Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-09-13
PRIZE ESSAY.
How Shall We Educate Or Cl 'cren
Agriculturally?
L. D. in Rural New Yorker.

How can we educate our children to
best appreciate and use the advantages
of farm life? The impressions a child
receives early in his life are not easily
effaced, and they exert a strong inAu-
ence over his course in later years.
Without the power to reason and
weigh, that more mature age will
bring, he is readily attracted by what
ever presents a bright and snowy ex,
terror. His quick, young blood tin
giles for excitement, and by his very
nature he demands those rapid changes
of scene and action that are so tire
some to older minds. So to a boy o.
girl whose home is in the country, the
city, with its busy hum, its varied
sights, its beautiful homes, and costly
equipages, is very attractive. They
cannot look beneath the bright surface
and see the toll and suffering, and mis-
cry and shame that older eyes discover.
But they only notice that people wear
better clothes there; money seems
more abundant, and the manners are
more easy and polished.
Children are quick to compare, and
it is not strange if the difference be-
tween the well-dressed business man
and the careless, untidy farmer, is ac-
cepted by them as a powerful argu>.
ment in favor of city life and against
farming. And SO, year after year, we
see the steady and increasing stream
of young men and women from coun-
try homes, especially those of bright
est promise, flowing to the more at
tractive surroundings of the town.
And the purest and noblest occupation
followed by man, the one demanding,
and best repaying ability, energy and
devotion, has been largely left to those
of inferior abilities, little ambition, and
slight education. The complaint that
our children do not like to remain up
on the farms with us, but are drawn
to the cities where other occupations
offer brighter attractions and greater
inducements, IS common among us.
This ought not to be so, and the fault
is ours, if it is so. If we wish our
children to stay with us, let us make
our homes and our business so delight
fiji that they cannot leave. How can
we do this? First as to the homes;
instead of keeping the most comforta-
BILE and pleasant rooms in the house
closed for the use of the occasional
visitor, let the children have them,
end make them as bright and homes
Ike as your means will permit, and
your homes will be ten times more at
tractive to the friends who visit you,
Ps well as dearer to yor- families.
Spare no labor or expense within your
means to beautify your surroundings.
Provide books, pictr-es and music, if
you can. You can, at least, have
books, flowers, and sunlight. Our
children have as pleasant rooms as the
house contains. We encourage them
to carry out their own ideas in furnish
ing them, and the pride and attach
ment they feel for these rooms are
very gratifying to us, and, l am sure,
the result is of much good to them.
DO some OF you feel that you cannot
aford this expense? Try it, and see
for yourselves how much better it pays
than making the boys occupy the attic
with the hired man. Besides, if you
will give the children chance they
will earn every dollars worth of fur
niture for their rooms. Your boys
end girls will become interested in
decorative art in very practical way,
aud it will do them no harm. Per-
haps there is no stronger desire in a
boys heart than that of ownership. 1t
gives sense of Importance that even
we older boys have not outgrown; and
by these means, so delightful to our
children, we may teach many of the
most important lessons of successful
husbandry.
| will refer to my own experience
for illustration and proof. This seems
to be an age of specialties, and to
some extent, l have encouraged it in
my children. Harry, my oldest boy,