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Reflections on the Operation of the Present System of Education, 1853 By: C. C. (Christopher Columbus) Andrews (1829-1922) |
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BY CHRISTOPHER C. ANDREWS,
COUNSELLOR AT LAW.
"TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO; AND, WHEN HE IS OLD,
HE WILL NOT DEPART FROM IT."
BOSTON:
CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY,
111, WASHINGTON STREET.
1853.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON,
22, SCHOOL STREET.
PREFATORY NOTE.
The increasing importance of the subject treated of has led the author
to revise an article, published nearly two years ago in a monthly
journal, and to present it in the following pages. His object is to call
attention to what he regards a defect in the operation of our present
system of education, and to propose some suggestions for its remedy.
That defect consists in the want of moral instruction in our schools.
Its existence, he believes, may be attributed to the state of public
opinion, rather than to any imperfection in the system itself. For this
reason, he is of opinion that remarks on the subject are more necessary,
and therefore worthier of the consideration and indulgence of the
public. 35, COURT STREET, BOSTON,
May, 1853.
THE
INCOMPLETE OPERATION
OF OUR
PRESENT SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.
The duty of bringing up the young in the way of usefulness has ever been
acknowledged as of utmost importance to the well being and safety of a
State. So imperative was this obligation considered by Solon, the
Athenian lawgiver, that he excused children from maintaining their
parents, when old and feeble, if they had neglected to qualify them for
some useful art or profession. Although this principle has universally
prevailed in every civilized age, yet the success of its practical
operation depends entirely upon what is understood by necessary
knowledge and useful employment. If, as among the Lacedemonians and many
other nations of antiquity, a useful art consisted chiefly in the
exploits of war, in being able to undergo privations and hardships, and
in wielding successfully the heavy instruments of bloodshed, such an
education as would conduce to the acquirement of that art must be
estimated on different grounds from that system whose object is to
develop the moral and intellectual faculties. From the distant past, traditions have come down, evincing in many
instances exemplary care in the culture of youth; but the conspicuous
record made of them by the historian and poet refutes the idea that they
were common. With the lapse of centuries, revolutions in the arts and
sciences have been effected, important in themselves, but more so for
the changes they have produced both in social and political affairs.
Like hunters who discover in their forest wanderings a valuable mine
which shapes anew their course of life, the people of the old world, in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were allured from their
incessant conflicts by the more profitable arts of peace. Till then the
interests of learning had been crushed by the superstition and bigotry
of the times. In the fourteenth century even, the most celebrated
university in Europe, that of Bologna, bestowed its chief honors upon
the professorship of astrology. But these grand developments in art and
science gave a new impulse to social life. Thenceforward the interests
of education began to thrive. The patronage given to popular
instruction by many of the rulers of European States has imparted a
lustre to their annals, which will almost atone for their heartless
perversion of human rights. For whether we consider the coercive system
of Prussia, which not yet exhibits very happy practical results; or the
Austrian system, which indirectly operates coercively by denying
employment to those unprovided with school diplomas; or the Bavarian,
which makes a certificate of six years' schooling necessary to the
contracting of a valid marriage or apprenticeship; or, indeed, the
systems of many other Continental countries, we find much to excite
cheering anticipations... Continue reading book >>
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