Our great mistake in education is, as it seems to me, the
worship of book-learning–the confusion of instruction and education. We
strain the memory instead of cultivating the mind. The children in our
elementary schools are wearied by the mechanical act of writing, and the
interminable intricacies of spelling; they are oppressed by columns of dates,
by lists of kings and places, which convey no definite idea to their minds, and
have no near relation to their daily wants and occupations; while in our public
schools the same unfortunate results are produced by the weary monotony of
Latin and Greek grammar. We ought to follow exactly the opposite course
with children–to give them a wholesome variety of mental food, and endeavor to
cultivate their tastes, rather than to fill their minds with dry facts. The
important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every
child should be given the wish to learn. What does it matter if the pupil know
a little more or a little less? A boy who leaves school knowing much, but
hating his lessons, will soon have forgotten almost all he ever learned; while
another who had acquired a thirst for knowledge, even if he had learned little,
would soon teach himself more than the first ever knew.
John Lubbock
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