The weekly review., 1881-04-16
OVER EDUCATION.

is lTaN CHuS lHAOdSu iuC HS"S l'tN'"
which attributes 10 ex-senator Came
ron a rather singular and we may say
startling opinion. The purport of
this is that in The south the young
NEGROES are "over- educated" This |
the ex-senator holds, If he is correct
" reported, units Them for work. 1t
also develops their vicious qualities
Ii ''likewise converts them into sharp
ers.''If this be true, we must be ALLOW
ed to say that it is very discouraglag
For if the black youth are in danger
| from over. education, We can not see
why the white youth are not in equal
perIl. nor why education at the north
IS not 10 be Judged IN the same way.
| The charge is really one against our
whole common school system. 1t
also happens that it is 4 very old one.
The opponents of popular education
took precisely this ground, even IN
Massachusetts, il trying to prevent
the established of high schools They
said that advanced studies would Uu-
fit young men for manual labor.
They wanted popular education to
stop with reading, writing, arithmetic
and, may be, grammar There are
not wanting those who are still o 1.-THE
same mind, although they are not many.
! Unfortunately, these fault-fuderS DO
not tell US just where, in their opIn-
ion, the line should be drawn. We
do not blame them for this, for they
oo,ld not if they tried Any educa-
uOn, even OC the slightest character,
would have the same result which
they deprecate; that is, if they are
right or reasonable in their predictions
We do not say. What will you do with
the white children?'' for that question
is settled by the common sense OF the
north; but we may properly ask,
What will you do with the black
chiidren?" Suppose that they are left
in the dense ignorance which preceded
emancipation? Cut them off from
reading and writing; let them have
no more knowledge of anything than
is absolutely necessary 10 the tiller of
the soil or the lower order Of mechan-
les; put out the light which has just
begun, however feeble, 10 illuminate
their lives! Do this, and what will
come next? Nothing has been ac-
compIlshed except, so far as possible,
TO repeal the emancipation and make
the blacks slaves again. We shall so
back substantially to freedom. Names,
in such matters, are nothing. Only
there will be this difference. IF you
stop educating the freedmen, you must
also stop their voting, The boon of
voting without education viii be not
only absurd, but dangerous in fact
neither will de boon at ALL Take
away the education and the votes, and
we shall at once have 100000
slaves again. Can it be, alter all its
sanguinary experience, the country
still hankerS for The old domestic IN
stitution, the very Cornerstone OF
which was profound ignorance
lf.the negroes are getting an edu-
cation, rs the ex. Senator says they
are, which "deveIops their vicious
qualities, the sooner we have an ed
ucationaI reform the better.
Laborers most oil these sable pupils
must necessarily be; and whether
they are laborers or not, it would be
to convert them into sharpers." In
some parts of the south formerly col
ored men were reluctant 10 labor for
reasons not at all connected With their
immense literary advancement; and
ven now these reasons may still ex-
ist IN certain localities. If negro
here and there puts on airs because he
knows the multiplication table, and
so refuse to work, let him be dealt
with as vagabond aud compelled to
work. 1t is hardly necessary to pull
down school-houses because they do
not make hopelessly lazy pupils
smart.
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