Moreover,
after all, our sons leave college unable to speak either Latin or Greek,
and too often absolutely without any interest in classical history or
literature. But the boy who has been educated without any training in
science has grave reason to complain of "knowledge to one entrance quite
shut out."
By concentrating the attention, indeed, so much on one or two subjects, we
defeat our own object, and produce a feeling of distaste where we wish to
create an interest.
Our great mistake in education is, as it seems to me, the worship of
book-learning--the confusion of instruction and education. We strain the
memory instead of cultivating the mind. The children in our elementary
schools are wearied by the mechanical act of writing, and the interminable
intricacies of spelling; they are oppressed by columns of dates, by lists
of kings and places, which convey no definite idea to their minds, and
have no near relation to their daily wants and occupations; while in our
public schools the same unfortunate results are produced by the weary
monotony of Latin and Greek grammar.
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