The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-05-04
The Family School.

We believe it is generally admitted
that American youths need a more
careful, rigid, thorough home education
than the rising generation anywhere
else. Our boys and girls are born to
more liberty; they are accustomed to
exercise their wills sooner and
more vigorously than other children.
They are introduced earlier into society;
indeed our babies are public characters.
And this state of things cannot be
helped. 1t is a necessary result Of our
form of political life. Where there is
so much freedom, prosperity, activity,
it is utterly impossible to exclude our
young people from the contagious ex-
element. They must breathe the oxy-
gen of our atmosphere. They must
participate in our eager temper, our hot
haste, our feyered zeal. But the energy
and boldness so characteristic of Amer
lean childhood can be managed.
What should the best American
schools teach? All things good, true
and right; but especially the love of law
as the foundation of social character
and the security of social relations.
Home is the place to develop this spirit.
A child's first knowledge of authority
is in connection with kind affections; it
is part and parcel of its welfare, and
besides all this it has the instinct of
/ onhpnfooinr nara 10 tho nrnuioinn of
nature for a loyal, orderly citizen, and
if it be properly cultivated, reverence
for the state will naturally grow out
from the root. Our mobs commence at
the Preside; their second stage is the
street violence of bad boys; and then
after results follow in due order of sue
cession. M IL HI III
Good habits are to be formed by home
education; temptations to vice are to
be forestalled by its divine influence, or
the character is exposed to ruin. But
we must not stop here. All virtue
needs earthly supports as well as re-
ligious, aids. The principles of econ
omy,. prudence, contentment, self-re-
lance, must be instilled at home. If
they are acquired in business they will
always be more or less vitiated. The
hard, selfish spirit will predominant in
them. There is a marked difference
between those who form these habits on
worldly considerations and by worldly
means and those who have learned them
amidst the sanctities of domestic life.
So, too, with courtesy, politeness, be-
nevolence. The nobler and purer types
of these beautiful sentiments are devel-
oped at the table, around the iireside,
and in the daily offices of love. How
vitality important, then, it is that in
this early and most promising school be
instilled principles Of truth and nobility
that will Withstand the ruder expert
ences of after life. o. 45yN
The family school is the oldest school
in existence, and, while it is not de-
signed to treat the sciences in their
usual forms, yet whatever is lost in
direct communication Of technical
knowledge is more than compensated
by the tyranny and discipline which it
gives. 1t is Gods agent to awaken the
true spirit of education as distinguished
from the more mechanical methods. 1t
does not profess to educate the eye, ear
or hand, but to do something better: it
educates the soul which governs these
organs.
In no country, in nc state of civilized
society, is there so much work to be
done by the family in the legitimate
sphere Of education as in the United
States.