The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-09-29

main ignorant. The child nature be-
! ing ignored, the child growth is lost
A system based on a wrong conception
: or a non-conceptien of child nature,
and hence not adjustable to it, is neces-
sarily failure.
Not only is the child nature misun-
derstood, but the nature of education
is equally misapprehended. For edu-
! cation is not the acquisition of knoWl-
/ edge, but the development of natural
faculty. To enlarge and quicken the
affections, to strengthen memory, to de-
Velop the reason, enable the pupil to
think clearly and express himself or
herself accurately and forcibly; to
qualify him to fully concentrate his
mind at any moment of time, under all
conditions of place and circumstance,
on one particular subject and by so
doing decide and act rightly and eff
ficiently-this is the object of educa-
ton. And beyond this there is none
other. The system that does this is a
success. If it does not do it, it is
failure:
The children of America are today
being trained under a different system
and with a widely different object.
The system in vogue has been ac-
curately if indignantly defined as the
System OF Cram"
Facts, figures, names, dates, rules
and a hodge-podge of book knowledge
are literally crammed into them. If
memory is phenomenal a child lives
through the awful process and is grad
uated a mental squad.
He is unable to fly, but he is Jailed
with knowledge.
He stands at the head of his class
He is graduated with "honors." He is
called a remarkable scholar" Heaven
save the mark,
The system of cram finds in his in
efficient, unframed but plethoric men
tally its highest success.
But what of the mass of pupils whose
memories are proportionate with their
other endowments? What of those
whose mental stOmachS cannot stand
being stuffed with such a mess of food
every day? What Of those who are
not precocious, who mature slowly, are
highly organized and cannot stand the
strain of intense application week in
and week out? What of those the glory
of whose natures is seen in the wealth
of their affections rather than in men
tai equipment?
Are there no geniuses of the heart in
Gods world today?
The affectionate wives, the loving |
the homel loving fathers of the |
future. Are these not worth educating, !
'A-NN
ton between children of widely differ
ent endowments and takes no thought |
of child nature, a system fit to be con- |
rtnued forever? Verify, 'one star diff
tereth from another star in glory" and /
1oes not one child differ from another
child in talents, in endowments, in !
gifts and in qualities of nature? And /
are these children of God, widely dis
similar but equally lovely, to be treat
I'd and trained precisely alike and I'M
Ter a system that never trained any
,hild rightly yet, and never will, be-
'ause it is not framed on knowledge
If child nature?
There is a tendency in all doing
tmong us to overdo.
Athletics are causing more early
Ieaths and making more cripples in our
ountry than all other causes COM
lined.
And this is not because athletic eyer
Use is not healthful, but because ath-
eticism in America means over-train-
ng and over-effort.
1t is the pace that kills.
And in the realm of education the
anne is true. Over-study, over-appli-
alton, overstimuiation of the recep-
i've capacity thwarts the very purpose
education.
The teachers of the country are hon
st and intelligent, and 1 may add
'retchedly paid Many are actually !
fitted to teach children, to truly edu- {
ate them, to develop the child nature
right.
Al that can be done under such a I
1stem as they are compelled TO work :
nder, they are doing But no one !
nows better than the thoughtful ed
Gators in our common schools that our
stem of education does not educate