The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1917-01-23
CRITICISM FROM An EDUCATOR.

lfof- Eufi ihfncri n
TEACHER from Pennsylvania. spoke in
Toledo. o.. recently. Toledo Ia one
81 the few American cities that now
has a public forum where large avid
fences gather every Sunday night 20
hcar public questions discussed or
listen 30 a popular lecture. Prof
fiarnes made some startling state
ments That Is. they were SO regarded.
coming from a school teacher. lie
started cut 10 show his hearers the
great amount 81 useless information
that IA now heinz crammed into the
brains o. children. and predicted that
more han half OF the things thnt are
being taught in the schools today are
before long TO be eliminated. The
child ~ the future. he declared. would
be taught things that fitted into every-
day life. Then Prof. Barnes went on
10 illustrate what he meant By use
less information.
when ] went 10 school ! learned
three aables OF weieht-troy. apoth-
ccafy and ~avoirdupois.'' said Professor
Barnes. Yet ] do not go into a drug
store and inquire the price Of a drain
~ medicine and then order II by
drams. one table OF weights Is suifi-
cient. We should teach children 10
add up 10 . and .. to multiply up to
10 times 10. some simple factors. and
a few fractions. say up 10 one-six-
tenth. Yet we teach a child TO null
tiply By the hundreds and 70 deal with
seven-elevenths IN fractions. How
many used the fraction seven-elev-
enths in the last week. We can cut
out one-half OF our arithmetic and In
mind be very alert.
Recently 10000 letters, written by
all classes OF men on all kinds OF sub
jects we're analysed. and just 12o
words were used In them. Fifty years
Ego I was stumped in a spelling bee
on the word propinquity. Yet ] have
lived 20 years since without having TO
use the word. What was the use OF
my knowing how TO spell Il? Why
should a grover keep a barrel Of plas-
ter paris In his store for 30 years and
never sell any of ~ Why not discard
1t after one year?
I'm our history we teach a tumble
Of dates. people and places. l could
name twenty-five of the greatest msr
IN hlstory-starting with Theodore
Roosevelt and ending with Juliui
caesar-and how many Of you could
tell me when they lived? Dates. th'
way they are taught, mean nothing
We study a mess of stuff that does n"l
tit iato life. My idea OF teaching his
tory would be 20 have about twenty
five important dates In the history o
the world. With each date associate
the most noted men and places. WheT
that date was mentioned YOU would
immediately. recall the people VIII
lived al the time and where they lived
II would give the people an ORGANIZED
mind historically. In geography W.
study about poles. the equator an'
the meridians. What 40 these thing
mean 20 us? What we should know
is the significant relations TO eaei
other % the important cities and eoun
tries. We could cut out nineteenth
OF our geography and still have ici
much taught.
In a few years We are going {
have subjects taught right here in III
public schools Of Toledo that now haN.
no names. The first thing Is to b
the superior Importance % property
Property means everything 10 MS !
daily llfo. We must have things 10 eal
clothes 70 wear and places 10 sieei
That Is all property. We must toae.
more about IL. The greatest Of a
crimes tx poverty. should not The poo
child be taught TINT Il Is wrong to has
40 much money We must teach n
children their relation TO property
how 20 get property for ,hemselve
aud enable others 10 live az inc sam
time. ! have 10 look after ny brothe
and ne has ~ look after mo We a.
compiish nothing individually. 80 ~
must be taught 10 work 'oseiheT. w
must knaS how 10 take care ~ ou
bodies and something about our boo
les. This Is taught now. II NE IA
and break Dur thigh W. don's describ
IL 20 nur friends as a fracture Of
femur. Yet we are taught that
school
our school systtm has undergou
somewhat ~ a change In recon. year
The installation ~ domest.; sciene'
training and commercial Dc
partments, for Instance, were steps
the right direction. But there ntiii r.
mains considerable pruninE a. be don
from our system o. i%nstruetiui. bcfoi
al the insperfoctlons are renove
Many wni ihIak that Mr. Barnes idea