The Portland daily press., 1882-05-13
Education.
It's Aims and objects.

It's Aims and Objects.
Extract from a lecture delivered by Mr.. L. M.
Shaw, of Denison, Iowa, formerly of Stowe, Yer
mont.]
pass to the work of the schools. They are
the pride and boast of the nation. In no other
land have the opportunities for education been
so ample and SO diversfed-no where else have
school and church SO frequently been under the
same roof, and no where else have school
houses SO frequently preceded homes. This
idea was planted with the planting of the ma
ton Very wisely did the Puritan look to the
culture of the mind as well as the heart.
Church, school and arsenal in one building of
logs, characterized the first settlement of New
England. Church, school and arsenal, with
its brazen howitzer planted on the roof, was a
fit emblem of the seed thought whose fruit we
now enjoy. "Our liberties we cherish, and our
rights we will maintain"
The fact that our schools are public, and
free, may have tendency to lessen them in
our esteem. We usually prize the common
blessings of life least, though frequently the
most valuable II in my remarks tonight,
say ought that sounds like criticism, l pray
you attribute it not to any disregard for the in
situations of my country, but to just zeal in
the cause of education, which ought to mani
fest itself in the life and purposes of every true
American. 1 would not by any thing may
say detract from the just esteem in which our
public schools are almost universally held; and
if I am able to elavats them in your regard,
and cause you to appreciate them better, shall
have accomplished all / have expected; all
have dared hope for. There is, however, little
He who discovers error and helps to eliminate
it, does more than he who points out virtue,
that it may be praised.
1 said awhile ago that we usually master a
language in the home, during the first five
wears of our existence. We do this without
the aid of books, and with no time spent in
teaching. Do we grow weak as we advance in
years? Not necessarily. We should, and usu-
ally do, grow stronger mentally as we increase
in physical vigor. The trouble in more SEEM
to the mind of the child 1t does not have to
try is not compelled to study, in order to learn
it. 1t is something in which the child takes
lively interest. Languages the child's natural
element. May we not learn a lesson here?
Nature forces few truths, little education upon
man. She creates a desire for it and supplies
an abundance with which to satisfy that desire.
She does not thrust it upon him. Man must
seek it or mentally starve. When our schools
follow this example, more will be accomplished,
and less work will need to be done.
One of the errors to which I wish to call at
tention is what has been termed shot house
education. One statute, in my opinion, al
lows children to attend school at least three
years too young. In this busy world every
thing is on the high pressure principle. We
hurry the children to walk, before their limbs
are able to support them; fill their little brains
with all sorts of OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES to the
child-before their minds are able to retain it;
get them to work when they ought to be at
play: urge them into society when they ought
to be in the nursery; make ladies and GENTLE
men of them at thirteen; graduate them from
college at sixteen; set them up in business at
twenty. Will it be strange if they are gray at
thirty, old and infirm at forty dead and buried
at fifty? know l am wasting my breath
when raise my voice against the ways of the
world. Society is travelling at lightning speed,
and he who does not like to 60 at that rate can
get off the track; he can't stop the train. The
whole mass of Americans are on stampede
for wealth, for fame, for something, for every
thing, and he who undertakes to stop them,
will be crushed to death.
This is Saturday night, however, and no
harm may arise if we take quiet breath for
once, even though we strike the same gait Mon
day morning. / only wish to urge upon you
that we are running our children to death.
They can keep up for while, but they, like
us. will drop out at the very noon of life, Grip
pied and exhausted. 1t is very hard to go with
the crowd and yet go slower than the crowd
goes. Then, too, it is pleasure to pass few
along the road and feel their hot breath as one
hurries on. This is all right and proper. The
trouble is we are doing our best running at the
beginning of the race. One ought to strike his
best gait on the home stretch, at about sixty
years. If you will look over the lives Of the
great men of the world, you will find them
hale, hearty and doing their best work at about
three score years. Some geniuses have gone
up like rockets, and astonished the world by
their brilliancy at a very early age, but they
have usually come down like sticks, also at an
early age. Genius is seldom great. Men OF
genius do not and never have ruled the world.
Industry, perseverance and honesty make all
men great. But precocious children are the
pride of parents, and to satisfy this prlde the
mental faculties are strained to the utter neg
lect of the physical As result, this land OF
ours is full of little whitefaced, sickly boys and
girls, mental prodigies, physical dwarfs, hui
man monstrosities.
About all that is done for the child in the
public school, before the age of ten, that tells
on him in after years, is to dwarf his physical
powers. He learns but little during that time
at best, I say little-vastly too much for the
child-but little as compared with what ne
may learn in The same length OF time after he
natures good strong physique. verify be-
lieve any child will learn more of what is usu-
ally taught in public schools, in one year at the
age of twenty, than in the whole period be-
tween five and ten. Why is 1t that nearly all
our great men have been from among the num-
Der who had few advantages in early life?
Why is it that few men of mark have been
city bred? Why is that the mind that rules
the world. that dictates its thought, has nearly
ALWAYS come from the farm or workshop?
There are several reasons. One is, they are al
lowed to grow
Nature never produced anything OF great
value in day. There is vast difference in
the rapidity of growth. between the cotton
wood and the oak, and an equal difference be-
tween the value of the timber when grown.
The mushroom is marvel of vegetable growth.
It is vegetable genius. The oak and pine are
examples of industry and perseverance,. All
the child needs. and all he should have, OF
mental training, is just enough to keep his
mind in a healthy condition; and this should
consist mainly of live truth as distinguished
from dead fact. -.
It NAV assist us somewhat in this discussion
If we stop to inquire into the meaning OF edu-
cation. 1t is not synonymous with lnIorma,
ton. 1t mental production as distinguished
from mental possession. Education Is cultl-
walton of the mind, as of field. Information
dead facts-are the fertilizers, and Thought IN,
dependent thought, is the crop. The aim ana
object of education should be to produce good
erop-good in quality, abundant in quantity
The term education allows this distlnctlon:
The word is from the Latin educere, to lead
forth. The educated mind is the mind led