Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-10-31

titi'I's " ZIG ptI 't'-Hi
Cor the insane. With al! our talk ABOUT
canals. the state tnt last year less
than two-tnirds as much for them as
for schools. even when YOU count in the
purchase OF nearly 4 million ana halt
bonds for the sinking una. Gut oi d
total expenditure of tWentN-1our NH
lions last year for All purposes me
state spent in all five ana "le-hhl NH
lions, or nearly ona-fourth OF all It's
mone'. tor education.
That is far from telling or ap-
preaching the whole truth. nave
been speaking only Of those eXpendl-
lures derived from state taxation put
the report of the late superintendent
of public education. Mr.. Skinner, gives
also the local expenditures for the
same purpose. ana the grand total is
thus swollen to proportions whose mn
pressireness cannot be heightened by
words. The state of New York spent
in 1908. III all its multi-f"rm activities,
outside of the schools. only SIS, 49, 80.
1t spent on schools, inrllldlns local
state expeDdituro. S43. 49,. 9l4. The
People of New York thus gave between
two and three times as much Tor their
schools as their state government pays
for everything else, of Whatever sort or
description.
You will pardon me then. if, 1T this
first convocation after unification has
been achieved. / spend most of the few
minutes more for which | may claim
your indulgence in reminding you of
some fundamental principles, almost
aXiomS. that we should never lose sight
uf in the common schools. There is
nothing new about them; their i'm
portance is merely that they are every
where and forever true.
We have seen that there must first
be heights against which the ofuca-
tiOnal ladder can rest. The exact
point where the top Of this ladder is
supported may vary: but there can be
no SWiation or uncertainty about tn"
support for its foot. That is the vit.I
concern. Unless the foot of the lad
der is solidly grounded. the higher Won
climb the worse the fail.
First then We. must insist that the
common schools really teach. with Il
thoroughness not Vet 50 generally at
tanned as is needful. the three things
that make the common basis for all
subsequent work Their pupils should
learn till they really know how t. renI
write and cipher Until You max" al
solutely sure of that, let US have fewer
frlls.
You have not taught reading until
YOU nave made it at least accurate,
automatic and as unconscious as
brea thing.
You have not taught writing until
you have made it equally easy, equally
! exact, and besides have taught it with
out fads Not only must the charac-
tiers he legible rather than obscure
ly elegant. but the words must be
spelled as they are now spelled in Eng
lsh literature No doubt there is a
place in the scheme of the universe for
insatiate reformers-eyen (pace our ac-
complished librarian.-) for spelling
reformers; but their place is not in the
common schoolro0m. Your business
there is to teach what the literature Of
the English-speakirg world has ac-
cepted-not what the reformers think
it ought to accept or even believe it is
going to accept. Your warrant from
the state, in this very ground work Of
all learning, is not for teaching de
batable things, contentious things, but
the things now accepted and built urou
and embodied in our Standards and
you are to teach others only when they
have been accepted.
Again. just as nothing can take the
place of an absolute readiness IN thus
reading and writing the English language.
so nothing can take the place of an abso-
lutte mastery of the multiplication table.
To the boy or girl to whom you do not
give that in childhood. together with the
common things it stands for, YOU are
turning out into the world cripple for
life. If he cannot add and subtract null
tiply and divide with the readiness and
precision of a machine if this work is
not instructive and inStinctiVely right. he
will limp at every step in his whole sub
sequent career But here again. / pray
YOU no fadS-not even the metric fad.
Teach the weights and mea SureS a child
Will have TO use in every day life in New
York today; and teach them thoroughly,
hut leave the weights and measures he
may need half a century hence for later
period. if any, iIe his education. Keep
the metric crank$ out OF the common
schools. They are all most respectable
people and some of them efficient that
| speak of them with a certain awe. No
doubt crankS as they have been known
to boast. sometimes make revela lions. and
may move the world. All right; when
they have made this revolution and
moved our part of the world to the metric
system then use the money and authority
Of the state to teach the metric system
to the children in the state schools. Till
then concentrate your energies in teach
ing them better the weights and measures
thy have to Use now, and don't send OlIL
50 many pupils who do not know what
part OF gallon gill is, or how many
yards long ami wide an acre is or how to
measure the masonry in a ten-font brick
wall eighteen inches wide, or a hundred
feet of inch and a half hemlOck boards.
Let Us avoid the common mistake of
striving for a foundation too biz for the
probable snnerstructure. When thc child
has mastered reading it may or may not
he d"Sirabl" to- carry him on to The best
English literature and to the hist Fy of its
development. When he has mastered
spelling and writing, II may or may not
he desirable to teach him Shorthand ANA
the etymOOgic reasons for different
spellings of the same sound. When he
has mastered the ordinary processes Of
cipheIing. il is very likely TO be undesira-
hle to force him to spend years more on
the mysteries Of double proportion cube
root, complex and compound fractions
n"imntation. exchange. etc All these
have their place. but it is in an arithmetic
which belongs at least to secondary edu-
cation if not later still. They arc not
a necessary part of the common basis
which Is Indispensable for all subsequent
training. and they often lead to needless
discoura cement at a tender age and to
depiorable waste of time and opportu-