The Chilhowee echo. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1899-19??, 1900-01-13
Literature in the Schools.

In moving to introduce the study of
English Literature into the city schools
Superintendent McCallie is catching
step with the wisest and best move
ment in the educational world of Amer
lea during this century. English Lit
erature is English thought and feeling
embodied in books. These books have
been written for the youngest to
the oldest-from nursery rhymes to
the highast trance,ldaat 3 J ,ph ill-asaph4==
from Mother Goose to Waldo Emer-
son. 1t is the natural reservoir of men,
tai food for English speaking people.
The recognition of this fact and the en-
deavor to introduce literary studies at
an earlier period in the school life of
youth, as we'll as to make them a more
dominant factor in higher education is
full of promise for the future. 1t is
distinctly reform-a reform which
amounts practically to revolution in
the public school. The reform action
is registered in the change of curricu-
lum the resolution in the changed re-
lations recognized between parents,
children and public schools. The point
most strongly emphasized in Superin-
tendent McCalle's address is an appeal
to parents to recognize the fact that
they too are teachers. This is the CEN
tral idea in the reform movement. AS
the home is the first so it should be the
best school-room. The most famous
school-methodso of the world, Frpbel and
Pestalozzi, are but adaptations of the
best home teachings. The kinder-gart-
en- is only the nursery and play ground
systematized and directed. In most
excellent little book on THE Educa-
tional IdeaW Prof. Munroe says on this
point
Having after centuries of wander
ing, brought the child back to his prop
er atmosphere-the home-having de-
termined who shall be responsible for
his teachings, and what shall be the
final aim of that teaching, we have, in
deed, put the educational question upon
sound and healthy basis. We have at
last learned to follow nature, and we
are beginning to understand that the
best education, indeed the only right
education, is natural one"
Parents are the natural teachers Of
their children, In the development of
the public school machinery this sacred
office of the parents has been almost
entirely abolished, and along with it a
very large measure of that sense of re-
sponsibility which belongs of right to
all parents, as parents, for the educa-
ton of their children. This result is
almost unavoidable, so long as school
education is confined to the mere tech
nique-the handicraft as it were-the
learning of the three Rs. Beyond see
ing that the children prepare the tasks
set for them there is no room for home
teaching and very little opportunity
for home influence in the public schools.
The introduction of Literature as a
study in most of the grades changes all
this-it furnishes a common meeting
ground where the professional can be
aided, supported and in large meas
ure guided by the amateur-the lover
who teaches for love-both of the
child and the subject taught. In the
opening up of this new relationship
lies the intrinsic value of this new de-
parture. The new movement is EMIT
led to the hearty cooperation of every
patron of the public schools.