Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1871-02-16
THE EDUCATORS.

An education is not acquired by a few
short years of ftful endeavor. The work
must begin in early childhood and contin-
ne to extreme old age.
Considered as a working force, it is al
ways in the hands of some directing pow
err. This directing power is not a single
Educator. The Educators are multitu-
dinous. 1t has been said that no man
can free himself from the responsibility
of imparting some kind of influence to
others. Who, then, are tie Educators?
To answer this question the mind can only
follow the mountain ranges of the subject.
Even then the answers will be numerous
yet easy and natural.
To edncate is to build a structure as
vast as the comprehension of the human
mind. That structure must stand as long
as the cycles of time are marked by the
rolling years. and will cast its shadows in
to time, unreasonable. The foundation
is laid in the quiet and order of home
around the hearth-stone, where angels
come and go on their ministrations of
love. THIS work is assigned to PARENTS.
To them is intrusted the guardianship of
the young immortals. To them is COM
mitted a charge so tender, so delicate, that
even reason must stand in waiting while
the affections point the only kind of ac-
ton that can be taken. So impossible is
this charge that the will is too harsh-if
left free it may mar the beauty and har-
mony of the figure. Love and hopeful en-
dcavor meet in the hearts of parents and
send out the only kind of influence that
can fit this charge for the conflicts and tri-
ais which beset and crowd the pathway
of life. No other hands could so patient
ly train the child, and lead it up through
the nights, and days, and years of trouble
as parental hands can do. 1t comes to
them with intellect dumb, and a physi-
cal organization all unknown to the beau
ty of harmonious action. Their touches
softened by love wake the intellect to the
pleasure of thought. The affections, of
their own sweet will, cluster around the
I~ovliest things, but such tender hands can
give them support. Meme but parental
care could watch with such solicitude the
approach of bodily harm-none other
would take such pains to perfect bodily
movements, or put forth such continuous
efforts for the we'll being of the child.
That sentiment pervades every parents
heart, inspires a devotion that will not
turn away from the greatest sacrifices, for
parents we'll know that they are the arbi-
tiers, not only of the child's fortune, but of
its destiny and immortality. They are
bound by the highest possible laws to give
all its powers the proper direction. Ma
lures laws stand all around society
around the family, and make the parents
the first charlottesville center around
which the affections and hopes of the chill
dren gather-the source from which they
instinciEely draw their aspirations and to
which they will end some where overbur-
dened with the cares of life.
1t is under the direction and influence
of parents that the life-plans of the chill
dren first begin to assume a definite shape.
Before these life-plans are matured the
child passes into the hands of some other
Educator who will held the parent respon-
sible for the child. This Educator will
demand that the child must be properly
trained-that the stubborn will must be
Observation-Disclosures e%njoine0. for he can
not make a beautiful tree OF a knarled
and crooked shrub. This Educator Is the
School Teacher, as you will see in another
paper, and he hopes that parents have
gathered the material for that part of the
structure which he is to build.