The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1872-04-11
EDUCATION AL.
OUNCES.
j. MAHONEY.

With sovereign COHtehip1 upon TIC
Lows and girls who could not learn
tt If lessons; but, since have look
e1 around upon the community and
S Ell how large, prosperous, and re-
cctabIe portion Of the same is
composed Of the so-called ounces Of
tie school-room, my contempt for
thar class is changed to respect and
admiration. Who get all the fat
Offices from the government? Dun
cns. Who become wealthy in the
world? Ounces. Who build the
business blocks and live in the fine
houses? Ounces. Who drive the
fist horses /? Ounces Who mar
~ the rich widows :? Ounces
Scholars have never a hand in such
Inatters. Ounces make the laws and
Ounces execute the laws. Ounces
l. the common council, ounces in
tie board OF supervisors. ounces in
every official niche Of the great pol
itical gallery.
Now these facts may not prove
anything, but they are nightly sug-
gestiye. And, to descend from class
es to individuals, we are informed
that Goldsmith was Ounce at school,
so was Wellington. Shakespeare
was a Ounce; he learned F'small
Latin and less Greek" Sir Wal
ter Scott was a Ounce; he bothered
LIS schoolmaster exceedingly with
bad lessons but he would entertain
his schoolmates for hours, under the
shade Of a spreading tree, with non
sensical stories coined in his Ounce $
pate. And I know by the way in
which Dickens treats schooImasters,
that he, TOO, was a Ounce or at
least so considered and treated by
his discriminating pedagogues. Il
these examples show anything, they
tend to prove that many, very many
Of the pupils whom we, in our short
sightedness, denominate ounces, are
no ounces at all T; that such. possess
a talent or talents that it requires
the keen, comprehensive, and Impair
tial schoolmaster the World, 10 fully
and properly develop in his own
good time. How often do we see
the scholar, though very Gullivel
in the LiIliputian realms Of book
learning, prove himself a pigny il
the business world Of Brobdinagians,
while the poor, pIodding Ounce
emancipated from the tyranny 0
school, exhibits all the talent that /.
available IN the practical work Of life
and reaps It's substantial benefits
In the light Of such experience
we ought to consider the case o
each dull pupil carefully, patiently
and never hastily; and the safes
theory to act upon is that there is nj
such thing as an out and out Ounce
Let us not call them ounces +; let III
not think of them as ounces; let u:
not act towards them as if they wer
ounces. Jet us say that their men
tai machinery moves slowly, an(
that it requires only the lubricatinG
oil of our patience, and the lever o
our ingenuity, to keep up the motion
The blacksmith does not expect II
work two-inch round iron as easil,
as he can work nail-rod; and yet
the teacher, with material to shap
of much greater diversity of tempe
and quality, is sorely vexed, and to-
ofen gives up in despair if he can
not accomplish all he desires in TIL,
first heat of his enthusiasm, and witt
a single blow of his intellectual
sIedge-hammer. And to carry tn
figure little farther, as iron i'm
proves the more it is worked, [ Otter
think that the slow ones upon whom
we bestow the greater time and labor
are, by that very process, better fit
ted than their more brilliant compan
ions to endure the wear and tear o
life. -. a87ltge CITY 04e5
Pupils differ in talent, in kind
and in degree. A hint, the wind 0
the word, will teach one another re
quires time, kindness, skillful cross
questioning, ingenius explanation,
and constant iteration. Our pleas
ure is with the former; our duty il
with the latter. It Is no credit tc