164 



SCIEJSrCE, 



[Vol. IX., No. 211 



made to operate successfully. He says that " school 

 trustees elected to supervise the schools, and serv- 

 ing without any compensation, naturally object 

 to being turned into constables and police officers 

 for the purpose of apprehending delinquent chil- 

 dren or the children of delinquent parents. More- 

 over, the schools are full. In most of the cities, 

 the accomodations are taxed to the utmost. Any 

 effectual execution of the law would at once cre- 

 ate the necessity for additional buildings in every 

 city of the state. But, notwithstanding these 

 considerations, the problem cannot safely be 

 treated with indifference by the state. " 



The normal-school work in the state seems to 

 be in excellent condition. There are nine normal 

 schools, employing 128 teachers, and having a 

 total enrolment of 5,608. While these schools are 

 in good hands, and doing excellent work, yet 

 they are inadequate, for as now operated they do 

 not fill one in ten of the vacancies occurring in the 

 ranks of the thirty thousand common-school 

 teachers of the state. The superintendent urges 

 that the normal schools might accomplish larger 

 results should they spend less time in foundation 

 work, and confine themselves to special training 

 and practice. Moreover, some scheme should be 

 devised to bring the normal schools to a substan- 

 tial uniformity, instead of leaving them so sub- 

 ject to local demands and influences as they now 

 are. 



After treating of the various other subjects 

 that have come under his supervision, Mr. Draper 

 concludes his report with some general observa- 

 tions and suggestions of more than local or state 

 application. He inquires whether, since the state 

 of New York is now spending $14,000,000 annual- 

 ly in support of its public school system, it would 

 not be a good idea to spend a few thousand dol- 

 lars, once in a vvhiie, in determining how to spend 

 this vast sum to the best advantage. •' Is our 

 education as practical as it might be ? Do we 

 reach all the children we ought ? In our ardor 

 over the high schools, which nine-tenths of our 

 children never reach, have we not neglected the 

 low schools? Is there not too much French, and 

 German, and Latin, and Greek, and too little 

 spelling, and writing, and mental arithmetic, and 

 English grammar being taught ? Have we been 

 as ambitious of progress in the lower grades as in 

 the advanced ? Are not our courses of study too 

 complex ? Are we not undertaking to do more 

 than we are doing well ? Is not the examina- 

 tion business being overdone? Are we not cram- 

 ming with facts, which will soon be forgotten, in 

 order to pass examinations, rather than instilling 

 principles which will endure ? Is not our educa- 

 tion running on the line of intellectuality alone ? 



Are we educating the whole man ? Are we not 

 giving up moral training more than we ought, be- 

 cause of the danger of trenching upon sectarian- 

 ism ? Is there no way of adhering ,to the one, and 

 avoiding the other? Are we doing what we 

 might in the way of physical culure ? Ought not 

 the state to do something at least to encourage in- 

 dustrial schools? Would we not secure better 

 schools in the country if the township was the unit 

 of government rather than the present school 

 district ? Does not the present arrangement help 

 the well-to-do and leave the poor to get along as 

 best they may ? Should not the law which fixes 

 five and twenty-one years as the limits of school 

 age be changed to six and sixteen years ? Is it 

 not time to forbid the diversion of library moneys 

 from their legitimate uses, or to provide that they 

 may be expended for school apparatus instead of 

 teachers' wages? Is our system of apportioning 

 public moneys the wisest and the best ? Is there 

 no way of specially aiding the small, remote, and 

 poor districts ? Do our different classes of educa- 

 tional work supplement each other and fit to- 

 gether so as to make a symmetrical and complete 

 system, and do they co-operate as they might and 

 ought ? " 



As Mr. Draper adds, these are live questions, 

 and appeal to educators the world over. To an- 

 swer them, he makes the suggestive recommenda- 

 tion that a council of say thirty eminent educa- 

 tors, representing college, normal school, high 

 school, and common school alike, be called, to 

 meet at Albany to discuss these questions and 

 make such recommendations and suggestions 

 concerning them as it sees fit. In New Jersey, 

 a state council of this sort is in process of organ- 

 ization, in pursuance of President Meleney's 

 recommendation, made to the state teachers at 

 their annual association meeting in Trenton last 

 December ; but there, it is unofficial, the first move 

 having been made by the teachei's. If it is wisely 

 constituted, it should become an educational fac- 

 tor of great force in the state ; and if Superin- 

 tendent Draper's plan is carried into effect, New 

 York state will have a similar body of representa- 

 tive advisers on educational subjects. 



THE TRAINING OF THE FACULTIES OF 

 JUDGMENT AND REASONING.' — 11. 



I NOW proceed to show how some of our school 

 subjects may be employed in the systematic train- 

 ing of che judgment and the reasoning powers. I 

 shall follow, as nearly as possible, the order laid 

 down in the previous article. 



The lessons which I have described under these 



1 From the Journal of education, a paper read before the 

 Education society, Oct. 35, 1886. 



