EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4565, 6 November 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

The following remarks ou the working of the American educational system are from an interesting series of letters by a correspondent of the Herald, Auckland : I am compelled to admire the perfect beauty of the American theory of education. I am constrained to believe that a people giving force to such a system must bo a great, a happy—indeed, a glorious people. But, alas ! that I must needs take the gilding from the gingerbread, and say that, as in every branch of politics, so in education—the grand scheme exists on paper only. ’Tis time the educational skeleton which the Government has placed on exhibition is flesh-padded by the school districts, is made to look as nearly as possible like the perfect statue which Republican writers depict as the goddess of knowledge. The majority vote ; the universal franchise destroys the beauty of the entire system. Let me illustrate :—ln this city and State we have, in name, an admirable system of education. We have what are called primary schools, where children, from the age of six years and upwards, are trained for the high schools. In these schools, where the foundation of knowledge is supposed to be laid, the teachers have found positions chiefly through political influence ; and in a great number of instances they are utterly unfitted the duties they have undertaken. How can it be otherwise when the directors of the schools are chosen by political factions, and in most instances are mere political figureheads, put into office to carry out the views of thenparty ; in fact, to provide offices for the friends of those who returned them ? There are neither State nor General Government 1 dependent inspectors to examine and report 41011 the proficiency of either teacher or taught. The School Board of Directors, tradesmen, mechanics, or true political hunters form, as directors, the examining committee, and their principle business is to turn out the appointees of the last Board, and place in office the relatives of their constituents. San Brancisco is divided into wards, each ward sends (by election) a representative to the Board of Education. Ho question is ever raised as to the eductional fitness of the representative, he is simply the nominee of the ward politicians, who make politics their sole business, and who live from year to year on the proceeds of the tax they have levied on their nominees. These nominees are elected for two years—four going out one year and three the next. To this Board are entrusted the duty of purchasing real estate, the erection, furnishing, and care of buildings, the appointment of teachers, the regulation of studies, and the purchase of books, &c. Into all these the “ job ” principle enters, and the stealings or percentages are the lodestoues that draw men to office. These Boards appoint physicians and lawyers, whose offices arc sinecures. The Board further appoints a superintendent, who is a member of the Board, but without the right to vote. _ If the superintendent happens to be the right man in the right place, many of the evils of the system are suspended, but, as is generally the case, if the superintendent be the creature of the Board, his voice in reference to objectionable teachers is generally “ Yea, yea or “ Nay, nay,” as the Board may suggest. COU USE OF INSTEUCTION. One of the great evils in the American system of education is its diffusiveness, its attempt to cram, to give to every child the knowledge which only adults are competent to receive. “ Smattor ” is the best term which I can apply to the system. Take the primary schools which children enter at the age of six. Each primary school consists of eight classes or grades. Here is the course of instruction for the Bth or lowest grade (55 children in the

class); —■ Arithmetic ; Addition, substruction, multiplication (Grabe’s system). Hooding and spelling. Writing : Script letters. Language ; Conversational exercises, correction of language, forming sentences. Vocal music ; Singing by rote, four songs daily. Oral lessons : On the senses, on clothing, colors, common qualities, animals—their habits, habitats, &c. ; common plants, flowers, trees, fruits, ; principal metals—color, common qualities, sources, and uses. Geography : Positions and directions, the cardinal points. Morals and manners : Holes of politeness, &o. All this for a wee toddler of six, who ought to ho on the hills drinking in the glad air so necessary to youth. 7th grade : In addition to the above, mental arithmetic, composition, writing from dictation, musical notations. tith grade: Arithmetic, division, addition, common fractious, the geography of the United

States, third reader, subject and predicate, analysis of sentences, correction of false syntax, music, anatomy of the human form. Form—Plain figures and solids, pyramids, spheres, crystals, angles, &c, color combinations. The various metals—their use, where found, &c, the animal kingdom, flora, fauna, history of the State. The sth grade is a further advance upon the foregoing. The 4th grade carries the child into the grammar school, where the instruction includes the construction and analysis of language, drawing, elementally physiology and hygiene, dentistry, mode of operating the muscles, nervous system, digestion, circulation, lungs, voice, skin, mineralogy, soils, water, air. Zoology vertebrates, articulates, mollusks, radiates, &c. Botany, natural philosophy, history, morals and manners.

3rd grade : Decimal fractions, geograpliy, tense and mood, conjunctions, drawing, vocal music.

2nd grade : Common and decimal fractions, compound numbers and reduction, mental arithmetic, penmanship, grammar, geography, history of the United States, composition, word analysis, architectural and linear drawing, landscapes in pencil and crayon, music, chromatic scales. Physiology—head, skull formed of eight bones, &c., —ribs, thighbones, muscles, circulation, digestion, nervous system, &o.; zoology, botany, elementary physics. Pump, barometer, steam, &c. History, geography, morals and manners. Ist grade : Simple and compound interest, partial payments, commission and brokerage, stocks, profit and loss, banking, discount, ratio and proportion, square root, mensuration, grammar, geography, history, Constitution of the United States, miscellaneous reading, book-keeping, physiology, drawing, music. All this before the child enters the highschool ; all this before the student has reached his twelfth year. THE HIGH-SCHOOL is intended to prepare pupils for the University. Junior Class ;—Pirst tei’m : Latin, French, algebra, physical geography, English language, German, elocution. Second term ; Add zoology, general history, political economy. Middle Class; —First term: Latin, Greek, French, geometry, general history, arithmetic, chemistry, German, industrial arts. Second term : Add physiology, botany, fine arts. Senior Class; —First term: Latin, Greek, French, trigonometry, rhetoric, English literature ; the Government of the World—its religions, societies, &c. Second term: Add astronomy, mental and moral science. COSMOPOLITAN SCHOOL. French only. EVENING SCHOOLS are intended for adults, and pupils, are instructed in all the foregoing branches. You will see from the list of studies that it is impossible for any teacher, however well informed and capable, to ground fifty-five children in all the subjects laid down, and that is just what they are expected to do. The teachers aim at giving to each child the names of the subjects, making them familiar with high-sounding terms, and cramming them for promotion. And that is about all they do. The Americans are not a well educated people, and so long ns they aim at an equality of knowledge, and fear an aristocracy of literature, they never can be. TEACHERS. Teachers are well paid and held in high esteem. SALARIES. Superintendents or principals, from £SOO to £6OO per annum; assistant teachers (male and female), from £2OO to £350 per annum. Note.— ln its proper order I purpose forwarding to you a full description of the machinery employed in assessing and collecting taxes, showing how they are disbursed, &c., under which heading I intend to include all taxes—general, state, county, city, and school—and will try to show what proportion finds its way into the Treasury, and the amount of leakage in collecting. My next letter will be on “ Majority Government and the Ballot.” My closing article will give a description of the manner in which elections are conducted, the formation of primaries, connubiating, &c.