Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-06-19
The Beginning Of Education.

his life for the arrest of the banditn
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The Beginning or Education.
The child is no sooner born than its
education may be said to begin. The
first gasp of air the infant makes and the
pressure 1t feels at its mothers breast are
lessons learned. With each progressive
step in the relationship of the child with
persons and things external to itself, It's
nurse, its food, the light and various 9th.
er beings and objects which may sur
round 1t, 1t is acquiring the elements
which form the basis OF all education.
The earliest years of childhood are
most protitably spent in the development
OF those observing faculties which the
young exercise with instructive readiness.
Easily, however, and spontaneously as
tne power of observation of the child
seems to act 1t must not be presumed
that all guidance, on the part of the par.
ent, nurse, or whoever may have charge
OF 1t is supererogatory. Children may be
aided, from the very earliest age, with
great advantage even in learning those
| objective lessons which most of them are
so forward in acquiring.
Those who have the constant care of
the infant, or even they who may be only
brought into casual relation with il, can
seldom resist the invitation the little
creature, by its many endearing ways,
gives to notice. 1t thus, without any
| sysIematlc effort, or even with a good
deal of apparent negligence, will secure
for itself at times the means IL REQUIRES
for the proper development of its observ-
ing powers. The playful sympathy of
the vlvaclous nurse with her smiling
charge will prompt the trolling of a
nursery ditty, some lively action or other,
or the presentation OF bright object.
The child may thus learn its most es-
senual lessons from teachers supremely
ignorant of the useful instruction thew
give, or even of the fact that they are in
structors.
There are some, however, who are in
capable, from perversity of disposition
or want of natural animation, of respond
ing even to the invitation to mirth of an
infants smile. Such should never be al
lowed, If possible, to have charge of the
young. A cheerful disposition should be
regarded as one of the most essential req
ulsites of good nurse. Mothers should
moreover especially cultivate a lively
manner with their children. All the sur.
roundings, If possible, of the child should
De animating, and objects noticeable
|
OF hgure ought TO be placed within reach
of his daily vision. Somberness of dress
OF the child and those who have con.
constant charge of it should be avoided.
Among formal observers of ceremony it
is not uncommon to make even the nurse,
IN case there should be mourning in the
family, drape herself in the habiliments
oil a woe in which she can hardly have
! part The baby even is sometimes made
an involuntary mourneT of death before il
has begun to rejoice in life. The sudden
apparition of itself and nurse in the deep
est black, as il they had been both dipped
In an ocean of ink, cannot but have a
| whitening effect upon an infant with its
lace beginning to bloom with the first
smiles OF Joyous existence.
Systematic intellectual education of the
child should be deferred until it has
reached the age of six or seven wears.
PREVIOUS to that period it may be allowed
10 PICK up, like Moses in the "Vicar of
Wakefield" a miscellaneous education at
nome. During the years of infancy, of
course, there will be no attempt to do
more than arouse and engage the observ
ing powers by those means which nattlr-
ally suggest themselves to sympathetic
mother and lively, good-natured attend
ant. 1t should be remembered that no
well-constituted baby can easily dispense
WIN constant and animated companion
Barry SEs@PsPS and u sfSSafaa fSSfaaH hdv9f Ct
be allowed, except in sleep, to remain
torpid. Its limbs, its every feature, and
It's whole body, in fact, which are so
ready to respond in lively sympathy with
the least stir of life, ought never TO
want the provocatives to action they de-
mand.
Those skillful teachers, the Germans, do
not admit any pupil into their most ele-
mentary school before the age of six
years. This is as early period as most
children can be subjected to the discipline
oil systematic study. Intellectual pursuits
even then cannot be persistently followed
unless combined with a careful training
OF the physical powers Exclusive cul.
ture of the mind is dangerous at all
ages, but more especially during the
earliest.
While the bodily vigor is carefully
promoted by abundance of good food,
playful exercise and cheerfulness of
spirits, there is very little risk of the
young being Intellectually overworked.
Most, If not all, of those children who are
SAID to have broken down under the
weight of their studies have not been in
Iured by too much work but too little
play. If proper care should be taken
to sustain just balance between the
body and mind, both would be found
capable of much greater effort than either
is wont to exhibit, and with the result of
increased robustness
John Stuart Mill tells us In his auto
biography that he began the study Of
Greek at an age earlier than he could re-
member, but which his friends assured
him was when he was only three years
old. Before he reached his teens he had
travelled over the vast domains of ancient
classical aud large portion of English
literature. Although Mill placed very
modest estimate on his natural powers
he accomplished what it will be safe to
say was never accomplished before at SO
early period of life 1t would not only
be absurd to attempt TO effect the same |
results by the same means in most chill. |
dren, but if the experiment were tried it |
would fail in ninety-nine hundred cases |
out of ten thousand by the premature ex.
tinction OF mind or body, causing either |
the death or idiocy of those subjected to |
the process Harper's Bdzar.
CHArING OF IkFANTs.-Q. G. Smith, M. !
d., writes to the Pacific Medical and
Surgical Journal that he values bismuth
very highly as preventive of chating,
and says Take subnitrate of bismuth,
in fine powder, and put in thin flannel
bag, and use as the old nurses use the old
style starch bag" in busting over the
chafed parts, or those parts that are like,
ly to or have already become sore from
any cause whatever. Should the parts be
too tender for the use of the powder in
this way, 1t should be sprinkled on plen.
titully. The good effect will, in many
instances, manifest itself very quickly
after the application. have found bis.
muth an excellent external remedy for
raw, blistered surfaces, and many other
more or less superficial liberated sur
aces. s..-. ~ =. Il -
.-Buttermilk and bcurvy.-1'he Colorado
4grleuLturtSt SAYS: A correspondent in.