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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 1901)
10 Conservative * schools neglect the needs of the muss es and are busy all the time it. is fair to assume that they are concerning themselves chiefly with the wants of the classes. The Nebraska child lives in * an agricultural environment and ( hat should he a determining factor in his education. Modern pedagogy is very emphatic on this subject. In struction to be vital and influence character must take into account the past experiences and the present en vironment of the child. Any system that ignores either makes' most ser ious blunder. As a matter of fact , environment can not be counted out by any system of education. It is a determining factor in the development , of every child whether the schools take advan tage of it or not. We all think in terms of our past experience and our experiences are the results of contact with our surroundings. New knowl edge is always interpreted in tenns of the old. The realities of life are in the real world that lies closely about us. The problems that concern \is most are those of our own little world and the duties that should be done first arc those that are nearest us. The larger interests should not bo sacrificed to the local. That also is a mistake , but world interests should come after , and be developed through local interests. The character that expands too rapidly disintegrates. Such a one has neither steadfastness nor loyalty.Neither can he have that sense of special belonging which is the root , of all virtues , public and private. A character that expands too sloAvly results in "a case of arrested devel opment. ' ' Such a one is the narrow self-contained , self-satisfied , provin cial. That is the other extreme. Both are undesirable and there may be danger either way , but for the present and in Nebraska the tendency is toward reckless living rather than toward a narrow conservatism. It lias been said , and truly too , that the course of study is already over crowded. That is the result of a per fectly normal development and is the mistake of an over-energetic , over- ambitious people. I do not think , however , that the over-crowding is entirely the result of popular demands and altogether from without. The school master has also had consider able to do with the curricxilum and I hope it may at least , be said of him that he divides the responsibility evenly. It is small credit to us teach ers if we have stood by while the pub lic stuffed the coiir.se of study and our part was to resist as much as pos sible. There has been an enormous in crease in the sum- total of human knowledge. The curriculum has been crowded not only with new subjects , but. new developments of old sciences have added their weight and now it may , truly , be said that' the curricu lum has broken down of its own weight. The latest , reports in eastern cities arc well nigh unanimous in condemn ing the high school course. It de mands too much of the pupils. They are overworked and many of them break down physically. This is especially true of the. girls who are not. able to stand the severe mental strain. Such are the results when there is a pretty thorough correspondence be tween the work outlined in the course of study and the work actually done by the students. The pupils are over worked and they break down. Carried to its logical conclusion , the overcrowded curriculum woxild kill a good many students. That is too high a price to pay for any kind of an education. I have in mind some ambitious high schools in central Nebraska where that close correspondence between the work outlined by the course of study and the work actually done by the students did not obtain. In such cases as that the curriculum kills only moral perceptions and I am convinced lays a good foundation on which flour ish wild and windy political theories. The maxim , for instance , that legis lation can create wealth , and why not , if one can accomplish what he never does ? There may have deen a time when the ambitious student coxild know all there was to bo known , but that time has surely passed. No human being , however gifted , could now learn all that there is to know. We are mortal and hence finite. We can't know all that there is to be known , neither can we do everything in sight. It is left us , then , to select what we shall learn and what , wo shall do. The amount of human knowledge is cer tainly appalling , if one . .feels that ho must know it all. Dr. Hedge has ex pressed my feelings on this subject so nmch better than I can possibly do that I think I shall quote him at some length. "Men arc many , mortal and finite. If any one man comes to really know an infinitesimally small -part of the universe , it will suggest enough for him to busy himself about and to tell other people about for his little three score years and ten. But , really , if everybody knew everything , nobody would have anything to tell anybody else , and the world would bo in a con dition of stagnation a thousand fold deader than if nobody knew anything. The Almighty alone can know it all , and He will reveal it to us according , . * to our strength and in His own good time and way. ' ' To acquire a vast amount of information is not to be come educated ; at any rate it is educa tion at a very low plane. "An edu cated man is an electric battery of thought , not a walking encyclopedia. ' ' There is a vast amount of informa tion that belongs , properly in books , and it should bo loft there until it is needed. The brain is an organ with which to think , not a house in which to store facts. The question of the school curriculum is a vexed and vital one , and it is xip for settlement. It is not possible to say how soon the set tlement will be reached , that will probably vary for different localities. One is safe in asserting that the pub lic shools will never bo entirely satis factory to all the people. That is not altogether because people are prone to find fault. Human institutions have their limitations and a perfect adjustment is not possible. People are more or less selfish , and insist upon class privileges in school as they insist upon special and class legislation in the nation. The way to combat either abuse is by fighting the special and concrete cases , and that , of course , results in making some particular individual or II group of individuals , angry at you ' ' and they will generally make it as un pleasant as possible for the parties who go against their wishes. The offended party may bo an influential member of some rural school board , who wishes the country school to fit his son for the State University , or his daughter for a teacher , or it may be one of the many protected indus tries that respectfully solicit special and favorable legislation. Reforms , like all things worthy , must be bought with a price. At our present stage of development , we cannot make the common schools perfect , but they might be greatly im proved. They are out of adjustment to existing social conditions , the mis fits are far too numerous , and we have drifted far from the fundamental prin ciples on which free public schools are based. The schools arc for the masses , not for the classes , and it is their duty to train primarily for life , not for the school. That is the the ory , and I think no one would gain say it. But what of the' practice ? When it is the customary and usual thing for people to judge the worth of their schools by the number of the pupils who can get certificates and teach school , and by the amount of accredited work done for the State University , then I say the fundament al truth that ' ' the schools are for the masses , not for the classes , " has faded from the public mind. The teachers are a class , a very im portant class , it is true , and they should certainly be bettor qualified in
