Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1871-04-19
Watphman s. journal.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1871.
TsRSs-i2co per year, strictly In advance Or i2ho
ifLot paid within three months.


i. better condition without respect TO bette
q character The rewards Of excellence an
IS skill are thought to be more desirable tha
g excellence aud skill themselves. There is
= general disposition to get out Of the humble
o and inferior labors and tasks Of life an
&c crowd up into the higher departments Of toll
c without giving much thought to the necessar
training which only can fit one to periorr
, the duties Of advanced callings honorably AM
r successfully The illustrations Of this IN
D happy tendency meet us on all sides. VI
; hnd them in the earlier stages Of education
, Establish a graded school with its regula
/ steps of progress and its ascending scale o
e studies and departments, and at once The
great difficulty is experienced Of putting ant
keeping the scholars in the places wher,
they belong There is constant desire Il
take the higher grades FIRST without much
care for the requisite fitness The boys and
girls Of the school are more anxious to be IL
the upper rooms than to be in the first elias.
Of scholars in the rooms where they belong
They are anxious to crowd up faster than
they are qualified for the advoucod work
Consequently the tendency in graded
schools is TO lower the standard, 'hoi
ship, 50 that the higher deparimcl
easily accessible to the poorly prepar d
ars The children 90 from room O. g
faster than they are qualified The q am.
bition Of their parents helps on thi. bad ten
dency. All parents think their own children
are the brightest and smartest They do not
like to have the brilliant powers Of their lit
tie ones pent up to the contracted Utica Of
the first grade. They insist upon crowding
them up into the older associations of the ad-
vanced rooms And thus they often 90 up
without any other qualification than the
wishes of their ill-judging friends, or the i'll.
regulated ambition of their own minds.
School committees are easy, and inconsde-
rately lower the tone of scholarship and IA
tally injure the minds the intellects Of schol-
ars, by admitting them to class Of studies
for which they are not prepared, and 10
master which they are utterly incompetent.
Nothing so debiitates and paralyzes the in.
tellec'gal powers as TO be set to task for
which they are untitled. 1t represses and
brushes out all aspiration and desire after
high attainments. To put child to work he
cannot do is to train him to hate all work.
The only true rule in education is to make
haste slowly Each study should be thor
oughly mastered before taking another No
round in the ladder can be skipped without
losing more than is gained The security of
buildings depends on the foundation and it is,
in the long run, a fatal system of education
that crowds up the scholars into advanced
departments before they have learned the
lower
But this tendency is seen everywhere.
Our young men aud women do not like pre-.
paratory work. They want the wages that
skill and intelligence alone are entitled to,
but they do not want the skill and intelligence.
They want good positions but caro- little for
good training. A boy from the farm will
take course of three months in Commercial
College and deems himself qualified for high
commercial positions. The young man wants
a high and honorable place without the self
denial and pains-taking necessary to fit him
for it. He wants life without hard toll
at very remunerative prices. A recent
report says there are two thousand young
men in the city of Cincinnati, wanting work
and unable to secure it thirty thousand
in the city of New York fifteen thousand
IN Chicago and eight thousand in Boston
These young men have gone into the cities
from the country. They have an ill-starrod
ambition to earn money at an easy calling; to
be clerks and cashiers and bankers rather than
farmers, mechanics, and blacksmiths Their
ambition disquali6es them for the lower labors
of life their Ignorance disqualifes them for
the higher. They want to reach wealth or
honor at one bound, and so 90 from the lower
grades Of work at once to the higher. They
crowd up into the commercial pursuits, into
the professional callings. They give us poor
business men and miserable lawyers aud in
competent physicians and wretched ministers.
They make politics trade and craftsmanship
! burlesque. They crowd up into Congress
and give us blatherskites and blackguards for
Senators and Representatives, who show Us
with how little wisdom the world is governed.
i And out Of this large class, ambitious
Of greatness without the training necessa-
ry to be great, impatient of humble tolls
without power to meet the demands Of higher
tasks, come the thieves, the pckpockets, the
burglars, the bankrobbers, the shysters, the
tombs' lawyers, the carpet-baggers in general,
and the carpet-baggers in particular, that in.
fest our society. Out of this class of women
, unwilling to do honest manual work, aspirauts
for place aud the rewards of high wages with
out fitness to fill the one or earn the other
Of women with second and third-rate capacity
, and training, ambitious for first-class work
and pay of women disappointed, bafiled, de-
=" feated, because the extent of their expecta.
/, tons outruns the measure of their abilities
T comes the great social evil, the unsoved prob
j. lem of to-day the source of as utter disaster
g to the country in the future, as were the lie.
taisae Of old Greece to that short-lived State
The desire for position and wages an,
y power, is good thing, but the desire to hay,
] them irrespective of fitness for them, to hav,
= them without excellence or skill or learning
: is an evil thing. To crowd up into plac
! without crowdiug up first into the mental an,
u moral qualities and attainments necessary t
st fill the place WE'LL is a bad thing A fe,
) years ago blacksmith and merchant ad
- vortised on the same day; the one for a
apprentice, the other for a clerk A hundre
applicants called upon the merchant and not on
Iy upon the blacksmith. Aud of that hundre
le probably not hfly could have made 600,