The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-06-10
Common Schools.

Common Schools.
O It Is. often q matter Of great surprise to
the observer and careful thinker so see the
apathy of parents in regard to schools.
In all matters of speculation, buying, sell
ing, or any undertaking that makes de mand
upon the purse, the subject is carefully lcon-
siaered and discussed. Any appropriation
for local or town purposes is encouraged or
opposed according to its relative value and
individual benefit. The caring for the poor,
making new roads, improving old ones,
building bridges ands,"town houses" is
conceived to be necessary taxation, because
to care for the poor is to do good, and money
expended on roads, bridges and commo-
diouS "tewn houses" enhances the value of
real estate. But when lnthe annual district
meetings for the consideration of school
appropriations for the.ensuing year. the sub
ject of taxation is considered in altogether a
different light. Instead Of employing teach
ers OF character, ability. and experience, the
item of cost comes in, because the. school is
small and the children are small, and that is
made an argument that cheap, inexperienced
girl must be employed to teach the school, or
else the experienced practical teacher must
take the school at half fair salary, out of
pure love of the thing, to ACCOMMODATE the
parsimony of the taxpayers. The latter
teacher can do better, so the former is en-
ployed, and the foundation of the knowledge
and future usefulness aud greatness of the
child. the correction Of wrong habits, often
acquired at home, the molding of the young
aid plastic minds, the setting forth of all
their faults in q manner best calculated to
promote a. cure, the encouragement of re-.
newed effort at every failure, is entrusted to
one whose experience in books and life
scarcely extends beyond the Threshold of
her fathers door. To this add the fact that
every little scholar is provided with differ
ent series of books, and often two of them re-
quired to use one book, SO that an arrange
ment into classes-a necessity very desirable,
as all teachers knoW--is entirely impossible.
| When we consider that, Notwithstanding this
age OF high schools and colleges, more
than half the children of the country grad
uats in the common school, we may readily
infer what their abilities must be when
also record that parents seldom visit the
school. Their interest goes no farther than
to permit them to go-often at a late hour
and in many cases not more than four days
| in the week. The school room is a little
eight-by-ten affair, the ceiling proportion
ately low, with no provision for ventilation
or for warmth. An old cracked stove with
broken door, that has done duty since the
days OF the first inventor of that kind of ware,
still stands there, rusty and cold The bar
rem walls only boast of the same greasy
blackboard that long since ceased. TO receive
an impression only when scratched by a ten
penny nail by some urchin during play
hours.
Now, this is all wrong. There are, no
doubt, noble exceptions. We would that
there were more, that parents could under
stand that when they send their children to
school under such discouraging circum-
stances they trifie with their temporal, spir-
tttal, ETERNAL good. We know cases may
be cited where great men have studied when
young by the light of pine torch, but how
many such great men have we, or have had p
7 On the other hand, how many have we that
cannot write legible hand, tell the value CT
sixty bushels and ten pounds of wheat at
81 20 bushel, or cast the simple interest on
a note at a given rate? We find county Of
ficials so ignorant that the fact has become
proverb And yet there is class that have
more time for reeding and study than the
farmer, no. youth with better advantages
than the farmers son, if properly directed
The theory that "education makes boys
lazy" exploded with our grandfathers' de-
mise; nevertheless it is q fact of which the
directors of common schools seem to be in
entire ignorance, Judging by the way they
continue to provide for them. Let us hope
that in. this progressive age little of it's
spirit may be caught by those who in their
school-houses councils, have eater and
graver responsibilities than they have yet |
thought of c. is.
. ST.. PAUL, Mimi, May, 1869.
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