Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-07-23
The Education of Boys.
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BOYS viii be boys, If they are not hin
dered A 'real boy not too much re
pressed, spilling over with fun and ting
Ing with life, is one of the most
interesting objects in animated nature
An incidental but essential apart of his
education consists In his being allowed to
Ibeaiboy, and, better still, sympathized
| with in the normal development of the
| boy-nature. To be sure it will be in ire
pressi BILE conflict with his Aunt Jemima's
views of propriety, his mother will some
times get discouraged between mending
his behavior and his pantaIeons, and his
father will occasionally be provoked to
disobey the golden text, Gathers, 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,
and in the late sultry calm of the cloudy
afternoon, the vision of the cleaning
brook dancing through his weary brain,
ventured plaintiyely to suggest" Father,
how the fish will bitei" "Never mind,
sonny, let lem bite. They won't bite you
And worse still, the reply Of that stern
parent who quoted Scripture SO grimlv if
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,
al al work ,, and no play makes
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 without the educa-
ton of the merry outdoor world. 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 no
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 virtue What an
education intelligent and frequent guests
bring into a house! srg0 rYsrrrr -.
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. The 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 rose-colored exhibition or show
day, now and then, goes well. But in the
public schools, with an independent and
responsible supervision, not only can
greater thoroughness in study be secured,
but a 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 democratic training in
the public school that belongs to a BOYS
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 BOYS of
German or Irish parentage growing up
around him, he had better know them as
boys before he has to know them as men,
and 0ace 0ers0, they had better know him.
tits essential 70 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
mixed together in what may seem to be
hazardous degree, the scum will sooner
rise to the surface and be easier skinned
off. .. .ye<z..f-3~. +ss-
There is, too an unconscious education
given by the rural surroundings of boys,
which is not least in value. The number
and variety Of ideas that a healthy and
active boy gets into his head outside of
books, and already tasseling out. into the
full corn of manhood, is astonishingly
great. The autobiography of a boys life
from five to fourteen, could it be uncon-
sciously reported in boy language by his
own consciousness, would be a rare con-
tribution to mental and educational sci
ence. We saw a little fellow, the other
day, aboard a Connecticut River Railroad
train, who had come alone from his cul-
tured home in a suburb of Boston, to
seek six months term of education on a
farm in Conway. His elder brother had
been there last summer, and so the bows 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 tiresome lore, may tell very little
On after life, but to know how to harness
and manage 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-managed farm,
will prove very useful, not only through
the practical knowledge gained, but by the
Incidental training Of the Judgment and
the common sense
life by its suggestions and associations is
priceless, and the city-bred boy is very I'M
fortunate who misses of it altogether It
is one ofthe best results of the summer
migration Of city families into the coun-
try, that the children do get something of