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JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

VOL. IV.

MARCH, 1874.

No. III.

The Relation of the Different Educational Institutions of the State.

BY PROF. S. II. CARPENTER.

If anything beyond the merest rudiments of knowledge is to be given, the law of economy demands that this work should be thoroughly systematized, and here as elsewhere in science, perfection of system is revealed by simplicity of plan. A plan that is defective or cumbersome indicates a failure to comprehend the working of all the parts of the plan as a whole. We think that our present system of public instruction is open to this tion. It does not do well all it attempts charge of incompleteness and imperfecto do, because it does not comprehend in We one system all that is to be done. would lay down the following propositions in regard to the scope of public ed

That the work of education should be undertaken by the State, has become almost an axiom. This right of the State is usually referred to the principle of self. protection, as it is generally conceded that ignorance is the deadliest enemy of freedom. This question has thus been settled as all political questions must be adjusted, rather by the law of expediency than by any reference to an ultimate principle. The State as a body politic, not being possessed of a personal conscience, the question of abstract right does not enter this discussion. And it is by the same law of expediency that the only remaining question must be decided: that 1. The education furnished by the is, to what extent is the State authorized State must be fundamental or disciplinato carry the work of public instruction?ry, and not technical.

ucation:

instruction.

Shall we be satisfied with Reading, Writ- | 2. Provided it remain thus fundamening and Arithmetic, or shall we add other tal, the State may furnish any grade of common English branches? Shall we stop here, or shall we add the College The State must deal with its citizens 28 course, with its Languages and Sciences? a unit. It cannot recognize or admit The law of expediency must decide, and favored classes. All must stand equals has already decided that something more before the bar of education as before the than the common school is necessary, bar of law. Therefore the education furalthough just what is demanded has not nished by the State must be fundamental, been very accurately defined, and conse- because whatever benefits are conferred quently everything above mere rudimen- by the commonwealth must be open to tary instruction is in a chaotic state. It general enjoyment. The violation of this is time this chaos was reduced to system, principle would involve a people in all and the entire educational work of the the evils of special legislation. Public State brought into harmonious relation. | education can be defended only upon the

condition that the education furnished is the greatest public service?
necessary to the general welfare. Democ-
racy must be impartial, and give to none
what it does not offer to all; it must se-
cure the greatest good of the whole, rath-
er than the special good of a favored
class.

And ought

it not to go further and establish schools of theology, of music and painting? On class of citizens ought not to be furnished with a professor free, or at a reduced cost, which rednction comes from the pockets of others, while the rest are compelled to procure their professional knowledge at full cost, with a subsidy to the favored callings added.

An exception in this respect may be fairly made in the case of Normal Schools, as they may be considered a necessary means to the diffusion of general education. Good teachers are an essential condition to good schools. They are the agents upon whose ability and fidelity the success of the work depends; and the expediency of universal education being granted, the agencies necessary to secure this end cannot be withheld. A grant of power necessarily carries with it the means to make the grant effective. Fur

than they are required to teach, if their teaching is to be really valuable, the course of instruction that fits them for this office must be superior to that fol lowed in the common schools. A teacher who teaches up to the full measure of his knowledge, is at best an inefficient teacher, and, like the man who has ceased to learn, ought to cease to teach. If ther the common schools are to be properly

But so long as this impartiality is maintained the State is not debarred from giving any grade of instruction, simply by the grade itself. Absolutely one grade is of as much public benefit as another. Whatever can be shared in equally by all is within the proper exercise of its authority. This limitation is imposed not so much by the grade as by the manner in which the education is given or offered. The direct benefits of technical education must from its very nature be restricted to a part of the community. Any one trade or profession to be profitable must be in the hands of few, so that its benefits will be shared unequally by society, a small part being benefited directly, and the lar-thermore, as teachers must know more ger part only indirectly. Society is such an intimate partnership that no one can be benefited without conferring upon all a certain advantage; but to authorize the government to grant without cost any benefit, its advantages must be capable of being shared equally. If then technical instruction be given for the special behoof of any one class, the same, or an equivalent benefit must be conferred upon every other class. If the government es-taught, they must be supplied with teach tablishes and supports technical schools for farmers, which do anything more than teach the fundamental principles of science as they particularly affect agriculture, although it is admitted that such schools would benefit a very large proportion of the community-it should, in fairness, do the same for miners and mechanics, and for each and every separate hand-cation and the peculiar discipline required icraft. If the State pays a professor of farming, it should also employ a profess- Every increase in positive knowledge or of blacksmithing or shoemaking, for aids the teacher in giving instruction in agriculture is as much a special calling the most elementary studies, so that no as any one of these. So again, if the State limit can be arbitrarily set to the amoun establish a school of law, for the benefit of instruction to be given by the State, of lawyers, ought it not, in fairness, to es- provided it remain fundamental in its tablish a school of medicine, for the ben- character. A man teaches Arithmetic al efit of doctors, whose knowledge is of the better for knowing Algebra, and Al

ers possessed of a superior education, who have learned not only how to teach but also how to learn. This training should be furnished by the State as a means to secure the ultimate end. Normal schools are not, then, mere technical schools where pædagogy is taught, but training schools where the superior edu

by the teacher is furnished by the State.

n.

