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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1900)
:!i I r- ' H v VOL. XV., NO. I Tf r 4s- r ' ESTABLi:lilL W io-l lS S'trn - i . . " . vfs LINCOLN. NF.BR., SATURDAY. JANUARY G, 1900. est and most scholarly of tlie mem- edge of numbers and their relations school books on nature. phjiJsjy bersof the barjin Lincoln. is not so essential to American young etcetera, know little about xratnniar It was indeed Noah who establish- men and women as a knowledge of and le about the lucid expre-wa ef ed agencies fur the collection of wild English grammar and English com- their own or others ideas, and domestic animals. lie it was position. Yet children are graded by Entered in tiie fostoffice at Lincoln as second class mattes. THE COURIER, Official Organ of the Nebraska State Federation of Women's Clubs. PUBLISHED EVERY SATUBDAY TBI COURIER MCl) PUBLISHING 60 Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH B.HABKIS. - Editor Subscription Kates In Advance, Per annum,,.. II 00 Six months....". 75 Three months 50 One month ?-.- 20 Single copies 05 The Courier will not be responsible tor vol untary communications unless accompanied by return postage. Communications, to receive attention, must be signed by tne fall name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for publication if advisable. who first understood the value of an animal not.ay meat or as a beast of burden or because it sang or was beautiful or ministered in any way to man. He percieved that every ani mal was worth preservation as a member of the family and interesting as a zoological specimen. Therefore he commissioned men of the dilTcrent tribes in his wor!d to capture and send him a ingle perfect pair of each species of animal whose range was within that of the tribe. His com prehension of the reasons for this scientific preservation of species was not less remarkable in that half-savage age than the building of the ark itself. His control of the animals, so .that peace ruled during the long rain deserves more attention than it has ever received. Moses is honored for his meekness for his qualities of lead ership and for his codification of the their acquirements in arithmetic. Life will teach them arithmetic. If they do not understand subtraction the first dollar they spend will teach them more than the rules of a term. Multiplication, addition, division and fractions, teach themselves when the pupil is multiply'ng, adding or divid ing something that belonges to hint and not the imaginary apples and miles of the school arithmetic. But like the pianist given to dis cords and the singer who flats, the men and women who say 1 seen, who se they in referring to a singular antecedent, or who use should, would and will be, illiterately, are uncon scious of the pain they cause others. Theme readers at the university cor rect by the hundreds mistakes only excusable in primary scholars. The M. S. readers on the newspapers groan at the unskilled, poorly con- laws. He was not an aninal trainer structed reports of amateur and pro- und had no scientific interest in zo- fesslonal reporters. The business man ology like Noah who made a boat that who dictates letters to highly recom- weathered the longest and strongest mended typewriters is discouraged by gale that ever blew and the most rain the badly spelled, turgidly composed ''00''1kV? s g OBSERVATIONS. g Noah. A few months ago the editor of The Courier ascribed the authorship of a book which she had not written, to Mrs. Humphrey Ward. A somewhat less distinguished woman had written the book. But the editor of The Cou rier received friendly letters from women in Omaha and Lincoln cor recting her very stupid error. Since then in club or social gathering the editor has been questioned in regard to her unfortunate statement. Last week in these columns, the most no table of the early deeds of man the herding of the animals into the ark was ascribed to Moses. Not. every body should know that isoaii. that ever fe'l in one storm. For seem ing to take from his well deserved reputation and awnrd hisJanie to an other who has glory enough of his transcripts the high school graduate brings him for his signature. It is humiliating to affix his name to such evidences of illiteracy but time pres- own The Courier is at fault and cheer- ses and he does it with uncomplimen- f ully makes restitution to Noah, the gentle shipbuilder, the zoologist, the first and only reliable weather prophet English in the Schools. A member of the Lincoln Sorosis at one of the recent meetings of this club discussed English as it is taught and learned in the public schools of Lincoln. From a number of essays and stories contributed by the pupils of the seventh and eighth grades the lecturer selected some of the poorest and some of the best. The poorest had all the faults of bad spelling, no punctuation, and inaccuracies of grammar and capitalization, usually found in the productions of pupils in the primary grades. Whether it be the fault of the system, of the teach- tary reflexions on the school which educated the complacent young man or woman who tcok the dictation. From morning to midnight in store, shop, office, in