this of all schools and all teachers would be flagrant injustice.
Not a few of our older schools compare favorably with the best German
gymnasiums, and in the large cities we find schools of even recent
origin that endeavor faithfully to give a well-rounded discipline. But
it remains nevertheless true that our schools, taken as a whole, give
no more than the colleges require, and that only too many of them
give less, trusting to the colleges to be lenient and eke out the
deficiency. Moreover, when we read in the daily papers advertisements
like the following, "Mr. Smith, a graduate of Harvard (or Yale or some
other college, as the case may be), prepares young men for college,"
what inference are we to draw? Simply, that Mr. Smith, having gone
through Harvard or Yale, knows exactly what is required there, and
will undertake to "coach" any young man for admission in two or three
years. Such coaching, if the young man is dull or backward, will
consist in cramming him with required studies, to the neglect of
everything not required. Teaching is not easy work. In many respects
it is more difficult to be a good teacher than to be an original
investigator. Whatever operates to strengthen and elevate the
teacher's position, therefore, must be a gain. The highest
incentive would be the consciousness that his school is not a mere
stepping-stone to another school of larger growth, but the place where
he must in truth prepare the youthful mind for independent study.

JAMES MORGAN HART.




CONTRASTED MOODS.