Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

begun early. Early youth is the time for acquiring vocabularies. Seldom does a person reap any great advantage from his Latin and Greek, who defers the commencement of them to the age of twenty.

We find them among trustees, Boards of Education | humanity." I say emphatically let these studies be and teachers. Their educational robes fit them about as well as the lion's skin aid asinus. Having little or no education in themselves, they have little understanding of the comparative benefits of the different studies. But they fancy somehow that the "eat and live" and "live and eat" business of man can be better subserved by the common English branches; and hence they prescribe these in unmitigated doses. For example, they keep a pupil in Arithmetic from seven to twenty, until he shall have mastered every defunct and obsolete rule in Robinson's entire series: in Grammar, until he is able to unravel every snarl in English parsing; in Geography, until he can locate every village, brook and frog pond on the globe, and give its exact latitude and longitude to a minute, thereby cramming his mind with a mass of soggy, decaying rubbish, instead of material that will burn and glow. And all this they fancy is thorough teaching. They call it a preparatory course. They take too much time to prepare. They might be compared to a farmer who plows from seed-time to harvest and never commits the seed to the ground at all.

Keeping pupils in this everlasting tread-mill is a fatal mistake, and it arises chiefly by the law's exonerating teachers from teaching anything but the common branches. Let us have more mental arithmetic and less written; defer algebraic and geometrical problems until the child takes up those studies; more map-drawing in geography, and save time for history; less parsing in English grammar, and more composition and rhetoric. Hamilton graduated at college at the age of fifteen? Does the Federalist indicate a mistake in his early education. Webster passed his final examination in Virgil at twelve. Did his career as a statesman and orator indicate that he had neglected his common English? Sir Walter Scott passed his final examination in Latin grammar at eight. Does the Lady of the Lake show defects that might have been remedied by a seventeen years drill in arithmetic? John Stuart Mill translated Greek and Latin readily without a lexicon at nine. Cicero's course of study consisted chiefly in translating Greek into Latin. Demosthenes translated Thucydides eight times. Luckily for us, McNally had not published his interminable series of geographies; nor the arithmetician compiled his encyclopedia of every obsolete rule and puzzle in figures when the boys of Hellas went to school in the Palæstra or listened to the philosophy of such teachers as Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato in the academic shades.

A few years ago, the National Educational Association held its convention in Elmira. One of the most marked features of that convention was the distress among our educational magnates, on the subject of higher education. A general fear seemed to prevail among them that higher institutions of learning would cease to be patronized. I hope ere this they have solved the problem satisfactorily. But I beg leave to suggest, that if they will encourage higher education in our common schools, they will soon find their colleges overfull with lads from the country, who, having been initiated at home in the humble degrees of science, will seek to be knighted in those higher halls. I hold that education in this country should be first, decidedly religious; secondly, decidedly classical. There is no danger of the mathematics or the ologies. They have so absorbed the attention of students in this country for many years that they will take care of themselves. The exact and scientific branches will necessarily receive due attention, as persons choose and learn their various professions.

What we need is some impulse in our common schools that will give the American people in the country, as well as the town, an onward, upward look."

A

OUR "GODLESS" SCHOOLS.

A. L. MANN, SAN FRANCISCO.

T the recent dedication of the new St. Ignatius College in San Francisco, the Rev. Father Rooney, in the course of an able and eloquent address, said: 'In education, as in other things, the Church and the world are at war; but the Church will, in the end, prove the conqueror, and will endure to see the burial of the public school system, amid the plaudits of the descendants of its ardent admirers."

The Rev. Father bases this tremendous prophecy upon the statement that the public schools train the mind alone, to the exclusion of the moral faculties, and thus, to use his own words, are producing a race of "intellectual demons." According to him, the soul must be cared for by the inculcation of religde-ious dogmas, not only at church, in the Sunday-school, and by the parental fireside, but also amid the daily lessons recited at school; and in order that this may be done properly, the Church must take charge of the school, and "Christian Doctrine" must be a principal topic in the course of study.

