The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1883-03-30
Enter Spring-EXit Big Boys.

The season has come when all over the face of
our beautiful county, teachers must extend the
parting hand to that class of school-boys known
by the epithet "big boys" and with sadness do
many teachers grasp the extended hand of these
promising lads, whose smiles and earnest efforts,
during their sojourn in the school-room, have
won the teachers love and respect They are
now dropping out of the ranks, one by one, and
ere long all will have gono-somo never to return
for they are required ut home to help on the
farm No matter how ambitious, how aspiring,
what noble thoughts are born within the brain of
the young man, they are all crushed by the stern
command, You are needed at home" He gives
up in disgust when he finds his hopes thus blasted
and buried by those who should most encourage
him. We must have farmers mechanics and
tradesmen, but we must have Intellectual ones in
this age of enlightenment if we want q truly sue
cessful country Our best agricutursts and bus
mess men, generally, are those who have good
cducatlonS that education which has trained and
developed the reasoning faculties, by continued
concentration of the brain. do not mean collie
giate- born, for that is not required since all ne
cessary learning can now be gotten in our public
schools. ! mean the education that may be ac-
CURED by regular attendance, and not by that I'M
OF the year in study, which is the average of the
Parents, you have your boys and are fond of
their manly forms and vigorous minds. 1t does
yourhearts good to hear them spoken of as bright
and Intelligent; Then, why, will you rob them of
learning by withdrawing them from school, as
soon as the SHOWS have gone? Start them in early
and allow them 10 remain till the close of the
must hire for month or two. IL is a debt you
owe your boys-a sacrifice you should make. II
is the pupil that attends school regularly that
succeeds in an education. 1t is better for you to
send your boys three successive years than two
and a-half months each year for six years. The
former will know more, for the latter is taken
away Just at the time when he has commenced
progress in his studies, and so he gets very
far advanced, because the next wear he actually
starts in where he did the year before, and thus
the stone is continually rolling back upon him.
1t is astonishing to think of the immense percent
age of farmers sons in the county that can not
solve fractiOns-a knowledge they need, if but to
carry produce to market; many more that can
not read newspaper intelligently.
Why this? Because the parent withdraws his
boy from school at that age when he is best fit
for study when his brain begins to act from the
realization of the duty demanded of it; when his
mental power is directed towards his work from
previous application.
The brain, If called into action, increases in
size and strength. and diminishes if unframed by
study, and grows unhealthy its mental functions
and feelings become dull, slow and feeble and
the result Outlines is nervous disease. The mind
Is concentrated by regular study and distracted
by irregular study.
Because your sons have gone to school regular
ly, at period when it was impossible for them TO
understand the abstract rules of the text book, is
no reason why they shall be withdrawn when
they are receiving the benefits of brain ready,
by age and training for thinking AID Judging in
the studies before them.
You are anxious to leave them a legacy and no
grander nor more lasting one can you bequeath
than an education; for riches are fading, and
when thrown upon the cold world is when they
will recall sweet boyhood days and censure you
for not giving them something more unfading
than the bright flowers of wealth Such daily
greet our ONfS, from tnOSe VINO possess nut the
fragments of learning.
Like the gem of purest ray serene" that 1.-THE
dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear, do you
allow the gem of intellect in your hoy to be buried
from human eye.
The brain is a peculiar piece of machinery and
should be put in the best of order possible, and
kept polished and bright, that it may do its work
to perfection.
Ii has been apty said, that our brains are sew
enty-year clocks. The Angel of Life winds them
up once for all, then closes the case and gVcS the
key TO the Angel of the Resurrection" And does
it not then behOOve the parent TO regulate well,
in the morning of life, the clocks entrusted to his
keeping, that the dal-hands of thought may
point Alright in the sunset of life +. P.S.