distinguished from the learning whose chief or sole value is in display
The true teacher takes hold of the practical and elementary, as
distinguished from the learning whose chief or sole value is in display.
Present gratification is desirable, especially to parents and teachers;
but it may be secured at the cost of solid learning and real progress.
This is a serious error among us, and it will not readily be abandoned;
but it is the duty of teachers, and of all parents who are friends to
genuine learning, to aid in its removal. We are inclined to treat the
period of school-life as though it covered the entire time that ought
properly to be devoted to education. The first result--a result followed
by pernicious consequences--is that the teacher is expected to give
instruction in every branch that the pupil, as child, youth, or adult,
may need to know. It is impossible that instruction so varied should
always be good. Learning is knowledge of subjects based and built upon a
thorough acquaintance with their elements. The path of duty, therefore,
should lead the teacher to make his instruction thorough in a few
branches, rather than attempt to extend it over a great variety of
subjects. This, to the teacher who is employed in a district or town but
three or six months, is a hard course, and many may not be inclined to
pursue it. Something, no doubt, must be yielded to parents; but they,
too, should be educated to a true view of their children"s interests. As
the world is, a well-spoken declamation is more gratifying to parents,
and more creditable to teachers, than the most careful training in the
vowel-sounds; yet the latter is infinitely more valuable to the scholar.
Neither progress in the languages nor knowledge of mathematics can
compensate for the want of a thorough etymological discipline. This
training should be primary in point of time, as well as elementary in
character; and a classical education is no adequate compensation.
