Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-02-24
NEEDED REFORMS IN HIGH SCHOOLS


From circular letter by State Superintendent
C. p. Cary to superintendent. principals ana
teachers, dated Madison, Wis, February a.
1t would seem wise for the schools
to attempt less, and do more thor
Ough work in Whaf they do attempt
This suggestion applles with more
force to the amount or subject matter
required in given study than to the ac-
tual number of studies in any one
course. 1t is customary for pupils to
carry four regular studies, and this
certainly is maximum; but if the
work is done thoroughly from the be-
ginning and there is no headlong haste
to cover certain prescribed amounts of
texts, and changes of subject do not
occur too frequently, pupils may be ex-
pected to move along with success and
with satisfaction to themselves. How
ever, the amount and complexity of
work required within the bounds Of al
most any given subject are SO great
that the general run OF pupils can not
keep their heads above water. The
speed with which the class is carried
over the early part of the course is so
great that confusion and discourage
ment result The pupil is all but forced
to bluff his way along and he often re-
sorts to devices Of questionable morality
in order to get through and secure a
passing mark Real interest in study
dies out, as it always must when chill
dren reach the point of failing to com
prehend the principles and generaliza-
tons that are thrust in rapid succession
upon them. There can be little doubt
that in Latin, for example, most pupils
would get more real benefit out of the
study if they attempted only half as
much reading as now, with twice the
thoroughness. Our text books have
largely been written by college len
who think they have TO maintain rep
utation for scholarship among their
colleagues. 1t would scarcely do for
them to write simple, easily mastered,
fundamental sort of a text.
Americans are said, by discriminate
ing foreigners, to be characterized by
self-complacency and by slip-shod, slap
dash methods. To what extent the
charge is true when applied to our
schools we might not all agree, but
doubtless we may all agree that our
schools are not doing all that we could
desire in teaching ciearness of thinking
and precision of speech. [ believe IN
vestigation would sustain the state
ment that goodly percentage of the
graduates Of our high schools, and even
of our colleges and universities, do not
hold with firm grasp the multiplied
ton table or the simplest, most funda-
mental facts regarding our history and
government. College students ia large
numbers misspell common words in the
English language, mispronounce COM
mon words, fail to punctuate and cap
italize properly and also fail to use
spoken English with clearness, force
and fair degree of grammatical ac-
curacy. asked professor in the de-
partment of English in our own univer-
sity, not long since, what he regarded
as the chief defect of the students who
enter freshman English. His reply was
that many of them do not know SEN
tence when they see it. They write
any sort of combination of words and
seem to think the combination consti-
tutes an English sentence. Schools that
allow hazy, lazy thinking and inaccur-
acy of statements are busily engaged
!, i'll Transforming such shortcomings into
| habits. Children need to have interests
stimulated in many directions, but they