The Oskaloosa herald., 1901-05-23
WHAT ARE FADsp
What They are and what They Mean
as They Appear 10 Miss Evans.

The critic sits in bis easy chair,
And writes the words that causes her
! care.
For all the harsh words, good or bad,
| The harshest are these: 1T IS fad
! What is fad? 1t is short word of
three letters, and he who spells may
read its history: fashion; a--attackeG,
d-denonHced. 1t is an indigenous, per-
ennial thistle, with singing pricks; it is
bristling porcupine, with fiery quilts !,
it is the cherished offspring of the pub
lie press, where it has filed many a
vacuum.
1t is as changeable as the chameleon,
for it takes its color from its environ
ment. In Phoenix, it is a statehood; in
New York, it is Tammany Hall in Chi
| cago, it is a city decoration; and in Os-
kaloosa, it is, was, and, perhaps, ever
will be-the new street car line. 1t Is
as elusive as the coyote of the western
prairieS; you hear its cry, but ere you
reach it, it has escaped
If you would analyze its constituency,
dissolve it in luke-warm indignation,
then apply blow-pipe flame, and it will
sizzle and boil and writhe and squirm,
and emit jagged lightning; hut set it
away tc cool, and when next you exam
inc it you will find nothing there. To
account for this phenomenon, we infer
that a fad is an air-ship, for a grea:
| amount of wind is consumed in propell-
ing it. This is but a theory which may
serve as a working hypothesis for what
follows.
The fad is one of the products of civ
ilization and progression; for change is
the law of life.
A dead language does not change
nor does a dead people modify its laws
and customs. The great crises in
American history began as fads. The
colonists had fad called taxation with
out representation; their descendants
had a fad known as emancipation; and
the United States, today fosters the fad
of territorial expansion. And yet these
cannot scientifically be termed fads; for
they have passed beyond the ephemeral,
and have become stable and everlasting
principles of our republic. The changes
in the platforms of the great political
parties of this land prove the secret OF
Americas growth to be that il is pre-
eminently nation of fads, of transitory
interests, which have led to reform, and
reform is the executioner's axe of the
fad.
The public school system of this liv-
ing progressive nation is the hot-bed OF
lads. But even here they have to be
|nretully planted and tenderly nurturei
by wise and sympathetic huSbandmen
In this flower garden grow the night
blooming study exacted of children in
the grades; the rose of many petalled
studies. which sap the vitality of fragile
lives; the blue eyed forget-me-not of
child study; the golden rod of moral
suaSion, and the bleeding heart of com.
pulsory education.
These are but new species of the fadS
of earlier days, when children learned
by not pages of geography and history
that were Greek or Choctaw to them
when they printed on slate and black,
board for year or more, before at
tempting to learn script; when they all
spelled their neighbor down by syllable
and minlstered to numberless other fads
which have long since been discarded.
For fads in methods of teaching and
discipline, the teachers, principals and
superintendent themselves, are largely
responsible. In order to give the child
rlthmetical perception, the Speer method
is employed; in order to teach the child
to recognize and pronounce new words,
the Pollard method is used; and in or
der of insure legibility in penmanship,
the vertical system is adopted But
these changes are made by self-sacrifc-
ing teachers for purpose-the good OF
the child and the good of the public.
As a sensible business man would
change his bicycle of 1903 for a 1000
chainless; so the wise teacher will keep
abreast of the times in methods, even
at the risk of being called a "faddist.'
But the consolation of the faddist is
that innovations in school methods and
discipline need not be introduced every
place at one and the same time; hence
OskalooS waits and watches the en-
pertinent of Chicago in Misunderstanding
and in student self-government. If these
fail, the Chicago teacher will be the sad
der, and the Oskaloosa teacher will be
the wiser. Child study in Chicago has
recently made the startling discovery
that left-handed children are not so
strong intellectually as right-handed
children. The Chicago Chronicle sar-
caStlcally adds that the teacher who
made this discovery should have his
salary raised and be furnished an assist
ant
The teacher, however, is not response
Bile for all the fads that enter the school
room. The father exclaims, my son
has been in school twelve years, and all
he knows is how to read, write, spell,
and cipher, l could have taught him
these myself in two short years" The
school authorities hasten to remove the
cause of this complaint by introducing
new branches of study; whereupon,
noble mother holds up her hands in
horror, and tragically cries, "a slaught-
er OF the innocents! A slaughter of the
innocents."
Then the physician, not the dear
doctor of the old school, but the new
doctor of microbes and bacteria, lifts I'D
his voice in behalf of the children. In
FL Paso the school authorities have al
ready prohibited the admission of teach
ers within the public schools, unless
they wear the short or bicycle skirt.
Probably teachers will next be com
PEELED to come to school insulated with
spun-glass insoles, SO as to conserve
magnetic influence over the children that
were born tired.
II has been predicted that when Sarah
applies for admission TO the school OF
the twentieth century formula some
thing like the following will be en-
ployed
Sarah, are you innoculated against
croup?"
Have you written certificate that
you are immune as 70 whooping cough
and measles p
Have you your own drinking cup3"