The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-03-30


superintendent if he had not been. We
have pretty good opinion of Mr..
Sears, and this bill is about the only /
one of his we ever objected to. Wei
do not object to school teachers as
statesmen, but we would hate like the |
dickens to live in a country where
they were the absolute rulers. And |
if the already large influence of the
teachers in this country was backed |
up by military class composed of
high school students, according to Mr..
Sears law, we and other people out |
side the pedagogical profession would
have to tend school all the time or be
dosed with strap oil, which we never
did like.
We have taken no part in patron
izing remarks about Mr.. Wilson or
any other school teacher who has gone
into politics. But we find no evidence
in history that the school teacher
marches forward and upholds the
torch of intelligence, illuminating the
dark corners of the EARTH" The teach
ers are busy little illuminators, all
right, but about ninety-nine times ia
hundred somebody else marches
first into a dark corner of the earth
and puts up torch, and then sends
for teacher and tells him to keep the
flame bright, continuing meanwhile to
provide the fuel.
But in all this we have not explain
ed any Of our references to superfu-
Gus studies.
Any practical man who has chill
| dren, if he will take a look over the
books now loaded on the pupils in our
public schools, if he will consider the
bearing of those studies on the life
work of his child, in the light of his
own experience, can judge of this
matter better than we can write
about it. 1t is partly because we have
heard the opinion of many such men
that we have expressed the opinion
that public school education is spread
out too much.
There is no disputing the fact that
school boys and girls in the higher
grades have too many studies, that in
order to pass their examinations,
they "cram" for days, and nights,
aforetime, and brain like a stomach
never assimilates what is crammed
into it. Take the average high school
scholar two Or three years after grad
uation and you will find that he or she
has forgotten a large proportion of
what had to be learned in order to
graduate.
This is particularly true of Latin
1,
study unless one intends to be doc
tor, druggist, lawyer or teacher, and
in case of the first three they must
learn good deal of Latin not
taught in the schools. Some say that
a knowledge of Latin is necessary to
enable one to understand English; if
this is true, there are not hundred
thousand people in America who un-
derstand English well enough to talk.
The average boy or girl wastes his
or her time on algebra or geometry.
Except in certain callings they have
no use for it in business life. We all
know how most of the examples are
worked. They are struggled thru
with by painful effort, often with the
help of some elder-and completely
forgotten as soon as school life is
over. In the meantime, the average
scholar proficient in the higher math-
ematics is woefully deficient in abil-
ity to apply ordinary arithmetic,
which is most useful, and should be
drilled into the head of every scholar
until it will stay.
French is taught in many of our
high schools. French is a most use
full language, but as taught in the
average American school it is a joke.
Botany and zoology are two nice
studies, if anybody wants to be
learned in them, but they should not
be taught in public schools. For one
thing, only superficial knowledge of
them can be obtained from books; for
another, they are of little or no real
use.
IL the time put in on studying lit
erature was applied to ordinary
grammar and rhetoric, the average
much better letter, and without, as
some editors could testify, putting the
middle of sentence at the end
/ There is no sense in teaching agri-
culture in public school. Physiology,
as taught in our schools, is a good
deal of farce.
We do not think it is any business
of public school to teach music or
domestic science-for making which
assertion we expect to get it in both
sides of our neck at once.
A result of the multiplicity of stud
les is the multiplicity of teachers and
multiplicity Of books. If there were
not so many teachers, those we had
could be better paid. If there were
not so many books, many children
would not have to stay out of school
In looking thru the list of books
that pupil must use in the Ocala
schools, we find six devoted to SPELL
ing. A scholar can learn from a Is
cent blue-back speller every thing
useful he can learn from them all
and remember it better.
The list of books from first grade to
twelfth numbers sixty-seven. Their
cost makes it impossible for many
families to send their children to
school after they are twelve or four
teen years old. Several of the studies,
as we have already said, are utterly
unnecessary. Several more should be
taught only in private schools. It is
easy to see from a number of the
books that the studies overlap-that
/ is, that book in one grade runs back
INTO one in the previous grade, in