Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1905-12-28

The United States Inns In the past paid |
Great Britain many compliments In the |
shape Of that imitation which is pro- |
verbally the sincerest form of fattery. |
says the London correspondent Of the
Boston Transcript They have even gone
further. and. to take Il single instance. |
they hav. sent many of their sons to
English public schools and thence on to
oxford and Cambridge 10 he given that
elusive. vague and questionable advantage
tho education of an English gentleman.
1t goes without saying that we arc only
toe pleased to welcome them. But ut
The same time we feel Il certain pity for
them. why on earth. we wonder. do they
want TO come over here when they hay"
got So many fine universities Of their
own, unless of course they arc adopting
education ~ n profession and wish tn
compare the different methods. American
readers OF Charles Dickens land ! suppose
that by this time Dickens's description
of the Garden Of Eden and other high
ly-colorsd pictures OF American life have
been partly forgiven will remember his
famous remark N Little Dorrit'-
"Whaicver was required 10 he done. the
circ,imlocution ufiic. was beforehand
with all the public dcplrt mclits in the art
of percciving how rot 10 d. it,. Just
now it would sectn as If the crcumlocu-
ton Offices mantle had fallen upon the
English public school system. Sceptics
of course. there have always been, but
they have until lately been howled down
and rcckoned amongst that class of crea-
lures like W. S. Glbert's.
AZ ~sl,, 10 t.>pn
All centuries but this. every country but
his own
who wouldn't much be missed What:
Scoff at the public school SYSTEM AZ
soon denounce the early morning cold
bath. doubt the postulate that one Eng
lishman is worth three Frenchmen. and
other truths" upon which we are brought
up. But. as ] say. this unuuostioning
cock-sureness has had some shrewd blows
aimed at it lately. AS in Browning .
"l'ied Piper Of Hamelin.'
THE mutterng grew to grumblEg:
And the grumbling grew to mighty
ruinblng."
! Numerous articles have appeared in our
leading newspapers and magazines on the
subject during the past few weeks. OF
which the most remarkable were a series
of kappa" in the Westminster Gazette
| Just rcpublished by Methucn under the
title. Let Youth But Know" Judging
by tho prominence given to the book in
! the reviews it would seem as If real
agitation were on foot, and as il some. Mt
any rate, of the much needed reforms are
to be carried out. 1t is high time.
Let me b, gin by saying that hold no
brief for "<appa." have not read his
book as yet. though did read one or two
of the articles as they appeared. i do not
know. therefore. II he has argued out
what !. a. any rate. as an old public
school and university man consider the
| fundamental curse Of our system. This
curse is that the present public school
(and to n lesser degree university educa-
ton is absolutely fatal to originality. II
must be so. Our public schools arc COM
posed of 600 boys. and are subdivided into
classes of. roughly, 80 boys each. With
such "A collection before him the master
cannot help striking an average and
ignoring the exceptions. lie cannot pos
sihly hope. even If he so wishes, to treat
each boy as an individual and properly
probe his temperament. AS a rule he does
not even wish to. He Is not we'll paid
and is disinclned to make any gratuitolis
efforts So long as things jog quietly
along he is happy. But the extraordinary
boy is a thorn in his flesh. He is always
wanting to know. you know as young
lite Barnacle of the circumOcution office
alphabetically complained. He will ask
awkward and battling questions and while
he may be genuinely in search of nfor-
nation he is often looked upon by the
master as one who
''only does II to annoy
Because he knows it leases"
Result-The boy is snubbed before hi.
classmates and as there is no animal. ex.
ccpt perhaps n puppy. which is SO in,
quisitive and sensitive as IA boy. he ceases
to take any further pains to gain side in.
formation. Then again the boys them.
selves quite naturally adopt the same
view. "Original" in a schoolboys moutl
almost invariably has the connotatior
which the word means in French. Tc
work harder than the unwritten laws OF
the schOolbOy's trade union. as II were
allows means unpopularity-a hard thing
for boy to deliberately risk. And il
games it is the same He must play
cricket and football. Tho boy who is keer
I on such utilitarian pursuits as shootns
is looked upon as mild lunatic. Will,
, any boy who took up natural history
even though this means long walks anC
! difficult climbs. would certainly be re
| garded as an eliminate nincOmpoop. TIL,
boy who wins the sports" championship
if not otherwise distinguished in athletics
lis quite a minor god amongst tn,
; schoolboys Olympus and a leading powe
! than the development of his biceps cal
T procure for him. Worst OF ALL of course
is the actual method Of testing a boy
| knowledge. TO be good at exams" i
quite a distinct gift and very often tn
boy who has been at or near the top O
Ibis form during the term drops dow
Z many places because, on four or five day
he has not been able to turn out n goo.
Latin prose at . a. m. or discuss tn
. idiosyncrasies of the trOchaic tctraIn
meter catalectic in II handwriting whicl
, docs not put too severe strain upol
4 1.-The intelligence q the examiner. Tn
{ mania for deciding everything by exam
, lination along certain threadbare lines ha
I Income such an ObessiOn that the civi
service has practically no other avenue
hut an examination is not required TO