The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-10-26
Evenings at Home.

When the evening lamps are
lighted, says sn exchange, the chill
dren now S'9ther with schOOl-bOoks
around tn m to con the mOrrOw's les
son. To many of them the tasks as.
signed 4eem dreary and hopeless
definitiEAs are hard Co remember, the
geogra| ny lesson is difficult to CON-
prehar 4, and won't stay fixed in the
minG, history is dull and dead, arith-
metie hopeless tangie offigures, and
grammar more puZZling than any
| possible cOnundrum. The little folk
needs help they need cheer and EN-.
Couragement ; and who should be so
rt ady, so willing, SO able to give it as
the parent? Even il the parent s
education is imperfect, he will bring
| to the com DrehensiOn of the lesson in
hand wider range of knowledge and
broader manner OF looking al
things than the child can do, and
thus greatly aid in the clear cOmpre-
hensiOn of the lesson to be learned.
Everybody almost has looked
through q stereOscOpe, and been de-
lighted to see how each part Of the
landscape or figure in the picture ex-
hibited stands out from the fiat sur
face. This effect is produced by TAX
ing two photographs Of the same
scene from standpOints a few feet
apart, and by the adjustment of the
two lenses of the stereOsoOpe, throw
ing the two views into one. How
precisely this is done in the child's
mind with respect to the lesson when
the parent and tine teacher supplement
each other in the instruction of the
child. Looking through the parents
eyes at the lesson, and through the
teachers eyes at the lesson, the pupil
see it from two different view points
and all its features are thrown ont, so
to speak, and become salient points
which he can grasp with his appre-
hension and retain in his memory.
There Is a routine way of thinking
and of memoriZing and OF getting at
their studies that children are very
apt to fall into unless energetic means
are taken to prevent it. In a great
many things routine is admirable, but
when carried to extremes it is death
to free thought and original investigs-
ton /; and education, whatever else it
means, does not mean compelling the
fifty or a hundred minds that daily
assemble in one school room TO move
ia the same intellectual path. The
freedom of mental movement so de-
sirable in all mental labor will be
greatly promoted by these studies st
home with the sympathetic parent.
Another great advantage will be that
intellectual sympathies will knit to-
gether the parent and child and in
definitely delay that growing away
from each other, which is equally in
furious to both. That father VIII
keeps the range of his boys mind,
who knows what occupies his
thoughts and stimulates his activities,
kiudIes hopes and rOuses his ambi-
tion, perpetualiy renews his own
youth in that of his son, and may be
able to supplement youthful ardOr
and experience with the moderation
OF age and the result OF observation
and mature thought. There is no
more bitter or more hope.
less than that suffered by many a
sensitive child who feels that be-
tween it snd its parent mere physical
tie is the only tie that unites them.
So far as is possible the parents mInd
should be free pasture ground for the
child, and everything in it that the
child can use to advantage be placed
at his disposal thus drawing into his
own life the parents life, tho union
between the two will become INSOFAR
able, and a source OF unfailIng joy and
strength to both. The parting of
the ways" between father and son,
mother and daughter, is frequently at
the beginning oi school or college life,
when the young folks need to lie kept |
In closest sympathy with the parental
heart, and the parents need to have
thsir hands strengthened and their
hearts stayed with filial devotion and
love.
or course If the lessons of pupils are
studied at home under the tuition OF
the father or mother 3 great deal of
time Is consumed in the work, but
how can time be better employed than
in training and teaching the young 4?
We mothers rarely grudge the time
given to the physical care of our chill
dren, to keeping their bodies fed and
clothed and clean, but the lAbOrs
more abundant bestowed on mere
physical nurture and surroundings, il
partly given to furnishing the mind
and polishing its faculties, would de-
velop many an otherwise vain and
giddy girl into 3 sensible, thoughtful
woman, with abundant intellectual
and spiritual resources many an
otherwise purposeless and reckless
youth into an earnest, aspiring young
Ocean.