34
THE WEST SHORE.
February, 1880
pedagogue quackery.
11V . V, VKNKN.
Let nobody be frightened at the se
verity of the above epithet. So long
as it best subserves our purpose and is
truthful in its application) we feel alto
gether innocent in making use of it.
We have no sympathy with quackery
in any of the learned professions, and
especially do we feel like crying out
againit it when practiced as one of the
new sciences in the instruction of our
children and youth.
We are most happy in the conscious
nesH that we arc not standing alone in
this crusade against a very modern and
pernicious innovation. Some of the
leading educators in many of the East
ern cities are carrying on a vigorous and
determined warfare against the evil in
question, and what a eotemporary aptly
styles "flummery in the schools."
The ultimate evils resulting from the
popular method of imparting instruction
in the primary schools of our larger
towns and cities are as motley as they
me numerous. Like hcredilable disea
ses, these evils are far-reaching. Im
bibed, as they are, in early childhood,
they are literally dyed in the wool, and
it is next to impossible to eradicate them
from the delicate, cellular tissue of the
young mind. It is a stereotype com
plaint among college presidents and
professors that n large majority of the
young ladies and young men pre
senting themselves as candidates for
admission, are shockingly defective
and "rusty" in the lirst principles of
what should appertain to a common
English education, Susie (there are no
Susans now a days) might be able to
dissect the Mower of a house-plant, re
solve a Chord of the seventh on the
piano, define the vanishing point in
drawing, or even to hav e at her tongue's
end the nomenclature of chemistry, but
if her precious bang were at stake she
could not correct the following sentence
and (five proper reasons for so doing :
" It was so wet 1 dared not wear my
doc-coloicd silk, therefore, choosing
the smallest of two evils, at the lamp
on the table, laid down on the lounge
and read in the story of the Ladle's
Retreat, to where Bridget yelled to the
butler, 'That's me!'" And so Au
giistua Edward, too, might readily
trace an Irregular Greek verb through
llll its intricacies, 01 pionounce a Latin
oration, while at the same time he could
not give three consecutive rules in
English syllabication, or calculate the
interest on a note with partial pay
ments, to save his father's store from
being sold by the sheriff.
. Every age of the world has produced
its Magi who have left on record the
uncompromising declaration that there
is no royal road to knowledge; and yet
the solemn text continues to go beg
ging for adherents. If the school
houses of our grandfathers were rude
and unattractive in their appointments,
their memory deserves to be embalmed
forever in the annals of the solid litera
ture of our country for the pure, un
adulterated "common school educa
tions" which were gleaned within
those sacred precincts. For a term of
years, the old-fashioned, hard-study,
committing-to-memory system has been
denounced as arbitrary and barbarous.
Hut we undertake to say, that there is
more true backbone in that despised
method, to-day, than in all the endless
object-teaching appliances and other
patent, Stuffing apparatuses that so com
pletely glut and cumber our modern
school-rooms.
For nearly three decades, our pri
mary teachers have been stuffing our
children for examination days as we
Stuff chickens for the holidays. But
thanks to our Eastern friends, the tables
are turning, and there is hope that we
shall return to lirst principles in the
near future.
We not long since heard a good
grandmother in Israel sadly complain
ing of the rapid deterioration in our
evangelical Sunday Schools. "The
time was," said she, "when we used to
study the Scriptures; and the Bible,
without note or comment, was the only
text-book known or heard of in the
besl regulated Sunday Schools. It was
up-hill business, but at the end of the
year, we knew whether to look in the
Old or New Testament to find the story
of Sampson and the lion, and the par
able of the prodigal son. ow-a-davs,
it is not fashionable for children to have
ltd. Us, so their hands and arms are
filled with lesson leaves, library books,
Sunday School newspapers, card pic
tines, rewards of merit, black-board
diagrams, Scripture slips and goodness
knows what all."
Well, with all her muintness. we
think the old lady was about right, and
in giving vent to her own pent-up
feelings, she furnishes us a splendid
diagnosis of the incubus that now rests
upon the primary departments of our
present school system.
In a word, ottr entire educational
system stands in crying need of a
thorough overhauling. From the
prime mover to the balance wheel, the
thing is simply in a state of abject de
moralization. Desperate as the case
would appear to be, the remedy, which
is within reach of all, is no less ef
fectual than simple. Let parents, teach
ers and school officers return to first
principles, and the thing is done in
good shape. Let us lay a broad foun
dation by teaching our children to cor
rectly read and spell in their mother
tongue, and the way will be substanti
ally paved for a rapid and effectual for
ward movement.
Latin, Greek, and the higher mathe
matics, are bright and shining accom
plishments for any young man to aspire
after, but he should attain unto them in
a thorough and legitimate manner.
And we just as readily account it an
honor for any young lady to become an
adept in the classics and natural sci
ences; but let her progress, from first
t last, be a homogeneous one, for there
" all the honor lies."
The wily fox denounced the good
grapes as sour because he could not
reach them by jumping, while all the
time his mouth was watering for
them.
Should we blame children, then,
for conceiving a radical hatred for
blanches of study beyond their years
with which they have been prematurely
crammed to utter loathing ?
But we have said fully enough to
enable the discerning reader to draw
a pretty safe conclusion as to how
we stand on the modern educational
question)
At ten, a child ; at twenty, wild;
At thirty, strong if ever ;
At forty, wise ; at fifty, rich ;
At sixty, good, or never.
Il is not right to rattle; though of
course when a church needs money
that's different.
A sole stirring incident Treading on
the point of a tack.
Next to nothing A girl walking
With the average dandy.