Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1910-03-18

is to correct this thought tramping, to
concentrate the mind upon one definite
thing. If a boy solves his problem in
geometry, algebra or arithmetic and
gets his result by good hard work, do
you not think that the training he has
SO acquired will help him to meet the
far harder problems of existence. ]
care not If my pupils three years after
their graduation forget their latin and
their mathematics if they only acquire
the ability to stick to something after
they leave school. If a boys foul years
in high school enables him TO reason
consistently and eonsecutively on a diff
cult problem with no mind wandering
for 30 minutes, that boy has been well
trained and his time has not been spent
in vain.
The day of the "Little Old Red
Schoolhousen on yonder hill is a thing
of the past. 1t served its day and
generation we'll, but it is not suited to
the present day type of civilization.
The poorly lighted and worse venti-
lated room, the low ceilings, the old
rusty wood stove in the centre of the
room, the long uncomfortable benches,
the dirty and unhealthy states have
vanished as do all things that have
lived out their allotted time. The
world is advancing and nowhere is this
forward movement more apparent than
in the public schools.
Today the State insists that not only
the mind, but the body must be cared
for. A certain amount of air space is re-
quired for each pupil; the light must
comein wei the left shoulder so as not
to cast a shadowon the work. A regular
reputable physician examines the pu-
pills to be sure that healthful conditions
are observed. Homes containing o II
tagious diseases are quarantined and the
school building is frequently fumigated.
Fifty years from now it will be as
much of a disg for a town to have
contagious disease as it is for it today
to have rickety, tumbledown dwellings.
Today our schools are well heated and
ventilated. The ancient bench, the
grimy slate and the willowy sapling
have bowed to the rushing tide of
progress.
Did you ever hear anyone speak of
the "Good old Once Upon a Time p"
You know the old Greeks used to talk
of a Golden Age when the gods lived
upon the earth and walked and talked
child you sought for the pot of the
gold at the end of the rainbow. But
We look upon the Golden Age as a
pretty tale of the days when the world
was young. The end of the rainbow is
a mere childish fancy, and the Good
old Once Upon a Timeo is the strsnge
delusion of those who in the cbildlike
weakness of increasing years refuse to
behold the steady march of progress.
fou and I Went TO TGhoof n the
country where the teacher had seventy
pupils, noisy, troublesome, restless and
uninterested in a little dingy, dilapi-
dated room. We were the pupil who
"Crept Like Snails Unwillingly to
SCHOOL,
Today behold the change A single
teacher no longer has seventy pupils
of ages from five to twenty and studies
from the chart class to algebra and
geometry. Any pupil in the State of
New Jersey may have a high school
education, that cost you and | at least
$3.50 per year in a distant town, right
1t his own door, for the small school
tax that will hardly pay the cost of
the books, papers and pencils furnished
by the State. What a boon to the poor
mans child who could not afford to
buy books for himself. And we in our
shortsightedness sometimes fail to APP
preciate the advantages that we enjoy.
The three "R's' of the olden day
have gone on and on, until now we
have al public expense the Academy
course of a few years ago with manual
training, drawing, and music besides.
A course that is well the equal of the
college course of less than a century
ago.
Sometimes we are tempted to declare
that the schools are inefficient. But we
forget in saying it that the students in
our schools are children, aud not men
aud women 1t may be that some of us
complain because the pupils as Dol as
they leave the high school are unable to
take charge o flour business and run it in
our absence while we fail to appreciate
the fact that w have been conducting
the business more years than the child
has lived; and that its present stage of
success is q result of the experience of
all those years. While %criticising, let
us be fair and view the question from