The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-06-27
EpUCATIoN-NO, /.

Mr.. EDITOR: Happy is the man that
findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth
understanding, is as sound in theory to-day
as when it first fell from the lips of Solo
mon. Since that time, however, the
world has seen fit to make it read, Happy
is the man that findeth money, and the
man that getteth goods" Such doctrine is
pernicious, and should not be countenanced.
Wisdom and understanding is mans best
merchandise. AS men become educated
they learn to be wise. People that are ig-
norant know nothing of the blessings of an
education, and not unfrequently are dis
posed I'd look upon it with contempt. 9th
ers, aglin, have mistaken idea of what
education is, and think the child or man
who is able to repeat whole books from
memory is, therefore, educated. Some peo-
pie would have you cram child's head
with the words of book just as good
domestic would stuff chicken before bak
ing, and then have everybody to fall down
and worship the calf. In days of more sue
cessful pedagoguery the average country
school teachers success was measured by
the length of the birch he used, and the
number Of useless phrases he had learned,
by dints and blows, the child to repeat from
memory. His great object in teaching was
to cram the contents of the book in the
child's head regardless of utility or practi-
cabiity. In such teaching, or education,
(call it such,) there is both fraud and hum
buggery. The world has done well to call
such pedagogues, and Immortality has been
bestowed upon them by Washington Irving
in the ludicrous character of Icabod Crane.
Happy for the country that this class of
teachers is fast dying out, and the places
that once knew them will soon know them
no more forever. The education of the
young has been left entirely to the whims
or caprice Of their natural guardians. If
children are sent to schools in the country,
in many instances it is for the purpose of
getting them out of the way at home. No
attention is paid. to any systematic course
of study. The child goes to school for few
days, is then stopped. While such system
of schooling is continued, the great number
of children will grow up in ignorance
With all the boosted civilization of the
North dread of communism is beginning
to take hold Of the people. This spirit Of
communism will not be confind there alone,
like water, it will seek its level, and will
permeate every community where ignor-
ance prevails. 1--WE make. o great mistake" &"
said the statesman Calhoun, "in supposing
oil nations capable of selfgoveTnment."
Was he not right9 Do men know how to
govern themselves by innate ideas of gov!
ernment? Do we not have to be trained,
educated. and governed at home around the
firesitle in order TO keep down endless con-
fusion in the family circle? What families
are governed the best, the ignorant or the
educated? What nations are governed best,
those that are governed by brute, physical
force, or those that are governed by high
moral and. mental strength? Government
is of divine origin. The world was made to
to be governed, whether by few or many.
That people is governed best by govern
ment whose subjects know best how to
govern themselves. And the question,
SHOULD education be compulsory?" is be-
ginning to receive more serious considera-
ton imong the thoughtful. Agovemment
that seeks to protect minorities as well as to
concede the rights of nlajoritles, must look
with distrust on everything that tends to
breed spirit Of communism; and how to
avert it will soon be question more fraught
with interest with statesmen than the SUBJ
ject Of enfranchising 100000 Of ignorant
negroes to exercise the rights OF suffrage at
the ballot box. Ifinstead Of such univer-
sal suffrage the great philanthropist, and
the rarty of great moral ideas, had bent its
energies to bring about universal educa-
ton among all the ignorant classes so as to
elevate and ennoble the poorer elements of
society, white and colored, then that party
might have done q work which should last.
1t is bad thing to give child sharp
knife. Nine cases out of ten it will cut
ITSELF So it is bad policy to put power into
the hands of those who know not even the
first principles of government. The power
they will use to their own destruction, and
to the destruction of him who gives, unless
some means be used to avert it. If our
government should be overthrown by COM
munism, it is scarcely entitled to sympathy.
1t has been nursing poisonous reptile in
its own bosom, whose fatal fangs mny be
felt at no distant day, unless the monster
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