True Democrat. (Paulding, Miss.) 1845-18??, 1845-12-31

EDUCATION OF FARMERS Sons The
editor Of the Southern Planter, in his September
number, has an article on the subject OF con-
templated agricultural school, in building
recently used for the "Collegiate Institute OF
Buckingham" from WHICH we make the sub
Joined extracts He thinks there would be
no doubt Of q the success of a school properly
conducted" and then remarks: Properly con-.
ductedi But where is the school in America
that is properly conducted2 We hope we will
not be considered universal fault-fnders, but
we are out of patience whenever we begin
to talk upon this subject OF education. In Eu-
rope the teachers art is considered most pro-
found and difficult one, and those who are de-
signed FOR the profession are not only taught
qchat they are to teach, but hO'o they are to
teach. In our country, broken down yankee
pedlaris considered good enough to superIntend
the moral and mental training of the Virginia
youth. How often is it that the schoolmaster
10 whom the moulding and fate OF yourfavoIlte
boy is entrusted, is hardly considered ut vlsl-
tor for your drawing room You select your
merchant, your doctor, and your lawyer with
caution and care; but what examination do you
make into the merits or capabilities Of your
children's teacherl Mol 1t is because The
same course was pursued with you that you are
pursuing towards with them They are learn
ing nothing, and at school you learned nothing
which you remember, and consequently you
are no nudge Of the merits OF your village
schoolmaster. If this were not so, never would
YOU run the fearful task of having the mind OF
your child, which is but as clay in the potters
hand, moulded as chance may dictate we as
sert that there is universal defect in our sys-
tenn of education, and we make no exception IN
our higher schools and colleges Wewlll not
say of the graduates of these latter, as Burns
did, that they go in stirks, and come out asses,
but we will say, they go in very Ignorant, and
come out generally very little better of. To
prove this true, take any seasoned, skllful, Gle
yer, elderly gentleman, in any department Of
science or art, let him be one who has had
greatest advantages of education, and ask him
for the useful practical purposes of life, what
he knew al twenty.one what portion OF that
knowledge which he finds daily use for now
he had acquired when he had finished (God
save the markl bis education2 Take young
man, about to enter upon the world, fresh from
the hands of his teacher, who had charge OF
him for ten or twelve years, during which time
he has had his soul almost driven out Of him
in the impotent effort to drive knowledge into
him; take him, wasted by restraint and confne-
ment, and tell us for what ofthe active duties OF
life he has been ftscd What does he know
that is to be a source ofeither profit or pleasure
to him2 OF course we speak generally Does
he NOT, il he is youth of any sprighlliness at
all, consider himself emancipaled from the
drudgery of learning, and does he not look at
work of science as agalleysiave would al
an oar2 Docs he not Immediately begin to
forget all that he has been so laborousl y en-.
gagged in acquiring, and by the time be has be-
come, what is called, useful member of socie.
ty, can he solve proposition in Euclid, or rem
der line in Homer for the life of him2 When
we see a school established upon other prlnci-
plies; when we see the great object oflhe teach
er to be, to inspire an appreciation OF learning
when we see the acquisition Of IDEAS pleasure
and a luxury, as lit naturally is, instead of bore
and a.drudgery,as II is generally made when
we see boys who are highly educated, posses
sing practical superiority in the walks Of life,
and retaining il over those who are not then
shall we begin to value COLLEGIATE edneation.
Southern Kdl Planfer.