Against Haste and Fads in Education
The literary supplement to the New York Times, August 18, discussing education, says: “The love of novelty has invaded the schools. The education of the young to-day is largely charged with fads and nostrums, by which it is attempted to supersede natural methods.” “The things that, in the public schools, are crowded upon the child’s hopeless mind are to him as scarecrows.” “The baneful spirit of haste has also taken possession of the schools, in the attempt to crowd every conceivable subject into the shortest space of time, which starts false growths, and denies the faculties leisure for a natural unfolding. This is the more to be noticed, as the word ‘school’ is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘leisure.’ By such undue pressure the three R’s are in danger of eclipse. But if the foundations upon which school education rests are not deeply and well laid, the superstructure, the more extensive and pretentious it is, is the more certain to fail of serving any great or useful purpose. The foundations have the more need to be surely laid, as the real superstructure is, after all, raised by the life, the top stone of which is put on only when that [life] ends.” All of this is truth and sound wisdom. Let all diligently apply it, each in his own case.