SCIENCE.-SUPPLEMENT. 



FRIDAY, DECEMBER 34, 1886. 



THE BASIS OF A GRADED SYSTEM 

 OF SCHOOLS. 



Herbert Spencer, in his treatise on education, 

 says, " To prepare iis for complete living is the 

 function which education has to discharge, and 

 the only rational mode of judging of an educa- 

 tional course is to judge in what degree it dis- 

 charges such function." Froebel's doctrine, that 

 " education is the complete unfolding of the whole 

 being of man," indicates how we are to be pre- 

 pared for complete living, since complete living- 

 can only be realized by one perfectly developed 

 in all his povpers. The value of an educational 

 course, then, is to be measured by the degree in 

 which it develojDS all the powers of the man. 

 And thus Joseph Payne sums up his consideration 

 of the purpose of education by defining it as " the 

 cultivation of all the native powers of the child 

 by exercising them in accordance with the laws 

 of his being, with a view to development and 

 growth." 



Since the possibility of complete living neces- 

 sitates the cultivation of all the native j^ovvers of 

 the child, it is plain that a system of schools 

 should be so constituted that all the appliances 

 used and all the studies prescribed shall tend 

 towards the development of power. The unfold- 

 ing of the whole being necessarily comprehends 

 the cultivation of the bodily, mental, and moral 

 powers. A system that does less than this fails to 

 discharge its highest function in preparing for 

 complete living. It is not an impertinent ques- 

 tion to ask educators whether our present educa- 

 tional sy stem comes up to the requirements stated 

 in the opening paragi'aph. A system may fail to 

 realize its highest function, not by reason of its 

 own defects, but because of unfavorable conditions. 

 The buildings and appliances may be inadequate 

 or defective ; teachers may be hampered by boards 

 whose transactions are controlled by selfish or 

 political interests ; or public sentiment may stand 

 very much in the way of progress. Nevertheless 

 it remains the educator's duty to plan his system 

 with a view to the highest attainment, and to 

 gather all possible forces under his control. 



It is my wish to indicate how the pul ihc-school 

 system should, and to some extent does, discharge 

 its function. The usual school course covers the 

 period between five and eighteen years of age. 



According to Currie,' school life is divided into 

 three periods : viz., infancy, during the first six 

 years; childhood, the next six or seven years; 

 and youth, from that time to the eighteenth year. 

 These periods are suggested, he says, " by so many 

 distinct phases in the child's physical and rational 

 being." During the first two periods, " animal 

 enjoyment is the chief condition of life." " The 

 period of youth unfolds iteelf when the mind be- 

 gins to feel interest in its own exertions and to be 

 somewhat self-sustaining in its operations." Sub- 

 sequent to this, education takes on a professional 

 or technical character, and is beyond the domain 

 of the public school. By our laws it is the duty 

 of the state to take in hand the education of in- 

 fants, if we adopt the classification of children as 

 suggested above. This law has been established 

 not only by public sentiment and for public 

 economy, but it is most necessary and right as 

 viewed from an educational stand-point, though 

 denied by some authorities. Children of the first 

 two periods, from five to thirteen or fourteen, are 

 enrolled in our elementary schools. Our youth 

 are to be found in the high school : subsequent to 

 that comes the normal and technical schools. 



The function of a school system being to un- 

 fold all the powers of the child, the educator's 

 first dirty is to ascertain what are the powers of 

 children in the various stages of their develop- 

 ment ; next, what are the means and materials 

 appropriate to the proper exercise of those powers, 

 and what mode or method should be used to ap- 

 ply those means and cause the activity of the 

 child's powers. 



The powers of children between the ages of 

 five and thirteen, that should be operated upon by 

 a system of education, are chiefly physical, and 

 only the simple faculties of the mind are brought 

 into requisition. For instance : the child's love of 

 play and other manifestations of activity are his 

 ruling passions, and the faculties used are those 

 which depend mainly upon the activity of the 

 senses. In the springtime of life the body and 

 mind are undergoing the process of growth and 

 formation, the body building up physical power, 

 and the mind abjsorbing material for future use. 

 The appropriate training for these years is that 

 which stimulates natural physical growth of the 

 body and all its parts, a wholesome use of all the 

 senses, and a systematic exercise of the faculties 



1 Early and infant school education, p. 1, by James 

 Currie. 



