Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-06-12
The Education of Boys.


dered A "real boy,' not too much re
pressed, spilling over with fun and ting.
ling with life, is one of the most
interesting objects in animated nature.
An incidental but essential part OF his
education consists in his being allowed to
be boy, and, better still, sympathized
with in the normal development of the
bov-nature. To be sure it will be in ire
pressible conflict with his Aunt Jemima' IS
views of propriety, his mother will some
times get discouraged between mending
his behavior and his pantaloons, and his
father will occasionally be provoked to
disobey the golden text, Fathers, provoke
not your children to wrath, lest they be
discouraged" Not to argue against fam
lily government, too much scolding isn't
good for boy. Too long tasks, whether
of work or study, unrelieved by recrea.
ton, are not conducive to sweetness OF
temper nor the surest habits of industry
We sympathize in every fiber with the
boy who had been riding horse to pillow,
q i in the late sultry calm Of the cloudy
afternoon, the vision of the cleaning
brook dancing through his weary brain
ventured plaintively to Father,
how the fish will bite" Never mind,
sonny, let 'em bite They won't bite you"
And worse still, the reply of that stern
parent who quoted Scripture so grimly, il
not sacrilegiously, at the little fellow who
was painting and sweating to keep up his
row, when he asked to go to the spring
for water. Not till we get through work
my son, for it says, Hoe, every one that
thirsteth." The old proverb is wise
"All work and no play makes
Jack a dull boy" We pity the
still, shy boy who is so unnaturally
good as to be always in the house, apart
from other boys, porting over books The
Boys Own Book, bulky with sports and
pastimes, is the study he needs to draw
out another set of faculties No boyhood
was ever rounded out wit: out the educa
ton Of the merry outdoor ,,Orld. There
is an indoor education also better than
that Of any schoOl-house. 1t is that of the
CHEEKY home into which the sun shines
though the carpets fade, where there is nc
sepulChral parlor, where flowers bloom and
songs break forth and there are times to
laugh, and they read aloud and the talk is
free, and hospitality a virtue. What an
education intelligent and frequent guests
bring into house,
Coming to a school education, the best
ideally conside red, is that of the public
school. Private schools are apt, with
some bright exceptions, to be run for the
benefit OF the proprietor first and that of
the scholar next. Tile best pay is secured
by the teachers popularity, and that de
ponds upon his skill to please first his
pupils and then their parents. This can
! be easiest accomplished on the whole by
having pretty pleasant and easy going
times with the least outside supervision
Good accounts of the scholars given BY
themselves and cOrroborated by the teach.
er and a rose cOlOred exhibition or show.
day, now and then, goes we'll But in the
public schools, with an Independent and
responsible supervision, not only can
greater thoroughness in study be secured,
but better moral ventilation can be got
at and remedied by methods that must
needs be meddlesome and impracticable
in the conduct of private schools
There Is also a democratic training in
the public school that belongs to a bows
education. He is to be an American citi-
zen, and he should understand from the
first the doctrine of equal rights and priv
ileges, He should get an insight into the
average human nature that he is to deal
with through life. If there be bows of
German or Irish parentage growing I'D
around him, he had better know them as
boys before he has TO know them as men.
and rice gerSa they had better know him.
1t is essential to our. political system TO
fuse all classes and nationalities into the
American spirit and methods, and the way
to do it is TO have the boys understand
each other. Though evil and good be
m. yed together in what may seem TO be a
hazardous degree, the scum will sooner
rise to the surface and be easier skinned
off.
There Is, too, an unconscious education
given by the rural surroundings of bows.
which is not least in value. The number
and variety of ideas that healthy and
active boy gets into his head outside of
books, and already tasseling out into the
tCii corn of manhood, is astonishingly
great. The autobiography Of boys life
from five to fourteen, could it be uncon-
sciOusly reported in boy language by his
own consciousness, would be a rare con
trlbution to mental and educational sci
ence. We saw a little fellow, the other
day, aboard Connecticut River Railroad
train, who had come alone from his Gull
tured home in a suburb Of Boston, to
seek six months term of education on
farm in Conway. His elder brother had
'NOi tAitit last SulllilitI, ana SO the DONS OF
that family have the routine of school edu-
cation interrupted and rounded out by the
training of the farm. The rule of three,
allegation, cube-roOt, and great deal more
OF such tireSeme lore may tell very little
on after life, but to know how to harness
and manage a horse, and milk cow, and
plant garden, and set out trees, and prune
vines, and hundred other things that be-
long to the details of a well-manared farm
will prove very useful, not only through
the practical knowledge gained but by the
incidental training of the Judgment and
the common sense
The unconscious education of country
life by is suggestions and associations is
priceless, and the city-bred boy is very I'M
fortunate who misses of it altogether. II
Is one OF the best results of the summer
migration OF city families into the coun-
try, that the children do get something of
1t. Better still, If You have trustv rela-
tive or friend who owns a farm, to nut
your boy down TO ii for one season. at
least, from blowing to harvest time. 81
Happy the boy who spends all his hoy
ish days IN some steady-going, high toned
rural village, where, instead of pavements
and saloons, there are squirrels and blue
jays, parridgeS and trout. green pastures
and breezy barns, twittering swallows
chestnuts and shagbarks, and all the glo-
ries of woods and meadows, ponds and
brooks. There is a freshness and sweet
ness thus impaired which will lend tone
and fragrance to the latest day of life
Springfield GLASS; Republican.
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