“‘It’s mental discipline. Miss Cram says I have a fine mind that needs developing. Look here, grandma, now this is the correct placing of elements. Fourscore and seven are joined by the word and, a subordinate connective copulative conjunction. It modifies years, the attribute of the preposition. Ago is a modal verb of past time. The root of the first clause is—.
“‘Why, that’s Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg. I keep it in my work-basket and know it by heart.’
“‘Indeed! Well, ours is a simple personal—.’
“‘That’s enough. If President Lincoln had been brought up on such stuff, that speech would never have been written. He called a noun a noun, and was done with it.’”[173]
Montaigne could scarcely have given a more vivid description had he seen the grind of modern education, where grades are strictly kept, and all children, the strong and the tender alike, are forced through the same process. There is no relief save in dropping by the wayside when disease fastens its tendrils on the human frame.
Against this system all educational reformers have striven, but it remains with us still. Christian parents, could they see the relative value of soul and mental culture, would demand the establishment of a new order of things. Christian education alone can effect a cure.
Nature-study to prevent cramming
Comenius strove to correct this error by the introduction of nature-study. He says: “The right instruction of youth does not consist in cramming them with a mass of words, phrases, sentences, and opinions collected from authors, but in unfolding the understanding, that many little streams may flow therefrom as from a living fountain.... Why shall we not, instead of dead books, open the living book of nature? Not the shadows of things, but the things themselves, which make an impression on the senses and the imagination, are to be brought before youth. By actual observation, not by a verbal description of things, must instruction begin.... Men must be led as far as possible to draw their wisdom, not from books, but from a consideration of heaven and earth, oaks and beeches; that is, they must know and examine things themselves, and not simply be contented with the observations and testimony of others.”
His fundamental principles were, “Education is a development of the whole man,” and “Many studies are to be avoided as dissipating the mental strength.”