Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Plea for the Old, Against the New, in Education: An Address Delivered at the Close of the Annual Examination of the Presbyterian High Schools, at Greenwood, Abbeville District, S. August 2nd, 1850
And the truth is, there is a great deal of imposture and empiricism among the professors of the art of teaching themselves. This is not the fault, however, of that honor able profession. The reason why there are quacks in any business, is because the people encourage quackery. Ithe world patronises imposture and experiment else there would be none. It is just as true in teaching as in any thing else, thatjthe supply will be according to the demand. And if novelties and high-soun'ding pretensions are popular and pay well, men will be found ready and able to present them at a moment's warning.
I have no new theory, on the subject of education, to offer. I have made no grand invention or discovery, unless it be the discovery that our fathers understood the subject about as well as we do; and that the pretended improvements of the day, in so far as they affect principles and systems, and not mere details, are a vanity and a lie. I have no tole ration for radical innovators in the delicate business of train ing immortal 'minds. The physician who tries experiments with the lives and health of his patients, is' justly and un sparingly condemned. Far less indulgence should be given him who plays charlatanical pranks with the souls and mental well-being of his_pupils. The civilized world, after three thousand years experience in the art of education, can be taught little by the upstarts of to-day. And the noisyheralds of new methods have generally an object, - either to conceal essential defects in themselves, or to practice on the credulity of a confiding public. Some years ago, an impa dent adventurer made a descent on the quiet people of a neighboring district, and established among them an acade my, on some new plan, with a pompous name and much pretension. He professed to teach six things in the time usually devoted to one, and for a short season largely enjoyed the favor and patronage of the community. But after having gulled and swindled the pe'ople, taught their children nothing and made them pay well for it, he suddenly disappeared be tween the close of one day and the dawn of another.
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