The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-17

| lime unclaSpS his wlthered fngerS,-
Lo! our wasted life slips through them.
To,en Point May 10th, 1878.
COMPULSORY EDUCATION.
BY JOHN A. CALHOUN.
READ BEFORE THE TEACHERS AssoCIA-
TON OF THIS COUNTY.
America is land of freedom! So ex.
claim our stump speakers and 4th of July
orators. They look, or assume to look, in
disgust on the less favored nations of the
Old World. This constant glorification OF
our country, while it may suit American
vanity, has tendency to blind us as ma
ton to our faults. 1t is true that the
stump orators sometime, assure us that the
country is going hopelessly to perdition, if
their favorite candidates are not elected OF
their favorite policy not adopted, but as
soon as the election is over both parties
begin the old course of National glorifica.
ton. Sometimes in listening to such char
acters, Burns words will occur to us as
applicable to nations as well as individual
"Oh! wad some power the giftie gle us,
TO see ourselves as others see us;
| 1t wad fra many danger free us,
| And foolish notions"
1t is true that in many things we are in
advance of our older sisters, but in others
they can teach us valuable lessons. AS a
nation we are free, although no freer than
our English cousins are, but in the matter
of education we are too free. To leave the
education of the children to the parents
may be piece of political freedom, but its
results are less favorable than some Of the
systems that prevail in lands which we
affect to despise.
Ours is an age of unparalleled mental
activity. More is now crowded into few
years than used to be into centuries
Steam and electricity are getting almost
too slow for us, fortunes are made and Lost
in day, and the evidences of wealth are
springing up all around US; but is there
not constant tendency to depress the
lower classes that the higher may seem
still more elevated? Is there not an ever
widening breach between the extremes Of
society? Note any of our great cities; a
few squares will show us the ex IRENE OF
wealth and the very concentration of pow.
erty, vice and crime. 1t is in some of our
city slums that, if any where on earth, the
theological idea of total depravity is to be
realized. Totally depraved, not SO much
by birth, as by their surroundings and
their total want of all education in good.
The dull rituals of our Churches never
reach them, and our modern religion teach
es at least tacitly, that Christ did not die
for them, but for the proadcloth or satin
robed saints who own costly pews and &C.
cupy them on Sundays, while they steal
their millions during the week. They
never attend school because their parents
are to vicious or careless to send them
there.
1t is well to try to see the silver lining OF
the darkest cloud, to turn up the bright
side of the most ghastly picture.
The world is becoming cosmopolitan;
ideas no longer have any National bounda
ries, barriers are breaking down, and dark
as one side of the picture looks, with its
grasping monopolies, its official plumber
ing, and its clerical villainies: on the other
we see the march of intellect pressing for.
ward to certain end;-the reformation OF
the world.
One of the most efficient agents in this
must be the power Of education, education
not of a few but of all, and this can only
be reached by compulsory attendance upon
the schools. When the millennium dawns
there will be no school houses and teacher.
will find their occupation gone. Wher
that era arrives the home life will become
what it should bs-the centre of culture
the home of education. The father insteat
of spending the least time possible witt
his family will make it his duty and hi
pleasure to direct the studies of his chill
dren, and possibly the mother may forge
her manifold duties long enough to Civ,
some attention to their mental as we'll al
physical wants. But we have not We
reached that time,
"When the war drums will throb no long
er, and the battle flags be furled,
In the parliament of men, the federation
of the world;
When the common sense of most shall hol,
fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lappe,
in universal law"
We must deal with facts as we find then
, if we ever expect to reach this consume
ton. 1t is only by constant unceasin,
efforts to elevate society that any real pro
gress is made.
Not to sit idly down and drift with tn
, current, but to try to stem the tide, over
come its rapids aud straghten its sinuosi
ties, is the part of wise men.
AS society is now constituted the schoo
is society's substitute for the parent
/ work. Teachers are paid to do work tina
the fact of their relationship enioins upo
the parents. In any state of perfect socie
ty the education of the child natural
belongs to the parents, but if they see fl
to delegate that duty to some one else tn,
State has no right to object; it is whe
they fail to do their duty. either PERSONAL
or by proxy, that it becomes the duty @
the State to interfer and see that same prc
vision is made for education. In plai
terms it becomes the duty of the State t
assume the parents place and work O
compel them to attend to it.
There is an idea afloat in the world tina
the children belong to the parents to dis
pose of as they see fit; that no one has an
right to interfere as long as the chld's lif
, is respected. Parents seem to think thei
f right unimpsachable to allow their childre
to grow in ignorance, to wiring all they ca
from them in shape of labor, and durin
the hours of leisure to give them loos
) reins for any boyish folly. No more ia
lacious idea obtains currency than this
. Children do not belong to the parents in til
sense in which this claim is made; the
are theirs not to wiring the creates
! amount of labor from, without the leas