The Relation of the Different Educational Institutions of the State. 85

gebra better for knowing Geometry, and so on. We have then at one extreme the common school, and at the other the university, and between these there should be a series of schools properly graded, and increasing in number as we descend in grade, all bound together in an organic whole by the cohesion of a perfect sysFrom the simple fact that the numFor requiring elementary instruction is so largely in excess of the number requiring higher education, it follows that any method of public instruction entitled to the name of a system, will require careful organization—that is, a reduction into classes, each having a sort of individuality and a definite aim. Perfection of method can be reached only by perfection of system. In proportion as system is wanting, the good results possible are diminished, as system is necessary to secure the greatest economy in the expenditure of time, force and money. In accordance with this principle we state the following propositions:

1. Economy demands that our educational forces be so adjusted as to work in perfect harmony-no forces being necessarily duplicated, and no desirable results omitted.

2. Economy forbids the employment of any greater or more expensive force than just sufficient to accomplish the desired result.

education of a teacher is his capital, upon which he should receive a fair return for his investment. The highest scholar taught in the school will determine the grade of the teacher to be employed, and the same instructor that teaches him must be employed in teaching all below him. If one boy in the school studies Latin, the teacher must be able to teach him Latin one hour, and teach children the alphabet the next, in which case a large portion of his capital lies idle the most of the time, while he is paid for the use of it all the time. Economy, then, requires a careful grading of the school, so that cheap work may be done cheaply, and expensive forces kept at expensive work.

Hitherto the State has required no gra. dation in the work of public instruction. From the alphabet to the highest sciences have ranged the studies of the common schools, chiefly because no provision has been made for intermediate instruction. It would be the sheerest folly for the State to accept at the hands of the General Government a University to which it should provide no means of access. And so the University has attempted to do a part of this work which did not properly belong to it, and the common schools have attempted to do a part which even less belonged to them. This want of system works positive injury to the common school, if there be pupils much in advance of the majority of children, as, in the first place, an expensive teacher is required, and, in the second, a disproportionate share of the teacher's time is given to the favored few and taken from the needy many: and besides this, if there is too great a range of studies the teacher's interest will be unduly concentrated upon the higher classes.

Without this adjustment of means to ends there can be no proper system, nor will the results attained be in any manner commensurate with the force expended. Using too little force we meet with complete failure; using too much we lose all the power exerted by the unnecessary excess. The great diversity of the results desired, requires the employment of a corresponding diversity of forces. Hence the principle of division of labor finds If our system of public instruction is to here an imperative application. It would keep pace with the advance of our State, manifestly be bad economy to hire a col- this fault must be remedied, and the prinlege professor at a salary of $2,000 to teach ciple of gradation recognized and adopta district school, however admirably he ed. We must not rest satisfied with the might teach the alphabet. The cost of common school and the university, but education, like the cost of everything must make as adequate provision for inelse, will be determined by the value of termediate grades, as we have already the force employed in its production. The made for the lower, and as the General

Government has for the higher. demanded not merely in the interests of higher education, but as well in the interests of common schools. Teachers can then be secured with reference to particular grades, and thereby be enabled to give their whole time and attention to the distinct work for which they were engaged, instead of devoting a large share of their time to pupils who should be taught elsewhere. Adequate provision for instruction always increases the number of those desirous of receiving its benefits. Such provision is not found in existing institutions. The University and the Normal Schools cannot do this work. It is without the particular scope of the former, and could only be done imperfectly and expensively by the latter. Adiate schools should be as accurately degrade of intermediate schools must be established by the State, making a connection between the common schools and the University.

This is These institutions should be so located as to be readily accessible, for ease of access tends to remove every one of the hindrances above mentioned, and opportunities for good, like temptations to evil, are far more likely to be embraced when brought to the attention by a perpetual invitation.

The adoption of this system by the State involves the determination of the limits of these grades, and here we presume the first practical difficulty would be met. The common school needs a more accurate definition. The law provides that certain studies may be taught; it should go further and state precisely what studies shall be taught, and as positively forbid the dabbling in any others. The grade also of the proposed interme

fined, and each school should be kept strictly within the limits laid down. Let the common school grade into the intermediate school, and this grade into the University, either directly or through the Normal school. The State will then fur nish education free to all, imposing only the slight burden of requiring pupils to go for education to the places where the State furnishes the particular grade that they require.

