Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-12-28
CRITIOUE OF SUZZALLO.

| we desire the child to learn To draw
not because We expect him TO paint pic
| lures Tor sale, but because VIC desire tc
inspire his soul with the ability to ap-
preciate the harmonles of color and
form in both nature and art. Now VIC
| may impart this power to the child in
| different ways. We may teach him to
talk OF color and form by having him
| study some book lesson about them
the older cultural method, or we may
| get a number of colored cards or cloths
and show him the various colors-the
mere object method; or. finally, we may
take him Into the field where the gold
en- lilies blow" and show him there the
colors and hues of grass and flower the
tones OF the landscape, the blue of the
heavens, the silver flashing of the
strcam-thc nature method. Which OF
these three methods shall we choose
Tor our children? The answer Is alb
surdly obvious. Yet in questioning the
modern tendency of the schools TO see
and do real things instead of repeating
the words of others who say they have
seen and done. Dr. Suzzallo left us in
doubt as to which he thought might be
the better method
ABOUT THE CRISIS.
We may fairly take exception to the
Doctors statement that the training Of
the child is the mastery of series of
crises in child life. The parallel of the
physician does not hold since the lat
ter is called in only when an abnormal
condition ariscs-when something has
gone wrong; nor does the lawyer
parallel fare much better since his
services are usually called for only
when dispute occurs or quarrel has
arisen. The crises which these two pro-
fesSlonS meet. the work which they do,
IS, In the main. ministry to things out
of their true relation-an attempt to
right wrongs or cure maladies. 1t is
otherwise with the teacher; he is deal
ing with a natural. healthful growth,
with spiritual development that should
be as free, spontaneous. and beautiful
as the growth of flower OF the song
of a bird These crises, If they are
such. are not of the nature
of shocks and entanglements. Here
the director merely guides development
The modern teacher. at least, does not
repress. cbeckmate, imprison, ampu-
tate. etc. as do those stern but neces-
sary ministers to human weakness,
malady, and depravity. For the teach
er merely aids the process OF natural
unfoldment and provides it with its
most favorable conditions; and 1t was
only in the old school that this growth
was accomplished by series of shocks,
or crises. Once every problem In
arithmetic was indeed a new crisis.
now it is the next welcome step. Once.
the reading lesson was a matter of
learning hieroglyphics to be rendered
painfully into words unnaturally pro-
nounced and phrases ridiculously thun-
dcred. Now It consists In rehearsing,
preferably in the choice language of
fran of
in some way similar to our own.
THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE.
Is it true. finally. that all the con-
scious life of man is comprehended in
the Idea of social service? or of work.
ing In cooperation with others OF for
their benefit? Far from it. The Great
Apostle, the ablest of them all. had
visions which he dared not declare
even to those who were most highly
instructed. Many things that he ex-
tered were given to him. His life
was not limited by what he could do
with OF for others Neither, indeed is
any mans. La Places equations.
could not be read for decades after he
had published them. and no doubt
many of his demonstrations never met
the view Of any other person. No
poet ever told half OF what was in his
heart to say. The individual life is
not limited to. nor is it necessarily
measured by, the social service II is
able to render A man must not know
too much, IL he would teach 1t to tho
world; and the editor Will reach moro
people and possibly do more good by
a similar discretion"
l trust that there may be no misnp-
prehension of the motives that prompt