The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-18

the needs Of the average intelligent child, and
it makes little difference what such a one
studies so long he actually studies. The
one with mental discrepancies can never be
educated in the, common schools, for he is
Of an uncommon type, and all ugly ducklings
do not turn out swans.
Anyone who has taught long in high schools
must have observed that in the entering
classes, the girls usually outnumber the boys;
that before the completion of the three or four
years course, the class may be wholly COM
posed of girls; that when there are both girls
and boys in the class the girls have gen.
orally done the best work and carry off the
honors at graduation; that when the young
people 60 to the university the same relative
rank is maintained; that many complaints
against the schools, criticisms against the
course Of study and methods Of teaching
arise when some boy has left school; that
this has been going on long enough, so that
soma boys who went home mad genera
ton ago, are quite likely the fathers Of some
disgruntled lads Of to-day. What coincident
ut would seem to the half-educated father who
'struck out for himself at 49, If his boy
iran against snag'' in his career at school,
just as he did! Why, the case is proven OF
course! The whole system is wrong!
The girl who goes through school often
mar les the boy who does not. In their do
mestic life she is the better fitted to look
after the children's education. So DR.. Jordan
saw her name on the report cards and met her
at the graduation exercises. If there CHANGED
to be a football or baseball game or
horse race, dare we suppose that some OF the
fathers who find that the schools do not
yield an adequate return for the time and
money expended On them would give up
an hour or two from their business to at
tend? Do these things yield the adequate
return which pure commercialism is sup
posed to demand? Yet men go to them, with
lavish expenditure Of time and money; men
who never step inside of a school room, yet
who can tell to a dot where the school sys-
tenn is rotten and how to correct 1t.
Is not the reason for such a state Of things
to be- foundu in the men themselves? In their
fastest
To give a satisfactory reason why the aver
age girl is better student than the average
boy, the average woman better educated than
the average man, we must search oeyono
commercialsm and faulty school systems,
and look at the training of children in the
home.
1t is difficult to see why through child
hood the training of a boy should be differ
ent from that of a girl. It is quite as I'M
portant for time and eternity that the boy
as we'll as the girl be truly pure, noble that
all his mental and moral mature be har-
moniously developed, and he is quite as SEN
sitive to good and evil influences. The girl
is kept at home and with her mother learns
to do multitude of things that train the
eye, the hand. the mind She is wisely
guided and carefully shielded as to her as
sociates. She has practice and patience IN
doing little things, and so learns self-re-
straint It is a common saying that girl
is older at the same age than boy. The
meaning of it is that she has been trained
He has been required to report at home at
meal time and bed time Few tasks are as
signed him and he is seldom held to do them:
vast idea of his own Importance, Of his
superiority as future "lord of creation,
| impatient with detail and restraint, over
appreciation of the 'almighty dollar lndis-
crminate admiration Of the merely success
full man, liberation if not admiration for
scaley politics and doubtful morals are some
of the lessons the American boy early learns
at the corner store and of his street COM
panions, instead Of those deeper, richer
things which have direct bearing upon
character and which be learned from an
earnest mother, as from no one else, and
| which are a girls heritage as a matter OF
| course A false ideal dominates the home.
| The crowding seething life in which he min
| ges and the spirit Of commercialism pos
| sess the youth and he dreams of short routes
| to- wealth. When lessons and school dis
| cipline grow irksome, he "looks for job. y
| With his inamaturity, his impatience Of detail
and restraint, his superficiality, he does not
| ooo|h' 'A4S 9SA'ooA'
are to blame A boy who ''just hates school, y
might show a mellow side to the dancing
felt by the "accused'' to be an imperative
need in our public school course,-but SPELL
ing even of words in daily use in news
papers and business never.
Dancing room for $4,000 children! Oh
shades of our ancestors! 1t will take more
than the much begrudged mill on the dol
lar" Why not gymnasia, and natatora
fencing schools, riding schools, golf links
maintained by the school board?
Recall the 100 miscellaneous examples al
the end of Rays Third Part of Arithmetic
Who ever found a. problem In real life like
one of them? Yet the boys and girls who
could "do' and "explain' that set Of ex'
amples, impossible and impracticable as they
were, could be trusted to undertake grave1
work. II your restless boys and girls viii
actually do the simple tasks given day afte1
day in the schoolroom, less fault will b.
found with them and the schools afterwards
Certainly 1t is not the part Of wisdom tt
suggest school courses longer and more diff
ficult than those now followed, and expec
great results to follow.
Florence G. Baier.
Minneapolis, Aug /. 1902.
Not one in twenty are free from some