St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-04-06
Education Outside of School.


1t is common thing to hear it said of
so called self, made men that they attained
because of their natural talents
or genius, which could not be depressed,
but such q conclusion overlooks the value
to them of the practical training they OBJ
tanned in their younger days simply be-
cause it did not come to them in the Or
thodoX way, through the medium of
school books. If, however, we look closely |
into their early lives, we shall generally |
find that although they may have been I'M
taught by the schoolmaster, they have
had better education than he could
give them. The necessities of daily toll
at farm or other outdoor work have devel-
oped strong, healthy body which, in
the years to come, will be of the highest
value in enabling them while engaged in
ntelle ctual work to sustain severe strains
and to do whatever they undertake ener-
getically and with determined purpose.
By their communion with nature they be-
come observant, and store up vast funds
of information, the basis of scientific
ing may be few, but they make the best
possible use of the books that come in
their way, simply because their available
only acquire thoroughly that which they
have read, but established a habit of
thoughtful reading that is in itself of the
highest value. In the small communities
where such men usually have their origin,
the debating societies, formal or informal,
about the country store or in the black
smith shop, help to educate the reasoner
and the orator, not by set rule, but by
no into
few, if any, opportunities for school edu-
cation may in fact receive better train
ing than his brother of the city, who, be-
to develop his natural powers. The infer
ences to be drawn from this are that
schools may be an injury to talented boy,
man may owe his distinction, in part, at
least, to the fact that he escaped the
blighting influence of such an education
as saps the strength of the pupil and re-
presses original thought. But it should
not be inferred that the school system of
instruction should therefore be abandoned
only that it should be improved and made
a real help to the natural development of
the minds of pupils. The constant ten
dency of the pedagogue is to become me-
J
to a system, and ultimately to set higher
value upon the form than upon the sub
stance Generations of pedagogues follow
ing this tendency develop system in
which words are of more importance than
things, and which is better suited to the
training of a parrot than of a man. Their
ambition to improve their work and ele
vate their profession leads them to intro
duce new subjects of study, overlooking
their young pupils and depIiving them of
the hours of recreation and exercise so
necessary to the preservation of bodily
health and strength. The applause of
school directors, and of parents, too, often
encourages the teachers to 90 on in the
wrong direction until the backwoodsman,
toiling unaided over spelling book, comes
to have advantages over the city youth, to
whom the doors of colleges and libraries
are open. This extreme view of the worst
estate of education, though an exaggera-
ton as applied to most schools of the pres
ent day, presents at least the tendencies of
school systems which all who are engaged
in educational work should resist. The
school is an artificial creation, and must
be, to a large extent, artificial in it's
methods of doing work 1t has in it not
only boys of talent, who under favorable
circumstances, might develop into great
men, but boys of average ability and
ounces; boys who are eager to learn, and
boys who are Indifferent or who refuse to
be taught. It must accommodate its
methods of instruction to all these and de-
velop all at approximately the same rate,
But it should do this by system as nearly
approaching the natural method of mental
requirement and development as possible,
and with full regard to the physical well
being of the pupil. Then the school bs
comes real help not only to the average
boy, but to those with original powers,
who, if left to themselves, would work out
some kind of education. and who should
not have their powers stunted by mechan
ical devices to facilitate the study of words
without ideas behind them, giving the ap-
pearsnce of learning to the mere envelope
of knowledge San.