We believe this provision is demanded by the wants of the people. Comparatively few of those who attend the district schools ever reach the University. The reasons are three: want of inclination; want of money; want of opportunity. If opportunity be furnished, in many cases, money will be had; if opportunity and While it is true that our higher institu- 1 money be secured, want of inclination tions will determine in a large degree the will to a large extent disappear, and the character of our primary schools, it is no result would be a large increase in the less true that the success of our higher attendance upon our higher institutions institutions depends vitally upon a steady of learning. To prove the existence of supply of students from schools of a the public demand for this grade of lower grade. A University is comparaschool, we need only take the catalogue tively useless if placed above the reach of any college in the State. For instance, of the masses; and if it lower its standin Beloit College, one of our oldest and ard of admission to remedy this evil and best colleges, the proportion of students place itself within reach, it loses its disin the intermediate or preparatory course tinctive character, and attempting too is three to one in the college course, and much dees nothing well. The General the same was true of the State University Government has endowed a University for until the reward of free tuition was offer- the State, and private benefaction has also ed to those preparing elsewhere. The endowed several colleges. The question stream of education is dammed between now is, will the State open the way to the common school and the college. This these institutions, and make them accesobstruction must be removed, and the sible to the people? only way to remove it is to provide intermediate schools to do the work cheaply which is now but partially done, and that in a costly manner by higher institutions.

IN Pennsylvia women are eligible to any office of control or management under the school laws of that State.

102

THE ART OF TEACHING,

AS ILLUSTRATED ON PENIKESE.

No one felt more deeply than Prof. Agassiz the need of a change in the methods and aims of public instruction. He was a constant friend and adviser of the teacher as well as the helper and inspirer of the pupil. The essential object of the course at Penikese was, first, to show teachers how to learn, and then to show them how to teach. Prof. Agassiz felt that there was great need of getting out of the traditionary ruts, especially in methods of instruction in natural history. In the earlier part of the student's course he deemed it of much more importance to learn how to observe and investigate than to acquire by rote a mass of facts heaped together for the student's convenience. He distrusted the methods of the books, and aimed to bring the student into direct and immediate intimacy with nature herself. This for years had been his method at the Museum of Anatomy. The great number of excellent teachers not a few of them shining lights in the courts of science-who were graduated from that institution, shows with what success.

In conducting the school at Penikese, Prof. Agassiz introduced the method which he had pursued at the Museum with so much success. One of his first endeavors in the laboratory and lectureroom was to expound his views of the proper modes of teaching.

"Never attempt to teach," said the Professor, “what you do not know yourself, and know well. If the School Committee insist upon your teaching anything and everything, decline firmly to do so. It is an imposition upon the teachers and pupils alike to require a teacher to teach that which he does not know. This much-needed reform has already begun in colleges, and I hope it will continue. More can be done in this way to improve our system of education than in almost any other.

"It is a great mistake to suppose that any he can teach the elements of a science. This is indeed the most difficult part of

instruction, and it requires the most mature teachers. Not much progress can be made until people are convinced that everybody is not capable of learning everything, and that teachers should not be expected to master every department of human knowledge. Do you expect the great artists of the world to be good Latin or Greek scholars, or good mathematicians? No more should you expect a teacher to be perfect in all departments of knowledge. To have a smattering of something is one of the great fallacies of our time. A teacher ought to know some one thing well.

"Select the most common things for instruction, so that the pupil cannot take a ramble without meeting the objects about which he has been informed. Train pupils to be observers. Never attempt to give instruction in natural history without having your pupils provided with specimens. The most common specimens, as horseflies and crickets, will do as well as any. Let your pupils hold the speci mens, and make them observe what you say.

"In 1847 I lectured in Milton, Mass., and I insisted that every person present should take a grasshopper, and hold it, and look at it. It was an innovation at the time.

Help me to make it a universal method throughout the country. Accustom pupils to bring in the specimens themselves. Induce them to go to the next brook or stone wall to get their own text books, for which they pay nothing. Some specimens are difficult to preserve, and it is delicate work to accustom pupils to handle specimens carefully. The earlier this training is begun the better. The author of the Anatomy of the European Cockchafer, before commencing his investiga tion of this animal, abstained from all stimulants for weeks so that he might have full control over his muscles.

"The study of nature is direct intercourse with the Highest Mind. When you sit down to natural history work, it should be with the intention to give yourself up to the thought. It is unworthy an intelligent being to trifle with the works of the Creator. Even to a materialist they are

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