The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1877-03-03

| he httchsd hls team, and placed the wife
and young 'uns on the bench TO watch fol-
the train. After waiting and walkin:
about in silent stupidity for an hour, HI
timidly asked some passer by ''when he al.
lowed them eyArs was a comm Ht
VAS instantly informed hat the train had
passed more than an hsur since. Still
strolling about with a look of indifference
in which there Was no line Of dIsapPoInt-
Inent traceable, he pat finale to the scene
| BY saying to his better tWO-thirds, come
Betsy. | recken ", Y better be gwine; them
internal trix is done gone" Laughter
- they slowly retraced their wooded way
home, and, what is most important about
n. without a single expression Of word OF
ciuntenance that Indicated deep disap-
pointment Now this case may be some
Nhat extreme. but il is widely representa-
/ tive. IL represents the American farmer
| mst where he always too late for the
Y train. other men think before him, and
consequently get ahead Of him. Before
ever the cause of the agriculturist comes
even to the front with other interests, our
farmers must learn that irifs ,cH trir
This brings me to the remote cause of
J this disability Of our farmers, which find
| To reside largely in the character, and in
! their treatment of the
COUNTRY SCHOOL.
| But before coming directly to speak Of
/ this, let US bring before our minds the
principles that govern a correct education
First, let us abandon the notion that the
school as i goes-necessarily educates
| There are many men who have had little
t. do with schools that are very we'll
educated know one who has smassed q
! fortune Of S200, 600, who can neither read
nor write; who has Of course never spent q
dayin a school, and vet ia, 10 a considerable
degree, educated. If my friend, Mr. Flagg,
thought. when he brought his new sheep
skin from Yale, that he was educated, he
has doubtless found out since that he was
gl0riously fooled | do not mean by this
that there is any fault To be found with
Yale. She fills her place. and does her
work ws'l. | only desire 70 impress an i'm
pDrtant u,stinctlon between the tools BY
which knowledge is obtained, which tools
the schools profess to place in the hands Of
the pupil, and knowledge Itself, which is
the substance Of education, and which, as
the world goes, a man gets chiefly by his
contact with the world. with facts men,
{
assuming that the schools must deal large
ly in the instruments Of knowledge-re
ing, writing and igures-but the great
mistake is to suppose that the requirement
of a certain use of these instruments IS
education. The mind grows by What it
feeds on, just as the body does. We might
as well suppose that the body would de-
velop by eating ploughs and hoes, and pitch
forks, as to suppose that the mind will de-
velop by acquiring the faculty Of reading,
writing and figures. 1t would not be more
absurd to eat a sausage grinder instead Of
the meat which it grinds. Laughter.
TRUE EDUCATION.
The Baconian philosophy gives the only
trls basis Of education This philo. ophy,
rs stated by Prof. Huxley consists, Ist--in
tee observation ai facts-Inclnding that
- e6riAl ltohseryatbsssnalled ssa ,.1+ss---sta.-
ID In the process of tying up similar Iaots
in a bundle. ticketed ready for use-com-
parIson and classification result of
the process. The tIcketed bundles being
named general propositions 31-Deduc-
ton, which takes as from the general
proposition to facts teaches rs to
anticipate from the ticket what is inside
the bundle.
This indicates the true geneses or de
velopment Of knowledge We learn facts
from objects we group and classify we
q a general proposition, then, a law, then
principle, and last of all We are prepared
to construct a definition. Now the de
velopment Of mind, when rightly prose
cuted, corresponds precisely with the de-
velopment of knowledge. FIRST comes the
,,f. ,hl VAT m hrfu
in contact with facts perception taking
note Of these facts afterwards the use Of
the laboratlve faculties, by which we com
pare, Judge and deduce and by which We
are able 10 note and understand the logical
connections Of things, and 70 comprehend
a law, principle and definition. Now
for the whole time that country schools
have been IN existence, even as far back as
the reformation. and in spite of the phloso-
ply of Bacon, this whole process has been
reversed in the schools. The effort has al
ways been made to cram a definition into
a child's intellect instead Of bringing him
first to recognize and appropriate fact.
The child has been required to elaborate
when nature has fitted him only to observe
He has been required to climb a mountain
by beginning at the top, or scale ladder
by commencing at the top round
] am glad TO notice that those in charge
Of the higher Institutions Of learning are
beginning to recognize the true philosophy,
and the gross mistakes Of the schools
DR. Barnard, President Of Columbia Col
lege, at the Tyndall banquet in New York,
made these sensible remark ''In plant
ing leguminous seeds you could not have
far - h.t 81
come up with their cotyledons on their
heads. II, in pondering this phenomenon,
you arrived at the same conclusion that
did, You must have believed that nature
had made a mistake, and 80 have pulled
up your plants and replanted them upside
down. Men and women are but children
Of a larger growth. They see the tender
intellect shooting up in like manner with
the perceptive faculties alive at the top !;
and they, too, seem to think that nature
has made a mistake, and so treat the mind
as the child treats his bean plant, and tGrn
it upside down 10 make 1t grow better
They bury the promisI lg young buds deep
in a musty mold, formed Of the decay Of
centuries, under the delusion that out of
such debris they may gather some whole
some nourishment when we know all that
they want is the free air Of heaven in
which to unfold themselves
1t is clearly evident that what the school
should have done, while imparting to
pupils the use Of the tools or instruments
Of knowledge, was to open the mental-eye,
so that the child with these helps could 60
on finding out knowledge, and SD become
educated. The school, in short, should be
an eye-opener; but il has, in fact, been an
eye-ShWtter
From these general remarks touching
the influence Of the schools, let us come
more especially to consider the influence of
the country school upon the mental de-
velopment Of farmers. First, notice the
way in which
FARMERS REGARD THEIR SCHOOLS.
l. j