The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-07-23

uoWn 10 WOOu ana stone,
Re don't obey no orders unless they is
his own.
The 'eathen his blindness must end
where e began.
But the backbone of the army is the
commissioned man"
--Kipiing.
General Robert e. Lee once said TO
n young student: THE most valuab
advice / can give YOU is to cultivate
willing obedience TO authority" In
this expression General Lee struck the
keynote Of successful military sys-
TEN.
Any system of education is open to
many objections The very fact that
IL is a system means that it has clear
~ indicated mutations; and the most
strenuous advocate or any special
method would hardly claim for it uni
versai application or perfect efficiency.
And Yet the persistence OF The So
called military school in the face of
the opposition OF many persons who
follow all the softer implications OF
modern pedagogy seems to Indicate
that this Special form OF developing
machinery possesses powers all It's
n.
acterized the common school practice
OF recent years as "saccharine be-
nightly and every student of modern
methods must feel the partial truth
OF this criticism. In turning away from
the idea OF the survival OF the
fttest" which was the real basis of
the older schools built upon the doc
tr!ne OF effort. pur Immediate pre-
decessors IN educational theory have
gone too far. and the education OF
interest which abolishes all effort has
brought into III repute some very eff
Client factors, like the military schools,
as developing forces in the lives
of our boys. The education that
empha sizes interest to the exclusion
of effort produces relatively
weak product Real life is not, at first
sight. all interesting, and the chile
who comes to the secondary school af
ter having been fed on the pabulum
or interest for several years needs
some OF the defects Of character pro-
duced by his earlier training.
Advocate of Modern Methods.
In writing the above / realize that
am rendering myself liable TO mis-
Interpretation. l am strenuous ad-
vocate OF modern methods, but l be-
llcve In testing each theory by eXpe-
rience before giving unreserved ad-
herence TO it. My own experience has
taught me that the boys who come
10 me from the softer schools of the
last ten years are not as we'll equipped
for LIES battles as we were at their
ages While this is true. they pos
sess some things we did not nave.
They are, in plain English, special
products requiring special treatment.
And this last sentence indicates the
greatest gift OF modern times to edu-
cational practice and theory; namely,
the shifting of the emphasis in edu-
cation from the subject matter of IN
struction to the pupil instructed. If
modern education had no other claim
upon the future 1t would live forever
because of this.
In modern theory each hoy must
be considered an individual soul need
ing individual and special treatment.
and once this idea is grasped much
that appears to the uninstructed critic
as superfuous and even eXtravagant IN
q modern school becomes plainly neces-
sary.
put yourself in the place of a school
master and try TO realize his prob
lens II he is conscientious he will
regard each pupil as special charge.
and will ask in each case, What can
] do to help this boy develop the best
that's in him? What does he need to
correct? What should he require SO
that there may be harmonious de-
yelopment of the whole man into at
tractive individuality and effective
ritizenship?" In every case the school
master will find that the boy before
him has acquired many bad habits.
both of thought and of action
These must be corrected. and the
instrument best adapted to do this
must be selected With these ideas
held in the background of our mind,
let us examine, for few minutes,
what a military school may do for the
average. normally constituted boy
First of all let us analyze the boy.
we shall find that he is young
gentleman bent upon having his own
vay. and that he needs some whole
acme restraint. Partially through his
home environment and partially from
the method of his elementary school.
he has imbibed the idea that his own
way is the best way. and that his IN
terest, as he sees 1t. is to be con
served. If our boy is athleticaiiy IN
c,ined he will probably be healthy
,e,low but only partially developed
In his physical system. IL he Is not
athletic he will need much carefully
sunervised exercise to bring him up
TO his best physically. If we were 10
go unexpectedly into his room we
should probably ind a bad state OF
affairs: and Il careful examination
of his boots, his clothes or his person
would in all probability. 5hock ms
parents AS for his attitude toward his
studies his tasks it is. at best toler-
alton of necessary evils and at worst
omen rebellion against them.
In all this l am speaking OF the
normal healthy boy, the average lit
tie fellow who goes off to school for
the first time. There are many eX7