70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of English grammar and primary methods; and Prof. Isaac B. 

 Poucher, from 1867 to the present time — excepting an absence of 

 four years — teacher of arithmetic, algebra, and methods of teach- 

 ing these subjects, should be especially remembered. In many 

 a school called normal the pupils are, in preparatory instruction, 

 taught exactly as they should not be, in defiance of the principles 

 and methods to be mastered in their professional training. At 

 Oswego the preparatory work in mathematics, language, history, 

 natural science, etc., has, for the most part, been done by intelli- 

 gent and loyal adherents of the school's professed principles, and 

 been consistent with the methods inculcated in the professional 

 work. The students having seen the daily application of these 

 principles and methods to all sorts of subjects, and experienced 

 their value in their own persons, more easily comprehend and ap- 

 ply them in subsequent method and practice work. 



The Oswego movement did not lack opponents — a class whose 

 services in all reforms are equally useful as extinguishers of false 

 lights and disseminators of true. The most notable of these help- 

 ers was Dr. Wilbur, Superintendent of the New York State Idiot 

 Asylum, a man eminently successful in his work. In the New 

 York State Teachers' Convention of 1862, and in the National 

 Convention of 1864, he severely attacked the whole system, from 

 philosophical standpoints. In consequence, a committee was ap- 

 pointed to examine thoroughly the practical bearings of the 

 " vicious " system. The chairman of this committee, Prof. Greene, 

 of Brown University, visited the Oswego schools, tested their re- 

 sults thoroughly, and made his report before the National Con- 

 vention of 1865. This report was so intelligent, exhaustive, and 

 favorable that the underlying principles of the Oswego methods 

 have never since met serious opposition in any authoritative 

 body.* 



Students at Oswego have sometimes complained of the rigor- 

 ous drill of classes in methods, and of the practice school, as too 

 mechanical, tending to produce mannerisms and to crush individ- 

 uality. These complaints were sometimes made by those who 

 best comprehended the principles and felt the power and desire 

 to work out their own applications. These complaints admit this 

 answer : For the average man and woman comprehension of prin- 

 ciples does not secure practice. The principles must be embodied 

 in precepts and rules, must be applied in a practical course of ac- 

 tion under whose influence habits of right conduct are formed. 

 Right habits can not be formed in the teacher by imparting to him 

 the principles merely of his profession more than in the soldier. 

 If in some cases the product of drill is a mere machine, it is 



* See Circular of Information, No. 8, 1891, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 



