The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1884-06-05
What Shall We do with Our Boys?
BY WILLIAM MERSER.

What Shall We do with Our Boys
BY WILLIAM MERsER.
The several able articles already
published in your excellent Jour
nal, under the above caption, have
so completely exhausted the ques-
ton, that but little remains to be
said on the subject of interest to the
general reader, or to those inter
ested in directing the attention of
parents and guardians to the impor-
tance of lmpressing upon boys the
advantages of trade-learning; but
as the constant dropping of water
Twill leave an impression upon the
hardest stone, it is just possible
that by persistently hammering
away at the subject some few Of
our boys may be brought to take
more practical view of their future
than the great majority of them do.
But we are told "there are no
boys now," which is too true in the
sense that they are not reared and
cultured and controlled as in the
long ago-say fifty years. The
boy. of to-day, though, is living
under far more favorable circum-
stances than was he of fifty years
ago. He is living in and has the
benefit of wonderfully advanced
and advancing age-living, as it
were, surrounded by perpetual
teachers, by day and by night
advantages which did not exist
when the old man of to day was
boy, who had not even the advan-
tage of free common school edu-
cation, and unless the son of we'll
tO-do parents, he rarely advanced
beyond reading, writing and arith-
metic before being called upon to
adopt a trade as a means of sup. |
port when thrown upon his own |
resources. There were not then, |
as now, mechanical, escientific and |
techical colleges, nor industrial
schools to which he could resort
for preparation and information-
necessary aids in his efforts to mas
ter the mysteries and intricacies of
the trade selected by or for him.
He had no help outside of
side Of the workshop, and he grew
up to do just as his instructor had
been taught to do before him-no
more, no less-and he became in
time nothing more in fact than an
automatOn, mechanical mimic.
In these days, however, of steam
and electricity and machine ry, of
hourly telegraphic communication
with the civilized world and the
utilization of mechanical appliances
olIall mechanical appliances for all
industrial purposes, our boys have
acxuired more useful and theoreti-
cal knowledge at the age of ten
than did the boys of the past in
twenty years. Then again, the boy
of the past did not as the boy of
to-day, by easy and convenient
stages, advance from the primary
to the grammar school, thence to
the high school. And just here, in
the opinion of many, is where com
mences the difficulties which beset
the paths and divert the minds of
our boys from practical thoughts of
the future.
The abolition of our high school
is not popular measure to advo-
cate, especially in the opinion of
those of our citizens who are in
comfortable circumstances and who
desire to fit their boys for profes-
sions at the expense of the commu-
nity,yet it is a question whether the
high school is Of any advantage to
the children of the poor and mid
die classes, whose parents frequent
ly deny themselves the common
of life that their boys
may become graduates of that in
stitution. In the absence of the
high school there would be more
trade learning, more skilled me-
chanics in the next generation, and
a far less number of impecunious
than nova class of
young men fitted only for grocers'
clerks, bartenders and dudes. In
deed, it would be a public blessing
if education was compulsory to a
certain point only, and trade-learn-
ing obligatory upon all boys ex-
cept those fortunate or uufortu
nate) enough to be marked out by
their parents for profession.
There is a large number of young
men in our Undergraduates of the
high school-who would be in far !
better circumstances and conse-
quently more independent, if the
years they had given to aimless
study in the high school had been
given to the more creditable and |
profitable work of acquiring a
knowledge of some one of the me-
chanical branches of industry with
which our city abounds, and by
which they could now be maintain
ing themselves and assist their
parents instead of being a charge
.npon them.
One of the arguments used and
given as an excuse for not learning
trade by many of our boys is,
that machinery now monopolizes
the labor and skill of the mechan-
ic," which is as silly as it is false.
In fifty years machinery has not
succeeded in reducing the demand
for skilled labor. Those who in
dulge in such assertions forget
that the world is growing rapidly
in population, and will continue
to grow, and that with such growth
comes a demand, which but for the
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