Year: 1874

Ia Lecture delivered before the jackson
D. Phillips, of the NATIONAL NORMAL, Gin
cinnati.l


No teacher is willing to admit that
there is any other calling more noble
than teaching; yet the average American
teacher is said to be like the average
workman, namely, he earns his wages as
easy as he can. Teaching school, there
fore isseither trade or profession. A
trade is mechanical employment, COM
merce, traffic. The primary object is to
make money. A profession is a liberal
occupation, science, demanding the ex-
ercise of the highest talent and the sub
ordination of the mere physical wants.
In other words, the teacher who is a
tradesman is engaged in mean business
traficking with the immortal minds of his
pupils. Are you professional teacher
God speed you in your noblest work


BRIEF SURVEY OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM


seems necessary to enable US to see clearly
our objective point l trust that am
not eynic, finding fault with system
that is the bulwark of American liberty.
have this much to say of our public
school system, viz: That is as near per-
feet as it can be under the circumstances.
But that it has some defects all are will
ing to admit. What are they? l. It lacks
efficiency That is to say there is not
enough of that training necessary to fit
the pupils for life work, or business in all
its practical details. 2. 1t is incomplete
After our teachersshave done the very
best they could with the materials and
qualifications they have, our boys and
girls go out into the world, poorly equip
ped to fight its battles. They can make
no use of what they studied in school,
and find it necessary to forget it, and
learn for the first time, by bitter expert
ence, the lessons of every day life. This
is not the fault of the common school
teachers for they have craned up the
common schools to a point, beyond which
they cannot go, without calling into SER
vice some of the latent forces that are in
reserve for them. The time has come to
do this. The army of school teachers all
over our land seem to be at stand still


The enemies of our public schools are
| loud in their complaints, and bold in
| their attacks against the system. At one
| time in the history of Rome some repairs
| became necessary on the dome of the
cathedral of St. Peter. The figure of the
apostle on the apex had to be lowered to
the ground After the repairs were all
made, day was set apart by the Pope for
| the restoration of the statute in grand
style. A decree was published forbidding
any one to speak under pain of death,
while the statute was being replaced. The
skillful architect and engineer arranged
his ropes and pulleys, ,derricks and cranes,
and when all was ready the signal for ST.
lence was given. The force was. applied
and the colossal figure began slowly to
rise. Up, up, up, until it was nearly to
the top, when it stopped The supply ot
rope, which was thought to be amplo,was
exhausted. Not another inch would ii
move. To attempt to lower it, was to let
it fall. To splice the rope was impossible.
The awful silence of the crowd gazing
neavenward, only added to the utter in,
ability of the engineer to complete his
work He forgot in his confusion to call
out his reserve force. But fearless old
Jack Tar came to the rescue of st. Peter
by forgetting, in the intense excitement,
the decree of the Pope, and shouted,
| " Wet the ropes I" He was Immediately ar.
rested and hurried off TO prison. Not
another word was said by any one, but
the engineer took the hint and caused
the ropes to be thoroughly saturated with
water. In twenty minutes they had con,
tracted sufficient to lift the statue in its
place Did that sailor lose his head? Not
So The crowd rushed through the streets
to the prison, forced an entrance, took
1.-THE old salt to the Vatican and in a
voice Of thunder demanded pardon, and
obtained it too. Behold our common
school system, raised by the genius OF
the teacher, almost to the apex of the
dome of the Temple of Liberty. All the
subjects defined by law to be taught, and
even his methods of instruction are ex
hausted. He can't lower it, for that
would be destruction. He can't elevate it
| Al, l.,
and tle people forbid the calling out OF
any reserve force. say Wet the ropes r
1 may lose my head, or perchance be ex
communicated by his holiness-Public
Opinion. What | mean by "wetting the
ropes" is to give our public school system,
efficiency and completeness by amending
our school law as follows: No teacher
shall be authorized to teach a common
school, who is not qualified to teach the
Elements of the Natural Sciences, Physi
ology and the Laws of Health, in addition
to the branches previously required.


OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM NEEDS NEW LIFE
The introduction of new studies in the
course, even if some of the old "stand
by's" were wholly or in part excluded


will revolutionize the system, and revolu,
tions never go backward. The artist may
paint picture that is life like; the
sculptor may cut away the marble from
around human face divine; but they
cannot vitalize their work. The teacher
may advance his pupils from grade tc
grade, from class to class, through the
Spelling Book. Reader, Penmanship
Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography anG


History but there is point in these
branches beyond which they never go
The common sense and patience of the
teacher are taxed to the utmost to keeI