The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1912-01-21
EDUCATIONAL REFORMS.

|" ONE one has said that Nothing is constant
H as change In every phase of life, this is
A true Nothing remains absolutely the same.
This law of change, for such it to be- is nowhere
perceptible made manifest than it is in
our public school education The Old Field School is
an institution OF the past The odfashioned school
master is longer the master mind ana moving
spirit OF any community. The days in which he vgor
ousy welded the and birch rod gone
return. The older generations living today well
remember how the essential and fundamental princi-
pies of knowledge drilled into them day after
day They had drills continually, and when you in
quire into the results of the methods in vogue then,
YOU amazed, for they We're great. While those
old methods may be considered crude and of date
will have acknowledge that thorouehness in
the fundamental branches was considered of para
mount Importance and by the time a pupil had fin
ished the school course. he spoke well,
spelled even better and could figure remarkably we'll
without rule in front OF him follow. He learned
to think and reason He equally as we'll up in
geography and history, and knew Nature from actual
with her.
To the drills of former DAYS have been added the
frs of the present day. The elements of beauty.
culture refinement finish and of mere varnsh at
times have been introduced in the schools of today
with the result that the fundamental branches
frequently neglected to greater less extent. Fris
and furbelows are very pretty to look but they
are of little practical value A handsome gown de.
signed to bring out the beautiful points of a woman
and adorned with reasonable amount of proper trim
mnes is certainly to be preferred TO simple Quaker
dress, but the ornamental part of fashionable gown
performs but little service toward keeping the
warm. SO it is with the education of girls and
boys. II is very easy matter to give much time
and attention to those things which but the rufle
of the garment of educaton> However, there
to be exenuating circumstances which explain
why the ornamental branches given so much
time the expense of the essentials. One is the in.
desire of both teachers and pupils shine and
many parents have reached the point where they
satisfied with the educational progress of their chill
dren if they perform" we'll Drawing. modelling, sing
ing, basket making. sewing, cooking dancing, and
gymnastics are splnedd for exhibition purposes.
In the matter of school government. the strict dis
cplne OF the old schoolmaser has been forced
retreat before the eternal feminine, and the use of
schools the result of fads, State Superintendent
the principle of moral suasion, the result which
is We get more of species of poish-aso more
ignorance.
schools, the resulof fads State Superintendent
c. p. Cary OF Wisconsin said occasion: 1T
that have lost both the of and the
desire for thoroughness in what do in schools
barring, of course, worthy exceptions. We
have been passing through period of reaction against
the narrow pedantic. sefsufficencv and the dreary
grind OF the three RS OF your school days and mine
We have gone extremes in this reaction We have
foloNed idds of various kinds. Is it not time to
to that middle ground, where may avail
ourselves of much of the benefit of the typical thor
oughness of the older days in few things, and, at
the time hold fast some. least of the
richer. inspiring things that have found their
way into the curriculum in years.
DR. Il. \. White. vice president of the Board of
Education in Chicago is quoted saying: Il
much faddist in education any practical dare
be but cant see the wisdom in sacrificing the
tainmen useful elementary knowledge for splash
ing of water-colorng, and little of this and little
OF that, which will never be OF any to ninety
hundredths OF the pupils after they leave school
Let our educators eliminate few of the frlls and
introduce few more drills and better results will he
obtained fhom our schools