Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-05-25

coming forward like gentlemen" and this
department iourishes correspondingly
Rose Idelle can see now how much good
she did in sending her article, for here
are three more already, all apparently
called out by hers, and no knowing how
many more may come, or how soon. The
agricultural editor crowded US out last
week with his ensilage matters, which
will explain why one or two of the papers
laid over, but they are good enough tc
keep.
In reply to Mrs. c. +. D., Rose Idelle's
article, like your OWNS faultless (and that's
Just about the waywth all the contribution.
to this Department., and the editor of the
household will remove one of the
hindrances to writing, /. e., postage
stamps, for she shall have postage stamps
enough to buy a skinner if she will use
it to skim off her ideas for us. Yes
friends, use your skimmers and send us
the cream, and instead of being crowded
out by that agricultural department we
will make it hunt another place. and we
will use the whole page-and to our mu.
tual benefit.
To THE FREEMAN Rose Idelle, in hel
communication of April 9th has made me
think Of several things;
/. Of an agricultural meeting not a
thousand miles from Montpelier, where
our friend, Mr. Tinkham, gratitied at leas
one OF his hearers by his expression o.
righteous indignation at the slanderous
assertion made by a contemporary, thai
farmers had not intelligence enough tc
read much more than the local news in the
weekly paper, said contemporary opinion
differing materially from that of one Of
the chief officers of sovereign state,
who told MIR. Tinkham that every Yer
monter he had ever met was a teacher
We know thar II large proportion of the
teachers in the public schools of Vermont
are farmers sons and daughters, and have
been so for more than one generation
Then how can we avoid the conclusion
that very many of the farmers and their
wives have once been teachers?
2. want to offer suggestion to the
mothers in some OF our scattered farming
communities | have reason to think that
some of them who have been teachers do
not give the attention they ought to the
training of their children in the branches
of education taught in schools In toe
many school districts in this state the peo-
pie do not feel able to support more than
the twenty weeks of school required by
law, or, at the most, but twenty-four
weeks in n year. And in these districts
many Of the children must stay at home tC
work before they are twelve years old
Said Il teacher TO me not long since: | car
tell the first day of my school which of the
children have instruction at home. They
understand more easily, remember better
and as rule, are in every respect better
scholars than those who do not receive
that assistance.
have known young persons to become
teachers who had no opportunity to attenc
school after twelve years of age excep
twelve weeks in winter but is it often the
caseP Is it possible, if they do not study
at home? But | hear some busy mother
say: l do no. have time to teach my chill
dren. My dear madam, have known 8
genuine love of learning to be taught tt
children when no great amount of time
was spent with them. Let me give few
instances:
One winter l heard a boy about thirteen
years old recite the coniugation of the
verb without making mistake, giving
correctly the form not given in the tex
IS ho In At
to understand it as we'll, although severa
of them were older than this boy. | wa.
interested, as perhaps the reader will be
to know where he had obtained his knowl
edge. He had not studied grammar much
at school, he said, but he had looked i
over at home some when he had time.
learned that the family were in such
straitened circumstances as to make the
labor of even his small hands necessary
and except three months in winter Their,
was no chance for him to go to schoo
after he was ten years old. He had re
ceived little instruction at home. 1t hat
been almost wholly oral instruction. sucl
as woman could give whose hands were
occupied with sewing, knitting or mend
ing, and sometimes general homework
for 1t must be given in the boys leisur,
hours.
Another case | remember-a farmer o
small means, whose own education wa
very limited, even for the place in whicl
he lived. During the long winter even
ings and on rainy days, he taught his chill
lren spelling and arithmetic, studio,
history and geography with them, an,
told them of the need he saw of under
standing grammar, until he made then
eager TO learn it. Several of his childre
became teachers.
Another illustration occurs to me: No
long ago called on lady friend. Sh
had been a teacher (of small, commo
schools only) before her marriage. The
are now in adverse circumstances. Sh
has been for some years literally engage
in hand to hand struggle with poverty
She does all the work, day after day, tha
her strength will admit. She has no tim
tor useless ornament on her own or he
chtldren's clothes. mutual frienc
speaking of her to me one day said Ssh
tries the hardest to get living OF an
woman of my acquaintance. Perhap
some one will smile that | call this hare
working woman lady; but in the be,
and truest sense of the word she is lad,
and her children are growing up to Ca
her blessed. At the time of my visit
which | refer, their school was not in Sc,
sion; but while we were chatting I sa'
her little daughter come shyly into tn
room and softly ask her mother to bel
lust minute" about Il problem in he
arithmetic. The mother kindly gave Ii
required assistance, and she retired
quietly AS she had entered. Ny frien
turned to me with little apology for III
interruption of our conversation, but,
she continued, Il could not scod her, f
she has probably never thought Of the pc
slbiiry that can be too busy to help m
children minute whenever the need i
When she is little older she will see ft
herself that sometimes il is better TO wa
short time Some weeks | do not lin
time to open book from Monday morl
ing to Saturday night but, even then,
find that now and then question asked
(and sometimes many answered) Just