Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1912 — Too Much Emphasis on Mere Learning [ARTICLE]

Too Much Emphasis on Mere Learning

By Prof. John M. Tyler,

Amh«rst College

The school should furnish the training formerly furnished by the farm and the home, or the education of the child will be defective in the most important respects. It can no longer be merely or chiefly hn institution of learning, as it could content itself to be a century ago. It must furnish training in skill and ingenuity, in planning and doing, as well as in learning and abstract thought. It must educate for efficiency and power. W e have fine buildings, good equipment, but the system under which our teachers are working is antiquated. It

must shift its emphasis from mere increase of learning—or memory ■ to increase of physical, mental and moral power and efficiency. Such a change will force its way here but slowly against the prejudices of parents and public, who would have even the baby devote himself to learning something “useful.” ,