Does all our boasted culture come to this; or will Cambridge
examinations and a scientific education set all right again? When an
hour a day, at least, for twelve years passed in the study of music has
failed to implant those habits of accuracy which this beautiful science
so pre-eminently combines with sweetness and grace, is a smattering of
geology certain to succeed? Will Greek strengthen the character more
than German? Or is one as likely as the other to puff the mind with
conceit, where it does not equally encourage a deceitful appearance of
knowledge. And is the new system better calculated than the old one to
prepare girls for fifty years of womanhood?
People talk of depth, as if truth were only to be found at the bottom
of a well. What seems most wanted is breadth, free expansion all round
to keep the soul healthy. Let every branch have due encouragement to
stretch out towards the light, to receive the shower or sunshine as
they come.
Some careful mothers say, "I keep my girls exclusively at 'studies' for
the piano; they make such a good groundwork." This may be so, but
finger training is not everything. The poor girls have had their souls
so sickened over melancholy minor "meditations," that their hearts are
closed to the tender or joyous melodies of music, and its rich,
majestic harmonies.
Point out these things to the young, who will love them, at first
blindly, and afterwards with a gradually developing appreciation.
Here a little, there a little, is a true precept in education. A thing
can never be completely taught, for there is infinity everywhere. How
rarely we can begin at the beginning, or even the unit, of anything;
multiplication and subdivision meet us at both ends, besides all the
collaterals.
I have ever observed that those girls who have been the greatest number
of years at the same school know the least, and are the most stupid. It
is better to let children go to many different schools in succession,
than to remain long in one: they gain more experience, while the
chances of their learning evil are the same in both cases. In public
schools as boys go up through the forms, they meet different sets of
masters and subjects of study, so that these are, in fact, fresh
schools.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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