The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-25
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25, 1908.
FOR BETTER EDUCATION.

We are very heartily in sympathy
with the general position taken by
Supt. Smith in his address to the prin-
cipals of schools on Monday. There
may very likely be difference Of opin-
ion as to details, concerning which
hardly any two persons, probably, think
alike, but the general line of change de-
manded in our public school system is
quite clear.
It is all summed up in the substitu-
ton of thoroughness in education for
elaboration of courses of study. AS a
matter of fact, there is a great deal of
humbug in the Importance attached to
courses Of study. Educators of real
ability devote months and years to the
preparation and amendment of courses
of study for primary and intermediate
grades, as if this were the vital part of
the problem. Their work is to con-
siderable extent wasted. The marrow
of all education, higher or lower is the
comforting of mental power. To teach
a child or youth to think for himself
is to accomplish infinitely more than
to cram the storehouse of his mind with
any number or quality of facts what
Soever.
1t is along this line that the chief
mistakes of modern education have
been made. Educators have set them
selves to work to study Child nature"
which is well enough in its way, and
then to adapt to it course of instruc-
ton fitted to nourish it in all its posi-
BILE developments and ramif1cations.
The result is hodge podge of studies,
none of which can be mastered thor
oughly. The effect upon the pupil is
to give him smattering of many
things, largely inconsequential, with
out completing an exact knowledge of
anything, and with still more regret
table deficiency in mental strength and
skill.
The true theory of education begins
at the other end. 1t regards the mind
of the pupil as tool of priceless value,
which can be made useful to him only
in so far as he learns to WELD it skill
fully. The sharpening of the mind. it's
development, its training to habits of
alertness and of accuracy are the main
things. 1t will do its own work suf-
ficiently well after that. 1t really mat
tiers comparatively little upon what
subject matter the child in his earlier
years is engaged, provided only that
the method Of his education be right.
If he is trying to think for himself. to
plumbers common to tmmaturity to
build up an independent Judgment and
understand his own reasons for his own
conclusions, the subject matter of all
knowledge will be thereafter an easy
conquest. With a mind so prepared he
can in two or three years cover field
OF instruction with better results than
hescould in half a lifetime without such
preparation.
The great fault of our courses of in
struetion, it seems to us, is that thew
are too ulIwieldy. 1t has been thought
to be beautiful thing that the child
should learn something Of the arts and
be Instructed in drawing and music. 1t
has been thought practical thing that
1t should begin early It's acquaintance
With natural science, and nature study
came in vogue. 1t has been thought a
part OF the cultivation of Judgment and
taste to Instruct 1t in. forms of thought
ana expression and general literature
was ADDED. All these things, excellent