In the education of the young those studies and disciplines should be employed best adapted to develop the ideal man. They must not be too few, they must not be too numerous. Keeping the humanity of the pupils prominently in view, we recommend the exact sciences in reasonable measure and degree. A too exclusive devotion is demonstrably harmful and grading. The smart arithmetician, or skillful algebraist, may be coarse and vulgar in language and manners. The educated man should be refined and gentle. But the former may be only expert in puzzles and conundrums. An early attention to classical studies is therefore recommended. We say early because youth is the time for such studies-at least for beginning in them The culture they afford is various. They tefine the taste, they train the imagination, they develop the practical judgment better than the exact sciences, and they afford an excellent kind of knowledge-the knowledge of humanity in all ages; hence the study of Latin is well called by the Scotch "the study of

To this, which is not the American, but rather the Spanish or Italian idea, what I have said before seems to me a sufficient reply. I will repeat, however, that it is a practical im possibility to separate entirely mind-training

Yet these criticisms of religious teachers (by no means confined to those professing the Roman Catholic faith), have their use, and should be thoughtfully heeded by the friends of free public education. As long as the present divisions of opinion in religious matters continue, and they will unquestionably sectarianism in their public schools. Moreover, members of different sects, even of the tenacious Roman Church, will be guided by their own good sense, to send their children to the common school, that they may take on the speech and manner of a citizen of a great country, and not be cast in the narrow mould of some peculiar clan or sect. The present and the immediate future is secure and certain. It becomes us, then, to take suggestions from every source, and to weigh calmly and with even temper every objection to the common schools.

from soul-training. For purposes of scientific | and will not shrink from any such comparison. training we may divide the faculties of the human mind into memory, reason, feeling, and will; but no such exact separation occurs in the constitution of the mind itself. The mind is one, and acts with its full powers in its various manifestations, and every mental movement partakes of the qualities of every other; so that when we reason we also remem-outlast our time, Americans will tolerate no ber, and will to do, with attendant pain or pleasure. So the cultivation of the intellect necessarily affects the moral character. It is a matter of the commonest observation that men of fine education are not prone to the grosser crimes and vices. A cultivated robber or even a refined drunkard is a subject of remark, and is looked upon as a curious exception. A man learns, as he extends his acquaintance with the universe, that immor ality is a contradiction of its order, that crime is unnatural, and vice illogical and out of keeping with the inevitable march of events. "The undevout astronomer is mad;" the educated defaulter is shamefully conscious that he is a "non sequitur," and the drunken philosopher knows that he is playing the fool.

But apart from this moral light reflected from mere intellectual knowledge, the public schools pour a luminous flood directly upon the hearts of children. What can be more elevating than honest, faithful labor? To labor is to pray, and even "faith without works is dead."

Hear these organ tones of Carlyle: "All true work is sacred; in all true work, were it but true hand-labor, there is something of divineness. Labor, wide as the earth, has its summit in heaven. Sweat of the brow, and up from that to sweat of the brain, sweat of the heart, which includes all Kepler calculations, Newton meditations, all sciences, all

spoken epics, all acted heroism, martyrdoms up to that agony of bloody sweat' which all men have called divine! Oh, brother, if this is not 'worship,' then I say the more pity for worship; for this is the noblest thing yet discovered under God's sky."

I hope that this subject of moral training will receive more attention in our meetings and educational journals, and that every teacher will try to raise the standard of his school in this respect, and from his earnest thought and careful experiment bring forth something for the good of his fellow-laborers and our noble cause. How to strengthen and improve the moral character of our pupils is well worth our thoughtful care; for, as Matthew Arnold says, "Conduct is threefourths of human life, while culture is the other fourth." School and Home Journal.

FARMING FOR THE BOYS.

HOW TO KEEP THEM INTERESTED IN IT.

HE question has often been discussed,

H

"How to Keep the Boys on the Farm?" The Danbury News man had his joke as usual, and finished thus: "We hope our farmers are just as anxious as they appear to be, to keep their boys on the farm; but they The constant, faithful, conscientious dis- don't seem to take any definite action." I am charge of every obligation to one's self, one's not much of a farmer, yet can speak to this companions and superiors-this is the ever-point definitely. I am a clergyman, but find repeated lesson of the public school room; and this, when continued through all the years covered by the public school course, never did, and never will produce an "intellectual demon." How many high school, or even grammar school, graduates are to be found among the outcasts of society? The public school will place the products of its training beside the disciples of the Church,

it adds to my comfort to cultivate an acre of
I have
land, and two other lots besides.
three sons working with me, and they are the
most enthusiastic workers I ever saw any-
where. If they persevere, they cannot fail
to be rich men. Their ages respectively are
15, 13 and 12 years. Now the "definite
action" I have taken, is this:

