Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1911-12-21
THINGS TALKED ABOUT.

llIllvUO lHLIlLD HDUUI.
If our valued correspondent .Tix, .
will sit in the Penna. Station, Phila-
delphia, half hour, and watch the
cooler, many of his objections to the
individual drinking cup law will dis
appear, and perhaps he will conclude
that the cup monopoly are not alone
in thinking the law a good one.
It seems that some of our State
educators had rude awakening last
week when they found some poor
spoilers, poor grammarians, and poor
matKematicians in the Normal School
We suspect they would have found
them there any year since the Normal
School was established and the next
generation of State educators will
find another crop there. If these
same educators had gone to dime
museum they would have found a
freak who could solve any sum pro-
pounded in the twinkling of an eye
or add yard of figures at a glance.
The freak is earning a living in the
museum but he couldn't anywhere
else.
##**
Teachers might drill" the pupils
in readin', 'ritin and 'rithmetic all
through the first eight grades and
even then some would pop UP in the
Normal who hadn't mastered fractions
and others who couldn't spell all the
catch words in the dictionary.
4 4 4
We don't know that there is any
more reason why we should expect
the doctors of education to agree than
the doctors of medicine, law or reli-
gion; but every one will acknowledge
that the schools of to-day are vast
improvement over those they attended
a few years ago.
*x*#*
AS to the criticism that present
methods are not practical, that it is
all directed to a preparation for col
lege, that the student in the grammar
school and high school should be
taught in the direction of the busi-
ness in which he proposes to engage,
A. L.. Moreau, of the Freehold Tran
script, writes: This does seem
to be good theory, but few girls or
boys have decided, even up to their
last year in high school, as to the sort
of business they will enter, and il
they did decide probably two-thirds of
them would change their minds on
leaving the high school. In nine cas-
es out of ten a boy goes to work at
what he thinks he is going to like. or
where he can find vacant job. What
he might have learned in school about
the business he goes into will not
hurt him, but only actual experience
will make him a success as employe
or as master But suppose it were
possible to train boys to the various
trades in the schools. Suppose John
is destined to be merchant, or a
blacksmith, or a carpenter, or bar
Der, and he is held down in his school
days to just what is going to be Of
practical benefit to him in his chosen
calling. John would certainly be a
very lop-sided and uninteresting citi-
zen Or mayhap Peter is destined for
the law or medicine, and law or medi-
cine is his only mental pabulum in
grammar school, high school, and col
leges. Peter might get to know law
or medicine from A to q, and still be
vastly ignorant
- Ms&*
As matter of fact, students in
our high schools and colleges ought
to study as wide range of topics as
they can possibly grasp. It would be
a grand mistake to educate them
along narrow lines. Men who have
been poor writer's, or poor spoilers, or
poor mathematicians or Indifferent
grammarians, have still scored mark
ed successes in various walks of life
in spite of these drawbacks, for it is
not always the case that even a coll
lege graduate has thorough grasp
of the three RS" But a man or "a
woman may be perfect in "the three
RS, and yet be but indifferently edu-
Gated, and totally uncultured. Cram-
ming facts is not education, and
knowledge gained from books is not
wisdom. The school or college course
is only the preparation for the edu-
cation which will come thereafter. and
the wisdom of the student will be
shown by the manner in which he ap-
plies the knowledge of the schools to
the practical affairs of life. /"
Some teachers feel hurt at the
criticism expressed, but this should
not be. There are talented men in
every community who could do the
legal, political. religious and mer-
chandising business of the town bet
ter than those who are giving the
best in them to the task And after
all, the kicker has his place, and
sometimes he starts a good thing.
Error In Figures of County Road Cost
In our issue of last week, we inad-
vertently gave the wrong figures on
one item in the cost of the Woodbury.