New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-08-30

a man can not get ahead, he can not even
earn his bread, unless he knows how to do
something that people want done, and PEG
pie know he can Go it. ..!-}tt
Now. let Us see what our young graduate
does know. He can not speak see our
preachers. lawyers and public speakers;
not one IL ten, in fifty, can use their
tongues. lips, arms, legs or tones OF voice
effectively. That IS well. He can not read
the Lords Prayer naturally and right; OF
geography. OF history ne knows bare OUT
line be is fairly correct in his spelllng ana
grammar; his Latin and Greek are useless
10 him Tor any original investigation; he
does not know any branch OF his mathe'
mates well enough to apply 1t 10 engineer
ing, surveying, building or machinery le1
alone any of the more abstruse applications,
such a; calculating an eclipse or the orbit
Of a comet or q transit OF Venus. As to
tho er;aures of light, heat. electricity,
animals, vegetation, minerals, soils, ma
ch1nerr, winds. clouds, storms and all that
busy field Of applied science in which the
discoveries and inventions Of our day are
chiefly concerned, he is as ignorant as Iris
brother Dick whom be lett at home to
attend 70 the farm or the shop, how to
make the first practical or useful observa-
ton. 1t is ten to one if he can write Tvs
far a business hand as his uneducated
brother. The boy has spent six years,
perhaps eight or ten, in acquiring what
colleges aud grown-np people call an edu-
cation. and at It's end ne finds that he can
not DO anything which people want done,
which viii pay him as large wages as his
brother Dick vino stayed at home on the
farm or Tom who went to the county town
and cierked in store. This is failure
first OF our education" which we have
given this boy. He comes out after this
valuable time and hard labor less able
10 make living than the uneducated boy.
But you Iday say. "All very true, but his
reward is yet to come; ne has been disci-
pllnlng his mental powers and acquiring the
elements Of wider knowledge tnan Dick
or Tom. which will come into play after
time, and make his success and usefulness
larger as il mas been longer delayed
Let US see about this. He must now eeiet
a. business to follow, his avOcation for lite,
IN which he is to be a success or a failure.
He looks over the field, the farm, the trades,
the arts, the businesses of merchandise,
architecture, engineering, manufacturing,
telegraphy, stenOgraphy, the professions OF
law and medicine, and tie nondescrlpt 30
hemian, precarious career that offers itself
IN the newspaper press to beginner. That
is the field to choose from. Whichever he
takes, his six or eight years schooling must
serve him the best it can for his capital. OF
coarse he tries to find one in which it will
be- oi most service to him-help him ON
some. Which one is that!
If ne goes TO the farm he must begin as a
labOrer by the year, or a tenant. Ant AS
he scans the whole repertorv Of his ACC dist
tons lie can not tor the life of him, find one
solitary item that he knows how to do
which will make his services as valuable as
that of the most ordinary farmer who can
neither read nor write-nothing that will
Justify any farmer in paying him more than
the ordinary months wages. Ii he goes to
a merchant, bank, an insurance office, he
finds the same ugly fact. Ii he looks at the
trades he must go through the ordinary
apprenticeship of two, three or four years.
Nothing in his eight years education places
him ahead here. In architecture. en-
cheering and ike avocatiOns he is as
poorly furnished as the youngest beginner.
Besides, if he begins In any OF these, not
only ara his previous studies of no use to
lin, and sometimes actually worse than
useless, but the chances are that il acquir-
ing his business nc will have so TO lay
aside all these studies for go many years,
that by the time he is ready to start in life,
they ill ue almost buried and forgotten,
and his eight years are q solid loss. lie
has learned too much for some kinds OF
work. and not enough for other kinds.
Now. there ia left for his choice the law,
medicine and the newspaper. The work OF
the ministry OF the gospel shculd not be de-
graded in our minds by classifying it with
those calings which men pursue Tor their
daily bread. So leave it out OF view alto
gether, as not belonging to the field OF
this subject.
And thus it is that we find the professions
OF law anG medicine and the departments
of newspaper work crowded to excess
with throngs OF young. talented, ambitious
IneD, willing to work, eager TO be useful,
and aspiring with high and generous aims,
by the best use of their powers, to win an
honorable anne and livelihood, who find no
room tAere-wh0se inclinations are TO
other pursuits: whose aptitudes tit them
Cor eminent success in other lines. and yet
for whom there is literally 10 other
opening.
Such a fact is q disgrace to our system of
education. 1t Is a monstrous injustice to
our crowds CT half educated youths; it is
grave peril to the Morals and liberties OF
The country, because it is making crowd
ot dependent hangers on the outskirts CT
these professions in our towns and cities,
with all the consequent Generalization of
what would, with another education, be an
army OF well equipped, energetic and IN.
dependent recruits to the common veal OF
the commonwealth.
Now, let US see what kind of boy could
be turned out from school that trained
t-i Ldu-Ib dS II sutuiu, anu suC
rlght things at the right time and in the
right way. The first thing that a child
needs TO be trained in and taught right is
how to walk we'll, TO talk well and to read
well. These include much more than many
people think, if we consider.
To illustrate what | mean, doubt much
If there ia enc in the assembly. including
the speaker, who has been trained carefully
hy some one who knew how to do it well
l,I,,,ca1f nd m tnonn If piuh- how m 70, liz
Yet there is such thing. and to know how
to do it is of immense advantage. The
method OF walking, the carriage OF oneself
the right way to do each thing necessary to
the proper care of the person are of grave
Importance to health and strength. AZ to
reading well, it is almost an unknown art,
except among actors. Let lawyer or a
preacher in public, or any one In private So
aial circles, read simple story or ballad
well. right, as il should be read, and he will
sreate a sensation and draw admiring
crowds.
By the time our youngster has learned
Cow to walk, to conduct himself, to take
care of his person, to read and to write the
commencement OF fair, good hand, besides
learning all that he should learn outside,
he Will be ten or twelve years old, and
have been as busy as boy ought to be-
Add the first rules of arithmetic, and that
is all of the present childrens course of
school teaching he should have. All the
arithmetic over this and geography and
grammar which form the burden ordinarily
OF three or four years infantile toll and
wretchedness, can be learned later in few
months time, and are Of no earthly use be.
tore.
But right there, at ten years or before,
should commence the study of that real
learning which the boys mind is thirsty
for, and which will be worth everything to
him hereafter. Drawing, measurement,
the qualities and properties of everything