Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-02-19
INDUSTRIAL OBLIGATION.

When boys have reached the age of
twelve years they should possess the
power of application and attention, and
have formed a habit of regular and
systematic work, and have self-c0ntrol
enough to force themselves to the per-
Torrance of unpleasant duties. Those
parents who are wealthy and well-to-do
have it in their power to give their
children superior training and advant-
ages; but if their wealth is used to
give them exemption from hard and
healthful work, whereby habits of APP
plication, industry, and self-sacrifce
are formed, wealth is a curse rather
than & blessing. 1t would be better
for the children to be compelled to
work under the lash of bitter necessity,
for it would improve their prospects
for honor and usefulness.
Children who come to city schools
from the country are generally behind
the children in the city in the branches
of study, but in advance in mental de-
VelOpmenA which is of much more
value. In tho country, especially in
farm-life, the children are early re-
CURED to do regularly some kind of
work. This cultivates habit of atten-
ton and application which is found to
be of the greatest value to the child
when put in school. The kindergarten
in our cities gives, in a measure, the
same training in effect, and is that
kind of preparation all children need,
supplemented by home training in the
cultivation of the will. As a rule, chill
dren of German parentage have better
home training in power of attention,
self-sontrol, and application than chill
dren OF American parents. They are
forced to assist at an early age in the
household affairs,-to do something
they would not do for the mere pleas
ure of doing. II don't want to do
that, =" is an all-suf1icient reason for
many American parents to excuse a
child from home duty. Such train
ing between the years of three and six
greatly retards his progress during the
first years of his school life. Close
application is not agreeable to most
children. It is very natural thing
for child not to exert either mind or
body if his teacher will do the work for
him; but what good does the child re-
ceive? The development of mental
power requires self-activity. There is
nothing truer in education, nor more
worthy of being kept in mind by the
teacher than this: The ability to &C
Qatire b7aOoOledge IS more 0aLatGble than
kn0a0Jedge itself.
The workbench is a better educator
than the billiard-table; a hammer and
nails than a pack of cards; the corn
field than the baseball grounds; the
fields and woods than the crowded
street So far as industrial education
is impracticable in our system OF edu-
cation. it is practicable in home train
inc. The children may at least be
taught the care and use of such tools
and utensils as are found in every well
furnished home. If the children who
live in the cities with the school priv
leges they now have, had the addition
al training in the industries which the
country children receive, the boast that
three-fourths of our great men come
from the farm and workshops would
be as empty as a dream. Children
should be allowed time for amusements,
but in cities and towns play is the rule,
and work which requires attention and
application is the exception. If public
schools do not produce the results they
should, and, in my judgment, they do
not, it must be remembered that they
take the children as they find them;
and one reason of failure lies in the
want of that home training and in the
constitution of the social fabric which
look upon all work "a rerTT