Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-17
SCHOLASTIC
A New and Shorter Catechism for the
Benefit of Teachers and Pupils.

Benefit of Teachers and Pupils.
Question. Is the small boy always
benefited by being filled with facts and
tigurcsp Answer. He is not. He is, on
the contrary, often overloaded with
them, as is his stomach with plumcake,
and the result of both doses is to make
him a dill boy.
Q. How much should a small boy
learn at school in a day? A. AS much
as he can take in easily and pleasantly,
and no more. In fact, knowledge can't
be forced into him as is the gas into
soda-water. Or if SO forced it won't
stay.
@. Should learning be made pleasant
for the small boy? A. 1t should, and
for the same reason that his bread, cake
and pic are made pleasant to his taste.
He will not absorb learning if it is made
to taste like rhubarb. and that is one
reason why SO many boys and girls get
sick OF study at school.
Q. Whose fault is this? A. 1t is the
fault partly of the teacher, partly of the
parent, and, than all, of the sys-
tenn which forces the same kind Of in
tellectual pie, cake and pudding down
the throats of all boys and girls, whether
they like it or not.
q. What, in some respects, does our
educational system resemble? A. An
immense sausage-stuiing machine. Ma
chine-the system; sausages-the boys
and girls; men who run the machine
the teachers.
@. What sometimes happens if the
scholastic sausage is crammed toe full?
A. The skin bursts and the small boy
dies. Or if he does not die his mind is
crippled for life through the overcram-
ming.
Q. Does a swell-stored memory"
argue well-organized mindp A. No.
A man may be able to parrot the whole
dictionary, and not be capable of taking
charge of a peanut stand.
Q. How may such an overloaded
memory affect the small boys roindp
A. AS an overdose of plum-pudding
does the small boys stomach-rendery
it heavy, and unable to act vigorously.
Q. What do such heavy loads Of
book knowledge frequently make of
people? A. Bores, who are always
trying to stuff others as full as them
selves of the dead weight Of facts they
carry.
@. What is the result of overstudy
to many of the children in our schools?
A. Premature s~pectacles.
O.. usually into what may this soon
develop the race. A. Gogg le-eyes.
@. What is inquiry to the child's eye
from overstudy equivalent TOP A.
Smashing a mans toes in training him
Tor a foot-race.
@. But must not small boys and
girls be forced to learn to keep them
from ignorance and idleness. A. If YOU
,orce fruit in a hot-house to ripen you
do SO at the expense of native strength
and vigor to the plant OF tree.
Q. What is the frequent reward in
practical life OF a full-grown and filled
sausage turned out of the college stuff.
ing machine? A. Ten dollars a week
as amanuensis or private secretary"
@, Why so poorly paid? A.. Too
much stutling. Brain overloaded with
knowledge. No room left for '.gump-
ton"
Q. What is 'gumption''P A. Know
ing how to use knowledge after you've
got it. Some folks call it wisdom.
"Gumption' knows enough to get the
COOl IL ncedS, anu then learns now 10
use it. The sausage-stuffer educational
process swallows a whole shopful of all
sorts of tools, and the sausage frequent
ly spends the rest of its life in vain eff
forts to digest them.
O.. Would you allow the small boy
to select his own studies? A. Would
you not allow each tree to bear its own
iruit? If the boy wants to blossom into
Latin, let him; if he wants to blossom
into a blacksmith, ~fertilize him with
iron and let him.
Q. What do some FINISHED educa-
tons" resemblep A. Intellectual
patchwork. A little of this, a little of
that, and nothing in particular. Re-
suit: 'Crazy quilt"
Q. Or in other words? A. Amen
tai rag-bag. Full of fragments of all
shapes and colors, but not a well-woven
piece of cloth that one can make a suit
of.-Prentice Mu!ford, in Boston Globe.
THE FIRM MOTHER.