Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-01-17

- "NN-AA OAAO SA1AOW u MS SC4OOIS Vi
eyea that there was such an institution
as the State Agricultural College, /
mention these facts, not in q spirit OF
hostile criticism, but merely to show
how completely isolated the teacher is
from the great world which supports
teachers, and for which he is supposed
to be fitting his youthful charges.
WHY TAX TEACHES HAS But LITTLE
INFLUENCE.
Ehave often heard teachers complain
OF their lack of influence with men in
A.shoFity. They say, and most truth
fully so far as my observation has gone.
that small gathering Of stock-raisers
in country schoOlhouse can make it
self heard in q body as remotely accessi-
BILE as Congress; while the deliberate,
expressed convictions of State assem-
blies of teachers, even in educational
matters, rarely bear fruit in practical
legislation. The reason for this Is easi-
" stated: the teacher has drifted out
side of the great stream, into land
locked cove, the perfect quiet of which,
he mistakes for the majestic calm of the
great ocean itself. But, meanwhile,
the great stl cam of humanity has been
rushing past him.
The SPIRIT OF THE SCHOOLS AGAINST
INDUSTRIAL, LIFE.
Again, the spirit of the teachings of
our schools, equally with that which is
taught is not helpful to the seventy five
per cent. of Kansas school population
who will certainly work with their
hands IS we'll as with their heads. The
textbooks almost invariably take. as
matters OF Illustration, chat acters and
subjects. which, if they are to the stu
dent ideals and aids in the formation of
character, are to him false ideals, and
help him to notions Uf life which are
generally hurtfnl. Take almost any of
our common school readers for ex-
ample; they contain, for the most part,
pOetical selections, good, bad and mdif-
ferent; scraps of history and fiction in
which great aud unusual charac: ers
play part in exceptional events; gems
OF oratory, and more or less of lUt;y
mOralizings which have long since
passed the point where truth becomes
trite. Here, mainly, we have present.
ed to our children false and gilded
life, one which they cannot aspire to,
except with great loss. In these books
the rriumphs of modern science and in.
dustry, and the slow progress of public
opinion and the growth of principles,
without which the splendid" triumph
of generals and statesmen would be
impossible, find no historian. Here
the common man and common things
are made to seem yet more vulgar by
their surroundings. The artisan, and
the farmer especially, if he appears at
all, is pictured as q good honest person,
hut always he is 3 rustic and lOut.
Even the mythical yarn about Cincin-
natus is plainly told because it is so I'M
usual for a great man, as Cincinnatus
was supposed to have been, to have
anything to do with a rlOw.
HOW THE SCHOOLS MIsLEAD.
To this lack of symp athy, with all
those engaged in the active pursuits of
life, as seen in we'll nigh all pertaining
to schools, Is, think, to be attributed,
more than to any other, the alienation of
minds of our youth from agricultural
pursuits: From their first feeble lisp
ings over the primer, the thought is per-
sistently thrust upon them by precept,
and example, that worthy objects of
ambition ali lie outside of agricultural
and industrial life. It seems to have
dawned upon. the school. book maker
that agriculture is not only the greatest
of all interests, beside which other call
ings seem paltIy. but it is progressive
art, and so intimately associated with
science that it has enlisted its service the
best thought of the age, while sgncultur-
lists by force of ability occupy easily. pO-
sitiOns in the Legislature, in congress and
the Governors chair. We have no
right to communicate to our pupils, even
by inference, the idea that the hOnors
and excellencies of life are to be found
only in spheres in which nature never
designed their feet TO move; and we VIZ
olate a sacred confidence when We do
so, But we can show that high ideals
of life. and character may be attained
to by all, whatever their circumstances,
snd that the line Of duty lies in the die
rectiOn Of making the most Of ones
whatever they may be.
How, then may We make the common
s.hools nova l,iroctlv ,.seful tn the great