Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-07-12
DIR. THOMPSON SEES PERIL
IN NEWER TEA CHING METHOD
Retiring Central High School President Says Tendency in Edu
cational Systems Is in Direction of Bolsheviki Idea
"Along Line of Least Resistance"
DR. ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON,

DR. ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON
- who, under the age limit ruling, is
obliged to retire as president of the
Central High School, sees peril in the
tendency of some educators to meddle
with and revise fundamental methods
of teaching.
'"There is something disquieting and
disastrous in this inclination Of many
educators who are anxious to progress,
he said.
1.-THE real trouble so far has not been
so much with the teaching in school as
with the teaching which the pupils re-
ceived at home before they came to
school and, in fact, while they were
attending. This has been most severely
felt in English. The great influx oi
foreigners in the public schools has re-
suited not so much in their learning
English as in their modifying the Eng
lish language to American.
"a few years ago the quest fol
knowledge was made difficult. The con-
tention was that the school was a gym
nasium for the mind and that one
learned to think by exercising the mind
The examinations were severe and the
requirements generally, particularly in
the higher schools, much higher than
they are today.
Following the Bolsheviki Idea
1.-THE tendency now is to teach along
the lines Of least resistance. That which
a pupil regards as irksome should be
disregarded in favor of something which
he likes better. We are really going in
the direction of the Bolsheviki, who, ac-
cording to this, have the ideal method.
In Russia now anything which a pupil
don't like isn't taught him.
"After all, it isn't a question of
what you do in school or the marks you
get, but what you carry away with
you that counts.
"The object lesson method OF today
has been pushed to extreme limits. The
blackboard and the moving picture have
taken the place of the lecture method.
1T is a fundamental fact that the
eye is not nearly so dependable in edu-
cation as the ear. That delicate organ,
which can at once distinguish sex, tenn
per, race, culture and kind of person, is
far more permanent in recording i'm.
pressions than the eye.
Dependence upon the hearing also
develops concentration. If I had INV
way, blackboards should be eliminated
from the schoolroom. I believe that a
person, before seeing anything educa
tional in schools, should first hear it. ;"
Pays Tribute to Doctor Snyder
Doctor Thompson paid high tribute
to DR.. Monroe b. Snyder, professor OF
mathematics and astronomy at the Cen :
tral High School, who Is also in charge
of the Philadelphia Observatory, and
automatically retired under the legisla.
tive retirement act.
"At an age, we'll past seventy" Doc
tor Thompson said, ''he has all the
vigor Of a man Of thirty, both phys
ically and mentally. He has done and
Is doing invaluable work at the school
and has made some important scientific
discoveries and Is well on the way Ia
other achievements Of first Importance.
And now this situation has to develop. -
Doctor Thompson believes the Board
of Education is much maligned, though
he says 1t may be in need Of more
ballast.
"The board has taken up all reforms
that have been suggested in the course