Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-08-23
EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
WM. ELDEN, Editor.
Education Scientifically Applied.
BY GEO. w. COPLEY.
Part ".

Part ".
We left our boy pupil in the pleasant
company of his skillful teacher, at ten
years Of age, listening to an oral lesson,
which she has styled :" The Seven Rules
hood" The pupil listened to the soft,
low, sweet voice of his teacher, eye to
eye, and was delighted He was then
given a neatly written copy of them for
future reference. Thus far, this boys
career has been very happy, as he has
had his own mother to teach him, and
that mother is woman possessed of
wealth OF affection, knowledge and cul-
ture equal to the task of training her
boy, unerringly, in the good and right
way to noble manhood That mother,
however, has change of teachers in
contemplation She has a sweet, brown
eyed little daughter, of six years of age,
whom we have not spoken Of until now,
and this radiant gem of mankind (or wo-
mankind. as you please will soon claim
larger share of her time than she gives
it now. This thoughtful and far-seeing
mother and teacher knows that she is
equal to the task of training her son up
to noble manhood herself, alone, but
she knows that a more completely
rounded character can be formed by the
just blending of female and male in
struction than can possibly be produced
through the instruction of one sex only.
Her philosophy is sound in this. She
reasons, that no character can be formed
after the very highest model through
instruction from woman alone, or from
man alone. The influence of the mascu-
line mind is needed to supplement that
of the feminine mind, that completeness
may follow as the joint instruction of
both (hence colleges for either males or
females, exclusively, are not founded on
true philosophy and the highest good of
society," This mother knows of male
teacher who is fully her peer in all that
is needed to form the scientific teacher
and it is her purpose to instruct and
train her son and daughter together un-
der her own roof, four years longer, and
then send him away to be taught and
disciplined by the professor of scientific
instruction aforementioned. Within this
intervening four years she will require
him to perform several hours manual
labor each weekday, and study three or
four consecutive hours within the same
time, and mostly in the fore part of each
day. She aims to make him logical
reasoner, and to that end early introdu-
ces the elements of algebra in connec-
ton with the study of arithmetic, that
he may early learn to formulate the pro-
blems he is able to solve, and thus be
able to understand the connection be-
tween the several quantities. As he
masters the easier problems, more intri-
cate ones will be tried, and in this way
he will become familiar with formulas
quite young, and his mind be given di-
rection in this respect that will lead to
great facility in graphing with abstruse
problems few years hence in his edu-
cational course. She introduced geog-
raphy when he could read we'll in the
third reader, to be studied from the text
book, and is gratified to see him learn
so easily and retain so well what he has
learned about his own and other coun-
tries. He speaks the English language
with grammatical accuracy and correct
ness, through the teaching and example
of his mother, and as he reaches his fif
teenth year, and is about to leave home
to attend school few months in town
not far away, his mother gives him a
letter addressed to the Professor, and
that letter contains an account of the
exact status of her boy, and the course
of study he has thus far pursued. The
Professor received him pleasantly, ex-
amined him and assigned him a lesson.
He is now fairly started in his educa-
tional course under the training and in
struction of teacher who has the abil-
ity to educate him in harmony with his
being; and since we have entire conf
dence in his ability to complete the ed
ucation so wisely begun, we will hastily
pass over the intervening years OF steady,
manly endeavor, and take general view
view of the results.
Time moves on, and as it moves, our
boy, too, advances toward the goal Of a
natural manhood. Every hour of the
fifteen years just past, since he was tif-
teen, has been made to yield it's precious
treasures of knowledge, moral excel
lence and intellectual discipline. His
physique is noble specimen of what
physical training under the eye of a sci
entific master can accomplish. His vast
knowledge and deep insight into the aw-
full profundity of nature is almost ap-
palling. The universe of little things
has been explored down to the finest
molecule known to science, and his men
tai vision has swept the vast field of
space for new worlds to harmonic the
perturbations of those already known.
His travels have comprised large areas
Of the globe, and his researches have
drawn trophies from nearly every zone.
Old ocean has yielded him some of her
deep, hidden treasures and swept him
grandly and joyfully over her heaving
bosom to tropical climes, and skies Of
wondrous beauty and depth of blue:
He has reached that high moral and
spiritual plane where nature spreads
before the worthy and appreciative that
rare banquet Of the soul, which if once
partaken of enables the guest to leave
all groveling thoughts behind, and move