Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1870-06-25
SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

PUBLIC SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.
Those who have been present at the
examination exercises in our public
schools cannot fail to appreciate their
Importance in forming the mind Of the
rising generation and preparing 1t fora
proper Use Of its social and political
power in the coming years. Our public
school system is admirable, and is rap
idly s~uperceding every method Of pri-
vate instruction to its substantial adj
yantages to the youth Of the common
wealth-imparting an instruction gath
cred from the experience Of many
years OF scholastic experience, on the
public plan, in the older States, rs well
as combining the new anu improved
methods in all the branches Of popular
education. Who can doubt the advan-
tares of this mode Of instruction over
all others and its superior facilities for
teaching? If, rs We think, education
Is at the bottom of all national pro-
gress, virtue and happiness-if popular
enlightenment is the guarantee Of all
order, security and greatness in the
State, 1t must devolve oil the State to
foster q system Of national instruction
supplying an education to all Its citi-
zens, its great purpose to develop the
individual child-mind into the conf
plete and perfect man. Individuals
are the monadS-the primitive atoms
Of which the State Is composed, and Its
power and perfection depend primarily
on the power and perfection of the In
dividuals. The planet itself depends
in its adjustments oil the primitive
atoms thereof, not more than the
States healthy adjustments depend on
its human atoms, and to mar the atom
in either case Is to maj the mass, and
as the great need Of the State is faith
full, Industrious, moral and self reliant
citizens, she must educate them. Nor
can she afford to remand this duty to in
dividuals, TODD or not TODD as suits them
best ; or to do in any method hostile to
national institutions. The State must
educate her own people, and educate
them. too, in harmony with her prin-
ciples. She has an indubitable right to
say who shall be the instructor Of her
youth. She has 4 perfect right to sub
ject them to 4 stringent examination
both mental and moral. She has q
right to insist that not II thing shall
be taught in her schools but what Is in
vital concurrence with freedom of
thought and freedom of action. Her
methods of instruction must concur
with the fundamental charter Of her
liberties, otherwise she signs away her
own deposition and abandons her
children's right to self existence.
America is out before the world with
her moral idea ; she owes 1t to herself
to sustain, defend aud develop it she
owes it to mankind to show that lib
erty Is better than bonds-that all
slavery, mental, moral, political-is
abnormal; that men are rs much ell
titled to the thoughts Of their minds
Is to the products Of their labor, and
the legacy that the State gives to her
Children, and through them to the
world, is better than goods or gold,
houses or lands, and must not be ip-
periled by any tolerance Of false meth
DDS of instruction. American chill
dren-what they shall be in their cul-
ture and character, that the world shall
be. The worlds conversation, foolish
or wise; the worlds manners, well
bred or vulgar; public opinion, lofty
or low. All hateful things or all sa-
cred things, will abound everywhere
rs the State Is true or false to the edu-
cation of u children. There shall be
no yoke put upon the neck of our free
schools to bind the minds Of our chill
dren to any despotism. We must for
bid all instruction with public money
that would overthrow or weaken the
idea imbedded in u laws, in our Gus
toms and in our schools of science. In
this land we can permit no turning of
American progress backward. Our
schools must teach the supremacy Of
American law; the idea of freedom /;
the right of individual conscience the
right of the people to think for them
selves: to make their own laws; to
establish their own customs, and order
their own religion,