Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-03-02

times, more or less, something like
this: g Well, if had only half Oc-
cupied my time, as / ought to have
done, l might have made a man of
myself" Now, we wish to ask you
one question, and be candid with
yourselves in its answer: Why did
you not occupy that valuable half of
your time? l already anticipate
the answer of some: 81 was young
and thoughtless, and did not know
the value of time, or the importance
of an education nor did l feel the
need of it as l now do" But do
you expect your children to do bet
ter than you did? You no doubt
often tell them that they are not
doing as well. This, however, may
be attributable to the fact that you
look through one kind of glasses at
your own school work, and through
quite a different kind at that of your
children.
Our question still remains I'M
answered. The true answer, as we
believe, is to be found in the fact
that you We're confined in the
school-room too long with too little
to do. You may say you have
enough to do, if you would have
done it. But why did you not do
it You were certainly better boy
than your boys, according to your
present sober Judgment. The truth
is to be found only in this, that
nature, tired with confinement in
doing nothing, after the lesson task
was completed, revOlted at the idea
of more work, and after many such
Wearinesses repeated, reVOlted at
the idea of even good, honest and
reasonable work. 1t not only would
not, but really could not do full
work under the circumstances. How
many hours were occupied in the
schOOl-r0Om under the old system
| Put it at its maximum, and say 10
hours. Now the most candid pupils
of those years, tell us that half of
! their time was wasted land we
believe them). Divide 10 by = and
we have five hours possibly spent
in honest work, or if we take off 2
hours, for play, that would only
| leave for work.
But let us come to more recent
years and take the hour system,
, for play leaving six hours for ac-
! tual work, and let the candid pupil
say, not whether he could, but
whether he did, put in those six
hours at honest and faithful work.
Most of them may say (and we ac-
cord to them all honesty in their
belief we could have done it. But
the question is did you do it? Let
us not dodge behind that straw pile
of youthful indifference, want of in
| terest, &C., any more. Perhaps 800
out of every 1000 must answer this
question in the negative. The truth
is you often grew tired, very tired,
of the schOOl-rOOm and the true
! reason is not be found in the amount
of work you did, but in the length
of time you were required to be in
/ performing it. One reason that
many teachers have for combining
children in the school-roOm more
than five hours, is, that their schools
not being graded, and being cut up
in 50 many classes they cannot get
through the recitations, even giving
them three or four rounds of lessons.
But we, of the graded schools, can
make our six or seven rounds in
five hours, giving from 10 to %
may be objected that the children
are kept too close at their work for
/ so long a time. This would be true
if all the work was purely mental,
without any thing to relax. But,
happily for the graded school, that
is not the case. There is a good
deal of hand work, in the way of
printing and writing, and, at no
distant day, of drawing, to be mixed
/ with the first forenoon division OF
work, which covers from one and a
half to two hours of time. Then
comes calisthenics and marching,
10 or 10 minutes, and then, before
- minutes, lunch, twenty minutes
is taken up in writing exercises,
which requires but little mental
effort. Then after lunch, music, 20
minutes, comes in very appropri-
ately before commencingthe mental
labors of the afternoon.
Now, these little things, while
they do give just as good relaxation
as play, and far better than idleness,
still do not allow the pupil to lose
sight of the idea of employment
and attention. Indeed, they tend to
fix and fasten this idea in his mind,
and thereby give him habits of in
dustry and teach him to find true
pleasure in work, instead Of its
counterfeit in Incidence. One hour
and a half of play would so sever
the rope that binds this idea, that it
must necessarily take some time OF
the afternoon to get it properly
nended again, and in good working
order. The pupil is too much of the
time in which he is supposed to be
in charge of the teacher, really only
nominally so, viz: while in transit
to and from his dinner. This de