The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1880-06-10
VOW 70 eovcATr CHILDREN.

t01t the one has re1d more than the
other but rather in the right uses Of
his 1--WE senses. No one Is educated
who has not trained 10 u high degree
bis sight and hearing, or ut least one
Of them. In childhood nearly all ed
ucatiOn should BE- confined 10 y proper
awakening aud activity Of the SENSES.
The senses are the avenues leading to
the mind, and unless these be thor
Oughly and skillfully diciplined there
can BE- NO real education. So far, there
are two thing to be considered i'm all
trntning-or discipline rs . MT ans Of
culture; first, the proper development
Of the senses, and second, the habit Of
el0se, consecutive thought. These
propositions involve the principles
enunciated in all systems Of culture.
II the one method is pursued to the
exclusion Of the other, the result will
manifest itself after the form adopted.
And ~ curious - it may appear, the
basis Of nearly all systems Of phil0s-
ophy are inibedded deeply In the re-
cord made, or not made, by the senses.
But knowing that the reports made to
the mind through the media Of the
senses from the external or outside
world, are in the main correct and can
be relied upon, or that their testimony
Is valid, the whole problem Of In what
does education consist, and how Il
may be obtained: assume . simple
form, and owing to its simplicity Is
capable Of division and analysis.
The educator has the following ele-
ments given In the education Of each
child. Of sound mind and healthy
body: The child to be developed, the
external world, and the five senses
which connect the two.
To illustrate this statement: Light,
whether regarded according to the
emission, undulxt0ry, or any other
theory, proceeds in straight lines in
traversing the same medium, and in
order for . persOn to see, the light
must fall on the retina Of the eye,
which il an expansion Of the optic
nerve, and the optic nerve being high
" sensitive il affected and responds to
the impression that the light makes
on the retina, and the impression, by
some means not understOOd, Is COM
inundated to the mind, which cog
nizes 1t. II this nervous cOmmunica-
ton he destroyed, sight il impossible.
A. mechanical instrument, the eye
Of the unlettered bOOr may be even
more perfect in its structure than that
Of Tyndall or President Porter, and
he may be enabled to see thereby
much iarther than they; but the eye
Of Tyndall sees volumes written in
the dew drop, which the bOOr never
saw and In y precisely similar man.
ner ID il i'm the true and false systems
Of education. Ii the order OF pro-
ceedure, rs Is usually the case, be from
the inner consciousness to An outward
manifestation ut first, ii Is like trying
to pump water from dry well-the
working Of the pump may be perfect
in all Of its parts, yet NO water can be
obtained. This Ii ~ rational m the
plan Of trying to pump ideas from the
inner Consciousness OF child before
the proper external connection las
been formed by an intelligent union
Of the child's mind with the outside
world. Infants are born into the
world with capacities-nOt with ideas.
The ideas must first be awakened by
the excitants from the material world,
that Is, all ideas pertaining to the ele-
ments-earth, air, etc.
The activities Of the mind are put
into play, then, by the right applica-
ton anu presentation Of those material
things which arrest and hold the al
tentlOn Of the child's mind.
Nature, then, indicates what the
course ut education for children should
be. 1t is an infailible rule that the
instruction should always he adapted
to the capacity of the person to be in
structed first, cOncretes Instead Of alb
stracts. And here comes In y point
and that Is, 80 few persons pretending
to teach know anything about what is
adapted to the child or what il proper
to be presented To its mind through
the senses. Some Of the most serious,
NJ well rs dangerous blunders are
made in this department Of teaching,
aud through the Ignorance. imbecility,
aud stupidity Of self styled teachers,
thousands OF children are practically
ruined for life 80 far as an education
IL concerned.
No child Is naturally lazy, nor is
any child predispOsed moro to evil
than to good. 1t Is y natural desire OF
the mind to crave knowledge, and
knowledge Of some sort only can sat
isfy this desire. These propositions
being 80 general and their admission
by All just and fair minded persons 40
universal, II II u question that may
we'll be asked why do 80 many child
rem fail, ~ il were, to learn ut school:
They are differences in aptitudes-
s0iiic learning rapidly, with Others
every effort Is OperOsc Yet there are
teachers who never fail even to make
fair scholars Of the duil.st; neverthe-
less the question recurs. why the utter
failure OF not only few, but OF many
promising children: There can be
nut one rational answer. The teach |
ing, has been wrong. II was not
adapted to the child. The teacher was |
not master wOrkn,an-a mind build |
er. Perhaps the chief mistake was in
the course VI study, and then In the |
method Of instruction employed, ~ |
that ignorance is manifested by the |
power that arranged the studies and
on the part Of the in |
structOr. That such blunders are COM
mon, IN y notorious fact and to avoid |
just such mistakes the real educators |
VI our and other countries are working |
Out what Is lest for the average child |
to study, and how the teacher may do |
this work effectively. Experience |
shows cOnclusiveiy that there are GER
tain studies in which all children take |
special delight, ami these are the |
branches in their simpler forms that |
they should study. Moreover the |
Or rather the things, small |
children In our public schools are pat |
vt, nuke them box turtles" rather |
than intelligent, bright children aud
Eeen observers. The sensss are closed |
to all that csn awake en-
ti,usissGi or excite pleasing emotion.
The valley of the 'dry-bOnes" is u
pleasing Landscape compared tO the |
,iuli ROUTINE humi-druln u A. h. e..
sud cOlumnsOf unmeaning words. and
lhat Constant ding dong Of behave"
and the exhaustive admOnitiOns which
flux Of words and . dexrth /
II ideas in - many schoois. Yet we
live In hopes Of . better era when
more rational methods will MOI ~ nov,
he the excepaion-but the general rule.
but - the ''tap can never rise above
lhe source" the remedy IL In getting /
INTELLIGENT seachen to do school work,
and In the meantime educate legists-
lOF> to the fact that = prescribed eOsrse
pf study must be founded upon ratio
nal principles.
cARRyssc the NEWS - WEARS AGO:
Mr. Jo-eIh Howard, Jr, In one Of
l,i. sketches of American journalism /
in the Nsw York 3siegr0ss, tells this
story 81 the way election new. was