Goldsboro weekly argus., 1909-03-11

At this season OF the year, when
the schools are in the full swing of
their last half-year of work, there is
need of great caution on the part of
the parents in seeing that their chill |
down from overstudy, for cover
study usually means not the study |
done at school and in school hours, |
but the studying that must be done at
home.
Parents stand aghast at the amount
of lessons brought home to be done
before the morrow, marvel at a sys-
tenn that can ask so much, see their
children droop and finally break down
| and-do nothing except exclaim to
| themselves, condemn the system, and
write to this or some other magazine
or paper and ask, "What shall we do
what can our children do but obey
or break DOWN.
This is about on a par with the pro-
test of man addicted to drink, who
said in explanations: "How can I
stop? The saloons are there; they
invite and drink!'' The two view
points are equally sane.
Schools are supported by the pub
lie; they will be, in their character
and in their studies, exactly what the
public allows them to be; nothing bet
ter. In other words, it is for the par
ents to say what their child shall
study. 1t is perfectly senseless that
a child shall bend to a system: the
system should bend to the child. But
just so long as parents accept what
is laid out for their child, whether
that child can stand the strain or not
just SO loEg have they themselves to
blame for their childs physical or
mental condition.
A father took his boy of ten to a
: school and said to the principal: 81
want to enter my boy, but it must be
upon one condition: 1t is perfectly
right that you should ask him to work
and study during the five hours that
he is at school: l expect him to do
that, and I look to you to see that he
does do that. But at the end of those
five hours 1 want him to be through: F:
| CLC CSt VI IAS ddy ID IO1 play uGI Z
must be no home study whatever: no
l lessons brought home. If any are
: brought home it shall be by my order
that they are brought back in the
: morning untouched and unlearned."
/ Il can hardly see how that can be
DONE" said the principal. "It would
be making an exception of your boy.
| l,
: do some home study: not much, but
some"
Very WELL" said the parent, my
5 boy does not enter
That parents stand came to ears
q of five other fathers and appealed to
2 their reason; each took the same
: stand, with the result that all six
: boys were accepted, they were made
D exceptions and while other boys
broke down before the end of the
term, these six did not, and in the
3 long run studied better and learned
: more.
4 "And," said the principal to me at
the close of the term, ''it was an ex-
9 cellent experiment. My heart rejoiced
l when Mr.. A took his stand and the
: other fathers backed him up. I knew
l the lessons could be mastered without
e home study. but the system is laid out
for us, and we are paid to do what is
i laid out. snd not what we think is
D best. LIE more larents would assert
themselves in this way the entire
t course Of study IN our schools would
be changed and the children would be
e the better for it. But so long as par
$ ents take no personal interest. in the
!. schooling of their children things will
:, go on as they are, and all their writ
I ing to magazines such as yours will
: avail naught. The schools are the
5 servants of the people; what the in
e teHigent part of the public says they
shall be they most assuredly will be-
r. = You believe, then, that this home
V study is injurious to the average child
t and is also unnecessarily was asked
2 sI do, emphatically," he replied.
2 There is no earthly intellectual rea-
5 son why boy or girl under sixteen
should be asked to take home a sin
gle lesson and there is every physi-
2 cal reason why he or she should not
!, That means, practically, that the
courses of study would have to be
, changed. But such change would
I be for the better. It would mean a
better systcmatization of the studies
which are worth while, and a COM
plete elimination of those which are
t not and which now simply lumber UP
AZ a child's mind, with no use to the
child nor to anybody e1se-except the