Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-02-01
NUMBER 20,

| its Importance demands.
Religion is right; the Church ought
to be right, but she can never become
| so until she ceases to press her power
and usurpatian over every institution
that does not conform to her own sell
fsh dictates. Let ministers and teach
ers unite in the great cause of educa-
ton. Let sectarianism die-let it, 90
into oblivion, never to be resurrected.
Let religion and education 20 hand in
hand, and the safety of the nation is
insured.
cannot agree with my friend C. as
to the course of studies to be pursued.
He says: "It is the deliberate judge
ment of the writer that common school
education should be limited to Orthog-
raphy. Reading, Writing and Arith-
metic, and all the rest left as a field for
private enterprise"
This would do very well if we were
all rich and able to pay out five or six
hundred dollars year to patronize
private institutions. There is a class
of people who favor this idea, but it is
because they have not carefully studied
subject.
Suppose We had public school sys-
tenn so modified by law that none but
the branches enumerated by Mr. Gala
han could be taught, what would those
boys and girls do for more advanced
training who are too poor to patronize
private institutions? They would be
compelled to go through the world
with only superficial knowledge of
the primary English branches, and
they so limited that the pupil would
be but little benefited by such teach
ing. This is question OF vital i'm
portance to the poor man, and will
never become part of our school
system.
Education at private institutions
costs too much; besides, the parent has
to send his child from home to educate
him. In the graded schools students
can be at home surrounded with all
the comforts and conveniences of the
home circle. They can be provided
for when sick without additional cost
to the parents. They can be of service
to the family by.bearing part of the
burden of home cares and at the same
time. their educational advantages will
be equal and in some respects better
thnn those offered in private institu-
tions.
We want no limited course of study
as applied to the public schools in Mr..
Calahan's paper. Give poor boys u
chance as well as the rich. We want
no legislation in favor Of the few to
the detriment and injury of the many.
Mr.. Callahan says, further, that .'ths
greatest difficulty in the way of the
common school system arose in con-
nection with its adaptation to the peo-
pie. When it was sent down to the
people it came down with somewhat
of a jolt and shook out good many of
the teachers who had been in the
work, and filling their places with
those to the manor born"
l can see no inconsistency or lack of
enterprise in this. If the people had
outgrown their teachers, it was time
for them to jolt them out. The people
of this great nation can afford to carry
no dead weight. If those "to the man
or born" were more capable of carry
ing the burdens of the day than those
who had "been in the work" before
them, then it was wise in the people to
make the change. It is wonderful
how people will adapt themselves to
the demands of the hour.
Another clause of Mr.. Calahan's pa
per reads: "Let US have a law reading
as follows: No person shall be eligible
as teacher in the common schools of
Missouri who is unmarried and under
thirty years of age.'"
It would be ruinous to adopt such
law as this. In this age of rapid prog
ress, this age of steam and electricity,
men are moving onward and upward.
Schools must keep pace with every
thing else. AT the age of twenty-five,
at least, young people must be engaged
in the business of providing food and
shelter and laying by suitable por-
ton of their earnings for the demands
of life.
Time is too precious; young men can
net afford to wait until half their lives
are spent before engaging in some pro-
fession or business. A law OF this kind
would in a few years driveevery young
man into new fields of labor; and cnce
becoming fixed in business. would
not dare to adopt any other profession,
when that profession, per-
haps, would pay him less than the
business in which he might happen TO
be engaged.
Open all the avenues of business to
the young. If the man is not adapted
to the business, the business will soon