THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



will he found most instructive reading 

 by all who care to know in what terras 

 official science is pleased to express it- 

 self when its ire is roused, and also 

 what extensive means a widely ramify- 

 ing body like our national Geological 

 Survey possesses for attacking and dis- 

 crediting the work of individual scien- 

 tific laborers that happens to have been 

 conducted on lines which the ruling 

 spirits of that body do not approve. 



The question arises, How much does 

 the country really want of this kind of 

 thing? In granting an appropriation 

 for the Survey did it mean to endow a 

 Holy Inquisition or a Sacred Congre- 

 gation of the Index? "We think not. 

 The methods of such institutions make 

 neither for the moral dignity nor for 

 the advancement of science. 



TEACHING NOT A FUNCTION OF 

 GOVERNMENT. 



The articles which Dr. J. M. Rice 

 is contributing to The Forum on the 

 public-school system of this country 

 tend to bear out our contention in these 

 columns, a couple of months ago, that 

 but a small part of the special teach- 

 ing ability existing in the community 

 finds its way into the public schools. 

 Speaking of the schools of this city, Dr. 

 Rice says : " The typical New York city 

 primary school, although less barbarous 

 and absurd than the one just described, 

 is nevertheless a hard, unsympathetic, 

 mechanical drudgery school, a school 

 into which the light of science has not 

 yet entered. Its characteristic feature 

 lies in the severity of its discipline — a 

 discipline of enforced silence, immobili- 

 ty, and intellectual passivity." After de- 

 scribing how certain lessons are given, 

 the writer goes on to say : " By the use 

 of this method the child is actually pre- 

 vented from exercising his reasoning 

 faculties, and reading is converted into a 

 pure and simple process of memorizing 

 word-forms." Think of it: taxes being 

 taken, and an elaborate system main- 



tained, with the ultimate result of actu- 

 ally impairing the intellectual powers of 

 the children! But that, we fear, is not 

 the only damage. "What must be the 

 effect on the moral nature of "hard, 

 unsympathetic, mechanical" methods? 

 What must be the reaction from the re- 

 morseless discipline which Dr. Rice de- 

 clares to be the " characteristic feature " 

 of these schools? There can be little 

 doubt that such a discipline hardens the 

 nature, and that it must actually incline 

 many to criminality there is too much 

 reason to fear. 



" It is not difficult," says Dr. Rice, 

 " to account for the low standard of the 

 New York schools ; indeed, under exist- 

 ing conditions, it would be surprising if 

 the instruction were of a higher order." 

 He then proceeds to describe those con- 

 ditions. In the first place, there is no 

 incentive to teach well. Upon this point 

 we feel like remarking that to say that 

 a teacher has " no incentive to teach 

 well" presents to our mind nearly the 

 same incongruity as to say that a preach- 

 er has no incentive to preach well. We 

 are far from maintaining that a teacher 

 is not the better for incentives, but if 

 there is any profession which might 

 supply its own incentives, it seems to us 

 to be that of teaching. It is certainly 

 not too much to say that the true teach- 

 ing spirit must be sadly lacking when 

 teachers do not take sufficient interest 

 in their work to do it at least to the best 

 of their ability. The fact, of course, is 

 that the position of teacher under our 

 public-school system is sought after just 

 as any other public office would be. 

 The man who goes to Washington, to 

 Albany, or to the City Hall, in search of 

 an office, does not, in general, canvass 

 very narrowly his fitness for the office ; 

 what he canvasses is the fitness of the 

 office for him from a pecuniary point of 

 view ; and so precisely with the offices 

 which our school boards have to bestow. 

 To return, however, to the lack of in- 

 centive. This lack consists chiefly in the 

 fact that no penalty or disadvantage at- 



