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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



mitted to operations that go under the 

 name of mental cultivation. Machine 

 education is of the very lowest sort, 

 and the best that can he said of it is, 

 that it is barely better than nothing at 

 all. The worst difficulty is, that it is 

 not capable of improvement. The 

 method itself is radically false, so that 

 the improvements of it but make it 

 worse. At the same time it borrows 

 influence from its enormous extension 

 and the authority by which it is en- 

 forced. The education-factories run in 

 series, each has a complex grading, and 

 the different institutions are intimately 

 belted with each other, and all driven 

 by the motive power of legislation. As 

 might be expected, the whole system is 

 run with a view to popular effect, which 

 is necessarily fatal to the best results. 



If the reader will refresh his memory 

 in regard to the first principles of men- 

 tal cultivation by reading the article, 

 found elsewhere in our pages, entitled 

 "Brain-Power in Education," he will 

 get a clear idea of what must be the 

 necessary outcome of educational me- 

 chanics. In the work of the school 

 there are two modes of dealing with 

 the brain ; it can be stored with infor- 

 mation, or strengthened in its functional 

 operations. True education consists in 

 the development of brain-power in ac- 

 cordance with the laws of its activity, 

 and is simply and always a discipline in 

 spontaneous self-exertion. In the at- 

 tainment of this object the engineer of 

 the educational machine has very little 

 to do. The office of the teacher is im- 

 portant, but it consists in encouraging, 

 inciting, and arousing the pupil to put 

 forth his own efforts, and when this is 

 most effectually done the result is not 

 of that conspicuous kind that is suit- 

 able to make a showy impression at a 

 public parade. No method has yet 

 been devised for exhibiting such results 

 that is not full of rank injustice and 

 that does not put a premium upon in- 

 ferior work. 



But it is wholly different when the 



object is simply to store the brain. This 

 is an easy process, depending upon 

 external appliances and mechanical ar- 

 rangements, and is capable of being so 

 organized and driven that a shallow and 

 vicious system shall win the highest 

 public applause. As the article re- 

 ferred to explains, it is impossible to get 

 indexes of the hardest brain-work that 

 are fitted to astonish gaping outsiders ; 

 but, when it is a question of merely 

 stuffing with acquisitions, nothing is 

 easier than to invent methods by which 

 the results may be strikingly displayed. 

 Hence the marking system which pro- 

 fesses to indicate degrees of proficiency 

 and educational results, and which gives 

 so much business to teachers, examin- 

 ers, inspectors, and superintendents, and 

 enables them to report to boards of 

 control, to parents, and to the public 

 the wonderful success of the institution. 

 This is machine education in its per- 

 fection, and the worst of it is, that it 

 excludes the possibility of rational edu- 

 cation. The two things are incom- 

 patible, for that which can be shown 

 with effect is sure to take precedence 

 of that wldch can not be exhibited, and 

 brain-storing will proceed at the ex- 

 pense of the self-activity by which men- 

 tal power is alone acquired. The sub- 

 jects, moreover, that are most favorable 

 to storing will take the lead and come 

 to be fundamental in machine educa- 

 tion. The whole mechanism of the 

 public-school system is now impelled 

 by law in this bad direction. The 

 higher schools react upon the lower, to 

 stimulate the method. Competition for 

 promotion fires the vanity of the pu- 

 pils, and parental influence conspires to 

 heighten the result. 



A new confirmation of this bad state 

 of things has been recently elicited by the 

 New York "Mail and Express," which 

 has started a little inquest of its own 

 into the working of the public schools. 

 A reporter was sent to question the 

 different teachers and officials on va- 

 rious points, and the information he 