books, newspapers, let ters the English language is in con stant use,yet the public school scholar is taught that figuring is the study of first and absolute importance. His examination papers on arithmetic, geography, "nature work," physiology, are marked high or low without much reference to the language which he has made use of, to answer questions on those subjects. It is not unnatural, therefore that he has ac quired a reverence for assorted knowl edge, which is science, and no respect at all for language Another L2xl Rebuked. Miss Anne Barr, director of the wo nian's gymnasium at the State uni versity has lifted the reproach of big feet from western girb. Two years ago Miss Bar r adopted the system of anthrpometrical measurements in use by Dr. Jay V. Seaverof Yale col lege. She has now the measurements of 1500 western girls. She sent these measurements to Dr. Seaver who has just read a paper before the anthru pomctrical society of New Haven based on this report. Dr. Seaver said: "Girls from the east are Hatter-chested, flatter-headed, lesser in lung capacity and bigirer footed. One might divide the two types of eastern and western girls in to the cutter and schooner builds of heads. The eastern girl the New York and Boston girl is the cutter built; the western girl is schooner built. I think this difference is due to the predominance of Teutonic blood in the west. The eastern girl has bigger feet, too. Whatever change in size and physical type may be disclosed by these tables may be properly attributed to methods of Jife and environment, and not to racial peculiarities. It may be said that the eastern college draws a much larger percentage of its patronage from urban population, while the more western institutions represent types that live more out of doors and arc engaged in more active physical employments. We notice, firs, that the Wellesley woman is taller and heavier than tUe typical woman of either of the western groups, while the Oberlin and Nebraska women arc about the same size and weight. The increased frequency of the Teutonic element in the western group pro bably accounts for a taller height sitting, in the western group than in the eastern, the eastern type partak ing more of the long-legged and short trunked type which seems to be char ts first e-reat shiDbuilder and navi- ers, of the parents, or of the school- gator built the ark and loaded all hoard the evidence is voluminous that kinds of animals into it in order that graduates from the Lincoln high no species should become extinct, school who have passed through the Yet out of the ten thousand readers successive grades are singularly de- nf The Courier in Lincoln, only one ficient in English composition. All -. . . . ..... J V .!. .. - O young lawyer who does not reaa witu uiauuwa-a-ra ... Uie university school day is no longer than his lips alone, noted the injustice to or tnose employed by the papers of to and the nttle scholar's head is Noah and reminded xne courier mat uo, ... .n.-ur m uus cnucism just the same length, breadth and In the schools of our grandmothers asteristic of the tendency in modern old fashioned grammar and rhetoric development. The symmetry that were taucht. "Nature work" bioloirv exists in the length of the upper ex- and chemistry came later, after the students were able to construct sen tences correctly and color them na turally with fitting adjectives. In the schools of Lincoln the pupils are studying all sorts of things. it Injustice had been done the manager of the Lincoln school system product. of the largest and most complete Most of the graduates can figure and rnnloifical collection ever gathered, some or them have gathered facts tremities is remarkable, although there seems to be a greater length of foot in tfie eastern group than in either of the others. In girths we notice first the records of head cir- The cumference, which seems to be larger used ,n tne eastern group. In girth of up per arm the eastern group excel, while in girth of forearm they are markedly thickness. If the content be not in- aencient. inis, I tiilnk, may be ex- creased while the number of subjects P'ained ir the western type has been is norpns.pA. it. follows that t.lift more accustomed to nhvsical work. The first error was one of literature, concerning ootany and chemistry amount of each will be lessened. It wuich woull tend to reduce any fatty The second, is a glaring mistake re- that will very likely prove useful and Is therefore easy to understand why tlssue i(om the upper arm. and would lating to one of the most noted Bible interesting in later life, but they tne grandparents spoke with precis- g've marked muscular development characters. Yet the first one excited have only a casual street acquaint- ion and ciegance and their descen- through the forearm. The breadth universal criticism among the readers ance with the principles and practice dants who live in a school district of shoulders seems to be the same in of The Courier and the last one was of English. wherein "the board" has listened to all groups, although the broader neck only.discovered by one of the clever- Even arithmetic, the sacred knowl- and been beguiled by the maker of is found where the larger head has to
