to a gentle but firm discipline.
This will especially be the great advan-
tage; in the kindergarten he will ac-
quire a large mass of superior knowl-
edge, and Observation-Disclosures, OBJ
serve-he will gain as much proficiency
in reading. writing and ciphering as
now. This training will last till his
ninth year.
Then manual training principles
should be applied. Manual training is
not meant to make the boy into a skill
ed workman: to introduce a trade into
a manual training school Is to degrade
the school and would make the mass of
men eve more m~achine-like than they
are. Never forget that our object is to
make capable specialists and all-round
men. Manual training is intended to
sharpen and stimulate all capacities; 1t
is intended to create mental dexterity
far more than manual dexterity. 1t
should rouse the minds Of boys, now
deemed dull. and quicken those intel
lectually inclined. A ~14-year-old boy
under such a ten-year regime should be
the equal of a young nan Of 81 now
graduating from Harvard.
OF course, we are aware that n hun
dred millions will not be sufficient to
carry out these plans; especially are we
aware that seventy-f1ve millions will be
but a drop in the bucket to carry out
such a scheme of national education as
is here contemplated. Indeed, before
the wal with Spain we had hoped that
the one hundred and fifty millions we
annually and justly expended in PEN
sions might, as the pensions lapsed, be
continued to be appropriated and used
for precisely such educational purposes.
But we are confident that such a begin
ming made, such an example set, by
Mr.. Carnegie will move other rich men
to follow in his footsteps, and thus that
the glorious end we have in view may
No observation-disclosures Gronlund.