Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-03-11
The Education of Farmer Boys.

In reviewing President Bnckham'
pamphlet on: "What Kind of an Eiu.
cation Shall we Give to those of oui
Children who are Going to be Far
mers ?" the editor of the Green Noun.
tain (Vt.) Farmer says:
He condemns strongly the idea oi
caste-that every farmers boy should
be q farmer believes that every
boy should have the right, and as far
as possible the opportunity, to make
the most and best of himself which he
| can.
Few children indicate in early youth
decided bent for any occupation,
though there are exceptions. Mozart
and Benjamin West were notable ones
and doting mother discovered in her
son an early fitness for the law, as she
explained to the eminent advocate to
whom she took the bullet headed
urchin for initiation into its mysteries.
The lawyer did not discover signs of
any great natural fitness for the law,
but the mother explained that he would
lie like the ID, and was SO d" sassy y"
she could not live with him.
But the whims OF children are by no
means indicative Of their future life.
Who of us cannot remember when as
boys our highest ambition was to keep
store, so we could have all the candy
and raisins we wanted, or were not
quite decided whether We would drive
stage or be clown in circus !?
President Buckham recognizes the
same fact, and concludes, therefore, and
Justly, we think, that the average boy
should get first good elementary edu-
cation, and further justly says: Very
few boys get good elementary educa-
tion." And right here, What is the
reason of this? Why, with all the
schools, the increased facilities, the
improved methods. are there 80 few
who can "read understandingly or
write fairly?" And to our mind, till
pupils can "read. write and cipher "
tolerably well, it is useless or worse, to
have them devote time to more ad-
vanced studies, except they can be
made helps to those branches. He
thinks the boy at fourteen or fifteen
years of age has got about the educa-
ton which the common school system
has given the great mass of our popula-
ton for the last fifty years. He would
like to add that he has learned some
thing of nature, of those things and be-
ings occupying the earth, but thinks
there are few common school teachers
yet who can teach them. and that the
sciences are SO simplihed that they can
be taught to children.
He discusses the question of higher
education still, and can see no reason
why the farmer-boy should not go to
collegeas we'll as the other, who is to; be
lawyer. though he admits that the
chances of his becoming farmer grow
less the more education he gets. 90 .'
Not only is this true, but it is also
true that man will be- more likely to
continue in any line of life which he
takes up, If circumstances or inclina-
ton do not exert any extraordinary liz
fuence. The college course is to be
taken for mental training, discipline,
and though the farmer does not use
Latin, neither does the merchant or
manufacturer, yet each may be more of
a farmer, merchant or manufacturer for
having stHdieG it.
Theoretically, and truly, man who
has had the advantages. of college
education, other things being equal,
will be likely to make a better farmer,
with the same practical experience, than
one without it.
But practically, the boys of Vermont,
the farmers boys, will hardly afford
the time, and few the money, to go to
college, after having finished high
school, and then study their trade at an
agricultural college. And we are not
clear that for the boy who has his way
TO make III farming, that it would pay in
apractical way; that the mental culture
anL discipline he would gain with such
theoretical knowledge as he would &C.
quire would equal the practical kno@l-
edge OF the business, the executive abil-
ity to manage farm to financial sue
cess, which he would have il he had
devoted the time to regular farm work.
Behind and beyond all this, there
lies the stubborn fact OF individual
character. There are boys with quite a
degree of natural shrewdness and abil
ity, who, if they went to school from
July to 'tarnity," as old Neighbor
Scapewell said, would never like
study or make scholars: but they can
Iduuie u plOW VI pIcuh u paiI w 6tceiS
or guess on their weight with any man
going, and would comprehend and seize
any practical improvements in farming,
and utilize ideas which better educst-
ed man, with less taste in that direc-
ton, and less executive ability would
fail of doing.
After all, the man is the greatest and
most important thing-what his .occu-
patton may be is comparatively of;smal
Let us, rs far as possible,
make the most OF the man, and let Cir
cumstances shape his work, certain
that he cannot be any too we'll prepared
for it, whatever It may be, or where in
life he may find it.
Queries for Philosophers.
Why does q two shilling cane and q