The Nome daily nugget., 1914-05-19

N'Seh WAS enough 10 put the then limited store of knowledge at the ser vice of anyone with the time and in- Ciination to do a little reading. Today nc ordinary lifetime would suffice for a nan to familiarize himself with the important treatises published in En- g!ish in the past hundred years alone. \ metallurgist, for example finds .t increasingly difficult to even keep moderately we'll informed of progress in that knowledge of inorganic chem istry on which his art Is bagcd. So we have come to a present. day stan dard of practical education in which an accurate comprehension of tine basic principles which underlie all knowledge, and complete mastery Cf the details of some one branch Is re- garded as the working ideal. It Is unfortunately true that large part perhaps majority, in our population DC ssess neither of these, since faulty methods of primary education have not conduced to the former. and q natural desire to keep abreast of tue times tends to substitute for the lat. ter a smattering of many things. Ex. tending the doctrine of Malthus from the material to the intellectual world it may be said that there is impend- ing an equilibrium between the worlds fund of knowledge and the capacity of the human brain to make any use full application of It. As a result. everyone is content 10 remain In cor. tact with things he does not under. stand. Thus. to choose a familiar example.
 Everybody uses the telephone bu' few understand 1t. beyond that an electric current. magnets, and vibrat- ing diaphragmns give the desired re- suit. Absurd as the statement may at first seem, 1t Is certainly open to qura- ton whether the general public has clearer detailed understanding of the world in which 1t moves than was the case in the middle ages The great GGvance in general understanding has perhaps been more than compensated hy the tremendous increase of com rleX objects of knowledge. The pLr- suit of knowledge thus appears a Inc peless race for the generality If mankind. and the present condition of affairs. in which a comparative few seek the ultimate boundaries of re- search. while the many make the best use possible of what others furnish seems likely to become a permanent relationship:
 Looking at the matter from this viewpoint, it is clear that educational methods are and have been funda- mentality wrong. being founded on CT roneous conceptions of the mental psychology of the child and perpetu- ated in schemes which are not adapt ed to secure the end desired. What is requisite is to give each child pIi- mary training which will lead up to either. a mastery of the knowledge Of others or the ability to advance th. bounds of knowledge: trusting to thc child, when he reaches the proper age. to automatically determine which of these two paths to follow. On the range 1t is the custom to let a colt 1un wild until 1t is old enough ana strong enough to work under the sad. die. It is then ropcd, broken" and ut to work 1. Something similar has teen the practice in our schools, where the exact manipulations of laboratory work in physics and chemistry are suddenly introduced with the high school course at an age at which the child has had ample opportunity for his natural aptitude for such work to atrophy and disappear. Thanks to Madame Maria Montessori. the most obvious fact that the highest service ability of the human senses can only be secured by beginning their trail- irg at the earliest possible moment has now gained universal acceptance, and it is not too much to hope that educational methods. from the primary school to the university. will soon De recast along more rational lines.
 Out of this fautly conception of edu- cation arises never ending. controversy ever the relation between general cd ucation and vocational training. In a recent report MT. Nicholas Murray Butler. president of Columbia univer- sity, said that vocational training, car. ried to it's logical result. would mean stratified and static of social order which would put an end to individual initiative and to individual opportun- ity. On the other hand, MT. T. W.