The Delta independent., 1904-10-14
LACKING IN EDUCATION.
Present Methods Declared to Be .
Failure by an Expert.

.SBSP
Prof. Barrett Wendell's article. on
"Our National Superstition" in the
North American Review will be read
with profound interest by all who are
interested in the education Of Ameri-
can youth. Americans believe that our
national salvation depends upon edu-
cation and in that belief they spend
vast sums upon schools and colleges.
What kind of education do these in
stitutions impart? The answer which
Prof. Wendell gives to that question
is discouraging, is even appalling. He
was for years a member of a commit
tee in Harvard whose duty 1t was to
scrutinize tho qualifications Of stu
dents from other colleges who de-
sired to become candidates for de-
grees at Harvard and his testimony is
that the committee were frequently
confronted with bachelors of arts who
seemed virtually uneducated. In the
course Of his experience. also. It has
seemed to him that the boys who
reach college from preparatory
schools are proving fiabbier and fab
bier In mind.
This phenomenon Prof. Wendell re-
CARDS as q proof of the failure of the
new methods of education. whereby,
after the fashion of the kindergarten,
the pupil is permitted to con1ine him.
self to subjects which interest him.
Such methods make no provision for
the training of the will. and It Is the
faculty Of voluntary. as distinct from
q 20
tion. in the broad sense. ought surely
to cultivate. Looked at from this
point Of view. the classics and mathe-
matics were better instruments of
education than for a long time many
people have supposed them to be.
Prof. Wendell says:
You can hardly imagine a subject,
essentially uninteresting. which would
not reward plodding work with q simi-
lar result-with substantial ignorance
OF the matter studied. but with In.
creasingly and lastingly muscular
power Of voluntary attention. Tho
only actual practical virtue which lies
In the traditional subjects comes
mostly from the accident that they arc
traditional. As a natural consequence
they have acquired. through the GEN.
turies. a degree OF precision not yet
attained by any rivals. Even unsym-
pathetic and unintelligcnt teachers
can. therefore. keep closer watch OF
them. lf the attention OF boys who
study classics or mathematics begins
to wander. II can Instantly be per.
trivcd as vagrant- II 1t errs, Its or.
rors can swiftly and certainly be cor.
rected. And the very fact that tho
classical languages are dead. and that
the distractions OF mathematics must
generally seem TcpcIlcntiy lifclcss. Is
part OF the secret Of their educational
vitality.
"Of late years II has of1en boon sup
posed that training In natural science
would do more for the lpwer OF vol.
untnry attention and therefore would
have n higher educational vaiue than
training In the old humanjtics. So
far aS my observation has gone, this
has not yet proved tho casc. And
one reason why II has not. ! an dis.
posed TO think. In because tho natural
sciences arc apt nowadays to provo q
shade too interesting. In tho end, &C.
cordinEly. like other aliuring things.
they often excite an attention more
nearly spontaneous than voluntary.
II NO. the study Of them would inevi.
tably result rather in technical infor.
nation and habitual aptitude of q
special kind than in any broad general
training. available for any other scr.
vicc than that Immediately con.
ccrned."