Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-11-29
REMEDY. PLEASE?


.,., 7 could 70 among this great
audience and talk with you, ana
yten I got through l would not De
allie "a tell who had had college
education and who had not. 10"
would think that four yeaS OF IN
t,nsiye teaching would make soH'e
difference, but II doesn't Ina'
seems TO me the worst indictment
This Is part of what Prof. James
Harvey Robinson recently told a bos-
ION audience in an address on "What
!. the Matter with Education?' the
,,port of the meeting, however, omits
20 mention exactly what the ma''er
may be. or how college graduate
.tould look and act. II appears 10
l.. an effort on the part of Prof. Rob-
inson 10 register his dsapprovai OF
the kind OF teaching in vogue oh'
,us, what he would have in its place
is not clear. He is very dehnte'
however. in saying that what many
IRE pleased to call the arduous ana
painful aspects of thr profession are
more than compensated for by the
long summer vacations and full sat
urdays. As for the arduous charac-
ter of tho work, Goubt If that is
more so than most other vocations'
tha, Of the doctor. for instance
Eut what really is the matter with
education? The speaker attacked
rot only the teachers but the meth
IDS and the institutions, but what
No would like to know Is what the
harmed professor would have and
how he would have t. The world is
tulI OF fault finders. full of so-called
ieformers who either can not or dare
net advance a method for improve
ment. It's so much easier to tell
what one would do shan explain how
one would do 1t. especially. as in at
tempting that. the unworkableness OF
TIE plan might he exposed.
We haven't the slightest doubt but
the methods OF instruction could be
improved, but We haven't found a
euro nil, or anyone who has. We re-
call experience with an occasional
teacher who could make dry sub
jccts interesting and under whom we
profitcd as under none other. They
got the work out of the pupils in
such manner that the process was
pleasant rather than otherwise. That
VIC attributed to the personality of
tho teacher rather than to the meth
cd or tho curriculum. If plenty Of
such may be found and put to teach
ing the problem would solve itself.
As might be expected Ex- President
1Iadley OF Yale writing for Harper's
Magazine secs that our methods for
education Offer much room for i'm
rrovement but he does not leave the
mattel there He secs that education
In Its true meaning is bringing out"
rot putting in" that society is not
concerned with what people know
hut with what use they make Of their
knowledge 1T wants men who can
verify Information. see what bearing
II has on their own conduct, and act
accordingly This is thinking, in the
practical sense Of the word: and the
habit OF thinking in this sense is the
hat T. ~..A-
have the schools teach. whatever else
they do or leave undone."
Manifcstly examining the heads Of
the pupils with a smattering of in
formation respecting everything I'M
Ger the sun doesn't give the average
pupil much time for thinking on his
own account There are those who
believe that the student was made
more self-reliant and dependent on
his own efforts in the days now past
when the curriclu.l looked bare and
a,eaSrs In comparison with those Of
Soday. Which Is not saying that the
Cid methods were altogether better
Tut should excite our interest to in
sist on = practical as well as a pro-
fcssionai view of the educational
rroblemA
And while we are consulting the
experts we should not overlook DR..
Eliot. who declares our pupils are
desperately in need OF religious
teaching" should be taught duty, the
meaning OF loving their neighbour
and the like. The pupil may wonder
low the curriculum may be stretched
to make room. but some-and possi-
bly, the pupil. too-will think no
harm will be done " something ID
dropped out to make place for a lit :
lie instruction in good morals II
nothing more.