The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1909-04-08
VeXed Problems in Education.

Rabbi Emil G.. Hirsch of Chicago says
ii is ii waste of energy 10 compel pu-
pill To study more than two hours ut Il
stretch. He is for two-hour study shifts
IN the public schools letting Il period of
manual training instruction come be
tween two periods of brain-work. 1t is
not bad suggestion. and no doubt 1t
will come to be tested on Il large scale
before very long. BY experiments of
this sort school authorities in great cities
may find the way not only toward more
practical education but toward prevent
ing the physical deterioration of school
children, of which much talk is heard i'll
every large city at the present time.
Industrial education, moreover, is
needed to bring the public schools into
harmony with their purpose, which is
as far as may be to ut the coming gen
GRAFTON of Americans for the battle of
life Surely what has an opposite ten
dency should be avoided. At present
there are many in the upper grades of
the district schools. and a-still- larger
proportion in the high schools, who ac-
quire distaste and contempt for
manual labor of every sort, and who
thereby are untitled for the useful and
honorable positions that III the normal
course of events they will be called
upon to fill. 10 crowd the brains OF
young people with aspirations embody-
ing false notions of what is dgnihed-as-
pirations in many instances utterly inn
possible of being realized-helps to
diSlOcate society and increase the num-
Der of social failures and swell the aggre-
gate of human discomfort. There is
work to be done in the world, and there
should be willing hands to do it. A
time will never come when everybody
can wear kid gloves. The IlirSch plan
of improving the schools would promote
the mental and moral as we'll as the
physical benefit of the pupils.
Another Chicago pulpit yesterday fur
nShcd another suggestion of quite Il
different character for the Improvement
of the public schools. The Rev. Mel
bourne i. Boynton, of the Lexington
Avenue Baptist Church. reported the re
suits of an inquiry among school teach
erS on the subject of corporal punish
ment He had sent out number Of
letters and received many answers, all
but one to the effect that corporal pun
ishment should be restored. One teacher
said:
There is a spirit of lawIessness and dis
respect in the schools, spirit of I'm do
rights Of others that is appalling. When
other methods of discipline have been used
and found wanting, | believe that the re
fractory pupils should be given a sound
Another declared:
70 my mind. the majority If children.
say, 50 per cent, neither need corporal pm
ishmcnt nor the fear of 1t 10 make them
ohcdcnt or tractahle. 1t is the other 20 per
cent that cause trouble and make school
teaching burden at times. OF this 20 per
cent. II per cent, would bc under control If
they merely knew that the teacher or priu-
cpal had power TO punish them.
There is solid common sense in these
remarks and teachers generally will rec
ognizc it, whether parents generally rec
ognize il or not.
However. great deal Of school mis-
chief aud characterization comes from
the failure of the present methods TO
keep the children interested and occu-
pied The adoption Of the Hrsch man
ual training suggestion would make the
maintenance Of discipline easier than it
is now. by providing Il lawful outlet for
energy which is at present abnormally
repressed