The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-11-02
HOME EDUCATION.

1t is a chapter OF excellent advice, and a
forerunner of the fruits which the Teach
ers' Association is capable of producing if
persistently kept up and such institutions
are augmented. By awakening general
interest throughout the public in the cause
of education, there is hope that the COM
munity may be lifted up much above its
present average level
What is it that makes the great distinc-
ton among men? We see some honored
and applauded by all who know them, while
others are scarcely ever heard of outside of
their own home circle The answer is a
simple one; the difference in mental devel-
opment. The same qualities that distin-
guished Newton or La Verrier may exist
in those we meet at every hand in daily
life; in one the faculties are developed in
the other they are dormant. Heat it is
said is latent in all bodies, but it is only by
means of some outside force that this heat
is made apparent, so the capabilities for
great mental development may exist with
out being suspected. Gray's.
| Hearts once pregnant with celestial fire.
Hands that the rod of empire might have swayei,
| Or walked to ecstacy the living Tyre
| If knowledge had unroled her stores to
them, may be a sentiment; we think it
something more. Many name that with
an education would have left a record
among earth's great ones has passed into
oblivion because an unpropitious fate
frowned upon them.
What is education? Is it what is learn
ed at school? Schools may help, but they
never made scholar. All the best can do
is to form habits of attention and of thought.
| The man who sends his child to school
to get an education makes a mistake,
he goes there to learn ho,o to study,
to think. Education comes from the Latin
educe to draw out, develop. 1t is not the
teachers business to put ideas into the
scholars head, but to develop those already
there. The old lady who was told by the
teacher that her daughter needed capacity,
and gave orders to buy one, as she did not
regard expense, made a mistake, but many
others make as great ones, and never know
it. 1t is true there are many varieties of
intellect; Newton could no more have filled
the place of Wesley than Luther could that
of Copernicus. Abilities may vary, but it
is the education that brings these abilities
into view. By education mean not alone
what is learned from books, but the whole
life training. Schools have their place in
the economy of the world, but it is not
from them except in a very small part that
our education is gained. Teachers, no mat
ter how earnest or devoted, cannot fill the
place occupied by the home life and outside
circumstances. 1t is the parents from
whom the education that will endure must
come. Home education is the great fact
with which the social philosopher must
deal in his efforts to improve the condition
of the race.
The education of the child begins in the
cradle as soon as its eyes open to the out
side world, and nothing can be of more
Importance than that those cradle lessons
should be of the right sort. AS the child
grows up from infancy those with which it
comes in daily contact decide its destiny
for all future time. Many of those, who
have risen to the first places in the history
of the world, have looked back to a moth
er's teachings as the means of forming
their life destiny, and it is the teachings of
the first years of life that inevitably decide
its future. To parents, God has given a
sacred duty, for it is to them that the des-
tiny of their children is entrusted.
We will take the average family of to-
day as an illustration of our point We
will suppose it to be neither that of extreme
poverty, nor yet of great wealth. The
mother was child of promise, had an Or
binary education-well is just such a wom-
an as we can all count by the dozen among
our acquaintance. The father is a good
mechanic, OR may be farmer. John is
the oldest boy, of course the spoiled darl-
ing of the mother and the Pride of the
father. The neighbors all call in to see
and admire baby, but the idea that this
babe is an immortal for whose training,
for both this life and the future, they are
responsible is just as far from the mothers
as the fathers thought. Time passes on,
may be baby learns the alphabet, may be
not; sure it is that he learns many things
that it would be best for him not to learn
Other sisters and brothers come to divide
the mothers attention. The father Mr..
So-and-So, too is becoming man of bust
ness. He is leader in the Masons
Knights, Templars, a trustee in the church
and a member of a dozen other organiza-
tions good, bad and Indifferent. The re-
suit is that at the very time growing
family needs his care they do not get it,
and the mother, even if capable and will
ing. does not have the leisure to attend to
the intellectual wants of her children. All
this time the child is getting an education
in the roads or streets that there is no home
training to counterfeit. The mother must
get Mr.. SIS dinner, mend johns pants,
and JAMES dress, see that Joe's cut finger
is tied up, and try to keep smiling face
for Mr.. $ short and hasty visits to his " cas-.
tie
Well at six John is unanimously voted a
| uulSduCt, dI uOiilc, liz udS lcdTueu " piuCu
baby instead of rocking it, to say saucy
things to "pap," and if his street teachers
have been energetic enough can make quite
fair beginning in slang. and possibly in
profanity. Well John is sent to school
"just to get him out of the way at home. :"
The teacher already has 80 or 40 just such
on his hands, and John is sent to seat
until he can get time to attend to him.
There is no special attraction to him in the
26 ugly marks, that perpetuate the memory
of Cadmus, so of course he gets into mis-.
chief. Next move instead of the twig
being bent, one is broken on him. Father
storms and mother cries about their poor
abused boy, while their neglect really de-
served the threshing he got. If four fifth
of the punishment children receive at
school, could be given to the parents it
would be much more effective. Well John
, is encouraged by parental sympathy in
doing at school just what they sent him to