THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION 129 



as soon as it appears, and he will adapt his 

 methods accordingly. 



When this ideal is contrasted with the systems 

 in common, if not universal use, what do we find ? 

 I hope I shall not be misunderstood as blaming 

 teachers for what belongs at the door of the 

 system in which they are compelled to work. Is 

 it not true that little if any attention is given to 

 the study of child-life ? In most of our schools 

 is not the supreme duty to go through certain 

 text-books in the time allotted ? So much Caesar 

 must be read, so many pages of history and of 

 arithmetic must be completed. Why ? Is the 

 end of education to cram a child with Latin, 

 history, and arithmetic .-' Is it not better that 

 one example should be thoroughly and completely 

 understood than that forty should be worked 

 mechanically, and perhaps accidentally.? What 

 sense is there in a rigid requirement that a certain 

 number of pages shall be traversed, if discipline 

 and the balancing of faculties is the end of educa- 

 tion ? What knowledge of child-life, what adapta- 

 tion to peculiarities, is displayed in such methods.!* 

 A well-known writer on this subject once said in 

 private conversation : " I look back to many of 

 the schools I attended in my own childhood with 

 unlimited disgust. I was not taught. I was put 



K 



