Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-01-10
EDUCATION BY THE STATE.
ELOQUENT TREiTMENT or TIHELi
ToPICs Rr STATE SJFT. HIG BEE.
Extracts From the Last Annual Report nf the
state Department cf Public Instruction.
Education IN the Family aud in
the school Room.

snC school Room.
No worthier object can engage the uttcu-
ton of a state than the proper education Of
the children thereof Even in governments
where the arts of war formed the main study
Uf tne governing, and the chief practice of
the governed class, the worth of learning.
Of an advanced character at least was rover
entity recognized. Caesar pardoncd NarIo
because he was the most learned of his age,
and made him librarian at Rome and the
warrior Karl, when the Frankish judges
had condemned Warncfried the Lombard
scholar. TO lose his eyes and hands, saved
him, saving: ave shall not easily find an
other hand that can write history But
where, as now, the arts of peace como into
special prominence, and where the very pur-
pose of legislation is the highest welfare OF
the people, no state can neglect the general
educational discipline of the young. without
setting aside the foundation itself upon
which its claim TO legislatc at all is based.
Ofcoursc, much elementary training is
carried forward by the family, where father
and mother are the divinely ordained
guides and guardians of their offspring
aud that commonwealth would be weak
indeed, the cultured purity of whose home
life forms not its chief pillar of support But
the relation between home and the so-Callod
common school is most intimate. The chill
dren go from one to the other and return day
after day through years. The opening Of
school creates kind of festival stir in every
household, aud, a. the term goes on, the
communion becomes SO close that the new
companionships and disciplinary restraints
and studv-tasks OF the SchoOl-room move
into the loving cony.rsc and freedom of the
familyIiie as q parton its experience, each
adding effect TO the other. ~ bird songs float
into the mornings dcwy calm. and become
part of rising day.
An agency SO cO-opcrunt with the family
life, taking character thcrefrom, and adding
character thereto; an agency 50 capable of
becoming lasting blessing, ~ ii should, or
n blightmg curse. a. il may, throughout the
thousand homes which make mp state.
clearly demands the most watchful care of
those who make and execute the laws and
should never be felt 10 hC n subordinate in
tcrest or mere accident i'm our halls Of lcgiS-
latiOn. If the fish in our rivers and the
game in our forests, with the forests them
selves, are of sufficient importance in our So
cial life to command the protection of lCgiS-
lation if the difficult problems growing out
of the strained relations of capital and labor
are of interest enough to demand the skill OF
our most thoughtful law-mallcrs il the
methods of taxation and means Of CONNER
cial intercourse and the treatment of paupers
and the insane well deserve the calm con-
sdeTator of our abest statesmen, then,
most certainly, the training of a whole
generation OF children, numbering in our
state moro than million, affecting, as it
must our present social life. and reaching
ont into the future and conditioning the dCs-
tiny of the Republic. deserves and demands
! the best thought and highest wisdom of the
Legislature of an enlightened commonwealth
! like ours.
Too often is il the case, we fear. that some
| significant forces Of our social order because
silent in their operation, insignificant in their
! outward show, and more spiritual than ma
| terial in their results, escape consideration.
! Who will deny that the primary education of
/ a whole generation of boys and girls is a sig
| niticant factor Of social progress? How far
! the possibilities with which ii has to do sweep
/ beyond the vision which generally catches
! the eye of our business mon and politicians
! and how much deeper and broader are the
| responsibilities involved in the care Of a
/ million undeyclopcd minds than most of US
| are ready or willing to acknowledge But
| so quietly does the whole work link itself to
our homely everyday life, SO modCStly does
| it hide itself away from public notriety to
! keep nearer to our hcarth-StuncS. that il may
! almost entirely fail to lind that recognition
! and attention which it ought
SCHOOL BUILDINGS ANp GROUNDS.
We cannot expect that parents will send
! their children, either voluntarily or hycom-
! pulsiou, to our public schools, unless they
| feel assured that their physical health and
manners,as well rs their Intellectual develop
| mcnt will bo carefully guarded. II is impO:-
tant, therefore, that the contrast hgtwCcn
| home and school in these respects be as small
| aS possible. Some contrast tccrC must be,
y
| tween tho two ; but there are many points
| where this necessary distinction has no force
whatever. II parents seek to surround their
homes with those silent protectors of the
| heart-lifo and manners of their children,
| in yards where smoothly mown lawns,
| and shady walks, and fair-hIlcd flow ers catch
| the eye, and at once tend to subduc the wild
| and discordant impulses of youth; If, with
| instructive wisdom, they seize upon all the
| resources oil art to deepen the charm of home
| associations, and break the sway Of low, sen
| sous appetites, how much more do we need
the same watchful provision for our schools,
| where the temptations 10 rudCnesS are multi
piled, and where unclean habits are most
! easily contracted
We must bear in mind that our schools are
| filed with chidrCn, not with men and 1romcR.
| As yet they have no formed habits of thought
or selfcontrol. No fixed character has vet
been reached. Everything with them is in n
plastic state. They stand only at the half
opened portals of life but like insects they
are
Eager to taste the honcycd spring.
And Il lOat amid the liquid noon
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