The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-12-10

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its primary object, is
MEAGRE IN PRACTICAL RESULTS
and does not meet the necessitie:
of those educated in them. 1t fails
to instruct, in fact, in q great de
gree.or to promote the intellectual
activity which should be its con
slant aim and because it regards
the young mind too much as pas
sIve receptacle, into which the com
pressed facts of the books should
be literally poured, rather than as a
living organism, instinct with la
tent possibilities, only awaiting de-
velopment. 1t is therefore too of
ten the case chat a mass of verbiage
rather than a quickened intelli-
gence is the result. 1t is the edu-
cation that develops and disciplines
that calls into action the higher
faculties of the mind, that is of last
ing benefit and not parroting from
books, the mere cramming that too
often takes its place. 1t is an OBJ
servation of everyday life, that the
little learned by the average pupil
in the public school of grammar,
geophraphy, arithmetic, etc, is
speedily forgotten in the routine
of farm life, and of the education
he receives, only the little he needs
in his daily business of reading,
writing aud arithmetic Is retained.
He learns little that furnishes food
for thought, little that serves to ex-
plain the phenomena Of life around
him, nothing perhaps that conveys
a just conception of the character
and value of the knowledge his
daily duties require, and he must,
of necessity, begin its acquisition
after his school life has ended.
Too frequently then he finds that
the common school education af-
lords very inadequate foundation
for the practical structure he must
now rear. Great and lasting in
quiry is constantly resulting from
the want of such early training as
gives proper direction to the in
stinctive inqulsitiveness of the
young mind, or lays the foundation
for a growth in practical knowledge.
The young man whose mind has
been imbued with no love of such
knowledge or just conception Of
it's practical worth will have no
taste perhaps for solid and in
structive reading and will find
deeper interest in anecdotes, disas-
tiers, fiction, than in the best essays
in reference to the duties and bust
ness of life, and with no spirit of
inquiry or desire for the useful in
formation essential to his advance
ment, he will fritter away in frivo-
lous reading and idle amusements
the opportunities that might, prop
erly improved, enrich his whole
life. 1t is thus that the education
that falls to the lot of thousands of
the sons and daughters of far
mers in the common schools
DwARFs THEIR MINDS
and dooms them to a lower life
than would otherwise have been
possible, because it fails to develop
or to stimulate the instructive &C
tivity that prompts the young mind
in the pursuit of knowledge. This
is no exaggeration, as is illustrated
in the methods, management and
success of a large majority of far
mers, who plod on after the old pa
tent, treadmill routine, gathering
but little wisdom from experience
and comforting but little distinction
upon their time-honored pursuit
and too many of them leave behind
them farms whose general decay
stands as monument of an mex
cusable stupidity. This view re-
ceives further illustration in the al
most absolute indifference of too
many to agricultural education, and
in the face, too, of their depend
ence upon the education that be-
gins with practical life and must,
perforce, be picked up by the way
side to advance and prosper them
in a pursuit, for the intelligent
of which national and |
state governments have made wise
and liberal provision. It is thus
that the self-edgcation of |
the farmer-zan imperative necessi-
tY, and for which his mind should |
have received special adaptation in
the public school, is left to chance,
and the higher intelligence that |
would have crowned his life is for
ever lost. But it may be asked, |
WHAT CHANGES SHOULD BE MADE
in our common school method?
Whilst we contend for more intelli-
gent aims and base our conclusions
on results that amply attest their
correctness. we regard the solution
Of the question as rather within the
province of the educator than the
farmer. But we may insist that
there is necessity for a system for
this preparatory and finishing
school of the farmer that
will educate in the truest sense; not
by examining the mind with the
mechanically compressed facts' of
the books, but that will so develop
and discipline its faculties, so
quicken it's intelligence as to pro-
mote and facilitate the acquisition
Of knowledge from every source
within the reach of the farmer. 1t
is not, therefore, so much the need
of better teachers, as some have in
sisted, though the teacher should be
thoroughly in accord with the pro-
gressive spirit of the oge, as of sys-
tenn based upon a rational philos-
ophy of mental growth and develop
ment, and the practical needs Of the
large number confined to the public
school. The fact, known to every
observing man, that such liberal
education as best qualities the in
dividual for any station in life can
not be obtained in the common
schools, gives forcible emphasis to
these views, which ought to be
thoroughly impressed on the public
mind, as should be the conclusion
that the education is best which
promotes intelligent thought and
stimulates inquiry and investigation
and thus leads to the self education
Of the farmer, for which the best
common school education can only
fit him. 1t is then clearly obvious
that if the ordinary studies and
methods Of the common schools do
not promote such education, do not
employ the higher activities of the