I bought Peter Henderson's Gardening

for Profit," two years ago, and tried to put its instructions into practice, working in our vegetable gardens with my boys. Then I took the American Agriculturist, which now lies constantly on my table. Then I bought Henderson's "Floriculture;" then his "Gardening for Pleasure ;" then Roe's "Play and Profit in My Garden." Next I saw among the advertisements in the American Agricul turist, mention of the catalogues of books and pamphlets on rural affairs. With what a relish I read the contents of certain books, all the while comparing the prices of the books with my empty pocket-book! Nevertheless, I contrived to buy the above books, and also "Four Acres Enough." I saw the "Prize Essay on the Potato," sent for it; then "How to Raise Cabbages;" also Bliss's "Prizes for Potato Culture." which my boys and I read and referred to constantly, with a great desire to grow potatoes like those who had received the prizes. But alas! we did not. Besides, I had Bommer's "Method of Making Manure," which I have tried to put in practice and succeeded tolerably well.

At last, I said to my boys: "See here, boys; I don't care for money, and will make a bargain with you. You may have half the money we make in the garden; and of the potatoes which we shall plant, the boy that raises the most from twelve rows, shall have a silver watch costing $16." The youngest is under the impression that, if he is not far behind the eldest in the quantity from his rows, he may get a watch too.

I may mention another thing which works very well. It is this: I am "boss," and they know it; but I am never arbitrary. They always see my reason for doing anything, and at once acquiesce in my judgment. A part of my method is that we frequently consult together. I listen to their suggestions, and often they will suggest the very plan in my own mind. But, if we happen to differ, I show them my reasons, after which they agree to my plan with promptitude and cheerfulness. Then they are always at liberty to rest when they please. I often say, "Now, boys, take a rest," and they have frequently replied, "We are not tired, but if you are, go and rest." What do you think I do? Why, I grin, and go and rest awhile! Now, these things have I done, besides the moral training they receive as my sons. And I believe that all farmers may well do something similar by way of encouragement, and not wait until they are about to die, and then leave their farms to their children, when they can retain them no longer. Let our farmers treat

their sons like sons, and not like slaves; give them a share in the proceeds, as well as in the work and responsibility; and I believe that in nine cases out of ten, the boys could not be easily tempted away from the parental homestead. American Agriculturist.

PATSY, THE DOG.*

WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH HIS BOY?

HERE is another class of children not

Tyet referred to, that may be numbered

by the thousand, who are not idiots, or truants, or criminals. I refer to the neglected ones. They are not orphans; they have something that answers to the name of home, though in a very minute degree, so far as home comforts are concerned. I wish to call your attention to an occurrence which took place in this building yesterday, showing one type of this neglected class. About four o'clock I went down into the lock-up, at the northeast corner of this edifice. It is a miserable place, illy ventilated and poorly lighted. When the windows are closed in winter, the air, I am told, becomes so foul from the drunk and disorderly inmates congregated there, that animal life is sustained with great difficulty. On entering, I found two decently dressed men and a little boy, a boot-black, about seven or eight years old. I asked the jailor, "What is this boy here for ?" He replied, "For pilfering fruit." Then, turning to the boy, I said, "Sonny, what is your name ?" "Jim Sweeny." "Have you a father?" "Yes." "Does he know you are here? "I don't know whether he does or not." "What does he do for a living" "Don't do anything." "Do you. ever go to Sunday-school ?" 'No, I haven't. got any clothes."

6

66

66

Turning to the jailer I said, "What do you know about this boy?" He replied: "He is a bad boy, and is connected with a gang of young vagabonds who have been stealing fruit all the summer." What do you know about his father?" "His father is known as Patsy, the dog,' because he is a miserable, drunken scamp, who goes walking round the streets, and if he sees a stray dog anywhere, he picks him up, keeps him a day or two, and then sells him for whisky upon which he and his wife get drunk. They visit this police court very often. I am afraid this boy is steering in the same way."

*Remarks of Sinclair Tousey before the Social Science Association, in the discussion regarding Delinquent and Abandoned Children.

Now, this thing will go on for a while. By | peared among the exhibits at Philadelphia; and that and by, when some of this conference are spelling is taught from mere lists of words! Two visiting the State prisons, they will find that years have made a considerable change, however. It is used in many places now, and has been found to give boy a confirmed, habitual criminal. Just as such early and powerful help to the mastery of not sure as society does not interfere, will that only practical spelling, but to language lessons and to boy become so familiar with iron bars and all that enters into composition, as to attract the attenjail life, that the State prison will have notion of educators generally; and it will come into general use when our Normal Schools have arranged for terror for him; and when at length he arits doctrination. rives at maturity, he will, like Margaret, the mother of criminals, leave children to follow in his downward career in crime, and burden the State.

