Show elementary Eau education cation at pre present erit the time devoted to the 3 Us its alone in tlc alc mechanical schools is in the neighborhood of 70 0 der per cent it mi might be possible however geever through the I 1 process r icess of exclusion such euch as I 1 have indicated to reduce this time hy by 50 per cent or more indeed so BO great may be the change brought about that what is now reg regarded aided as the body of the of the elementary school would constitute only a side ride issue if this should lie be true then of course the possibilities of en I 1 aching the course of study would be almost unlimited society expects for example that the individual shall be able to write a letter in well constructed sentences and without grammatical errors it is riot not concerned however as to whether or not lie he is able to analyze the sentences sentence or to parse the words in his letter if facts should prove beyond question that individuals who can call parse and analyze with facility arc able to construct better sentences than those who are unfamiliar with technical grammar this subject might rightly be placed among the essentials of school work if however it should be proved that the english employed by those who had not studied technical grammar was practically as good as that employed by those who had had a tb thorough orough 0 grounding 0 in it then this subject could not be regarded as essential but would belong belon 0 to the domain of mental gymnastics tho the importance of such question of relative values becomes strikingly apparent when we consider that thirty five minutes a day is equivalent to an entire school year out of the eight devoted to elementary education consequently by economizing only a little here baire and there by the exclusion of merely a part of the disciplinary measures of minor or doubtful importance such as drill in arithmetical puzzles superfine pen penmanship manship mans bip in parsing and analysis beyond what s actually needed ic it might be possible ble to tave kave as much as the equivalent of two school chool years which might then be utilized toward enriching the ourse correo of study without in any way neglecting 0 the essentials geography and particularly that phase which treats of the location of places the boundaries of states and countries the length of rivers rivers the height of mountains offers a broad field bield for exclusion without true loss lose in any particular how much waste there is in the old fashioned method of teaching this thi subject becomes apparent when we consider how exceeds exceedingly ally catle the average individual has to show a year or two after leaving school for the numerous hours bourse a week during t five or six years devoted to this study while the number of geographical 0 facts in topographical geography that the individual is required to know in order that he may be able to take an intelligent interest in the affairs of the world is considerable it is nevertheless very small when compared with that which the child is compelled to acquire in the traditional course of instruction indeed so great jn in my opinion is the discrepancy between what the child is is compelled to memorize in the old fash boned schools aal what the citizen is expected to know that I 1 do not regard it as an exaggeration 0 to say that the course in topographical geography might be shortened by 70 or 80 per cent without neglecting what is useful DR J M RICE mcf in the january forum |