The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1860-11-15
4AOW 10 Use your Family News
paper.

circle should be interested in it, and, in
deed, trained to appreciate it as a part of
the inner economy Of household life
Che common practice that limits the use
OF the newspaper to the parents and
grown-up children, deprives the family,
as a family, Of its benefits. 10 make it
available for the good Of all, it should be
regarded as a centre around which the
intellect Of the household should be col
lected-a family table for daily mental
nutrinent.
Reading is ordinarily one Of the most
selfish enjoymcuts. Men and women
who are liberal in every thing else are
exclusive here. The spare hour or two
IN the evening that they can give to this
exercise is private property-a quiet lit
tie Sabbath Of their own, shut up IN a
pleasant parenthesis-wh;ch they are en-
titled to enjoy. But this is a sort of
intellectual harem-life which is rather
Inconsistent with family culture. Not
that we wish to convey the idea that
there is TO be no private reading and
study-no books sacred to ourselves.
livery one must have paths III literary
fields hat are silent to the tread of other
footsteps; but in the family, mind and
AL It's forms of action ought TO be com
mon. This is Natures law--as much so
rs kindness, sympathy and love, with
their retiuue of graceful offices, are to be
shared III by all the household. 1t is a
law, however, that is constantly violated,
Few families have any intellectual exer-
else i'll common. Aside from the famil-
lar topics that constitute the staple chit
chat of the table and the freside, they
lave no such thing as family mind, train
ed every day by contact with the same
general truths, facts, incidents One
main reason Of this has just been intimat-
cd; viz, the insulating habit of private
reading. How, now, can this be rene
died? There is at least one method that
may be adopted with obvious advantage,
and it consists in the proper use Of first
rate family newspaper.
De"ote an hour each night that you
may be able to command TO this inter
esting work. Read aloud such portions
OF the newspaper as may be suited to
your purpose. Require one Of the chill
diem to explain the geographical allu-
.siors; give arithmetical questions to an
get "A third to point out bad gram
mar, and let the elder children make a
rhetoric exercise Of the best-written ar
ticles. The long columns of advertise
ments will suggest many profitable in
qulrics. Here you will have a machine
that will call out their knowledge of me-
chanies as taught in natural philosophy
aud there a cargo Of sugar, coffee, etc,
will practice them in the productions Of
distant climates. You will soon fnd that
the newspaper, bringing together SO
many items Of interest, will awaken their
curiosity and excite their faculties and
thus whatever your children are learning
school Will acquire a practical value
by being used under circumstances to
arouse the ambition and crafty the
budding scholarship Of the little students.
In this way you will operate powerfully
on the child S progress in education. One
Of the greatest difficulties in really and
thoroughly educating a young mind is in
exercising its powers il the application
of knowledge.
Nor will the benefit end here. Every
family ought to have a family education
in the knowledge of the world. 1t ought
to be trained to look out upon the great
of human life from the snug cove of
home. ExperiGce in the world is not
the way to know the world and indeed
1t often happens, where there has been
no previous introduction Of the domestic
mind to an acquaintance with the real
ties of existence, that experience is bit
ter school. True manly experience pre-
supposcs the study of principles, maxims,
sentiments and by them the Intellect
and heart are prepared for an experiment
tai intercourse with society. Every pa,
rent should see to this domestic work
Nothing is a better auxiliary to 1t than a
good newspaper.
Apart from these effects, the bare fact
that the different members of a family
cultivate thought, taste, expression to-
gether, must strengthen the ties of do
nestle sympathy aud enlarge the scope
and action of their nature. There is ID
great need for this sort of blending in
most families. If the Bible is excepted,
what common educative influence of the
domestic i~ntellect have We? Nothing
supplies this want, so far as everyday
mind Is concerned, so well as a moral,
heightened. earnest newspaper.