, 1885-10-13
TnE BENT OF GENIUS


~ouliarly Gifted Children.
Boston Herald
TN getting home from the summer
vacation n more troublesome problem
ronfronts many a sensible parent than
the one of ad listing himself again to
his business complications. IL is the
problem Of the eternal boy or girl an
what to do about their education. gnse
this matter was plain sailing All that
it was necessary to do was to subject
tho child to n regulation pedagogue AMI
have him faithfully whipped through II
prescribed course. ut this %antiquated
ideg, is exploded now The child Is
rather Of the man, and the inverte |
s%criptural text. parents, obey your chill
dren, is accepted In such n spirit OF re-
ligious resignation OF the part Of many
fathers and mothers that their only
privilege in matters of education is re
duced TO the n OF duly paying the
bills.
The average boy of ~ or band the
girls are fully up to the same idea
thinks he knows all al out the matter Of
education. lie is even poetical in his
illustration of II. Toes not the silver
brook pursue the easiest course ii can
select, meandering in happy curves
through the meadow, gently turning
every obstacle OF rock or hill, and so
winding its way successfully to the open
ocean Yes, my son, the duly impressed
father ventures mildly to interpose, but,
to change the figure a little, how does
the %untutored colt learn at last to
meander his way to the distant market
town, pulling stoutly up hill and hold
ing back hard down hill, AMI keeping
50 steadily on the road as never once to
tilt the wagon over into a ditchl Does
he not at first relent and chafe-nay,
kick, at the sug g~estion of bit and reins
and breeching.
But illustrations Of the kind pro, e
unsayory TO the emancipated boy. lie
is the child of freedom, and under
stands perfectly his own peculiar genius.
Nature has endowed him with no turn
for mathematics, so he would drop that;
or for language, so he would drop that;
or for composition, so it is only waste Of
ink TO bother with il The thing is for
each one to follow the bent of his own
genius, and see the folly OF every at
tempt to train ducks for a walking match,
or guinea fowls for sopranos, or fish for
climbing trees. Now, the first sensible
thing in dealing with many a boy is to
make him feel that you mean TO get the
bent of his genius out of him. In
tanners or morals this peculiar bent Of
genius may run in the line of dirty
hands and uncombed hair, or playing
truant AMI telling lies. He has no nat
ural turn for soap and water or plod-
ding rectitude of speech. So he would
drop these, and, like the happy, smil-
ing brook, gracefully slide round every
stubborn boulder of truth and leap
every dam of restraint.
OF course, even the least rejecting
parents see that an absolutely free
choice of electives will never do here.
But in purely intellectual matters, what
more does the average boy know of
what is best for him than he did once
Of soap and truth-telling in the days
when the bent of his genius lay the
other way All the better is 1t for
him that he does not like certain stud
les, and thinks them utterly useless. He
is on the way to finding out something
new. At any rate, he is learning to do
what he dislikes doing-a sort of thing
he will find he has a great deal of to do
as he gets along in life. No one is good
for anything who does not know how to
drudge as well as to fly, and the educa-
ton is a poor and abortive one that does
not strengthen the weak parts of the
mind as well as develop the strong.
But every n hates by nature exer-
cising his feebler powers. The whole
bent Of his genius, it may be, is against
adding up a column correctly, or using
choice and varied language, or writing
out his thoughts intelligibly. very well,
he will be tripped all through life by
Just this thing, if he does not get
the better of it. One use of parents,
in the old-fashioned days, used to con-
sist in remedying in season this threat
ening evil. High time is it the breed
of such parents were renewed. Is il
too much to hope that at least IA rem
nant' is left of such as have come back
with 81 much of the granite solidity of
Mt. Washington and the salt spray
of the ocean in their muscles and
nerves that they feel heroic enough to
tackle ever their own boys and girls,
and say: No, this year you shall not
drop this because you do not like it,
nor that, but close in with it for a
sturdy wrestle, to prove whether a lit
tie more mental grit and backbone can
not be put into you'll