Year: 1875

Ia mode, and obtain glimpse OF the best
actors and the opera in their season here Is
the conservative classical school and the
hcterodox liberal college where boys and girls
study books and reform theories and love-
making on the same benches; and here are the
great universities in which all the differing
educational schemes are fairly tried.


An anxious parent, unless he have an edu-
cational hobby of his own, is apt to be sOrely
puzzled in his choice, and If he have such
hobby. ten to one he is reduced to despair in
his efforts to discover O place where it will be
carried out Especially is this the case II ne
read the Educational Columns" Of any paper,
even of THE TRIBUNE. Therein he fnds IN
Vulnerable complaints of the systems OF edu-
cation in use among us, and innumeraDle sue-
gestiOns of improvement but each suggestion
il so bitterly denounced and reasons 80 cogent
are brought forward against 1t, that he turns
yainly from side to side to find safe and
sure ground. When he was boy he thumbed
and cried his way through C9sar'and Llndley
Murray. and took his thrashings semi-weekly,
and nobody wasted pity or theories upon him.
But "a for his boy Bob, it would seem that
whatever system is adopted for him Is sure
according to somebody's dictum, to make an
idiot of the boy.


The truth is, we are just now in that CROP
ing. tentative stage with regard to education
which il, rs with all sciences, in its effect on
individuals or nations, the richest in promise
and poorest in present performance. Our chill
dren's children have every prospect OF training
according to the best theories, proved best by
long experiment, in schools constructed accord
ing to the highest principles of hygiene, acous-
tics, ETC. 4; but our children are just now the
subjects of these experiments. One error pa
rents who have made this subject hobby are
most ant to commit and it is fatal one.
They take no account of the innate capacity
of their children for securing given course
of instruction. The boy must go through
classical or scientific training; he must be
drilled in mathematics according to this or
that method; his knowledge OF grammar or
literature must be instilled into him very
shortly after his mothers milk, or be withheld
until he is an adult, when perhaps the lads
brain was never meant to bear any prolonged
intellectual discipline. He has some skill of
handcraft or expertness in trade, with sound
common sense or shrewdness which will make
him a useful citizen; but bOOk-learning will
only prove a burden heavy to be borne. The
theory of education may be good; so may the
architects design of house; but the house
cannot be built without stone and wood and
mortar.


Another difficulty in the way of the Jealous
parent is that men capable of cOmprehending
the theory of teaching, and giving to it the
highest and most conscientious expression,
men who would carry into the work the
artists feeling and loyalty, are not to be found
in the lower ranks of the profession, simply
because teaching Is more poorly paid than any
other work demanding like capital OF time
and knowledge. The teacher of district
school of seventy children is paid less than
salesman in country shop; the pay of the
professor i'm the small Western Colleges ranges
from $500 to 800 per annum, not as much
as the mechanic who works for him by the
lob; the President feels himself well paid at
$4,000; professors of high ability and pro-
found learning in Eastern Colleges are paid
about one half the amount they could make as
expert drummers for commercial house;
one-third as much as a city manager pays his
first walking gentleman or lady; while men
whose reputation as teachers is as wide as
civilization accept salaries of one-ffth the sum
paid to men who occupy similar standing
as lawyers, for single case. To
put the case into figures as nearly
exact as possible, $4,000 por annum would
be regarded as an exceptional price to pay to
the man best qualified in the country to train
our sons; while first-class architect would
receive as much for single building; popu-
lar preacher would be given double that sum
per annum, and an actor who could entertain
us with as hearty laugh as SOthern, or show
as pretty face as Miss Nelson, would clear
twice as much in months time. In the case
of female teachers the rates are, as we all
know, still lower. The best paid teachers of
English branches in private schools IN this
city receive just one-thIrd more salary than a
frst-class cook and pastry baker in fashion,
able family. The public school teachers are
paid much lower. In short, the only teachers
who can make money are those who add the
emOluments Of boarding-hOus to the salary,
and only those men and women are likely to
choose the profession who take it as stepping
stone, or whose zeal for it Is such that like
Agassiz they "cannOt afford to make money"