The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-04-21
Life at School.

IDo not mean life at q boarding school.
mean life at a regular every day school,
in town or in the country, where you can
90 in the morning and come away at
! eleven or at noon, and go again in the
afternoon, and come away after two or
three hours Some young people hate
| this life, and some like il tolerably well.
propose to give some information which
| shAll make it more agreeable all round.
My first rule is, that you accept the
situation. Perhaps you do not know
what that means It means that, as you
are at school, whether you really like
going or not, you determine to make the
very best you can of it, and that you do
not make yourself and every body else
wretched by sulking and grumbling
about it-and wishing school was done
and wondering why your fathers send
you there-and asking leave TO look at
the clock in the other room, and so on.
Now here you are at school, | will say,
for three hours. Accept the situation
like man or woman, and do not sulk like
fool.
To make the whole thing thoroughly
attractive, to make the time pass quickly,
and to have school like natural part of
your other life, my second rule is. do
what you do with all your might. 1t is
good rule in anything; in sleeping, IN
playing, or in whatever you have in hand.
But nothing tends to make school time
pass quicker; and the great point, as
will acknowledge, is to get through with
the school hours as quickly as we ialrly
can.
Now, if, in written arithmetic, for in
stance, you will start instantly on the
sums as soon as they are given ont If you
will bear on hard on the pencil, 50 as 20
make clear, white marks, instead of greasy,
fiabby, pale ones on the slate; If you VIII
rule the columns for the answers as care
fully as if it were bank ledger YOU were
ruling, or if you viii wash the slate so
completely that no vestiee OF old work IL
there. you will find that the mere energy
of manner infuses spirit and correctness
into the thing done.
Lessons are set for average boys at
school-boys of the average laziness- II
you really go 20 work with all your might,
then you get a good deal Of loose time,s
which, in general, you can apply TO that
standing nuisance, the evening lesson.
Sometimes, [ know, this is prohibited.
When il is, the good boys and quick boys
have to learn how 10 waste their extra
time, which seems to be pity. But with
a sensible master, it is a thing UNDERSTOOD,
that it is better for boys or girls To study
hard while they study, and never To learn
to dawdlc. Taking it for granted that
you are in the hands of such masters or
mistresses, / will take it for granted that,
when you have learned the school lesson,
there will be no objection to your learn
ing the other lesson, which lazier boys
will have 20 carry home.
Lastly, you VII find you gain great
deal by giving To the school lesson all the
color and light which everyday affairs can
lend to it. DO not let it be ghastly
skeleton in a closet, but let it come as far
as it will into daily life. When YOU read
in Colburn's Oral Arithmetic, that man
bought mutton at six cents pound, and
beef at seven" ask your mother what she
paws pound now, and do the sum with
the figures changed.
Nv dear children, | see hundreds
of bows who can tel me what is thirteen
OF tw0-eleyenhS OF five
times one-haif Of a bushel Of wheat,
stated in pecks, quarts. and piRiS and yet
if showed them a grain of wheat, and
grain of unkulled rice, and grain Of bar
lev, they would not know which was
which. Try not to let your school life
sweep you wholly away from the home
life of every day.-Rec. Z. ?. HT'e, tp
Ya,,g5's Cam mn ion