Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1905-01-14
LACKING IN EDUCATION.
Present Method Declared TO he n Fail
ure by an Expert.

Present Method Declared TO he n Fail
ure by an Expert.
Professor Barrett Wendelrs 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 insti-
tutions impart? The answer which
Professor Wendell gives to that ques-
ton Is discouraging. is even appalling
He was for years a member OF COM
mittee I'm Harvard whose duty It was
to scrutinize the qualifications OF stu
dents from other colleges who desired
to become candidates for degrees at
Harvard and his testimony Ia that the
committee were frequently confronted
with bachelors Of arts who seemed vlr-
tually uneducated In the course OF
his experience. also IT has seemed to
him that the boys who reach college
from preparatory schools are proving
fabbier and fiabbier in mind
This phenomenon Professor Wendell
regards as proof Of the failure OF
the new methods Of education. where
by, after the fashion OF the klndergar-
ten. the pupil is permitted 10 confine
himself to subjects which interest
him. Such methods make no provi-
sion for the training OF the will, and II
| is the faculty OF voluntary, as distinct
from spontaneous, attention which
education, in the broad sense, ought
surely to cultivate. Looked at from
this point Of view. the classics and
mathematics were better instruments
of education than for a long time
many people have supposed them to
be. Professor Wendell says;
You can hardly imagine a subject
essentially uninteresting. which would
not reward plodding work with a SINH
lar result-with substantial ignorance
OF the matter studied. but with in
creasingly and lastingly muscular
power Of voluntary attention. The
only actual practical virtue which llei
|
ly from the accident that they ar,
traditional. As natural consequence
they have acquired, through the cen
turtles. a degree of precision not We
attained by any rivals Even unsym
pathetic and unintelligent teacher
can. therefore, keep closer watch o
them. II the attention OF boys VIII,
81 J,
to wander, 1t can instantly be per
ceved as vagrant If 1t errs. its er
rOrs can swiftly and certainly be cor
rected And the very fact that thu
classical languages are dead, and tina
the distractions of mathematics mus
generally seem repellently lifeless, 4
part Of the secret of their educationa
vitality.
"Of late years It has often been sup
posed that training in natural scienc
would do more for the power OF voun
tary attention and therefore woul,
have a higher educational value tina
training in the old humanities. So IA
as my observation has gone, this ha
not vet proved the case And one res
son why it has not. l am disposed I
think, Is because the natural science
are apt nowadays to prove shade to
interesting. In the end, accordingly
like other allurlng things, they ofte
excite an attention more nearly spor
taneous than voluntary. II so, tn
study of them would inevitably resu
rather in technical information an
: than in any broad general trainin,
available for any other service tina
l thai Immediately concerned"