Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-10-07

understands, with the clearnesS Ofnoon-
day hight, the important needs fthor-
ough public education to develop the
resources of the country, to establish a
high standard of the general morality,
and to cultivate the sentiments of a
lasting patriotism
His views on this subject have often
been expressed in his addresses before
students, popular gatherings and his
fellow members of the house of repre-
sentatives. In an address given in 1867
before a literary society at Hiram, O..
he says, "The nation having passed
through the childhood of its history,
and being about to enter upon a new
life, based on a fuller recognition of the
rights of manhood, has discovered that
liberty can be safe only when suffrage
Is illuminated by education. 1t is now
perceived that the life and light of a
nation are inseparable."
In speaking of the establishment of
agricultural colleges in this country,
and of what he terms "the stupid and
criminal neglect" of our higher schools
to furnish proper instructions to the
tillers of the soil, he says, "The people
of the United States have found so little
beng done or likely to be done, to edu-
cate men for the work of agriculture,
that they have demanded and at last
secured from their political servants in
congress, an appropriation sufficient to
build and maintain, in each state of the
union, a college for the education of
farmers. The scholar AMI the worker
must join hands if both would be sue
cessful." The measure had his earnest
support in congress.
He alludes to prominent defect in
our former systems of education, as one
of the causes of the dormant and dy-
ing patriotism" of the nation before the
civil war. Seven years ago there was
scarcely an American college in which
more than four weeks out of the four
years course were devoted to studying
the government and history of the
United States. For this defect | have
neither respect nor liberation. 1t is far
inferior to the educational system of
Persia three thousand years ago. The
uncultivated tribes of Greece, Rome,
Lydia and Germany surpassed us in
this respect. Grecian children were
taught to reverence and emulate the
virtues of their ancestors. Our educa-
tlOnal forces are so welded as to teach
our children to admire most that which
is foreign, and fabulous, and dead. in
sist that it should be made an indispens-
able condition of graduation in every
college that the student
must understand the history of this
continent since its discovery by the
Europeans, the origin and history of
the United States, its constitution of
government, the struggles through
which 1t has to pass, s,and the rights and
duties of citizens who are to determine
its destiny and share it's glory"
In referring to 'that special knowl-
edge which is necessary to fit man
for the particular profession or calling"
which young man may adopt, he
says, "You will make a fatal mistake if
you make only the same preparations
which your predecessors made fifty or
even ten years ago. Each generation
must have a higher cultivation than
the preceding one, in order to be equal
ly successful, and each must be edu-
Gated for his own times. If you be-
come lawyer, you must remember
that the science of law is not fixed like
geometry, but is a growth which keeps
pace with the progress of society"
Who has stated more strongly the
absurd practices in our public schools,
which compel children to memorize
the most of words and sentences,
not understood in single
SYLLABLE bv them? 'EThns
are squandered," he says, "nay, far
worse than squandered, these thrice
precious years, when the child is all ear
and eye, when its eager spirit with in
curiosity hungers and thirsts to
know the what and the why of the
world and its wonderful furniture. We
silence its sweet clamor by cramming
its hungry mind with words, words
empty, meaningless words. 1t asks for
bread and we give it a stone. 1t is to
me perpetual wonder that any child's
love of knowledge survives the out
RACES of the schOol-house." Again he
says, School committees would sum-
marily dismiss the teacher who should
have the good sense and courage to
spend three days of each week with her
pupils in the fields and woods, teaching
them the names, peCuliarities, and uses
of rocks, trees, plants and flowers, and
the beautiful story of the animals, birds,
and insects, which fill the world with
life and beauty" ''That man will be a
benefactor of his race, who shall teach
us how to manage rightly the first
years of chlld's education"