Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1854-12-13
THE EDUCATION OF RoYs.

'ntnk tney give their boys chance"
while they insist on such employments as
are calculated to make them drones, dul-
Aards. and dyspeptics. -- a- @..ss
Take case. Sam is fine stout lad of a
dozen years. He has strong frame, full
round cheeks, but rather thick head his
good mother fears. She suspects that while
they lived in the country he was neglect
cd since now he shows a more decided
taste for play and for running in the
street than for any school book he brings
home with him. Being an attendant mp
on one of the best of our public schools,
he spends five hours each day in the
school room but to be entirely punctual,
he must leave home at o'clock in the
morning. A brief recess is all the chance
he gets to cruise" or "cut up" until he
gets home at 81 or q.
Then Sam is disposed to take it easy
awhile, but the spirit Of the age has got
into our mothers and fathers, and Sans
parents shame him out of his laziness
lie dashes off into the street, and with
hurra is off among the other lads on a
chase. But boys will tumble if they run
hard, and pantaloons will tear if they
are violently strained. By the time the
tea-bell rings, or little after, the young
rip" comes in with beads of sweat on
his forehead, broken pants and shoe
sole off. Perhaps he has rubbed the
skin off of his hand or blackened his eye
in his rough play, but he'll not complain
OF them. Sans poor mother is in dis
tress. Her boy is a scape-grace, she is
afraid. Poor woman. she signs over
hel dull boy, and wishes he would take
to his studies as her neighbours boy does,
who is two years younger and two class
es ahead Of him. With the lighted lamps
Sam snatches up his new magazine, or
the paper, to read where the fire was But
little comfort he gets of his reading. The
ANXIOUS mother hints and coaxes, and at
last compels him to get his school books. |
At 1t he goes sluggiShly, and at works
sleeplly, but at last succeeds. Heshas
learned his spelling lesson, with am alb
surd definition for each word ; his Gengs
raphy lesson-which happens to be the
names of some of the South American
rivers his Grammar-whichw Ito re-,
member page .efpninlelNgible formulas; \
his History-which was compilation oil
dates and his Arithmetic one oh
whose sums his father, though just from
the counting house, would hesitate to do
without slate. lie pokeS off to bed at
an hour past the time when he should go,
and is up early to 60 the same round
again. Saturday, he writes composition
and copies, and steals IL little pay. |
Sunday, he blacks his shoes. goes to two
meetings and two Sunday Schools, gets a
sly taste of the Arabian Nights while pre-
tending to be asleep, and so rests.
tI =, IL,
stout boy to get an education Probably, |
in spite of your bad management, he will |
continue in health, obtain exercise
enoguh by stealing it, and get along well.
But what folly possesses you! You could
not sit five hours on the cOmfOrtless seat,
and in the illy.ventilated room that Sam
is Gagged in five days out Of the seven.
You could not, to save your best ring
from pawn, commit to memory those def
nilions that disgrace the spelling book he
uses. You could not learn and keep in
memory the catalogue Off names that CON
pose his Geography lesson. Your head
would ache we'll nigh to splitting. to spend
as many hours day poriny over books
as he does.
| Take different course and see how he
improves. Give him nice breakfast be-
fore he goes TO school, or eat none your
self. Give him prime lunch for his re-
cess. When he gets home, don't let
him look into book uuless he begs with
tears in his eyes to do so. Send him in
to the street, with full permission o run his
eyes out if he chooses Don't worry it he
cries aloud, spares not, and yells like an
Indian, while playing. Every whOOp he
gives, saves him another month from con-
sumption, and there is no harm in it un
less the NJ. P. objects or the next neigh
Dor is nervous. The allows any boy t.
out-run him, shame him for his sloth.
When he comes in to tea, his appetite
will resemble BEARS. Let him eat then.
When the father leans back to tell Il sto
Try, let him hear it out, and enjoy it
Encourage him to tell his story, too; why,
it is thus he will learn the eloquence YOU
so much envy for him. When the father
gathers around the table to work and read,
SGT him at his lessons. His active mind
will grasp now in an hour what he would
doze over three hours but for the after
school racing and play. Let him read
,, little in the book he prefers when the
lessons are learned, and then get him
early to bed. Let the Saturdays lesson
be very short and his play spell long.
!, "But he will tear his clothes to rags"
Well, what are trousers worth by the side
of health ? What are shoes, which arc but
the skins of dead cattle, compared with
elastic and excellent spirits ----
But he will grow rude and unman'
ageable. He will run with bad boys tc
learn their wicked ways" Keep an eye
on him then. Learn the names of the
boys he sports with. and get him to tel
what he has been at every tea-time not
, as spy or judge, but because you are
I Interested in his sports. 1t will do dea
7 towards keepin him within bounds and ma
Lino him honest toward YOU. Bows can.