Mexico weekly ledger., 1879-09-04
NEXT MONDAY.

On the Sth inst, our schools will
open, and therefore, on that day
next Monday-it may be expected,
that as usual, our bright boys and
girls will come bounding gleefully
from every portion Of the city to that
glad trysting-place twixt scholar and
teacher-the school house. What
to them now, is the advent of vac
ton? Where is the joy that then ex-
banded their lungs and flashed out of
their eyes, as they broke from their
studies and rushed to forests and
fields to refreshing winds and flowers,
that swung and rollicked, like them
selves, under the bright skies of sum-
mer? There is no JOY that comes to
the young like that which vacation
brings. To the less advanced, it
means relief from confinement. To
the more experienced, and especially
to these that are concluding their
studies, it is connected with wild i'm
aginings of the newer and higher
struggle upon which they are enter
ing. In all, conceptions of the holt
day are mixed up with the good it
will be productive of, with vistas OF
sport-dreams of amusement-har-
Fingers Of enjoyment. But where
LOW are these anticipations They
are all gone; and, in their stead and
creating scare less enthusiasm, come
contrasting excitements, visions of
reunions, of songs, readings and rec
itatiOns, of examinations, triumphs
and prizes tc be won, and premiums
to be distributed at the end of the
scholastic year. 1t is well that it is
so. For what, but such stimulations
as pertain to vacation and commence
ment, could remind young life that it
is nearing freedom, or spur it on to
the requirements that make maturity
an enjoyment and a benefaction.
The children are robust and sun.
burnt, and it Is equally significant
that vacation has improved the 0
dition Of their teachers; they, too,
look terminated and refreshed.
Some have spent their whole holli-
day in recreation and recuperatIon.
Others have been improving their
mental constitution, and not a few
have been taking council in regard
to lettering their methods and popu-
larizing their institutions. At a
teachers symposium at st. Louis, the
whole system of public instruction
was overhauled. By some it was
characterized as a vast charity, which,
as in the case of other eleemosynary
institutions, was begrudged by tax
payers, and undervalued by scholars,
parents and communities, that fire.
quentiy demonstrated against the
small outlay necessary to supply chill
dren with advanced books of instruc-
ton. Others secuted such ideas.
They regarded public education as
the meeting of a natural and social
obligation, and delared that a system,
to be worthy of a great State like
ours, ought to resemble a ladder with
one end planted in the gutter and the
other reaching the university. 1t
was DIR. Laws, however, that gave
expression to the best views. He said:
"That public education in Missouri
bad arisen out of a solemn compact
between that state and other states
and the United States, and was re-
lated to donations of the sixteenth
sections and township school lands,
especially c~onsecrated to the promo
ton of the sciences and arts and of
literature"
Such gatherings and discussions
as those alluded to, are very instruc-
tive. All of the views enunciated are
worthy Of consideration. They give