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

be the essential practical menta
training for our life work, and tn
spirit of a higher progress will tn
more rapidly diffuse through gu
rural communities. There is ais,
a growing professional pride ant
increasing qualification amongs
teachers; but too often the teacher
progress attests only his superio
methods of
CRAMMING
and prodigy in spelling, or a won
derful feat of the memory, IS TIA,
measure of his ambition and per
haps of his usefulness. The mine
of the pupil, instead of becomiD!
instinct with strength and yigol
and eager for the field of inquiry
somestimes becomes enfeebled by
the injudicious- strain to which il
has been subjected; and again, the
brightest mind, sparkling with un-
due excitement from the forcing
processes, efervesces when the slim
illus is Withdrawn and sinks below
mediocrity, when a wiser sys-
TEN would perhaps have laid the
foundation for an active, intelligent
useful life. Proper early education
will as surely promote healthy men
tai growth as will proper food the
growth of the body, and the re.
quirements of the one will as surely
prompt The desire for proper exer-
else and food as the other. Now,
would make the study Of elemen.
tary agriculture a leading one in
all the common schools OF the state
Not only because the children oil
the farmers constitute the large ma
jority of pupils in these schools
but because this study will give as
profitable early training for a pro
fessional life as for an lndustria
one. 1t may, besides, be of great
benefit to lawyers, doctors and mer
chants, who are sometimes forced Il
earn a living by the sweat of theil
brow. The necessity for the more ra
tional adaptation Of our common
schools TO the ends of a broader
education for those confined to then
is in no direction more deeply i'm
pressed than in the grave inequali
ties In the educational advantages
enjoyed by the several classes in
our midst. Whilst about one fourth
perhaps receive liberal education il
the higher schools, the remaining
three fourths are dependent entirely
upon the common schools with thei
insufficient method The result is
q distinction is thus fostered which
is inconsistent with the equality o
of which we boast, and a chasn
created which will widen from tn
very force of circumstances. Edu
cation and higher intelligence 70
the few-ignorance and inferiorit.
for the masses-an entering wedg
to an upper and privilege class
to a lower and subordinate one.
SHALL THIS CHAsM BE BRIDGEDP
If so, one end of the structur
must rest on the common schools
This certainly invests them will
increased importance and demand
for them a system complete in it.
self, and adjusted with careful re
gard to the policy which recog
nizes the need of a higher edu
cation for the farmer than is posi-
BILE under a system almost as oil,
as the century itself. This highe
education, however, resolves itsel
into the early training and develop
ment that awakens the highest fac
ulties of the mind, rather than int
the amount of instruction impaired
and without which these facultie
become dwarfed and inactive, IN
der ordinary circumstances. Thi
early development must conten
plate the preparation of the min
for the self education which shout
follow instinc lively. This bring
US back to the starting point, to tn
conclusion at least, that the bas
Of this awakened activity must b
in the main, in the study Of elemel
tary agriculture, and for reasons q
ready given. Agriculture as
pursuit, contains nothing inherer
that detracts from the highest s.
) cial and political distinction, as
evidenced by the fact that farmel
in every section have attained
the level of honorable, intelligen
, useful lives, and nothing in societ.
wealth or politics offers anything b
i yond this worthier their aspiration
d The highest social distinction
8 founded upon true worth and into
e ligence, and if any class of farme
e is below this, it is their misioTtul