The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-27
THE NEW FASHIONED EDUCA.
TION.

Some Old-Fa shioned Doubts About 1t.
We are told by enthusiastic advocates
of new methods that the object of edu-
cation is not knowledge SO much as
power; in Greek, for example, we no
longer ask boy to know three books of
the Had, ''omitting the catalog of the
ships"-we ask him to translate Homer
at sight; yet modern doctrine fails to
see. except in gllnlpseS, that no better
way of gaining power has yet been dis
covered than the overcoming of diff
culties. Take the old system in it's
most monstrous form-take learning
Latin grammar by heart before trans
lating any Latin author; nobody now
defends a practice so stupid; yet that
wonderful feat of memory strength
ened many memory for other wonder
full feats. A boy who mastered An
drews and Stoddard knew the power of
patient effort, the strength of drudgery
well done. Through a natural reaction,
memory is moderated now. Education
at the time when memory is trained
easiest and best must be saved from
the barrenness of memory work, and
must be enriched" Even the multipli-
ment. We leave the straight and mar
row way, and wobble all over the flow
cry meadows. We are held down to
accuracy 80 little that it is next to i'm
possible to find a youth who can copy
list Of printed names without missspell-
ing. We have boys who cannot spell,
men who cannot spell, teachers who
cannot spell, teachers of English who
cannot spell, college professors who
cannot spell, and who have a mean
opinion of spelling.
Is it illigical to infer that children
taught at school 'along the lines of
least resistance are intellectually
spoiled children, flabby of mind and
will? For any responsible work we
want men Of character-not men who,
from childhood up have been personal
ly conducted and have had their educa-
ton warped to the Incidence of their
minds. In practical life everybody but
the trained man, the man who has
gained power through training, is going
to have a hard time.
The new system holds that the stur-
dy should follow the bent of the mind,
rather than that the mind should bend
prescribed work, SO far as 1t exists urr-
der an elective system, is regarded by
many students as folly, and If difficult,
a persecution. Brought up to feel that
the teacher must interest them, they
have become so reduced that they
would like, as 1t were, to lie In bed and
have their studies sent up to them.
Unwittingly the new-fashioned educa-
ton encourages their Incidence I re-
member talking some years ago with a
student who was fond of chemistry, but
whose habits of work. as saw them in
another subject, were shiftless and |
slack. I tried to show him the necessi- |
ty, even for his chemistry, of habitual |
accuracy In thought and expression; |
and at last I told him that though the |
position he took might do for a genius, I
1t would not do for ordinary men like |
himself and me. He replied that he
had rather be anything than an ordi-
nary man. What he is now, I do not
know. Another student refused to take
pains with his English, because, as he
said, he had been brought up among
people who spoke English well "by in
tuition" This intuitive English Is Of
ten picturesque and winning; but 1t Is
seldom capable of difficult work.
I know that often the idler bestirs
himself, fired by enthusiasm in his
chosen subject; and that then he sees
the meaning, and even the beauty of
drudgery; but the drudgery Is less easy
because he has never before learned to
drudge with enthusiasm, or even with
the fidelity which may in time beget
because he never trained
his memoyr in childhood, when memory
8 trained best; because he has always,
rom kindergarten to college been
treated deferentially; because he has
the elective system from
studies to life.-L. B. r. Briggs in the
Atlantic Monthly.