A later improvement - also of French devicemore than doubles the usefulness of the dictée. This brings the powers of the eye more fully into service; induces clear, full utterance; exercises the hand in a

great variety of lines, curves and combinations; pro-
motes quiet and order; and, while it relieves the
teacher from the most unpleasant and unprofitable of
his routine duties, that of oral dictation, it gives time
and freedom for other and more effective lessons.
These very great advantages result from the simple
substitution of visual dictation for oral. Signs are used
to show to the eye the sounds-the pronunciation-of
the words of the lesson, without showing the spelling,
or any misspelling; and these signs are so simple that
little ones in the first grade learn to make them, to iden-
"print"
tify them, and to transcribe from them into "
letters, with perfect readiness and ease. Of course these
signs are "all Greek" to one who has not learned
them; but they are only 42 in number, and they never
change their meanings. This makes their acquisition
and use very easy, and so great a convenience to the
teacher that after a little practice with them they seem
indispensable. Our teachers have devised many ways
of employing them with advantage. The experiment
of their use was introduced into the second grade of
the Tyrone schools a few months ago (Miss Minary,
teacher; pupils seven to eight years). They were

All our county jails are annually contrib. uting to this dreadful result. What is to be done under these circumstances? The gen- | tleman from Michigan told us that the State assumed a superiority over the parent, in its control and care of the child. This is the only correct principle. Parental rights are all very well, but the State has a right over the parent, and it should come in, by its superior power, and take hold of the child of "Patsy, the dog" and remove him from the influences that surround him. We have no institution for such children. The nearest to it is that known as "The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children." Its powers and duties, however, are not of a class to embrace the boy I have described, and we : still need a provision for such children as the son of "Patsy, the dog," Society must rescue these neglected ones from their surround-learned ings, or its burdens of crime and misery will become greater than can be borne.

I

DICTÉE IN THE TYRONE SCHOOLS.

N reply to inquiry I send the following account of the working of the French method of dictée (diktay) in the Tyrone schools, showing its claims to examination not only by teachers of primary schools and superintendents, but (and especially) by the Normal Schools, on which we depend for improvement in the capabilities of the ever-advancing wave of newlyprepared teachers. This French method is fundamental: it leavens the whole course of instruction; and that, and its great simplicity and pleasant ease of working, render it of first-class importance; of more importance to the teacher's usefulness in making good and pleasing readers, legible and graceful writers, and ready composers, both as to style and orthography, than all the "finishing" accomplishments put together.

In

so readily, and proved so convenient, as exponents of the sounds, that their use was gradually extended into other grades, viz., to the third (Miss Ayres), the fourth (Miss Harpham), then to the first (Dr. Haberacker), and lately (with a book of lithographed dictée furnished by the school board,) to the fifth (Mr. J. B. Cox), and the sixth (Miss Confer). At this stage its operation seems likely to be completed, and the seventh and eighth can give all their time to the higher useful branches.

The teachers say of the dictée: first, that they "like" to teach it; second, that it effects a marked improvement in the tone, the euphony, the clearness, of all reading and utterance. It stops the chief causes of the screamy, unnatural, menagerie-like falsetto that prevails so much, and so fatally in school-rooms; thirdly, it exercises all the muscles of the hand, because of the great variety of line, curve and direction, thus giving more command of the pencil and greater discrimination to the eye. All blackboard and slate practice is manifestly improved. The eye, becoming somewhat critical, exacts efforts from the hand to satisfy its growing taste; fourthly, a great deal of time is saved for instruction in useful and interesting branches of science which otherwise could not be reached at all; fifthly, it greatly favors order, and busy quiet, and renders the school-room more attrac tive to visitors.

Dictée is a convenient word, more specific in its meaning than the English word dictamen. It is applied to the dictation, to a spelling class, of words in actual use, in phrases, sentences, or paragraphs. the full report lately rendered to the French Minister of Public Instruction by the commission sent to this country in 1876, they say, with marks of surprise, that dictée seems not to be in use in the States; only two or three brief and imperfect specimens having ap-servation as a director.

Any of the teachers referred to, or the teacher of the Grammar School (Mr. Ike), or of the High School (Principal A. W. Greene), will cheerfully give further information as to their experience and practice, as will the writer in regard to the theory and from ob

W. G. WARING.

I

GRADE OF CERTIFICATES.

opinion, has done more to hinder the success of our schools than any thing we have to contend with-incompetent teachers not excepted.

