The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-08-03
FRANK B. HOWE. Editsr and PubIishe
SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS

produces;" What was tne signih-
canoe and about how long ago arose
the cry Fifty-four forty or fight"
What can you state in regard TO the
development of the railway system of
the United States" Draw a map of
the town in which you live, inserting
roads. public buildings, rivers, ponds,
lakes and mountains" mot one adult
person out of fifty taken at random,
can answer any such questions as
these correctly and we doubt il one
in 10 of the graduates of the higa
schools in Vermont this year can do
it off hand.-Benningto Banner
With the possible exception of the
second question quoted, the foregoing
are eminently practical and proper
questions. We have been talking,
writing and lecturing for years about
a practical education in our common
schools, and the first symptoms de
veloped by the state department of ed
ucation of furthering such an end nas
brought about as pretty bit of edi-
torial rabies as anything the state has
seen for years.
Name three members of the presi-
dents cabinet" This is not learned
in text books, perhaps, but it Is utter
ly significant of the banal and sub
timely useless tendencies of wire
drawn education, that, until recent
years, not the first thought has ever
been given to practical History, the
Ieveryday sort of thing that we see
every day and ought to know about
Today, in some schools, Current Ev-
tnntcn pnunrnd I'm a Unalylu 4.
hour. The subject ought to be cover
ed daily and the daily newspaper
fought to be the text book.
Certainly, every child ought to know
who the secretary of war, the secre-
tary of the treasury and the secretary
of state may be in the national gov
ernment.
Describe the motions of the earth
and state what each produces" The
Herald has little use for theories, as
a general proposition, and theoretical
geography perhaps least of all, but If
the movement of the earth upon its
axis and of the earth around the sun
are worth knowing about at all, GER
tainly the practical results of alter
nate day and darkness, summer and
winter, are a necessary cOroliary
thereof.
What products day and night and
the varying seasons is something that
every sixth grade scholar is taught
and ought to know.
Possibly a child might not be ex-
pected to know much about the rail-
road systems of the country, but he
ought certainly TO know the railroads
1 g.f I. Il. 49, -.
about the great transcontinental sys-
TENS which have made this country
the greatest piece of territory in the
civilized world. If there ever was a
practical geographical question, here
is one and yet the most stupendous
fermentation in recent history breaks
forth when the prospective students
lof German, European history and AID.
vanced Literature are asked some
elemental facts about our own coun-
try and its resources.
The same thing applies to the re-
quest to draw map of his own town.
A child is ably and mechanically
scnooled in the geography of Trans
Caucasia, while the practical knowl-
edge of his own town. where he lives
grows up and pays taxes are never re
duced to practical acquaintance
Yes, such terrible questions are un.
usual. They are outside the ken OF
the machine-made teacher and the
wire-drawn pupil. They are practical
and deal with practical things The
superintendent guilty of framing taenl
ought to be held up to the everlasting
odium of the Vermont-as-sheis people
i xxrhn no oh ctr fnI vt,itl, n
mass of silly dates and meaningless
names. The first attempt to switch
our educational freight train to the
right track ought to be frustrated and
the fellows wno have been bowling
for practical education ought to stop
the movement at once!
Meanwhile, just let the superintend
ent of education and his supervisors
alone for a year or two, they are stir
ring up such fearsome ST. nd and
SMOKE that tn Herald inclined to
believe that there is I strong, but
smothered fire below with perhaps a
car fridge or two thar will lift things
I-Rutland Herald.
The Rutland Herald is, we believe
upwards of hundred years old and
so can hardly be expected to remem
Der back to the time it was fourteen
or fifteen. The poor old Herald is tC
be pitied, not blamed for making such
a break
1t cannot be expected to remembel
that boys and girls at that age are
busy studying interest and percentage
the states and countries, their produc
tions, capitals and cities, rudiments O.
American history without too much o
dates and dry detail, elementary gram
mar and simple constructions in Eng
fish. Boys and girls of the age to en-
ter the high schools not only SHOULDN'T
spend much time porting over newspa
pers but should not be allowed to reaC
them to any considerable extent
What time they get from their schoo
work and home work should be devot
led to health giving sports and exercis,
out doors as far as possible. A hignl,
trained intellect in a hospital trained
body isn't worth much for practica
purposes.
Many years ago, before the memor.
of actual boyhood had been crowde,
out of the remembrance of the Heral'
by the cares and troubles of later lif
it would have recognized Instant,
that the early care of school educa