The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-09

/ eau TehllilN CObpEeueuu.r NO greater
mistake was ever made than OF sup
| posing we were advancing the educa-
lion OF the young mind by giving 1t
advanced studies. VIII the boy grow
faster for trying to carry the burdens OF
a man, or will he not be overtaXed,
stunted, and become prematurely lit
tie man? Our schools are full OF just
such overtaxed, stunted minds, bro
ken down, discouraged in attempting
to learn and say sentences OF which
they have not the slightest comprehen-
sion. But this is not aui the youth
having been in constant attendance at
school for tive or six years, is weary OF
the same old routine of studies; he must
have some new ones, and SO he adj
vanees TO others still beyond his years,
never understanding, still tOilinR, still
dissatisfied, laying no foundation in
his mind for success either as student
or citizen, f-
But when youth has turned in safety
its thirteenth or fourteenth year, when
the physical frame has become TO n
good degree consolidated, and the
| strength OF early manhood and woman
hood gives vigor to body and brain,
then has come the hour OF toll and ac-
| quisition.
| Ipresume state the conviction ofnear-
| ly every learned man, that the real and
actual development of his Intellectual
powers does not much antedate his
! thirteenth or fourteenth year. Some
where about that age began his actual
understanding of the relations of cause
and effect, and of all those studies
based upon general principles or laws.
We have fallen into the very tiattering
but mistaken assumption that memo
rizing words and sentences, Is educa-
tion. Education is the drawing out of
the mind. Etfuco, to lead forth. knOwl-
edge is comprehension Ifa boy compre-
I hnnHG hnf n unHaFEfp n6l
it, he knows something, and it Is i'm
material whether he gained his kuowl-
| edge from book or from a workshop.
| When wecompreheud, we have knowl-
edge. When we do not, no matter how
| huently we may discourse upon sub
| ject, we have only bookish ignorance.
Point me a student of IL or 13 years
| of age who has been over Grammar,
Rhetoric, Philosophy, Algebra, aud we
shall not need to look far to find a
youth against whom all genuine
| Scholarships already foreclosed. Moth
has gone over everything too soon. His
mind was inadeQuRteto the rea5Onings.
| He could commit TO memory, but IL was
a fruitless taskI-no principle was illu US
trated-no truth impressed upon his
soul. Instead of knowledge he has
gathered simply confusion, and lost
meantime LIES golden opportunity.
| He is unwilling to return and start
from the beginning with a clear and
| thorough understanding, and so he
drags himself along in this distastefnl,
| loose, slipshod, shRmbling pretence OF
study, with nothing that may justly be
called knowledge, out everything mix
ed in an inextricable maze OF uncer-
tainty. Such course Of education or
| rather of study, is "A constant and ire
mediable burden of mortified self re-
spect and disappointed hope, till at last
the SLudgnt settles down into the con-
| viction that he can never make a
scholar, relinquisheS the contest, bury
| ing alike his own scholarly ambition,
and the cherished hopes OF friends.
In whatever light, therefore, we regard
| this excessive stimulation of brain in
childhood and early youth, it discloses
the same aspect of evil. It over
shadows the young being like ma
lign cloud, bringing poison to the body
and blight TO the mind. To so great
work as that of tine culture and the dis
cipline OF the intellect, these immature
years are not proportionate. Such II
work demands the best years of young
manhood and young womanhoOd.
In Europe the University term Is
seven years, In America We have at
tempted to force scholarly attainments
into the compass OF four years, and
now we are seeking to force the same
course of study upon the weaker fe-
male constitution in a still more abridg-
ed time. -...---. .....-
In view of the results, every one
charged with any share of the respon-
sibility of the education of our youth,
and especially our daughters, must
pause and ask within himself, are we
right? or are we wrong2 In attempt
ing to accomplish from Ave to fifteen
what can be done only from ten to
twenty, have we not violated one of the
very foundation laws of our well beingH