Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/265

Rh child than science, is really better suited by its nature to the mental activity of early years. The integral defect of the old-fashioned system of education (in which the Miss Pelicoes were so carefully trained) was its being based upon an excessive amount of pure memorizing; and from this error we have undergone in recent years a strong revulsion of feeling. Unfortunately, this has led, like all effective reactions, to the commission of faults in the other extreme, and we are now in danger of losing sight of the fact that the acquirement of knowledge by memory must, and ought to, constitute a large part of early education. So much has been said of late as to the duty of imparting to children a right understanding of natural laws, that we overlook the necessity of storing their minds with a knowledge of many subjects other than science. In the brief span of school life it is imperative to teach a fair amount of ancient and modern history; to cultivate the gift of tongues; to discipline the mental faculties in the precision of mathematical thought; and to instill a moderate acquaintance with the literature of English-speaking people, together with a reasonable facility of expression in the English language. Now if, in addition, it were possible to provide for a number of scientific studies the time necessary to derive from each one of them its special educational advantage, then indeed no effort would be too great to accomplish such an end. But it is not possible. Neither the mental nor the physical capacities of youth are equal to such a strain.

But, some one asks: Is not good scientific training of greater importance than other branches of education? Why should not a large amount of time be devoted to practical work in science from the beginning of school life, even if other subjects are set aside for the purpose? I answer, because the minds of young children are peculiarly apt at the kind of study in which the exercise of memory (I do not, of course, mean memorizing) plays an important part. In our recent and highly commendable efforts to reform the practice of learning largely by rote, we have undervalued the educational significance of the fact that children are able, by the intelligent exercise of their memories, to acquire information with ease, and to retain it securely, while those who have passed the point where the brook and river meet learn in this manner only with wearisome effort, and even then remember but imperfectly. Precisely the reverse obtains in scientific training. The qualities of mind which enable a student to reap the full benefit of observation and deduction grow with mental growth and strengthen with intellectual strength. If the non-scientific side of education is curtailed in the early years of school life, the pupils will be greatly the losers in all matters within the province of art and letters. If, on the contrary, their scientific training is postponed to a late period, they will find it a gain