IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. 



347 



of the panel in the same way ; lines were drawn 

 from a point near the top of the right side to a 

 point near the centre of the base, then from a point 

 near the left end of the top to the same point in 

 the base, and so the children had " guide-lines " 

 for the triangular shape of the continent. Other 

 lines drawn from point to point across the panel 

 gave them assistance in other parts of their 

 map. The drawing was rough and rather wild ; 

 the contrast between the manner in which chil- 

 dren who were just beginning this exercise were 

 able to do it and the way in which it was done 

 by children who had been working at it for some 

 time was instructive. 



In teaching history, it seems to be the com- 

 mon practice to dwell at length and in detail on 

 great and critical periods, and to touch very 

 slightly the less, important intervals of national 

 life. Lessons are also given on the biography of 

 eminent men. In one of the high-schools I heard 

 a lady give a very clear and brilliant sketch of 

 the life and times of Richelieu. 



Very much of the teaching which I heard 

 was, in a sense, too good. Everything was made 

 so plain and so easy that there was no hard work 

 left to the scholars. This struck me again and 

 again in schools of every grade. One of the 

 most convenient examples which I remember of 

 this fault was in a girls' high-school — I forget 

 whether it was in Philadelphia or New York. 

 The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid 

 was on the board. The teacher — a lady — ana- 

 lyzed the proof of the proposition with perfect 

 skill ; showed her class the successive points 

 which had to be demonstrated, and how they 

 were demonstrated. Nothing could have been 

 more clear; the dullest girl in the room could 

 hardly have failed to get complete possession of 

 the proof. The pupils were expected to study 

 the proposition at home, and to bring it up the 

 next day. But all the work had been done for 

 them. When the class was over, I asked the 

 lady whether she believed that this was the right 

 way of teaching mathematics, and whether she 

 did not think that the girls would derive more 

 benefit from their studies if she left them to do 

 more of the work themselves. She said : " When 

 I was a girl, I was not helped in this way ; I had 

 to dig out everything as best I could ; I was 

 thrown upon myself ; but the girls have so many 

 subjects to study now, that they would never get 

 through their work unless they were taught as I 

 have been teaching them." I suggested that, 

 when the principal object of a class was to give 

 information, it was reasonable enough to enable 



the pupils to get it with as little trouble as pos- 

 sible ; but that girls studied the filth proposition 

 of Euclid for the sake of the discipline, not for 

 the sake of learning the mere fact that the angles 

 at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal. 

 She answered : " Yes, that is quite true, and I 

 often think that we are on the wrong track al- 

 together. We had a different method when I was 

 young; but with our present range of subjects 

 we have no choice ; .the teachers must do every- 

 thing for the scholars." This seemed to me to 

 be one of the weak points in the American edu- 

 cational methods, and on two or three occasions, 

 when I had the opportunity of examining a class 

 in a high-school or a normal school, I thought I 

 recognized its evil effects. When the class was 

 tested by questions that traveled a very little way 

 beyond the limits of the text-book which they 

 were studying, or the lecture to which they had 

 listened, there was far less readiness and intel- 

 lectual self-reliance than there ought to have been. 

 If the teachers did not teach quite so well, the 

 results would, I believe, be better. 



The " religious difficulty " exists in America 

 in a much less virulent form than among our- 

 selves. The Episcopalians scattered over Massa- 

 chusetts are not obliged to send their children to 

 schools connected with Congregational churches, 

 managed by the Congregational clergy, and main- 

 tained as " bulwarks " ] of Congregationalism, al- 

 though receiving large grants of public money; 

 they have not to appeal to the protection of a 

 conscience-clause in order to prevent their chil- 

 dren from being taught that diocesan episcopacy 

 is very unlike the polity of the churches of apos- 

 tolic times, and that the sacramental doctrine of 

 the Episcopal Church is corrupt and pernicious. 

 Schools supported by public money are managed 

 by public boards elected by the rate-payers or by 

 their representatives, and form no part of the 

 defensive or aggressive agency of any church. 

 They are "unsectarian," and sometimes secular. 

 In the schools of New York and Boston a portion 

 of Scripture is read by the teacher at the open- 

 ing of the morning school. No note or comment 

 is permitted, and no other religious exercises are 

 permitted. In Philadelphia it is provided that 

 "at the opening of each session of the schools, 

 at least ten verses of the Bible shall be read, 

 without note or comment, to the pupils by the 

 principal, or in his or her absence by one of the 



1 1 owe the phrase to a zealous clergyman, who de- 

 scribed the Church of England schools as the " bul- 

 warks of the Church of England." 



