Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1872-09-19
Coat and Cloth.

That you must cut your coat according
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 disregarded. 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 themselves 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 right basis until we clearly reCog
ni2c what we can and what we cannot do.
No man is fit to garden who does not
know that, however much he can i'm
prove his pumpkins by proper cultiya.
ton he cannot change them into water
melons. What he might do with pump.
kins'bv working on Darwinian princl-
pies if his life were three Methuseiahs
long, we cannot tell. But we do know
that not in one season, nor IN one lite
time can such a change be made. But
half the mothers ana nearly all the
fathers in the country are trying to do
something Of this sort---to translate pump
kins to WatermelOns, to transform ducks
into chickens, to change holyhocks into
lilies.
We have spent two generations now in
praising education and in endcavuring to
Guido one another in our estimates OF
what it was possible for education to do
But in our enthusiasm we have ovGrpraiscd
it. There are many things that he most
careful education cannot do. And the
sooner we come TO understand our limita
lions, the more wisely we shall carry for
ward our work.
Take even the matter Of temper, The
child who is quick or violent in his pas
sions will always he 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 strong child, of breaking the
force of his Will. You may change the
manner OF the action of his will, but you
cannot break the VIII unless you break
the boy.
And Just such hopeless things are I'M
dertaken in educational institutions,
Boys are sent to college who should have
been sent anywhere Else, 1t matters little
that YOU say you will develop deficient
faculties That can be done within linn
its But when you try to turn boys
whole life in a direction in which he is
poorest, you condemn him TO failure aud
intellectual penury : .rengthcn the weak
side, but Jet the life work lie in the direc-
ton Of the strong side. If your boy is Il
mechanic by nature, do not make him
preacher Give him large general culture
if he will take it, and then let him lit his
burdens with his strongest arm, his con
structtvc faculty.
But shall we give over trying to do
anything for the high tempered child =
Shall we let his passions run riot2 Ger
tainlv not. What we insist on is that
they can be regulated. bat not eradicated.
There was near a city crooked stream
that wandered round and round obsruct-
ing travel and iniurng the value OF
property Nobody dreamed OF drying it
up Bu' the citizens Strengthened it, and
walled it in, and embarked against its
overflow, and cleared distractions from
its bed, and bniIt mills upon its margin,
The unpleasant trait in a cbild's character
may be walled by habits Of scIf.conrol,
may be utilized by giving it right d.
fecrlon, may be made more "A blessing and
less curse than it would be without
discipline, But it cannot BE- destroyed.
Education can 40 almost anything IN
the >Pbcrc Of habit 1t can do little in
the sphTe If ingraincd quality. Power
less uvuF nature sovereign over second
nature --Hlarh anil Hsu.r.