Sharp County record., 1881-04-14
Education OF Farmers Children.

better man and the better farmer ne
NAV be. the more thrifty and prosper
Gus will be the Nation and the more ne
will benefit the world in his individual
capacitv. 1t is, therefore, OF the high
est Importance that the farmer shoulG
he an intelligent and well-educated
man. that he may fill his place in society
in the best and most useful manner
But there is popular impression
abroad that a good farmer or good
shoemaker or mechanic may bespolleu
bv too much education. Ii a good edu-
cation prevents the one from growing
GOOD crops. or the others from making
durable shoes or building solid houses
or barns, there might be some truth IN
this idea. But why should the cultlya-
ton of the mind have this deplorable
result? It is very plain that if such a
result should be produced something IS
wrong in the education, and it has not
been Of the right kind. And it IS Just
here where failure is made in those
cases where the education of farmers
children results in disappointment. We
cannot deny that in many cases parents
have been disappointed in this way.
Children have been sent to country
schools and every year their minds and
hopes have been turned further away
from rural pursuits, from farm life and
work. and in a direction toward city
life, with all its ambitions, until, when
thev have become freed from parental
restraint, they have turned their backs
upon the old homestead, and the old
folks have been left desOlate and alone
in their age, when most they needed
the society and help of their children
The fact is that there is good deal
of iniudicious and superficial teaching
in the country schools, more of the ar
tifcial and less cf the real solid and use
full training of the mind than there
should be. The knowledge conveyed
is not always such as will train the
mind for acquiring more knowledge OF
higher character, not such as will en-
able the youth to learn by reading and
observation after he has left school; in
short. the child is not taught how to
learn, but on the contrary is crammed
with some facts and some crude ideas,
aud when the course of instruction IS
completed he or she is sent out into the
world with belief that there is no more
to learn, and vet having but little which
can be usefully employed in the man-
ner of life in which the student has been
brought up. With a mind unframed to
thinking oritself nothing can belearned
from present associations, and the
starved intellect wanders abroad in the
endeavor to find elsewhere what it can
not find at home. After uselessly try
ing a year or two on the farm without
heart for farm work, with perverted
idea that it is degrading and unfit for
a Young man of ambition, and in the
hope of finding some employment that
will be more suitable to his talents,
the young man fees to the city or to
the West to add one more to the crowd
OF disappointed fortune-hunter5. In this
respect -" little knowledge is dan
gerous thing" Not because the knowl-
edge itself is useless or dangerous, but
because the little there is OF it does not
form any settled basis for useful work,
but being unbalanced by any prasfss@l
means of applying it, and because it
has diverted the mind from proper
course of thought or study afterward,
it leaves the young man in an unsettled
and unsatisfactory condition, neither
contented to remain where he is nor
having any clear idea of what he
should do elsewhere. Fortunately,
a young American does not often
fail in finding some opportunity of max
inc himself useful as far as his capabili-
ties may permit, for there is work for
all in some way or other or in some
place or other. This, however, is an
advantage which is accidental, and for
which he does not deserve any personal
credit. and which may be but temporary,
and cannot, therefore, be always de-
pended upon; and, further, oppOrtuni-
ties are left behind which he might
have improved in a very useful manner.
For while a farm is left uncultivated
and is abandoned to weeds for want of
well applied labor, an injury is done to
the world. All the desoate hOmesteads
and farms are not barren or hopeles5ly
numbered with rocks and stones. Once
all these farms were occupied by thrifty,
industrious farmers, who reared happy
families in moderate but substantial
comfort. These old farmers were not
made miserable by brooding over their
isolation from the word. which is a re-
cent discovery altogether and only so
much talked about Of late by profession
al writers who know nothing about il,
but have, or think they have, sort OF
sentimental idea of how isolated they
would be on farm and surrounded by
farmers with whom they can never have
any sympathy. The farmer lives in a
little world of his own, in which, with
contentment, he can find enough to oc-
cupy his hands and head either at work
or at rest; and it is a mistaken course
of education that leads young man to
despse this world of content and quiet
comfort which is found in the home
stead of an industrious farmer.
A farmer cannot be too well educated.
He may, and should be, possessed OF
all the practical knowledge which re-
lates to his business. This should be
taught in rural schools as soon as the
first rudiments-" the three Rs" as
they have been humorously called
have been mastered. This will require
rnnnn ,,rinnnru in Sinht intn mechanics