The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-01-22
MODERN SCHOOL METHODS.

The Washington Post takes a fall out
Of the school system of the present time
in the following:
We sympathize heartily with the dis
gust excited in one of our cOntempOr-
aries by a typical case in modern educa-
ton which it has just raked up. A girl
e. ia Is carrying on as many studies as
she has Years to her credit. and her
marks, on a scale of 100. show her per
feet in grammar. 90 ia physiology 9S
10 civics and algebra. 81 IN physics, and
s5 in literature. Yet in q recent letter
She writes. There has been two boats
ashore. Papa took sister and I with
him"
Could anything speak louder for the
parrot character of the teaching which
has placed her in the 100 per cent rank2
Two boats has been Papa took sis
ter and T." in school the poor child Is
perfect because she can answer the rou-
tine questions of her teacher. but no
sooner is she called to apply to her or
binary uses any of the knowledge with
which her little brain is crammed than
she violates, as often as the brevity OF
her sentences will permit, all the rules
she has learned to recite with such glib
ness at her desk.
If this is a fair sample of 100 in
grammar, what must we assume to be
the practical capacity of "97 in
physics The child who has dug up 81
planted bean two or three times. and
lie I'm the ground, the root-shoOts will
always push downward into the moist
soil and the branch-shoots always up
ward toward the light, probably knows
more Of physics than our dollhouse
prodigy would if she We're rated twice
81. The study of facts, not as mere iso-
lated objects Of memory. but as mater
1al out of which to construct PRINCIPLES
does not enter into the scheme of So
called education with which most latter
day children are Victimized. They come
to think Of education as a tiresone pro-
cess Of loading the mind with names
and numbers and dates. for rarely does
any teacher try to show them the rela-
ton of these things to the world they
live in.
If we took a boy. of whom we intend
cd to make carpenter, brought him UP
In gymnasium and at maturity put q
saw and plane into his hands and babe
him go forth and earn his own living.
our neighbors would think us crazy Yet
that is in effect what we are doing ev-
cry day with thousands and thousands
of school children. We swell their mem
ories artihcially, as in the hypothetica
instance we swelled the bows muscles
then we throw them into the world and
tell them to make their own fortunes
though we have not taught them how,
TO use single reasoning faculty
HOW many children who can rattle off
The multiplication table faster than a
horse can trOt, and cipher Out all fbo
examples under the rule for ascertain
ing the contents of a parallelogram. can
estimate the square feet of paint needed
70 coat the floor of a room Il feet long
by 10 feet wide? Try it on the nearest
child, and see whether his marks in
mathematics are any measure of his
common sense.
Parents. OF course. are much to blame
tn this matter. If papa had taken a lit
tie pains to exercise. not the memory.
but the mind of his 14-year-old. even in
odd moments at the brea kfast table. he
might have taught her better than to
describe what was done to SISTER and
T. But he would have failed if he had
taught her only to avoid that bad form
without developing the instinct which
would reject it, and all errors of the
same class automatically, as the nos