American annals of education - 1828 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INQUIRIES ON EDUCATION. - NO. II. /VTliv /. The question we wish to consider, is not, whether the time usually spent at school is well spent -- for undo... more »ubtedly it is -- but could it be better employed ? is the inquiry we wish to make. Experience and observation induce us to believe, that these years, inestimable in their value, can be turned to a better account, than is usually made of them. Boys are sent to school, to be drilled into the same course of instruction, whatever be their future destination ; and the first ten or twelve years are spent in the mechanical process of regularly going to school, and performing a daily task -- this is the boasted privilege of our country, and we wish to improve it ; not because much has been done in our common schools, that we should relax our exertions, but that we would render their influence more effectual, by making instruction better adapted to individual necessities and the demands of society. In this time might be acquired such a stock of knowledge as would enable men, with practice, to fill almost any station, if their education were directed to this end. A boy, destined for the common walks of society, seldom learns any thing at school, except reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, geography, and grammar, -- the last three constitute most of his juvenile education, and usually engross three fourths of his time. These are indispensable branches of education and should receive a proper attention, but the latter is exceed- ingly intricate ; and the propriety of teaching it to children, at an early age, has often been doubted -- it is however evident, that it should not occupy much time, until the pupil is old enough to reflect upon its use ; and we have seen it taught practically with far more success than th...« less