Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1880-03-27
the coMsrock TEACHER.
what ID Required q. the School.
Room Here ON the Mountain.

Probably there are few places in the
world where so much Is required Of
teachers Of public schools as right hero
on the Comstock. To most people per.
haps, and to many certainly. the idea Of
q school Is that IL is . place where chill.
drsn arc taught to read, write and
cipher, and that Is about all. except II
be perhaps that pupils are expected to
acquire there o little, just . very little,
culture.
Suppose this idea should DO carried
into our schools, what kind OF an
education would the children Of the
Comstook gstP
But one reason why more Is required
Of school teachers here than elsewhere 10
because OF the surroundings OF the
pupils. Think Of children being born
and growing up to maturity In . land Of
baroness and desolation, with scarcely
the murmur Of Q breeze through q tree
for o lullaby in infancy, with not q blade
of grass to make green the earth. and
seldom Q flower to adorn and beautify
their surroundings. Think Of their
spending year after year and finally leav.
ing school educated" according TO the
books with never having seen o legume
or q lentil, the growth Of any berry or
small fruits, the grains which make mer-
chandise and feed the world. or the
trees which leaf, bud. blossom and bear
apples, pears. peaches, plums, apricots,
cherries or the like.
Yet all this 10 true OF many OF the
Comstock children and the one.half Of
their ~deprivations has not aud cannot
be told. Animal life in most Of its nat.
ural forms 10 as wanting here as 10 veg
etable lie. What kind Of an education
then is that which il given the children
and drawn from q few text books alone.
To be sure they have mineral life In
abundance, but that cannot compensate
for the absence Of the other two.
And with such surroundings how can
these children whose very life brightens
like the gold and silver Of their homes,
acquire q knowledge OF the natural and
the beautiful which adorn and all the
earth elsewhere ; how become familiar
with the laws OF growth. and how learn
the law In nature by which everything
reproducss its kind. It Is useless to say
that education can be even fairly com.
mrnced and the pupil remain ignorant
Of these and Q thousand other things
which to children elsewhere are every
day surroundings /: and the question
naturally arises, how 10 this great defect
In the magnificent display Of nature on
the Comstock TO be overcome what
compensation DO made for this great
wantP
It il not too much to say that nothing
can fully compensate for such surround
ings; but II anything tending toward
that end il at command, the school,
room must furnish It. But do not look
in text books for much Of 1t. Do not
expect the old style instructor TO meet
the want at all. II 1t Is done at oil 1t
must be by object lessons. These. &C.
companied with such information az can
be given by the intelligent and indus.
trious teacher, with illustrations from
the few specimens Of vegetable growth
on the mountain aud tho skilliul use OF
the blackboard, can do much to educate
the children, for they are apt, and from
a little will readily get . fair idea Of the
whole,