Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1854-11-13
Education, Of Boys.

as are calculated to make them billiards.
drones and dyspeptics.
Take case. Sam is fine stout lad Of
dozen years. He has strong frame.
full round cheeks, but rather a thick head
his good mother fears. She suspects that
while they lived in the country he was
neglected, since now he shows more de-
cided taste for running in the street and
for play than for any school-book he brings
home with hims Being an attendant
Upon one Of the best Of our public schools.
he spends five hours of each day in the
school-room; but to be entirely puuctual
he must leave home at o'clock in the
morning. 4 brief recess is all the chance
he gets to 'crnise" or "cut up" until the gets
home at 81 or 4.
Then Sam is disposed to take it easy a.
while. but the spirit Of the age has got in
to our mothers and fathers, and Sans pa
rentshames him out of his laziness. He
dashes into the street, and with hurra!
is oft among the other lads on 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 strip" comes in
with loads of sweat on his forehead, bro
ken pants and sole off. Perhaps he has
rubbed the skin off of his hand or blacken-
ed his eye in his rough play but he'll not
complain of them. Sans poor mother is
in distress. Her boy is a scape-grace, she
is afraid. Poor woman, she signs over her
dull boy, and wishes he would take to his
study as her neighbor's boy does, who is
two years younger and two classes 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 gets he of his reading. The anx.
ious mother hints and coaxes, and at last
compels him to get his school-books. At
it he goes sluggishly; and at it works
sleepily, but at last succeeds. He has
learned his spelling lesson-which happens
to be the names of the South American
rivers; his graninar-which was a renaem-
Der page Of uniutehgible formulas; his
history-which wasa compilation Of dates;
and his Arithmetic--any one of whose
sums his father, though just from the
counting house, would hesitate to do with
out slate. He pokes of to bed an hour
past the time when he should go, and is
up early to so the same round again. Sat.
urday he writes composition and copies,
and steals a little play. Sundays, he
blacks his shoes, goes to two meetings and
two Sunday-schools, gets sly taste of the
Arabian Nights while pretending to be o.
sleep, and so rests. .
Now mother, is this the way for your
stout boy to get an education! Probably,
in spite of your bad management, he will
continue in health, obtain exercise enough
by stealing it, and get along well. But
what folly possesses youa you could not
sit five hours on the comfo.tless seat, and
in the illy-ventilated room, that Sam is ca
ged in five days out Of the seven. You
could not, to save your best ring. from
pawn, commit to memory those definitions
that disgrace the spelling book he Uses
You could not learn and keep in memory
the catalogue of names that compose his
geography lessons. Your head would
ache well-nigh to splitting, to spend as
many hours q day porting 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 mis- recess.
When he gets home, don't let him look
into book unless he begs with tears in
his eyes to do so. Send him into the street,
with full permission to run his eyes out if
he cries aloud, spares not, and yells, like IN
Indian, while playing. Every whoop he
gives saves him another month from con-
sumption, and there is no harmin it unless
the M. P. objects or the next neighbor is
nervous. If he allows any boy to 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 story, 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 family gathers around
the table to work and read, set him at his
lessons. His active mind will grasp now
in an hour what he would doze over for
three hours but for the after school ra-
cling and play. Let him read a little in
the book he prefers when the lessons are
learned, and then get him early to bed
Let the Saturdays lessons be very short
and his play-spell long.
"But he will tear his clothes to rags
Well, what are trowsers worth by the side
of health! What are shoes, which are
but the skins Of dead cattle, compared with
elastic and excellent spiritsg
"But he will grow rude and unlnans
geable. He will run with bad boys to
learn their wicked ways Keep an eve
on him, then. Learn the names Of the
boys he goes with, and get him to tell
what he has beer at every tea-time, not as
a spy or a Judge, but because you are in
terested in his sports. It will do deal
towards keeping him within bounds and
making him honest toward you. Boys
cannot grow III fower-pots, nor shut out
from sun and air. They must have exer-
else or grow UP ninnies. School them as
much as you choose, but with ribbons for
muscles and nerves that are as tender as
those of broken tooth, uneducated Young
America will lay them painting on their
backs. The education we advise would