The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-26

point. 1 have said that large pro-
portion of High School graduates, |
think a majority of such as | have
had to deal with, show signs of intel
lectual over-pressure. Their minds
appear to me to have been injured
rather than benefited by much of the
instruction to which they have been
exposed" But how about the mino-
rity? Here l rejoice to find more
reassuring state of things. Not few
of our candidates are the picture of
mental health. They have received no
detriment, but have thriven upon the
diet which their schooling has afforded,
and are ready for more. They possess
a scholarly constitution, a native
ability. which justifies all that has
been done for them and invites ampler
scope for further progress.
Learning is their natural element.
1t is for such that schools and col
leges and libraries are maintained and
multiplied. The question then arises,
how early can human insight detect
and pick out this favored few? This
Is a question that can never be salts
early. some late, some not at all.
Every door Of opportunity should,
therefore. be flung wide open to begin
with, and reckoning hands should well
come all Corners. 1t Is the glory and
fame of our civilization that in Ameri-
ca this Is done. Universal opportunity,
however, Is one thing; but universal
education is quite another. Here is
where the mistake, often the tragedy,
begins. 1t is in assuming that every
horse properly led to the water must
drink. The cabinet maker knows the
difference between mahogany and
hpGsNvnnd. tho Vuo n hr1o dnad
select lead for his mainsprings the
farmer spreads his fertilizers only on
the best soils. 1t is only the country
pumpkin who tries by merciless use
of the whip to urge his heavy-paced
family nag into the gait of the high
bred trotter.
THE cardinal defect of our educa-
tional practice, as 1t seems to me, is
that it uses so little discrimination
with regard to the material upon
which 1t works. Public opinion sets
stubbornly against such discrimination
and frowns on all who attempt to ex-
ercise it. Does not our Declaration of
Independence Gas popularity misinter
preted) assert the equality of all men
as a self-evident truth? Who are you
that try annul it? This is our vox
populi; but, my worthy fellow -citizens,
1t is not the vox Del. Try as we may
juggle as we may, pretend as we may,
we cannot efface the inexorable law of
human nature that makes us individ-
uals, and In so making us establishes,
we know not why, the widest differ
ences in our abilities and aptitudes.
Since this is so, is 1t not the part of
wisdom, in small things as well as
great, to recognize these differences
and adjust ourselves to them?
How shall this be done, do you ask?
But this question is second in order;
the first is, Shall 1t be done? There
can be no effectual device or plan that
is not rooted in the soil of an enlight-
ened public opinion; and the formation
of this, in a mixed community like
ours, is a slow and fitful process; but it
is, repeat, an Indispensable prerequi-
site. 1t is by no means the abandon
ment or restriction of studies that
would suggest-far from it; it is not
even better schools or better teach
ers' that is our most pressing need. 1t
is the candid abandonment of the no
| tion that all our youth must be sub
| jected to the same scholastic regimen
and refined up to the same standard Of
formal intellectual discipline. The
principle for which ] plead has found
some recognition in recent years in the
extension OF what is known as the cleo
i've 61ElCih a movement VI AtluCll DlBIll-
ficance and promise.
1.-THE Public Library suggests some
thing nearer to my idea OF what an
educational institution should be than
the public high school as at present ad-
ministered. There upon it's shelves lie
the source of instruction and inspira-
ton. open and free to ALL with skilled
attendants to guide and assist; but no
compulsion. no competition, no herding
together Of the unlike in classes, no
diplomasi The library lacks system and
adjustment to individual needs. no
doubt; lacks the active help of teach
ers; lacks the social element; lacks the
habit-forming regularity of stated
tasks and stated hours. All these the
school can and should supply But the
school has already been pressed too far
in this direction. 1t has become, in a
literal sense, too much of a good thing.
Not in the facilities 1t affords, not in
the encouragement 1t gives; but in the
indiscriminate urgency with which, in
compliance with perverted popular
sentiment, it forces its regimen upon
so many unwilling and unfit minds.
I'VE have all smiled at the old story
of the ambitious mother who, when the
honest teacher said her daughter lacked
capacity, replied with spirit. well, then
get her one; l am able and willing to
pay for IT." Now, what | complain of
is, that public opinion, like that mother,
In its ignorance and ambition is doing
its utmost to force the high school and
the college and the Normal school to
undertake this very thing, with the re-
sulting overpressure and disappointed
hopes that follow In the wake of much
of our public schooling
Booker Washington has had the re-
markable perspicacity to discover at
this late day that what the Southern
negro most needs Is not the latest re-
suits of scientific discovery or specula-
tive thought. not the finespun distinc-
tons of scholarship, ancient or modern,
not the arts of the orator or the writer;
but the humble and useful industries of
everyday life whereby to earn honest
bread. foresight to provide for sickness
and old age, a sense of duty to the COM
ing generation, and the self-respect and
moral habits that fit for decent social
life. The teachings of this new apostle
of the humber education are widely
and justly admired; they make our
earlier schemes Of educating the negro
seem, as they were, flimsy, sentimental,
and wide of the mark But has 1t oc-
CURED to us that there may be occa-
sion for a similar crusade in the North,
to preach a new gospel of education for
large and, / fear, growing class of
our people, whose need in this direction
is not very different and not less
urgent"