The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-03-08
WHAT OUR SCHOOLS SHOULD
AND SHOULD NOT TEACH
ocala, Fla, March 1. 1912.

The Woman's Club or Ocala, In TAX
ing up the matter of better social IA
cilities, distinguishes itself from sim.
liar organizations elsewhere by at
lacking live issues instead of dead
ones.
Time was when Dorcas societies, in
discussing Shakespeare, Goethe, or
the Higher Criticism, would confine
the discussion to disputes as 20 the
pronunciation of words. Now, women
are getting at fundamentals and
threatening to depose man from his
pedestal as champion of civic i'm
provement. Probably Caroline Bart
lett Crane did more to make life toll
cradle in Kalamazoo, Mich, than all
the kings oxen and all the kings
men.
Men bitterly resent any attempt on
the part of the ladies to wear the
well. authority, but nothing is more
laughable than his fatuous docility in
following his wife's leadership, pro-
vided she has diplomacy enough to
conceal the halter-and most wives
have.
Women need not adventure openly
into political fields to obtain political
influence. They already have that,
and agitators for women in politics
seek, not so much for real influence,
as for loudly proclaimed recognition,
and this she can we'll afford to forego
inasmuch as thereby she escapes the
contamination which seems to inevi-
tally attach to applied politics.
Most men, in proclaiming vocifer-
ously from the housetops their va
rious panaceas for as various social
evils, fondly delude themselves with
the nonsensical error that they them
selves evolved those formulas from
their own inner consciousness. The
truth is that the precepts upon which
those formulas were founded were in
stilled into their minds through the
media of innumerable curtain lee
lures, and the fellow is only making
fool of himself trying to expound
those principles which his wife has
patiently and slowly instilled into
him.
Along with the agitation for better
mnk.~l hnflaiuuo Il, fhn Covfb chnuId
90 work for the introduction of more
modern methods of education. In the
halcyon ante-bellum days, believe
the south had the best. Now, / feel
sure the north is in advance in fur
nishing an educational system that
prepares for success.
AS much as it is more important
what a man wears in his head rather
than on IL, is it necessary that in ad::
vocating better buildings and better
sanitation that the curriculum taught
be not lost sight of.
IL is no disparagement of the south
20 say that she is trifie belated with
some of her institutions, when one
remembers how she has borne up un-
der a series of political and economic
misfortunes, sufficient to have broken
the spirit of less resourceful peo-
pie. but though the process has been
slow. yet sectional lines are being OBJ
liberated, and the gasolene age is
making of us a nation of cosmopo-
lites. Already there exists a gaseous
Irritation between the frozen north
and the impulsive south, and, howev-
CT much the fair maiden may say nay,
nay. yet she secretly connives at the
adventure, and is anxious to com
plete a good path from New York to
Tampa, partly for the accommodation
OF her sutton.
Many of US owe much to that in
stitution, the little old, red country
school house. In spite of it's sombre
atmosphere and unsanitary outhous
es, on the walls of which that untam
ed savage-the American school boy
had etched the most atrocious ant
unnamable hieroglyphics, in spite O.
the microbe infested communistit
drinking cup and the rote system O
making each pupil as much like {
parrot as possible, there came, by {
subtle process of the survival of tn,
flttest, the elements of a sturdy man
hood out of these same experiences
Such schools are steps in a Ladder
by which humanity advances, bu
steps are made to advance by, not tt
camp upon.
The whole difference between tn,
ancient and the modern system of ed
ucation can be stated in a few words
The old system contemplated tina
the pupil theoretically know abou
things in general, and the new, tina
he be able to do things specifically
The old was theoretical, academi,
and mostly linguistic. The new il