Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1849-12-05
What is EducatiOn2

Every year tends to make deeper the ILL
preston upon our mind, that the wisest have
but q faint idea of the ingredients that form ed
%atcation, as that word should be understood ii
our language. AS a general thing, parents con
cciye it only necessary that their sons should
90 through a regular course of studies, as al
present pursued in common schools, and then
in some university eventually to gain a diplo.
ma, to conn forth a well educated man, pre-.
pared to 60 forth upon the world, ready to com.
bat with man for ascendancy in all the various
ambitions, pursuits, and intricacies of life. Ger
tainly, excellence in any aim or direction of
youth, cannot be attained unless aided by our
schools-but the most necessary and important
knowledge should come through the parent.
The nature, disposition and temperament of
q son should constitute the first studies of a
father, who must be blind indeed, if he cannot
distinguish the general tastes, principles and
passions, towards which his son is ~predisposed
at the age of fourteen. His future career is
dependent upon the bias of his mind ut this
age. Whether the inheritor of poverty or Of
wealth, the sooner that he is made to feel that
his success and standing in society are depen-
dent upon himself, the better. Nothing is more
poisonous to the mind Of a boy than the be-
lief that he will inherit thousands, and what
ever his exeFtions or his actions, his fathers
wealth will always be extended him the SOON
er a youth of this description is made to feel
adversely, the better, 1t is adversely that will
make him study, reflect, work, and form a cor
rect Judgment Of human nature; man cannot
be known when fortune smiles-it is in lowli-
ness and in want that the mind forms a correct
estimate Of mind, and without this knowledge,
which cannot otherwise be obtained unless by
long and close study, and travel, and the SUBJ
DUNG of passions, the favorite of fortune, when
he arrives at twenty-one, is like a rudderless
vessel at sea, beautifully equipped, but lacking
the viewless directing agent that guides il on
in the right direction, safely and surely.
We perceive that in the eastern cities, some
thing else has Of late been thought necessary
by parents for young men to pursue, who
will possess wealth, than those studies which
merely qualify them for the bar or the bedside
Of a patient. Parents in ~aauence have at last
thought it not a bad idea, as a part of a sons
education, to bind him some three or four years
to som useful trade. In our estimation, a trade
of some description, constitutes one-hay of the
best kind of an education. A trade will not
prevent q youth from becoming a lawyer, a
physician or a farmer, while at the same time
it gives him a security against want Or depen-
dence, if adversely should come, either through
his own indiscretion, or the ordinary misfor-
tunes of life. Education then consists princi-
pally in the knowledge 10 rely upon ones self
and the earlier this principle is inculcated in the
mind of youth, whatever his position, the more
advantageous will it be for both parent and
child.
In Great Britain and France, and other en-
lightened nations of Europe, parents who are
not sufficiently wealthy to establish their sons
in some description of commerce, choose for
them a trade, as the next best means to secure
an independepee-and what is the real
value Of education if it is not to acquire this
great desideratum2 If political fame is sought
for in the education Of youth, let parents take
view Of our Congress, and see which there
oredominates, the trades or the professions.