The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1914-03-19
Educational Problems.

more directly and thus make human eff
fort more effective than formerly. Wher
we see grammar introducing 'yester
day" as test of past tense, it is simply
using something to complicate the work
of teaching, for past act may have oc
cured within the past five minutes. Ir
an effort to introduce something new,
that which is decided hindrance is otter
used as hobby. Such are the partitive
and measurement forms of division now
having run. The introduction of two
kinds of division simply doubles the
work The science of numbers is one
of the few subjects in which no progress
has been made in the last quarter or
half century. A boy who was shovel
ing coal for an engine gave as reason
for leaving High school that he got too
much ''Lady of the Lake" there.
1t is said there are fifteen thousand
more girls than boys getting higher
education in the single State of Pennsyl-
vania. Does this not mean that our edu-
cational system has become effeminate?
Boise, Idaho, IS holding the interest of a
larger proportion of the boys by doing
practical work in all lines of business
and paying the boys what their labor is
worth. In the schools we often see
children who need spectacles so they
may read without holding the book close
to their eyes. Sometimes their clothing
indicates that their parents are unable to
provide all the conveniences of modern
life. Is not here duty for society to
perform? The blind may be made to
see as of old. True, they may not thank
their benefactor more than they did
when Jesus said "Were there not ten
cleansed, but where are the nine" Only
one returned to express his gratitude.
Each child today opens his eyes upon the
accumulations of the ages. He little
realizes what torrents of blood even per-
sonal liberty and safety have cost. He
sits down to warm breakfast without a
thought of the generations of ancestors
who have slept in the open forest and
eaten the scanty products Of nature.
Thousands are today wrapping their
costly garments about them and doing
little or nothing to transmit to posterity
the riches and luxuries by which they
are surrounded. Other thousands are
straining every nerve to rival or Guido
their neighbors in the splendor of ap-
pearances. Our ancestors would travel
for miles on foot or horseback to meet
with their friends and combine what
both had accumulated in LIES expe-
riences that each might be the richer,
intellectually and spiritually. We can
but admire the progress which man has
made when we compare natures path
across the country with that which man
has constructed. He circles through the
mountains, rising from bench to bench,
often coming back to near former po-
sition only at few hundred feet higher
elevation. The tunnels through the
mountain summit and the bridges across
tuS CduyOll al e ollhO 6OuASC6 VI WOAdCAs
When train leaves the track at some
dangerous point the havoc is equalled
only by the commissions of nature. When
we compare mans steed with the steed
of nature, either in strength or speed, we
may conclude in the language of script
ure that man is very respectable
''image of Cod" In some other direc-
lions man is not so successful in blazing
path. If we attempt to follow the path
of drop of water we can do so only i'll
imagination. 1t falls upon the earth.
We may see it glistening in the sunshine.
1t sinks into the earth and in connection
with elements it may hold in solution it
is absorbed into the circulation of tree,
plant or vegetable. As part of juicy
apple, ear of green corn or mess of green
peas, it may be swallowed by us, to be
digested and become part of human
body. That same drop of water which
we saw sparkling in the sunshine may
exude from the body as perspiration to
evaporate on the surface and rise as
moisture in the atmosphere to form
clouds which in turn furnish rain to the
earth. The bee hunter sprinkles flour
on his bee that he may know when the
same one returns, but we have no way
of marking our favorite rain drop SO as
to recognize it when it returns.
A generation ago our chief study of
language consisted in resolving it into
parts and studying those parts. We had
our words all arranged in classes and
our clauses, phrases and sentences class
flied and their relations stated. A little
later we were told that this was all
wrong, that the true way to study Ian
guage was to learn to build it up instead
of tearing it down.
Now we have combination of the
two. We study about whole group of
words as names or action words or mod
flying words and then some one suggests
a suitable name for this class Of words.
This is in harmony with the development
of child life. The child becomes familiar
with the object before he becomes famil-