EDITOR'S TABLE, 



271 



grind of the great educational machine ; 

 and experience testifies that the policy 

 of ever-increasing stringency of require- 

 ment to which the mechanical system 

 tends only aggravates its evils. In this 

 respect there is nothing self-corrective 

 in our educational methods. 



It is not to be denied that a main 

 root of this evil is the incapacity of 

 teachers and of those intrusted with the 

 management of schools to judge intel- 

 ligently of the results of their system 

 upon the varying natures of children. 

 This is a complex and extensive branch 

 of knowledge to which the normal 

 schools give little attention. Our teach- 

 ers as now prepared, and our school- 

 officers as now selected, are left in ig- 

 norance upon this subject. Instructors 

 are trained in the matters they are to 

 teach. They are drilled in all the pet- 

 ty niceties of preordained school-room 

 studies, and disciplined interminably in 

 all the technical processes of the school 

 system. Superintendents, inspectors, 

 and boards of education are frequently 

 mere business men, often men who have 

 failed in some profession, and sometimes 

 promoted teachers, and that they should 

 know nothing of those physical, mental, 

 and moral characteristics of the children 

 subjected to their charge is inevitable. 



And obviously, under the present 

 policy, they can never possess this 

 knowledge. The time is all taken up 

 with other things, the machine is in 

 the ascendant, and the results aimed at 

 must be such as wiU commend them- 

 selves to an ignorant public sentiment. 

 The thorough scientific study of the na- 

 tures of children, which would quali- 

 fy a teacher to judge of their differ- 

 ences, and the unequal influence of the 

 system upon them, whether for good or 

 for evil, could only be brought about 

 by a radical reconstruction of the whole 

 method, and the rejection from it of 

 a great deal which is now held of su- 

 preme importance. No such profound 

 change is to be expected. There is, 

 therefore, little hope of relief from ex- 



isting difficulties by any special prepara- 

 tion of teachers for the purpose. And, 

 even if the pohcy were entered upon, it 

 is extremely doubtful if it could be de- 

 veloped and carried out for many years 

 in any adequate way ; and it may be 

 probably laid down as wholly imprac- 

 ticable to qualify the mass of teachers 

 to judge intelligently of the effects of 

 their educational system upon children, 

 even in the single particular of over- 

 pressure, and its influence upon mental 

 and bodily health. Perhaps a few teach- 

 ers could be specially trained in this di- 

 rection, so that some degree of intelli- 

 gence might be brought to bear upon 

 the school-room regimen ; but even this 

 is impracticable in the present state of 

 thought upon the subject. 



What, then, remains to be done ? Is 

 the most important measure of improve- 

 ment in school management to be given 

 up as forever hopeless? We have said 

 that this defect of our school system is 

 attracting serious attention, and calling 

 forth sharp criticism, but is this to avail 

 nothing for future relief ? We are not 

 driven to this alternative, for the suffi- 

 cient reason that there are men in the 

 community well prepared to deal intel- 

 ligently and efficiently with the subject. 

 It is the especial business of medical men 

 to understand the human constitution, 

 and all their knowledge relates to what 

 the school system ignores — the peculiar- 

 ities of the individual. Diagnosis, criti- 

 cal personal observation, is the basis of 

 all medical practice. Moreover, there 

 is an especial branch of medical study 

 that bears directly and immediately up- 

 on the questions here involved. There 

 are physicians who give their lives to 

 the investigation of mental science with 

 reference to its corporeal conditions 

 and its problems of health and disease. 

 They are the students of insanity, and 

 all the causes which tend to undermine 

 mental soundness and produce feeble- 

 mindedness in its innumerable forms. 

 These are the men prepai-ed to judge of 

 the working of a school system upon 



