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Noted Harvard Professor’s Work on Education Con tains Useful,Knowledge to Parents--Other Reviews TION,” by Professor Barrett Wendell, “of Harvard Univer sity, is not a large book, but it contains a vast amount of food for reflection. The matter is largely taken from lectures and addresses, as well as some papers written for magazines. The budren of them ‘all is that, we are far behind the requirements of, the age in our practical application of educational methods. The mystery of education is not really a mystery on its practical side . The trouble with us all is that we do not have the right mental attitude toward the child or the youth. It is surprising how quickly all of us forget our youth, its trials, its ambiions, its attitude to ward life, and more than all its psychol ogical processes. Every man and woman recollects’ his youth, but he is apt to think that the period was one of in competency, that he thought wrong and that the rising generation is to be treat ed not as it is,but as it ought to be. This is certainly the greatest problem before the human race. “We ‘do not take,the ‘pains we should in getting into the heart, mind and soul of the child, or of the ‘adolescent youth. We like to forget our own experiences. We like to think that we can change human nature by a program which we have laid out. The words of Professor Wendell ought to seek deep into the minds of every pa rent. Nothing is of more vital import ance than that we should bring up our children properly. We must learn by their mistakes as well as our own, but the solemn and sad truth is that we do not think much about the matter. No man in this generation has done more than Professor Wendell to call attention to the errors of omission and commission which we make, but to an extent his is a voice crying in the wilderness.. We are making progress, but it is slow. We think that every parent, especially the parent of boys ready for college, will get an enormous amount of good out of these papers, which are published in a con venient volume by the Scribners, an MYSTERY OF EDUCA. DORRIEN CARFAX HE first thing that seems incumbent on one to ream about “Dorrien Carfax,’ by Nowell Griffith, is that it is’ decidedly different. No such story has been published in recent times. It violates many of the modern canons of novel writing, but is ‘not nec essarily any the worse for that because recent writers have gotten into a rut more or less, and a change is agreeable. The story’ deals with the downfall of an old English family, ‘Rum done it,” as the slang phrase has it. The husband and wife go to Victoria, Canada, to re habilitate their fortunes, where the man dies of drink and a posthumous child is born, the hero of the story, who finally rehabilitates the family fortunes, and, as we are informed at the close, buys back the old home in the spring of this year and three months later was married and living in the old hall, fetching the story up to about last August, we should say. Now Derrien has a strange career in Canada, England and the United States and the strangest thing about the book is the way in which his career is told. Sometimes we have long descriptions and resultory remarks after the manner of Thackeray, and then we have chapters in which sentences consist of a word or two, and the influence of Walt Whitman seems apparent. It is the literal style which is novel in this book and it is entertaining. Although some persons will think this a strange sort of tale, it must be confessed that it is attractive, and, while it may not serve as a model of style in the future, it is to be com mended for attacking literary conven tions. The people in the story are inter esting and the conclusion will be wholly satisfactory. Published by The John McBride Company, New Yorker Wwomen are slaves who must sell them selves to legalized prostitution through Marriages because that is their only oc cupation,save as they have made their way in some directions into ordinary male occupations, where they are brow beaten, insulted and robbed. The author apparently does not believe there is a good man nor a bad woman in the world. She says that men want only to get their passions assuaged, to have a home,to show off to their friends, and to have posterity of which they are much more fond of than the women. That there is a man who loves his wife or a home where love rules is not to be thought of for a moment. Woman is simply trodden down and made to serve man’s lowest instincts. This may possibly be the case in Eng land—in some places at least—but we doubt it. The author evidently knows nothing of the status of woman in this country. We have a woman’s realm here and men are not disposed to change it. All that we know of human nature and of history and society the world ever lead us to believe that this author is simply mistaken. There is no doubt some basis for her statement that wom en are not always treated with chivalry and common honesty but that they are all slaves is utterly false. It looks as if this were a document put out to her the sub teette campaign in Great Bri tain. If so it is likely to cause a re action. The author is unmarried. Just why this is, the case might give the key to her present position on matri mony. Published by Moffat, Yard Co. Arthur W. Brown. “Rodney McGraw” is a new character study of the Ameri can youngster that is fit to rank with “Tom Sawyer.” It is a book for boys but anyone with a sense of humor will enjoy it. Rodney is a typical street gamin, a true boy through and through, who has dipped into all sorts of vocations. Setting out to tramp his way from New York out West, where a former chum has found pleasant quarters on a farm, he discovers that a circus is bound by easy stages to his destination. Rodney decides to join it, and his unfailing good humor, his boyish eagerness to “make good,” stand him in such good stead that he is taken on as a dish wiper. Circus fife is revealed as a straight business proposi tion, full of hard work and hardships, but also full of thrills.Rodney has a full share of both, and during his stay with the circus helps save a panther-tater, prevents a train-wreck, and has a wild ride on an elephant. Published by Lit tle Brown Co.
Newspaper Details
Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Nov 15, 1909
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Sora T.
USA 21 Apr 2026
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