Year: 1874

From the Educational Monthly.


Development first; discipline after
wards. This is thetrue order ofthe bust
ness of education


Because certain studies have been
accounted excellent, as mental gymnastics
for students of mature age, they are held
by many teachers as deserving the first
rank in primary education also in spite
of the fact that their successful study
calls for the exercise of faculties which
children have yet to develop


In reaction against the tyranny Of
these disciplinary studies, other teachers
have gone to the opposite extreme, and
would give none but so called practica
studies place in school curriculums.
And it often happens, when, as is too
often the case, the teacher is one whose
idea of practical value never rises above
dollars and cents, the whole force of
school is expended in such an i'll consid-
cred manner that neither available know
ledge, practical skill, nor mental discipline
is secured in any considerable degree.


Those who would make discipline the
chief object in primary as well as in high
er education, are generally superior to
the last named class in knowledge and
culture; but their failure as educators is
none the less certain. 1t is useless to
attempt to discipline what does not exist
or what is so feebly developed that discip-
line serves only to check growth. Devel-
opement physical as well as mental,
should be kept steadily in view as the
great business of the primary school.
Mental discipline for its own sake has no
business there That remains for tie
high school, the university, or the world
to perfect after the the faculties are sul-
fciently matured to be susceptible
dis ipline The pleasurable use of the
mental power in acquiring exactly that
knowledge presented at the right time
and in the right way), which the individ-
ual will have greatest need of in active
life, will, we believe, secure not only the
most vigorous mental growth, but also the
highest discipline that the mind is capable
of This knowledge the growing mind
Graves as the growing body Graves food
The schools should supply it. The course
usually pursued at present is calculated to
produce mental dyspepsia rather than
stimulate or even crafty the child's appe-
tite for sensible knowledge From the
day he enters school for the first time the
powers which he takes the most pleasure
in using, and which nature intends should
be developed first are suppressed, and be
is set to acquiring the signs Of know
ledge which naturally he cares little or
nothing for Consequently, the first year
of school life is generally period of less
rapid mental developement and progress
in knowledge than the year before The
same discrepancy between what is and
what should be is manifested to great2r
orless degree throughout the entireschool
course.


The real valuable knowledge which
pupils acquire is for the most part obtained
out of school; while whatever of mental
power or discipline comes to them Is as
often the result of inevitable growth as
the fruit of school training. There is
need of reformation here. Teachers must
be taught to realize that mental growth is
as little to be expected from timed and
uninteresting studies (however good they
may be for adults) as bodily growth from
food eaten without relish. Our unnat-
ural methods must give place to the
method which nature begins with, and
this must be pursued in the spirit of ma
ture, seeking the natural unfolding and
growth Of the mental faculties by their
pleasurable exercise in acquiring and as
similating appropriate mental nutrition,
rather than the discipline of the mind by
severe exercise or studious application
QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED BY THE
Co. SUPT.: What incentive is there, be-
sides the self qualification, to prompt a
teacher of Mahaska county to put forth
the effort necessary to secure first closs
certificate, when it is known that he c;n
secure as good position both as to s Try
and surroundings, when holding one of
the second or even the third grade?


A TEACHER.
To THE PARENTS OF OsKALoosA. -
The regulations of the city schools re-
quires the teachers to use their influence