Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-02-27
Home Teaching Before School
Teaching.

| SalQ an ola teacher TO me the OJhel
dav. 81 don't know but / shall soor
come out with little paper to prove
that the schools are already much toe
good"
"My DEAR said 1, "do you con.
template shirking your duties in the
future?"
"No, l mean to go on as | have
done for years, and as hundreds OF
teachers are daily doing trying tc
punch ideas into brains that other
wise never contain one. / suppose
it is better such brains should con-
tain a few ideas, even if they never
knew enough to make use of them,
but it is very discouraging to teach
er who wants to see some good result
from her toll. | was thinking of the
Blakely boys. Their father is a col
lege graduate, and the mother also
received a good education, but the
boys know nothing but malicious mis-
chief"
''How do you account for it,"
asked.
"As | account for much Of the
same lack of mental powers in the
children of a good many of our smart
people. They don't take the trouble
to teach their children to think for
themselves, and to think intelligent
ly. They are so well fitted themselves
to do the thinking for the whole fam
ilv, and can do it so easily, that il
never occurs to them that they are
usurping the rights of others, by 81
doing. 1t is very different in fami-
lies where the parents often feel the
need of a better education, and have
a real love for knowledge. 1t is al
ways a pleasure to teach their chill
dren, for the teacher feels as if she
were sowing seed in very fertile soil.
A practiced observer can nearly al
WAYS tell the families where reading
aloud is practiced, and followed by a
discussion of what has been read, in
which the children are encouraged to
take part and the reading where, if
any views are given of the subject,
they are always the fathers or the
mothers, while the children listen i'm
differently if they listen at all.
Books and papers do no real good,
without the children are encouraged
to read them, and taught to form in
telligent ideas of what they read.
Then their minds become fitted to re-
ceive an education that will do them
some good, and they can receive such
a training nowhere else as they can
at home. know lots Of parents who
because teachers are paid for educat-
ing them. And they do educate them
to the best of their ability, but with
most children of such parents, it is
very like the education which is given
to the dumb brute that performs in
side the circus tent.
l knew two women, each of whom
had one son. The boys were nearly
of the same age, not very strong
physically, and decidedly weak men,
tally. At the age of.three years they
were about as smart as a child at one.
Ask one of them simple question :;
if he was feeling well for instance, and
his mother would look at him nervous
ly and say, Tell the lady quite well,
thank you,' and the boy would repeat
it as a parrot would. They began
before he could speak intelligibly,
to teach him his letters and after two
years trying he knew most of them.
He was sent to school until he be-
came too large to go any more, and
IcluStu W III liiN NlehooNo iNh
BOYS of seven and eight. He will
never know enough to be able to
read a paragraph in the newspaper
and will never care to do SO.
While the other boy who was not a
bit smarter at the age of three years,
whose advantages were no better,
whose parents were no more inteili-
gent, is a man of fair ability and a
medium amount of intelligence, has a
home of his own, and is quite capa-
BILE of earning comfortable living
for family.
What caused the difference between
the two boys? All who know them
believe it to be the difference in the
training which they received.
Jamie, the last one mentioned, was
taught to think. If question were
asked him, his mother obliged him to
answer it without help, and if his an
ohCl "ClS liCOilCCbS ohC hNABNA hiih
to think about it, and then give
better one. He was never allowed to
learn things by rote. His physical
condition was built up as fast as pos
sible, and, by means of object les
sons he was made to understand what
she wished to teach him. She new
er helped him to answer until he had
first given one, and she never failed
to explain to him just how it was
wrong. 1t was a task no teacher
could have accomplished. 1t required
unlimited patience and years of hard
work, but do you believe she can COM
pare the two boys now and regret it?
No matter how naturally intelligent
a child may be, believe he will be
improved if taught to think for him
self, and before he is old enough to
attend school. And parents who
neglect that branch of home training,