Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1912-04-12
Children Cry
FOR FLETcHER'S
G a 8 T O RIA
Agaln-rhe Non-EssentiaIs i'm
Education

attention to certain features of her
testimony given on Thursday, the last
day she occupied the witness stand.
Miss Malonee, as we have before had
occasion to point out, is "a teacher in
Richmond elementary school; chair
man of the executive committee of
the Elementary Teachers Association,
and is earnestly enlisted in a cam
paign to simplify the scheme of
public education rs at present admin
istered in many communities of the
State. On Thursday evening in the
course of rigid cross examination
by Assistant Superintendent Hill,
Miss Malonee was questioned and
gave answe.s.as follows:
Nov as to the drawing and
painting and clay modelling, 90
you think that your children are
required to do too much ?"
Yes, sir, | do. -
How much of it should be
eliminated, do you Think"
"All of it,"
Isn't it necessary to train
the brain and hand together?'
When | teach child to write
consider that am training tho
mind and brain together.
A sensible and admirably deft
reply. surely. But the best was yet
to come. After Mr.. Hill had elected
to go into technical examination as
to the best means of cultivating the
elemental instincts of children, Chair
man Pollock, of the Investigating
committee, promptly requested Miss
Malonee to read from the guide
sheets some of the games required of
the pupils-whereupo the fearless
young teacher told
how they chase imaginary chick
ems. and watch imaginary monkeys
climb up and down an imaginary pole
while huge imaginary elephant in
Imagination swings his imaginary
trunk from side to side"
This recital" says the Richmond
Evening journal, $50 convulsed the
committee and the large audience
that it was some minutes before the
investigation could be continued. {"
And no wonder. But the revelation
has its serious as well MS amusing
features. If school children arc re-
quired by their teachers to pursue
imaginary fowls and visualize climb
ing monkeys and see elephants grace
fully swinging their trunks when
there are really no elephants and no
trunks in the neighborhood, it be-
comes pretlnent to inquire what's the
purpose of it all? To cultivate the
powers of imagination? But why en-
ploy school hours and school facilities
and school teachers as imagination
developers? What good can result
What more profitable result can be
wrought than may be easily realized
from ghost stories told at home
What is more profitable than to thus
force the young mind to go daily on
imagination sprees-and subtract the
time thus consumed from that which
used to be devoted to the essentials
in education. Oh, but the children
must be taught to exercise their ina
gination by see ing imaginary ele-
plants and monkeys and things, and
for the nonce forget the spelling book
they must be taught TO develop
their delicate artistic touc IN hence a
daily period should be given to clay
modelling and taken from arithmetic
their sense of the beautiful must
be stimulated; hence less than neces-
sary time is allotted TO penmanship.
Let Them suffer in acquiring the
three R's-let their minds be con-
stantly DETECTED from the things in
education that they will hereafter
need as weapons to achieve success in
the busy world of practical affairs.
let any untoward condition intervene
rather than permit the school pupil
to escape the task of having his ar
tistic and aesthetic temperament Gull
tivated and fully developed. True,
your ordinary lad may not have any
artistic touch-he may not have
aesthetic proclivities, but that's a
small matter-they must be develop.
ed whether they exist or not, and the
child pays the price of it all, in the
coin of an unwisely dispensed theory
of education. That's the exasperatinp
feature of the situation.
You will look while before You fine
q better medicine for coughs and colds
than Chamberlain's Cough Remedy II
not only gives rclief-it cures. Try II
when you have n cough or cold, and