The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-07-03
sIDIs ON EDUCATION.

'chestv' about the success of his sys-
tenn as applied to his son, who at eleven
wears of age was ready for college, with
an amount of acquired learning that is
an amazement to the faculty. Prof.
Sidis has explained the method where
by he has thus advanced his son TO
be child prodigy, by saving that every
question that child asks should be
faithfully. intelligently, and fully an
swered. He saws that the proper way
to educate a child is 70 begin as soon
as the child really takes notice. All
the child questions should be an
swered and he should be encouraged to
ask more. Every infantile question
should he thoroughly analyzed and ex
planned, so that the child can under
stand exactly what he is inquiring
about, and he should be refreshed in
the knowledge of IT from time TO time.
He SAYS that by this method the child
will acquire knowledge with the same
in fact to walk or to play. "By the
tenth year. he says, "the child will
have acquired knowledge which. at the
present time, the university graduate
pain. All this is doubtless true. But
who is to teach the child all thisl How
many parents in the world are able to
pursue that system with child? How
- Ok Ia
thing that child may inquire about ?
As a contemporary says: "The pro
fessor evidently proceeds on the the
ory that every parent is an encyclo
paedia of universal knowledge -
Professor Sidis, if he has been able to
carry into effect faithfully and hon
estly with respect TO his own son the
injunctions that he imposes upon par
ents generally, is himself a greater
wonder than the child he has trained.
The greatest puzzle that parents have
in the rearing of children is to answer
satisfactorily the multitudes Of puz-
will ask The average parent is no
match for the child on the proposition
of answering questions. The child of
average intelligence can stump a par
him crazy at the end of the week, if
he undertakes to answer fully, hon
estly, and intelligently all the ques.
tions that are asked.
Gilt. ropar+oJ ra
cent dispatch as visiting destructive
criticisms upon the schools. He says
the home is dominated by commercial
ideas, and necessarily the school will
turn out mediocre children. ''What
wonder" he asks, "that the children
of ten and eleven can hardly read and
write. are little brutes, and waste away
their young lives in the close, dusty
and over.heated rooms of the early
grades of some elementary schools?'
That is all very well from the superior
standpoint adopted by Professor Sidis
but il is only another way, after all
the average parent. in his ability tc
answer children g questions and to ad
vance the education of his son, above
the ability possessed by the average
parent. He is growing for himself
more than he is Growing for his son
and more, in fact, than he is intelh
gently and fairly treating the public
schools. And vet Professor Sidis, by
| the triumph which he has won In th'
training of his son, and by his owl
educational requirements and interes
in school work, is entitled TO speak oil
the cause of education. We commenc
the following from him as worthy o
the attention of parents and of schoo
Instructors alike:
There Is a period in the childs lir
between the ages OF and 10. when he L
very inquisitivc. Everything should h
open TO the chld's searching interest
The spirit Of inquiry, the genius of maj
is more sacred than anv abstract belief
dogma and creed. / appeal TO YOU. faith
ers and mothers, and 10 you liberal mind
ed readers. asking you 10 turn your at
tention 10 the education OF your children
10 the training Of yonng generations o
future, citizens. l do not appeal TO on
lofnCiai educators, TO the clerks OF on
teaching chops. for they are beyond al
hope
The present school system souander
the resources of the country and waste
The energies and the lives OF our chill
dren. The school system should be abol
ished, and with /, should go the prcscn
psychologizing educa tor the schooImas
ter and the schoolmarm.
Being in n barbarc state. we ar
afraid Of thought. We are under th
erroneous belief that thinking and stud
causes nervousness and mental disorder:
We do not take care TO develop a lov
Of knowledge In our chidrens carl
life for fear OF brain injury. and ther
when u is too late to acquire the inter
est, we force them TO study and we craI
them and feed them and stuff them lilI
geese. What you often get is fatty de
generation OF the mental liver.
) There is no doubt but that there j
; vast waste in our common school sy:
tenn; there is no doubt but that ther
is much msdirected effort. But wit
; respect to the imposing upon chiIdre
? of educational tasks in their iufantii
: years, the experience of mankind