Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1870-06-10
L.THOK rs NV EDUC.rTOR.

BY REV. II. q. NoRTHRoP,
SECRETARY OF THE coSsrcricUT BOARD or EDUCATION.
IT is a partial view of education which as
sumeS that books and schools, indspensa-
bic rs they are, do the whole work. Every
thing which the child sees and hears, and,
still more, what he does, educates. This
practical training begins in the cradle, and
runs on through life. The educating value
of labor has not been duly appreciated.
Whatever compels one to think and decide
on practical business questions, awakening
conscious responsibility and self-relance,
developes mental power. Business pur-
suits frequently discover and draw out
great talents. A degree of foresight sa-
gacity, practical wisdom, and executive
ability is often displayed in the manage
ment of commercial, manufacturing, or
agricultural interests, which would win
the highest eminence if devoted to either of
the professions.
Every childs education is deficient who
has not learned to work in some useful
form of industry. Labor aids in disciplin-
ing the intellect and energizng the charac-
ter. Especially does farm-work task and
test the mind, by leading boy to plan and
contrive to adapt means to ends, in great
variety of ways, and under constantly vary
ing circumstances. The necessities and
struggles of the farm demand patience and
perseverance, develop force OF character
and energy of will, and teach the needful
lesson: "Where there is will there is
way"
How many of the leading men of our
country. like Washington, Webster, Clay,
and Lincoln, grew up on the farm, and
gained there an invaluable discipline for
the conflicts and achievements of life!
Labor develops inventive talent. The
exigences of the farmer, remote from vii
lagos and shops, compel him to be some
thing of carpenter, joiner, blacksmith,
and harness-mak man of all work
"handy at any thing" His business varies
with the seasons and sometimes changes
every day. A farmers boy myself and
familiar with all forms of farm work,
have ever valued highly the practical les
sons learned among the rough hills of
grand old Litchfeld County | counsel
even the sons Of af1luence to spend at least
one season at hard work on tho f,rm or in
the shop. The practical business drill
there gained, the Knowledge of nature and
domestic animals, will amply compensate
for the consequent loss in book-learning,
to say nothing OF the health ana Physlcal
training thus secured with all our I'M
proved gymnastics, none Is petter imam
manual labor, when it is cheerfullY ana IN
tcllgenty performed, and especially farm
work. The habits ofindustry, once formed,
on the farm or in the SHOP, may shape all
the future, teaching one to value time, and
love labor, or mt least 10 practice 'dlh-
gcnce in business.
The pupils who luXuriate in the wealth
lest homes of the city would profit by ono
year In the country, with It's peculiar work
and play, its freer sports and wider range
for rambles by the springs and brooks, the
rivers and waterfalls, by the ponds ana
lakes, over the hills and plains, through
the groves anC forests; in observing ma
turc, searching for wild-fiowers and curious
stones, learning to recognize the different
trees by any one of their distinctive MARKS
namely: the leaf, flower, fruit, form,
bark, and grain watching the ant-hills,
collecting butterflies and various insects,
noticing the birds so as to distinguish them
by their beaks or claws, their size. form.
plumage, flight or song. Studying nature
in any one or more of these varied forms,
each so fitted to charm children. would re-
fresh their minds, as well AS recreate their
bodies and stimulate their curiosity which
is the parent of attention and of memory.
Nature is the great teacher of childhood,
and with her the juvenile mind needs clos
err contact. Facts and objects are the lead
ing instruments of its early development.
We do violence to the child's instructive
craving for natural objects if we give it
books alone, and confine il exclusively to
the city. When / once found over three
hundred children in a single gralnmar-
school who had never visited the country,
did not hesitate to say that, shut out from
nature, land shut in by brick walls, with ALI
their ample apparatus and superior teach
ers, and n splendid school-house, these
children cannot possibly gain here full
and symmetrical development OF their va
rious faculties; more needs 10 DE dohe 10
combine the advantages Oh country anu Guy
lie. WIN poorer SCHOOLS ana shorter
terms ana WIN Iar less apparatus pu' uh-
der inc kihuiy anu ihNisor"'ihs ihhue"cc
Of rural scenes ana eiiP'oyhnen's, inc couh-
Try se'us io''n us i''' Su"'o W '"o Pioios-