There is no good reason why the sole burden of work in early
school grades should rest upon the learning of the pure formalities of
knowledge. Children's minds are not adapted to an exclusive diet of
this kind. The fact that children have good memories is no reason why
their minds should be gorged with the dryest memory materials. They
have a healthy interest in people, whether in life or in story, and in
the objects in nature around them. What is thus pre-eminently true of
the primary grades is true to a large extent throughout all the grades
of the common school. It seems almost curious that the more tender the
plants the more barren and inhospitable the soil upon which they are
expected to grow. Fortunately these little ones have such an
exuberance of life that it is not easily quenched. Formal knowledge
stands first in our common school course and real studies are allowed
to pick up such crumbs of comfort as may chance to fall. We believe in
formal studies and in their complete mastery in the common school, but
they should stand in the place of service to real studies. How
powerful the tendency has been and still is toward pure formal drill
and word memory is apparent from the fact that even geography and
history, which are not at all formal studies, but full to overflowing
with interesting facts and laws, have been reduced to a dry memorizing
of words, phrases, and stereotyped sentences.
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