St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-03-20

lions. 1t Is announced by 4 series OF
''ahems! an uneasiness in his chair,
an anxiety about getting his trousers
properly adjusted over his shoe tops,
all of which the children would call
getting good ready" His friends
understand these signs, and usually
some one CONSIDERABLY says:
MIR Smith. the high school exercises
Were very fine. now. weren't theyp The
essays were creditable and the declama-
tions Just grand. Well. well. children
nowadays are greatly blest. We didn' t
have such schools in our day. eh?"
This is enough. William Smith gives
his person final adjustment well,
if you call it Il school where one-half of
the time is spent in getting the chill
dren'. toes on a crack. and the other
half in keeping them there, all Eve got
to say is We didn't have any such
schools in our day. Why, happened
to go in the public schools the other
day, and the teacher, a young thing in
frills and buckles, was trying to get the
school in order. She was all red and
hot with trying. Then she said .one.
and the children took up their pens.
Two, and they struck a position with
their arms. Then some of the boys
weren't up to time, and it all had to
be done over. Three. then they began
to write in copy books that had all to
lie at a certain angle. 1t took nearly
ten minutes to get them started. You
may see the value of all this fuss and
feathers. l don't. l never had any
such red tape in my school"
Your school. Why, really. Mr..
Smith?''
"Why, yes," says Mr.. Smith. smiling.
and taking an easy position. Il wish
you could have seen my school. That
was school, and none of your still-as-
death schools, l can tell you. Jeems
Rivers! You don't want still schools.
You want noisy schools. There is an
educational value in noise that none of
the folks down there" (snapping his
fingers in the direction of the high
schooD ''know anything about.
Now, look here What is school
but preparation for life. After you
have been trained in one of those deaf
and dumb asylums they call schools,
do you suppose the world is going to
hold its breath while you do your work?
No, stree. l never demanded but one
thing of my boys-learn, learn. Every
man-jack studied in whatever key his
voice went the easiest on. I'd like to
have heard boy come to me and say
he couldn't study for the noise. I'd
have put him between two of the great
est roarers in the school. Then when
he was man I'd have expected him to
come and thank me.
1.-The aim in my school was to get
knowledge, and each boy got it in the
way best adapted to his case. and as
fast or slow as his mind was capable
of receiving it. Some boys shot ahead
like arrows. other boys crept like
snails. But they all learned. SIR
"But how did you manage about
their school books, Mr.. Smith?'
Nov, school books. There's an
other delusion. didn't break parents
up buying school books as they do now
a-days"
William Smith flung himself again
around the inner circumference of his
chair.
Every boy brought whatever school
books they happened to have in the
house. There was museum of old
algebras and geomctries
in that school. Ididn't care what book
a boy studied in. When he went to
the blackboard pretty soon found out
how much he knew"
"Well. Won must have needed as
many hands rs Briareus to have heard
a recitation
''Do You suppose, sir, I asked any
BOY those cut-and-dried things out of
,he books? They never saw any prob
EN- ever gave them. l made them up.
If boy was in fractions he got frac-
ions. or interest and proportion, he
rot interest or proportion. l had |
equations all along the line. and sur
eyed fields of every conceivable shape. |
That is the way to find out how much |
BOYS know. Why, in mathematics. I'd
match my boys against any set of boys
our graded schools ever have. or ever
will produce.
There was my brother-in-law. Daniel
'arker He was banker. One day
lie came up to my school and said,
Smith, I've brought you a problem
hat will try your metal. We've been
working on it vt the bank until we're
worm out. See what you can do l
urned around and handed it to his son.
lad of sixteen. There, John, said 1.
solve that for your father John took
and went smilingly to work. In five
minutes he gave it to his father, done,
ir. You never saw a man as pleased
nd at the same time as crestfallen as
)aniel.
20. what beautiful studies are Latin
nd Greek! just wish you could have
card Horace Morton conjugating the
ireek verbs. That was what / call
lusic. sir. And as for Homer. I'd
ather hear one of my boys rolling out
hose great. large, sonorous Greek
1llables than any of the prima donnas
ou think so much of. There's more
lusic in it, sir"
..Mr. Smith, didn't you have any girls
l your school?'
..Girls? No. sir, except Kitty. 1
ould do what pleased with my own,
hen her mother would let me. She
sed to toddle around and stand up
etween the tallest boys in the spelling
ass and spell 'ba' and .bo.' But girls,
0. You can't whip girls. They'd
ways be crying and running home to
leir mothers"