Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1864-03-11
AnDREss OF F. W. DICKERsON,

ADDRESS OF E. w. DICKERsON,
Deliuered before the northeastern Teachers as
sociatioY, held at Fremont, Feb. 2Ot., 1864.
LADIES AND GESrL EAIEN AND FELLOW TEACH
ERs.-I wish to present for your consideration
a few thoughts connected with the True Derel-
opne,tt Of Hind. [ do not wish to discuss any
point at length l do not wish to attack any
man, or system of education. l wish to cal
your attention to a few, to me, facts
The first is this: The power of children up
on their parents. Children WELD the destinies
of this world before they become its grand act
4 ors. | mean this,-a generation of men and
women rule the world while they are living and
working for their children. Fathers and moth
ers viii work, fight aud pray for their children,
love them with all their faults, build castles in
the air for them long after life has become a
stern, every day reality. Why is this? The
souls of the father and mother are knit to that
of their little one by its first feeble cry, by its
cries OF pain-pity and love comes in. Because
he is so helpless they pity and love him. Sleep
ing or waking, as we look at him, &c little dar-
ling!' bursts from heart O 'er flowing or per-
haps dies unspoken upon the lips; for some-
times the heart moves most when the lips move
not. There are thoughts too big to feel their
way through little words, as there are noun
tains too large for US ever to see removed by
cart loads or car loads. And this is why we
sometimes feel that words and books are but
tools to work withal. Just look at the little fell
low OF few months He is up, but he can t
hold his little head still. His neck is as timber
as were our ankles the first time we ever stood
on skates He cannot stand or sit, but he can
cry when he Is hungry-you will call this in
stinct-and he will cry to get up. He's got a
loM long before he has word. To direct that
will of his is to make him. Smile at him.
His little eyes will brighten up, and that soul
within him looks ut and smiles at you
Why not love him? He loves you. In few
months he begins to talk. He imitates-has all
his wants. This, in brief, is babyhood.
By and by he can't have all he wants, and
then begins the struggle. How shall we direct
that will of his? Is there a sure way? Yes, if
he will go that way. We don't know that he
will; and because we don t knowit, and because
we earnestly desire him to be as we would have
him-we work for that. Early and late at
home and abroad, we work, plan, pray for those
whom God has given us. Is this wrong? We
wish to make certainty out of this uncertain
ty. God has installed us into the Office of nat
ural guardians of His souls, and who shall ac-
quit us in that day when He shall make up His
Jewels ifthey come not up clothed and in their
minds?
Time flies on The boy grows, wants to play
with other boys Here is where every parent
is personally interested i'll the character Of eve
ry other child with whom theirs may come in
contact; for every one of these viii give him an
example to initiate Children initiate If
have BOYS and girls growing up in this place i
am more interested i'll the moral character of
their associates, than in their merely scholastic
cquirements-many times more.
That boy who said "my father rules the
State and rule my father, spoke for nearly
all the boys of a republic, plainly, and is itnot
true for all civilized countriesI Ifnot, why the
immense expenditure of time, energy, anxiety
and money for their education dress, amuse
ments and comfort? Why says the heart of
that seemingly stoical father, that boy bears my
name | hope that he will live to comfort me
youthful friends are gone, the bone ofmy bones
and flesh of my flesh, hope, will be near me
to feed my fatherly pride by his love for me,
and his honorable virtuous life. What parent
does not hope so? We hope, Also that our chill
dren will live after we dead, to remember
us while they live and to do us justicewlth the
living
They come to us 50 helpless they look to us
so full of confidence in their little years, that
-. IL, 20. ind
ourselves bound by the power of love and duty,
and we cannot shake it off.
The oppressed father i'll a foreign land, feels
the uncertainty of the rights of life and liberty
for his children and, true to natures impulse, !
he gathers together his household and leaves the
land of his friends and his early hOme and trav-
els to a land ofstrangers. The rights of himself
and his children-his childrens' as much as his
own-is a motive power, strong enough to con-
ouer all the ties outside of his family This |
power has peopled continent. Is not the ap-
peal made to soldiers ou the eve of battle to de-
fend Their affairs and their ires?' Would |
this be made at such time if il were not most |
powerful motive powerE
This love of children then, is a ruling power |
of the world. 1t is not g cotton; it is not cOrn
but it is the pure, expanding Mind that is |
q King And children rule by the love-off- /
erings showered upon them by those who le-
gally hold the power. Who can estimate the
power of a happy home? Can money buy it,
Yet, home without children is merely a house
and furniture to entertain ones friends while
home with them is school ofthe heart Ifgood |
children-happy homes; ifbad-then misplaced
love living troubles, sorrows of the heart Now.
how can we avoid this sorrow of the heart on
the one hand, and have our children blessings
to and angels of the household? Ireply, ''Train
up a child the way he should go, and when he
is old he will not depart from it. " Teach them
to be good, by constant training, by daily les
Ions in precept and example, and to keep good
because they love it.
Does not the happiness of our homes depend
upon the character ofevery child, when we con-
slider that every child must come in contact with
some other ehild-many other children2 There
fore. the happiness of any community depends
upon the right formation Of the mind and char
acter of every youth. Every father and mother,
YES. and brother and sister, has personal inter-
est in the moral education, direction, develop
ment of his or her and their neighbors children.
This Is the reason why there ought to be a Inu-
tual Understandings unity of purpose to direct
the lives of nations. And now, ask, How shall
we best direct and develop this growing power
the viii? We must have a unity ofpurpose,
but we should have a variety of means, we
should have a variety of experiments to make
thorough work III the Investigations of prnci-
pies ofsciences.
In the December (l66l) number of the Atdn-
tic lloathly is an article ON & Health of Hospi-
tails, showing that the British Government, at
the commencement ofthe Crimean War, had no !,
system, excepting the Regimental, for the
regulation Of hospitals. Each man. at the head L
of one Of these hospitals, took his own course,
and had an independent system; but necessity
produced an enlarged system and many en-
iarged views upon the whole subject, one of
which is this: . With regular system of rec
ord, at a central station of observation, much
more may be done with much less fatigue to all
parties Ifths be true for the perfacting of
ystern of treatment of disease among men, why
may not the same principle apply to the per- l.