New-York tribune., 1874-09-08

mt to see even the picture of man; In the
COLLEGE on the other she fights her way to the
head If her class against q dozen boys.
ANXIOUS fathers and mothers may map out
their boys o. girls future very fairly from
those four inside columns; in fact, we know
no more significant index to the condition and
promise of the time in which we live than
those columns and the facts which they sus-
gest
One word of caution only we have to give
to the father of Bob or Jenny Doring over
the bewildering array of schools make Bob
OF Jenny your first study, the school the second.
Usually we hustle our lads and lassies into
school just as we throw crooked and rough
bits of rock together into marble-mill and
expect to have them come out In the Ike
fashion, smooth and rounded and all precisely
alike. If we have seeds of different plants to
SOW we take good care first to study their
habits and likings: this one in the sun, with
manure heaped upon it that for the shade
and tender care, being of slow growth, and
with the promise of late and scarce fruit;
yet the one properly tended is as much the
pride of the gardener as the other. With our
children we deal otherwise. Talent, taste,
temperament, and physique are alike dlsre-
garded. The sickly, sensitive child with brain
and emotions both unnaturally strained is
flung into a mob of boys, robust in body and
mind, and punished if he does not keep pace
with them in every daily exercise. These daily
exercises, too in majority OF cases, are meas
ured by ideas drawn from the teachers own
capacity for study rather than from that OF
the bows We think it safe to say that In one
half the private schools and all OF the puohc
ones. the strictest oversight should be main
tanned by the parents, in order that the amount
and kind of study may be adjusted In some de-
gree TO the actual capacity of the child. III there
is no such outside observance the process IL
precisely that which goes on in barn-so
many sacks to fill, so much grain. Usually
however. the father stands behind the teacher
urging him to redoubled feats of cramming.
Wbv should his Jack fall behind his neighbOrs
Bob Z
Now the ordinary time allowed to Jack
or Bob, provided their parents are we'll
to-do people, is from ten to twenty. al
the latter mature age they are expected 10
graduate and begin the active business Oh
| life. Into these years they are required To
| force the classical education which the currlc-
ulum of the old colleges offered to thelr
fathers, together with the scientific knowledge
of which their fathers knew nothing, but the
language of which is forced on them on every
side familiar as the daily air. The average
American boy does not sink physically under
the burden, simply because he lodges it; man
/ ages by trick and subterfuge to keep his place
in class; comes out of his training with far
! 90 az ocnuaintance by sight with dozen
Trarcboo M Of t,1;"wledge, any one OF which
would, if conquered, have 0''" o. - ostnr
servant to him, but none of whl,.-
life prove of practical help. Intelligent oo'
servation of child's study during the first
year ought to afford surface indications enough
| to show where the mine lies, if there be any
and if not, do not try to force one into the
Door little wretch's brain! Many dull, prac-
tical lad, gifted with sound common sense,
integrity, and a kindly nature, the very quail
ties which will fit him for leader in business
or domestic life, is CALLED and tortured and
| trampled under foot during his youth by vain
| attempt to rival some fashy young comrade
with snowy memory and gift of imitation.
| But whatever the outside education chosen
for a boy or girl, let the yoke and bonds OF
| home training rest on them as long as pOssi-
| bic. Unless undeniably immoral, it is usually
the best influence brought to bear on them.
because of the old softening associations OF
childhood which nothing else can supplant.