The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1912-07-18


that ae does not learn i'm school
the lesson of continued applCa-
tton, which makes for character.
I'm short. modern conditions make
life 50 easy for the youngsters or
this generation that they Ottcn
face their first real task only al
ter leaving school and entering
business. If education IL the de-
vclopment of self, the teaching
OF sclf-mastery. il il possible for
our present system of public
schools really To educate?
Assistant Superintendent a. II. Hill
appeared before the school inveStigat-
ing committee of the City Council last
night in defense of the Richmond
School Board and it's system. He
heartily endorsed both, and declared
that the public schools were being
efficiently managed, and that all
criticism was unjust. The committee
adjourned with Superintendent Chand-
Ter on the stand. His examination VIII
be Resumed at the next hearing.
The Journal has printed several eN-
tracts from a lengthy article on the
public school system, written by Lewis
Edwin Thesis and published in a re-
cent issue of the Pictorial Review.
Following is a further extract from
the article, which those who have fol-
lowed the local controversy Will find
OF considerable interest:
Herein is the nub of the whole diff
ficulty; the education given in the
public schools has no apparent con-
nection with life. Life is the thing
OF all things in which the student is
Interested. His whole mental attitude
IS one interrogation of life. What is
lifeg What do you do in life? How
DO you do it2 These are the things
that every child yearns to know.
When he enters school he supposes
he is to learn something about life.
\ .rF~ Il.
has been there a while he tires Of it.
AS Mayor Gaynor says: He gets a
disgust for the whole thing And he
gets it because we try to stuff him
full Of a lot of things not apparent
" related to life, and taught in such
a way that they appear mere make
believe.
What does a child care about the
age of Cheops, or the number of bat
ties Alexander fought, or the num-
Der Of internal organs in clam
What does he care about how far a
mythical rabbit jumps in six hops?
To him these things mean nothing.
All about him he sees men making
houses, building machinery, running
oars printing newspapers, sailing air
ships, selling goods. These things are
life TO him. lie wants to know about
them. Tell him and he will be inter
ested. Teach the fundamentals IN
such a way that he sees they are
related to life. and he Will pursue
knowledge eagerly.
In Westfield, Mass, the girls at the
Normal School used to hate chemis-
try II was dirty, smelly drudgery TO
them. But a new teacher showed
them that chemistry would enable
them to take stains out of gowns, to
determine whether they were eating
food or poison. After that the room
npuld hardly hold the girls that
keked to the chemistry class. They
that the things they learn in
pol have a direct relation TO life,
they can't be kept away from
once they were really inter
they worked-not perfunctorily
points" but with their whole
to- Know.
PIss. But Do Not know.
Working for points tS~-eH5 q me
evils of the schools today. As DR..
Sidis SAYS: "Our schools brand their
pupils by a system of marks. while
our foremost colleges measure the
knowledge and education of their stu
dents by the number of points passed
The student may pass in either logic
or blacksmithing. 1t does not matter
which, providing he has made up a
certain number of points. was II
not Huxley who arraigned our edu-
cational system in the same way I!
1--WE teach our scholars not 10 Know
but 10 pass" he said. Mature has
her revenge. They do pass and they
do not know
y But how can a child thus go ahead
under the present public school syS-
tenn? Herein, its critics maintain
lies one of the worst faults of our pup
lie school system; it is absolutely Pro
icrustean. All children must be exactly
alike or there is no place Tor them
in the public school. They must al
study the same subjects in the same
way, keeping pace mentally IKE q
file of marching soldiers. About such
/ a scheme there is only one difficulty:
'aEt does not work. The bright pupils
. Kant to forge ahead. They are dis
Aaraged by being kept back. The
pupils cannot keep up. They are
puraged by the fast pace. AnG
is worse, they are put back anc
dcly branded as failures. That
YES many of them to leave school,
Students Made Lazy.
u There is another aspect to this mat
Aer of uniform progression. 1t makes
shiftlessness and laZiness. AS Will
Allen White says in the Crafts
S Makes the tolerably bad student
- IL he excellent student the same
~ - of years to go through the
fades into high school and through
college into life. Aside from the in
Justice of the plan, consider now II
opagates laZiness by rewarding it.
Does not the system of counting equal
" for promotion every grade except
absolute failure instil into youth the
belief that life is a lottery? Suppose
that the student who does excellent
work might be graduated through the
schools into life two or three years
ahead of his easy-gOing fellows.
Would there not be an immense gain
in the moral sense of that youth? All
those about him would see industry
rewarded. He would see that indus
try prevails, that sincerity counts.
n. But by example, as well as by
precept, youth is taught that the gen.
tleman is an idler. Schools must
teach industry. But to teach men to
work, the rewards must be sure. Boys
and girls should be taught by every
mechanism of the system that good
work pays better than poor work"