New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-09-06
UH1r 70 DO NTH THE CHILDREN

With this first week in September comes
the yearly problem for parents. What is to
he done WITH the children I In small towns
and farming districts the question settles IL
self. tnere Is but one school, and to it the
youngster goes, whether the system is suited
TO him or not. "A there generally is 10 sys-
TEN. and The teaching Is done by some young
student because he wants the salary to help
him to something better, each boy takes the
course into which Nature pushes him dlgests
as much of the dry husks of knowledge as he
plcascs, and is educated out of school !;
nodded into the kind of man he is TO be, by
odd chances and touches, by the men to whom
he listens at the grocery door, or by the scapo-
elacrs with whom he plays truant.
In towns there is no such want of treat
memt. Every parent has his theory; and if
we are to believe the advertising columns of
TIE TRIBUNE this morning, there is IA school
20 accommodate every theory. You can put
your boy into the identical old classical mill
in use when the doings of the Greeks and
Romans made up the bulk of knowledge
essential to a gentleman; or he can be
,.ammed by means of the newest appliances
with all the modern knowledges, ready TO be
used on sight, from EdisOn's last discovery
TO speaking acquaintance with Chinese.
The great social question among educated
neOple Just now is how 10 fit this harassed
next generation for its work. IF we knew
what its work was to be, we should probably
manage 1t intelligently but it may be called
on TO handle books, government, an engine,
or IA hoe. The end OF The difficulty is that we
try to fit it for any aud every sort of work ;
cram each ind vidual boy with the classics,
science. practical mechanics, art-heaven only
knows what We Try to make an Admirable
Crichton. and we turn ont piece of iobbery
very like those patent inventions in which
the souls Of our Western friends exuted ut
the Centennial, which are book cases, parlor
organs and kitchen ware in one, and are
cheap and nasty in all.
One word to such of our readers as have
sons and daughters to educate There is
wide choice of schools before you, as our
educational advertisements show, each prob
ably excellent in its kind but its excellence
is nothing 10 You if its kind does not suit
vonr child. II is the disposition aud capacity
of the child you should study first. The
school is Il secondary matter. Ii does not follow
at all that because your neighbours boy, WHY,
tough, alive with obstinacy and ambition III
every fibre Of his lean little body, can stand
the fierce driving and friction OF certain
model school, and come out keen and
sharpened from it. that your slow-witted,
nervous, gentle lad will thrive in lit. In the
schools which stand highest III public esteem
the standard of excellence is unfortunately
fixed by the capacity of the clever
est scholars. There is no place in
L" these barn-yards," as a leading teacher
vulgarly put it lately, for sick ducks
The dull child, or the one whose mind grows
slowly. abors under constant sense of hope
less inferiority. which crushes the intellect rs
surely as darkness and cold crush feeble plant.
The father does not see, or will not acknowl
edge, that his boy Is dull, or being dragged
beyond his strength. Why can be not keep
Cup with his rivals n The lad must be lazy
or vicious. He Is punished, urged, taken from
school at last, and III despair left to earn his
living with his hands. Yet the finest moral
nature ana the keencst senslbilities 20 with
slow-moying brain and the world is moved
every day by energetic practical men who
never stood at the head OF their class III
college.
III you are a parent, judge OF your child
yourself; nobody will take the interest in HIM