The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-12-09
BILL ARP
Thinks the Boys Need More Muscle Edu-
cation.

BILL ARP
Thinks the Boys Need More Muscle Edu-
cation.
!. Is the same old story. For nearly
thirty years, have been helping the
cl.dren get their lessons at night, so that
they would feel encouraged, and not give
M in despair. A child who gets no help
| at home has a hard time and so does the
teacher. Some parents think that as
thev pay the teacher to teach, they are
relieved from all trouble, and SO if the
Child stands foot, most of the time, they
lay all the blame on the teacher. | know
{. good lady who got so worried with
helping her child with her lessons that
she wrote note to the teacher, and told
her that she wanted ito swop work
while. She wanted the teacher to teach
her child the lessons, and she would hear
her recite them at home. My experience
| is that it takes both teacher and parents,
to make good scholar. We are most
through with this business at our house,
! bu! when our little girl CONES home Fri.
day evening, to stay until Monday, and
brings an armful of books with her, |
| buckle down to her Latin aud her arith-
| metic, and help her, so that she can spend
happy Saturday. She had seventeen
! sums to do last night and they bothered
me right smart for they were these tan
gled up things about if six men can dig
| ditch 100 rods long in ten days, how
many men,can dig one a.thonsand :lrods
long in ii days. It takes me some time
to ge, the hang Of these things, but get
it after scratching my head awhile. The
little girl is patient, and learns easily. but
! Carl is like all the other boys. He frets
and gets tired, and throws up his sponge
some times and says cob shucks, | just
can't do these sums, to save my life"
But after awhile he rallies and itries it
again.
am pretty dull on Latin and all do
now, is TO keep cur little girl company
and get the lesson with her. l used to
read Latin, and my first book was the old
Historic Sacra, and have great rever-
ence for it yet. In fast, we old time folks
have reverence for all those old text
books, even to Websler's spelling book,
that has been condemned and abolished.
l still remember my exlutation when |
passed the mile stones one by one and
mastered the long words and the hard
words. There was more attention paid
to spelling then than there is now. Why
one Of my grand children who is musi.
clan and is away up in arithmetic and
geography, wrote us letter the other day
and said he was learning to play on the
"cstarrh." He sings through bis nose, !
reckon. The very pictures in the old
blue back speller are classic 10 my mind.
There is poor dog Tray who got into
bad mpany, and the mild maid whose
vain fances caused her 10 spill her milk,
and the lawyers bull who gored the far
ners OK, and the rude boy who WAS up
in tree stealing apples There was an
impressive moral TO all these pictures, but
still I can't say they kept the girls from
wanting fine clothes, or kept rude boys
from stealing apples. But we have bet
ter methods now, know, and am glad
oft. we old folks appreciate tie i'm
provements more than our children do,
for they don't know how we had to strug'
gle to get an education. Why, when we
wanted pen to write with we had to run
the old gander down to get quill. 1t
was great day for the geese when steel
pens were invented and gander quillipgs
were abolished. They ought to build a
monument of feathers to Joseph elliott.
There are new methods and rcw rla.
chinery now, but those old books and limit
ed facilities made some good scho!ors in
their day. There is more in the boy or
eiri than iu the kind of books. Some
things know can't be changed, for three
times six are still eighteen, and always
will be I reckon. Education is now in
reach of everybody. That is education.
in books, and wish that we were paying
g., much attention to education in morals
ana humanity. The uature is on boom
about developing the mind, but it has not
advanced one step in morals in half
century. In fact, ii looks like the more
education the less morality. | wonder il
there is nc say 10 carry both along
together. The statistics show that crime
has more than doubled iu Massachusetts
in the last Ten years. In 1880 there we're
twenty thousands committals to prison in
that highly refined and cultivated state.
Of all the convicts sent to their state pris-
on. more than half were born on her
soil, and more than half were under
twenty-five years of age, and most of
them had received good education. 1t
is the same in New York. Out Of $500
convic;s in one prison, 1900 had received
education in colleges, or academies, or
public schools. 1t il fact that among
the whites where there is the least educa.
ton there is the least crime. The ratio
at the south is far less than st the north.
How long can SIC keep it so if our people
do not wake up TO the importance of
training the children in morality. Pub.
lie opinion Is forcing the parents to edu-
cate their children. Why cannot public
opinion demand that parents shall con.
troll their children and restrain them
from idleuess and viciousness. In every
community there are a lot of bad boys
growing up, and everybody knows them
10 be bad, and all predict they will sooner
or later bring somebody to grief and come
to grief themselves, but nobody does
anything for they don't know what to do.
One bsd malicious boy vii! ruin half
dozen that are not so bad. That boy
should be taken charge Of aud placed in
house of correction. When the parents
give up control the State should take it.
The chief justice of the supreme court
OF Illinois, says: 1T cannot be denied
that as a people we are undergoing rapid
deterioration, our social, political and
commercial morals are sinking. We are
rapidly drifting to an unknown coast
whose atmosphere is ladcn with poison
and DEATH"
The statistics show that ninety per cent
of al! the burglaries and robberes com
mittcd in New York city, are By young
men under twenty-five years of age.
Heaven help us Will our own young
men ever come to this? The distinguish.
ed Mr Augell, Of Massachusetts,, says:
1T is certain that education of the intel
lect will not stop the growth of crime but
will rather give it increased power"
We'll now what IS the rcnedy-csn't
we mix up more work with all this fine
education? a boy who is going TO school
thinks that little study is work enough,
but he is :nistakcn-whcn school is out