N December No. of School Journal "A Director," Let parents and guardians take the matter in hand in a communication under the heading "Incompe- -elect live, energetic directors, sustain and encourage tent Teachers," gives it as his opinion that it would be them by visiting the schools; co-operate with them in well to dispense with No. 4 and No. 5 on provis-building better school houses, procuring better furniional certificates, and perhaps with No. 3, thus leaving only two grades.

I agree with the gentleman that too many incompetent teachers are employed, for the welfare of our schools, yet I think prudence requires that we proceed cautiously and gradually in the matter. In some counties it would be difficult and perhaps impossible to procure teachers holding certificates with no figures higher than 2, for all the schools. I am acquainted with teachers who hold certificates with some of the branches marked as low as 3, and yet those teachers succeed as well in the school-room, as some who hold professional certificates. While, the certificate is a reasonably good criterion for the selection of teachers, I have learned by experience that it is not entirely reliable. Many teachers are of an excitable, nervous and timid disposition, so far as their literary qualifications are concerned, and the "examination" has such terrors for this class, and for young students, that many applicants fail to answer and define properly questions and problems with which they are familiar, and which they are able to explain correctly in the school-room. In some primary schools only orthography, reading, writing and arithmetic are required to be taught, and in such schools, teachers understanding these branches correctly, and possessing a fair knowledge of the elements of geography and grammar, may succeed reasonably well, although they may not be familiar with advanced geography and technical grammar, and by commencing to teach in such schools, they are encouraged and incited to study and to improve themselves in the higher branches. Although I do not consider it the best policy to employ such teachers, if better ones can be sccured, yet it sometimes happens that directors are compelled to make a virtue of necessity, by selecting the best teachers that can be obtained, although they may not be first-class.

In the main, I agree with "A Director" that much harm may emanate from the employment of incompetent teachers in our schools, -perhaps he puts it a little strong in regard to the " tramp' "nuisance-but the evil is not wholly attributable to the present grade of provisional certificates. In many instances, particularly in the smaller towns and rural districts, directors are to blame for the large number of incompetent teachers in our schools. Salaries are so ruinously low, school houses so badly constructed, so poorly furnished, and almost destitute of school apparatus, that competent teachers will not compromise the dignity of the profession by accepting such wages and accommodations. It sometimes happens through prejudice, bigotry and nepotism, that competent and efficient teachers are rejected in order to accommodate relatives and acquaintances. This is strong language, but "I speak what I know, and testify to what I have seen."

If directors would pay more attention to matters connected with the schools under their control, read educational works, attend institutes, etc., we would soon have a different state of affairs in our public schools. The conduct of parents in opposing every thing connected with the free school system, and failing to co-operate with directors and teachers, in my

ture with necessary school apparatus, and paying better wages to teachers-and in the course of a few years, the nuisance, complained of by "A Director," will be greatly abated if not entirely removed.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The dots in No. 2 indicate the omission of the name of the measuring unit. It will be readily seen that if we place the name of either of the measuring units in table No. 1 in the places indicated by the leaders (dots) in No. 2, we readily have the tables as given in our text-books very much simplified. The tables above given contain all that is necessary to a knowledge of the Metric System of Notation and Numeration.

But why should the mind be burdened with even this much? In reading numbers in our currency we would not read $546.75, fifty-four eagles, six dollars, seven dimes, and five cents; and yet I cannot but think that it would be as reasonable as to read (M. 546.75) five hundred and forty-six and seventyfive hundredths metres, five hectometres, four deca meters, six metres, seven decimetres, and five centimetres. By the former reading we do away with many of the objections to the system; as the only facts then needed, besides that of a knowledge of decimal fractions, would be the names of the different measuring units in table No. 1; besides we would start the

matter where we will have to come to when, if ever, this system is adopted. R. L. WILLIAMS.

FREE LIBRARY AND READING-ROOM, GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA.-The more the public mind is impressed with the necessity of education, the more will we be awakened to the need of adding libraries to our common schools. Our cities are doing this nobly, and many of our rural communities are working in the same direction. This is well, but free libraries have become a want which must be more or less felt to be pressing on our subscription institutions, good work as they are doing, Those who are unable to pay for their literary advancement feel the need of intellectual culture, and ought to have it.

Feeling this, the small library belonging to Friends in Germantown, Philadelphia, was, a few years ago, opened to all the residents of the place as a Free

« ElőzőTovább »