Evening star., 1927-04-29
Lesson on Beethoven.
Composers Mathematics Held
Up for Modern Comparison.

To the Editor of The Star:
All who are interested in the train
ing of young people may We'll ponder
your very significant editorial, Bee
thoven Could Not Add" in which the
last sentence particularly offers much
food for thought in our postwar ex-
perimentation in school efficiency.
The watchman on the tower certainly
must have been dozing, or Beethoven
would never have been able to get
by" Under our efficient system of
tests and measurements a chap who
has to put down 36 four times and
add, even then coming out 100 off the
mark, would be kept inexorably in the
grade till he mastered" his funda-
mentals; or, after a few semesters'
bootless retardation, he would be reso-
lutely thrown into the discard as
MORN, If indeed he did not break out
in some quite tangible form of rebel
lious cantankerousness Enthusiastically
amenable to discipline"
1t may be lese majestic to imagine,
even in secret, that ones late Victo-
rian ideals are worth taking out of
moth balls and brushing up for pres
ent-day service. The mechanics Of
school teaching, we'll tell the world,
are at last on scientific basis. Under
stimulus of q magazine editor who
complained a few years ago of the
lack of organic standardization IN
American education, the whole Nation
has stepped on it." and, as in every
thing else, when we Americans take
hold of an idea, we make 1T hum. AT
last we know The measuring rod is
accurately and scientifically notched
to the fraction of s. brain-watt; we can
direct to our complete satisfaction the
ala nd I <
with exactness and dispatch, into "su-
permen," "morons" or just plain child,
with large capacities for confusing
and forgetting-the same variety that
Pestalozzi reverenced with grand
salute, and a greater than Pestalozz1
set in our midst as pattern TO be
studied and followed.
Naturally, things creep in now and
then that we don't like to talk about.
Occasionally a teacher drops dead at
her task, and pupils, more brittle per-
haps, once in a while take the short
cut out of it all. We confess it is a
little disconcerting to pick up paper
telling a story all too commonplace
nowadays in a six or seven line news
item, no longer commented on: De-
pressed because he was falling behind
in his class work, So and So, IA, 10. 10
years old"-another instance, surely,
where the operation is entirely sue
cessful but the patient dies or heart
failure. Is it not barely possible that
our measuring rods are too tinely
graduated or that those applying them
may be a trif1e overconfldent OF their
own infallibility in weighing, with the
assurance that classification and /.
Q.'s are all that concern US!
Admit it or not, there is more going
oh than
is dreamed of in our philosophy. and
not the most unpleasant of our Jolts is
when some urchin in childish frank
ness informs you that you have been
talking ten minutes and your lower
Jaw has not moved once. Plainly, nke
Queen Victoria, he is not amused, and
his reaction is happily normal when
he shows the buoyant optimism of the
Western laddie who ducked from un-
der his rescuer's arm and with soul
full grin pitched books and all that
would remind of tests and measure
ments into the confiagration that was
taking off forever the red schoolhouse.
One can only conjecture what may
have been the more somber reactions
when we see too late tragedy stalk
in where life by all odds seemed most
promising and alluring.
However proficient q method may
be in stim mulating speed, when the nm
ished product in any considerable per-
centage shows complete EXHAUSTION OF
vital forces, that method should be
rigidly and fearlessly called in ques-
ton. The mental agility that can
solve so unrelated problems in 40 min
utes may be worth cultiyating for
some who have aptitudes for mere
gymnastics. Speed has commercial
iy, Y0nI1oh Of rnOdaFO business
where mechanical deXterity rather
than persistent logical thinking is re-
uuired; but this is specializing that
may be brought out by certain studies
of the curriculum, while certain other
subjects contribute rather to develop
ing thought power, building character
ideals or training in true citizenship.
To gear up the whole curriculum to
the same rate Of speed, 48 SECONDS 10
each of so or 100 questions, giving the
same sort of objective tests to a class
studying with appreciation the ARENAS
of Cicero or the Epic Of the Aeneld,
is like taking a sonata OF beethoven
for a five-finger exercise drill. The
Etude de Velocite might be endured
If only it could be dissociated from
the inevitable intelligence quotient.
But after you have been put through
a race that gives your brain the auto
motion of a whirling dervish and
should have handed a warm blanket
and sympathetic Good boy!" for your
auivering nerves, you are given
percentage number and told that by
rearrangement of groups you leave
your old friends and trot along here
after with repeaters and those whom
the state does not deem worth edu-
eating in these higher things. Is
madness in any of its protean mani
festations a surprising reaction? Is
no one high enough and holy enough
to proclaim the order Cease firing!E
The Master Teacher 19 centuries
ago warned, "Whoso saith thou fooL
is in danger" / hesitate to say or
what, as that may be a matter OF
translation. But we'll known writer
in the Atlantic has this to say: the
whole faculty of one college is SAID TO
have submitted to such test, with
result that the president made the
poorest showing, scarcely above the
level of moron"
Concluding, the same writer sums
up: Examinations properly used are
n vital part of the educational process,
but the art of using them to produce
the best results is highly complex and
difficult. They should therefore be IN
trusted to the mature teachers, who
appreciate their value and have had
experience in preparing them.