The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1872-11-01
Che sHarietta soarnal.
Marietta, Georgia, November 1, 1872.
COAT AND CLOTH.

That you must "cut your coat ac-
cording TO your cloth" is very old
and very true adage, and in nothing
is it truer than in the training of
children. And in nothing is it so
much disrc garded That coat and
cloth must bear some proportion, the
one to the other, is obvious to men in
every other affair, But with a
child they seem to believe them
selves able to do what they please.
They will make him, not what they
can, but what they will.
The management of children will
never be on a right basis until we
clearly recognize what we can and
what we cannot do. No man is fit
to govern who does not know that,
however much he can improve his
pumpkins by proper cultivation, he
cannot change them into water
melons. What he might do with
pumpkins by working on Darwinian
principles, if his life were three
Methuselahs long, We cannot tell
But we do know that, not in one
season, nor in one lifetime, can such
a change be made. But half of the
mothers and nearly all the fathers
in the country are trying to do
something of this sort to translate
pump kins into watermelons; to
transform ducks into chickens to
change holyhocks into lilies.
We have spent two generations
now in praising education and in
endeavoring 20 Guido one another in
our estimates of what it was possible
for education to do. But iu our en-
thusiasm we have overpraised it.
There are many things that the
most careful education cannot do
And the sooner we come to under
stand our limitations, the more wise
ly we shall carry forward our work
Take even the matter of temper.
The child who is quick or violent in
his passions will always be so.-
How many mothers have sunk down
in dependency because they could
not eradicate a violent temper =
You could more easily make blue
eyes black. People talk of subdu-
ing a strong>willed child-of break
ing the force of his will. You may
change the manner of the action of
his will, but you cannot break the
will unless you break the boy.
And just such hopeless things are
undertaken in educational institu-
tions. Boys are sent to college who
should have been sent anywhere
else. 1t matters little that you will
develop deficient faculties. That
can be done within limits. But
when you try to turn boys whesI
life in direction in which he is
poorest, you condemn him to failure
and intellectual penury. Strengthen
the weak side, but let the life-work
lie in the direction of the strong side.
If your boy is a mechanic by nature,
d. not make him preacher. Give
him large general cultur. if he will
take it and then let him lift his bur-
dens with his strongest arm, bis con-
structive faculty.
But shall we give over trying to do
anything for the ''high-tempered"
child =? Shall we let his passions
run riot? Certainly not. What
we insist on is that they can be regu-
lated, but not eradicated. There
was near a city a crooked stream
that wandered round aud round, OBJ
structing travel and iujuring the
value of property. Nobody dream
ed of drying it up. But the citi-
zens Strengthened it, and walled it
and embarked against its overflow,
and cleared INSTRUCTIONS from its
bed, and built mills upon its margin.
The unpleasant trait in a child's
CHI; racter may be walled by habits
of self control, may be utilized by
giving it right direction, may be
made more blessing and less a
curse than it ould be without dis
cipline. But i: cannot be destroy
ed.
Education can do almost anything
in the sphere of habit. 1t can do
little in the sphere of ingrained
quality. Powerless over nature,
sovereign over second nature
Hearth and Home.
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