Show t Fads in the Public Schools L. L THE i President of the Board of Education Edu- Edu r rr cation of Brooklyn N New ew York in ink ina k a recent report says that the aim of the public schools should be strictly utilitarian and so recommends a return to the much derided three Rs J C Not long ago a journal of ot this city P f referring to the mentioned above-mentioned report i j ventured to suggest that all Kl citizens of Salt Lake City and county would concur in this opinion and 1 1 1 t 4 d do 0 t their h. h b best est to k keep f fads a d s out 0 of f t the h e f public schools This illustrates one v i phase of the reactionary spirit that is manifesting itself against prevailing j school reforms Doubtless all willi will i t J t- t agree that fads should be kept out of the public schools but that this means f j f a a return to the three Rs it i is s quite clear no one who is at all acquainted with the true meaning of education will willi k i maintain Indeed the idea is itself the 2 most faddish of fads Not only has it t. t been scientifically shown that the old t f Ii methods are empty and worthless but butT buti r T i the experience of only a very few years jf r fi with scientific ideals and methods has given results so far superior to any before attained that any return to the theold theold old would be the height of folly Doubtless too all will agree agre that the aims of the public schools should l he e strictly utilitarian But just what is utilitarian This is precisely the point at issue between the advocates of educational educational edu edu- du- du reform and the reaction Which for example will prove the themore themore themore more useful the ability to write a plate copper-plate hand and or the possession of ofa a sound healthy body as the result of ofa a knowledge and practice of the principles principles principles ples of hygiene The ability to work all the examples in the arithmetic or orthe orthe orthe the ability to apply a real knowledge of the properties of numbers in numberless ways to the various problems of actual life Those who fear the influence of what they hey are pleased sed to call fads in our public public public pub pub- lic schools if they would but look about them would find that with the fads the three Rs are taught more effectually effectually effectually than without them the difference is that now they have a meaning t to the learner formerly they had none The advocates of the new education the education the education which educates may educates may however however however how how- ever rest assured that it has come to stay No amount of clamor on the part of fossilized can stay its progress now no A new light is abroad in inthe inthe inthe the world and this movement of reform in education is but a part of a general reaching out of the human spirit towards towards towards to to- wards something higher and better |