South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-11-14

The shadow of the old classic idea
still hangs over our educational svs-
tenn In place of Greek and Latin
We have modern literature. In
substitution for Homer and Virgil we
have the up-to-date spinners OF
words and yarns.
The young mind is taught TO look
up 10 some clever story writer as a
great genius and his craftsman
ship and crude ventures in Inter
preting life and character" are set
up as models of intellectual achieve
ment- The pupil is made TO feel
ashamed II he does not know about
the methods and performances of
these masters but nobody points
the hnger Of scOrn at him if he can
not tell why the moon changes its
figure as it travels through the sky.
In truth l have reason 10 suspect
that some Of the teachers themselves
would have difficulty in explaining
that
the world is held back by such a
system Of education as this. Iiteray-
ture should be the dessert on life's
table; but it is made the main dish.
/ find my little girl knows all about
Carlyle, Kipling ct al, but if she
knows anything about the sun and
moon her knowledge is not derived
from her school teachers.
She reads Burke on Cancellation, "
and kim" and the Essay on Burns. -
as prescribed studies. but somebody
outside the school has 10 teach ner
10 read nature. a greater orator.
preacher and romancer than all the
word weavers put together. We
ought TO count the age as long past
when learning" was regarded as
identical with the ability to write
and to scan Latin verse, a la DR..
johnson, but the spirit OF that age is
with our educators still.
OF course, 1 do not mean to de-
cry literary education, kept within
reasonable bounds. but it is not lit
erature that has pushed mankind TO
the point Of mastery over the forces
of nature which, with much labor.
and the expenditure OF much time. il
has, at last, reached. Let us be lust
TO ourselves and to our descendants.
"A very few story tellers will am
ply suffice for the worlds needs, and
1t is robbed of its need of real labor
ers in its teeming and waiting har-
vest fields when thousands Of young
minds, in every educational center.
are imbued with the notion that they
may be inchoate literary geniuses
To return TO the question about the
moon, and this perhaps is the hun
dredth time that 1 have heard il ask
ed by educated" persons. The WIS.,
ible form Of the moon changes he
cause, first, IL shines by rejecting the
light OF the sun and not by giving
forth light of its own, and second
because it travels around the earth
in such a way that il is sometimes
between the earth and the sun and
sometimes on the opposite side of
the earth from the sun.
At the beginning of the month
Qunar) the moon is between the
earth and the sun, and being an
opaque body, the sunlight cannot
pass through it, so that il is invis-
ible to us because the side of il that
receives light from the sun is turn
ed away from the earth. AS il swings
out from the line between the sun
and the earth part of that half
of the moon which is illuminated be-
gins TO come into view from the
earth. and this part has the form of
a crescent, because il is the edge Of
a globe or sphere.
You can graphically illustrate this
by taking a globe and passing il be-
tween you and a lighted lamp. The
farther it gets out of line with the
lamp the more Of its illuminated
side will become visible in the shane
of a new moon" When the moon
has reached a point at right angles
to the direction of the sun we see its
illuminated half sideways, or. in
other words. it appears as a half
moon.
AS il begins 10 swing round to-
ward the earth opposite the sun. the
visible portion OF its Illuminated
hemisphere increases to a "gibbous"
or oblong shape. and finally when it
is exactly opposite the sun, as seen
from the earth. the whole of its il
Illuminated face is turned toward US.
and il appears as a full moon"
Elementary as all this seems. I
have reason TO know that il is a
mystery TO thousands although il
should not be If astronomy. the
mother Of the sciences" were taught