The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-08-21

AMERICAN CHILDREN,
Their Insubordination and Lack OF Rev
!: erence, and the Cause Thereof.

AM EntkAN SF1tEInENs
Their characterization and Lack Of Rsy.
!: erence, and the Cause Thereof.
AS water will not run higher than IT.
source, so the character Of school win
not be stronger than the force which il
resident in the head and his masters.
Yet man of less weight than an Arnold
or Benson may by tact and careful
adherence to the examples and dicta of
the great schoolmasters raise his school
to high standard Of moral excellence.
The first step toward its attainment is
clear understanding of the relative
positions OF the master and the boy.
This is more needy of definition on this
side the Atlantic than the other. Here
children are obnoxiously intrusive, their
familiarity of address. their shocking
want Of reverence, their. patent insub-
ordination may be all traced to the
wrong relationship in which the child
stands first to its parent then to its
master. Life is started under the sup
position that the child is on . par with
its elders; reasons are carefully given
for the orders which it is expected to
obey. If it does WRONG. it is reasoned
with, with all the gravity and serious
ness which would be used to a full
grown individual. 1t is sent to school;
here It takes rp 4rtain subjects Text
books are placed in its hand which are
reduced to- its comprehension. Diff
culties are carefully eliminated by the
manufacturers of these books. most
probably because these authors are
themselves incapable of mastering them.
The arithmetic is finished. Tie child says
s.it is through arithmetic, y orss,through
algebra, or even 'sthrough history 1t
very naturally supposes chat what it
has done is all the subject affords.
And that the great men it reads Of,
whose, names are known for mathe-
matical distinction, knew, perhaps,
little more, but not very much more
than what'it had just ''got through 2
The absurd process of what is called,
forsooth, education, sspuffs. up" the
minds of children until. what wonder is
it2 they feel on d PAL with. their elders.
and disport themselves as men and
women, not knowing, alas! the rules,of
courtesy, nor having learned the he
straint of self, which is the root of all
decent behavior. A system Of training
must be radically wrong which could
produce such young gentleman as we
read OF not long ago, who, on going
into his mothers drawing room, found
seated there the Roman Catholic Arch
bishop. Strutting mp to the great ec-
cleslastic, with one hand in his pocket,
he proffered two fingers of the other to
the visitor. and hailed him with: flow
dyer do, Arch?" This false relation
ship is due to the wrong process Of
fsbringing up. What an
enormous difference has come over the
child world since the beginning of this
century. Ny father used invariably to
call his father s.sir, = not in the sense
II which It is used in America. but in
fhe sense. almost. in which q courtier
still uses it to Prince. What an in
sight into the process and atmosphere
Of traiAixg ck does this incident
give. He was coming. on the top of the
coach, home for the holidays; as is the
won't of travellers the conversation
turned upon where they had been.
This led to a comparing of foreign
countries with England After much
had been said pro and con, lull oc-
Cured, which was occupied by q boy's
voice; ell old England's good
enough tor me. The nearest passen-
g8r to the speaker &C once boxed his
ears for his venturesome Interpolation,
and the opposite gentleman approved