74 THE NEW METHOD 



GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 



For many years past there have been two agencies, 

 constantly tending to make the grammar schools diffi- 

 cult to manage and unsatisfactory in their results. 

 One reason why these schools have been so generally 

 found in a demoralized condition may be looked for 

 in the frequent change of teachers. Very few teach- 

 ers have remained in these schools long enough to 

 eradicate the existing bad habits they found on enter- 

 ing them. 



A second hindrance to success in these schools 

 may be found in our defective system of teaching, 

 which here begins to manifest its mischievous tend- 

 encies too forcibly to be easily mistaken. Young 

 children are naturally eager for knowledge ; and 

 when we give them real knowledge, such as they can 

 assimilate and organize for use, instead of unmeaning 

 words and processes, their love of study deepens with 

 age. But under existing methods, the love of knowl- 

 edge is often crushed out before the child reaches the 

 age of ten years, and he takes no interest in anything 

 connected with school, except the society of his mates, 

 and the various amusements they manage to intro- 

 duce to break up the monotony of school work. 



