The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-08-08
ARP ON EDUCATION.
Advantages Given Children In these
Days.
Atlanta Constitution.

Advantages Given Children In these
Days.
Atlanta Constitution.
Edward Everett was great man and
a college graduate, and he had defined a
good education 10 be: "To read the
English language we'll; TO write with
dispatch a neat, legible hand, and to be q
master of the first four rules of arithmetic
80 as to dispose of with accuracy, every
question of figures that comes up in prac.
tice. If, in addition, you can write pure,
grammatical English, I call Titan excellent
education"
Who can do that? How many college
graduates can do it? How many lawyers
or doctors or preachers can read the
English language we'll? When Bishop
Beckwith or DR.. Arson reads chapter
in the Bible or beautiful hymn it carries
weight and solemnity, and the congrega-
tion feels its power and its pathos, but
with :he average preachers it is the same
old monotonous drawl or sing song.
They read just like it was part of the
service that was not of much consequence
but had to be performed. What theolog-
ical seminary gives lessons in reading :?
What private or public school pays any
special attention to it? Select any
schoolboy or girl between twelve and
sixteen and ask them to read few para
graphs from Webster or Goldsmith O.,
Washington Irving and you will be
disgusted at their lack of ratification and
tone and emphasis and feeling. Then
try the college graduates on Hoods Song
of the Shirt, or Goldsmith's Hermit, or
Sterne's Uncle Toby. Then ask a
preacher 70 read you chapter where God
answers Job ont of the whirlwind. It is
shame that so few can read we'll or
spell we'll or write we'll. How many
young men write "a neat legible haud
with Dispatch" Look at the letters that
come home from the college girls, they
are written in coarse, unwomanly affect
ed hand, and you can't tell any difference
between an m or n or or r. In fact
it is almost impossible fora common man
to read them at all. But it is the style.
The practical value of good spelling, good
expression and good writing is worth
more to young man seeking business
than he is aware of. His first letter to 8
business house is either credential or
it is a back set that blights his prospects
at the start. The practical value of good
reading to a lawyer or preacher is just
immense. If they read we'll they will be
sure to speak we'll. We have heard law.
yers read authorities to the judge or the
jury, and they made no impression and
tired, everybody. Most everybody is de-
6cient in the articulation Of words. The
singers in our church choirs are go indif-
ferent to this, that nobody can tell what
hymn they are singing unless the words
are before them.
We have been grading our public
schools, and examining teachers, and
selecting text books according to the
modern system. I know very we'll that
we old fogies have got to conform and
fall into line, but still we are NOS recon.
ciled. The whole rachinery is too COM
plicated and unbending to suit our old
fashioned views-six years for the
grammar school and three more for the
high school, and three or four more for
college. Twelve years Of schooling right
straight along, unmixed with laber or
practical work in the concerns Of life, is
enough to make a genteel vagabond of
anybody. This is the system, but thanks
to our natural condition, our children
can't go through with it and don't do it.
Not one parent in hundred can afford
it, and so the system ia continually bro.
ken and the average boy or girl does not
get more than four years altogether, and
that is taken in broken doses-a smatter.
ing of language and figures, and various
ologies and osophies. -Four years is
enough for the average boy if he begins
at ten years aud puts in his time diligent-
ly. It is sin to send a six year old child
to school. Some mothers do it to get rid
of them, OF to shirk the duty ofteachiug
them to spell and to read. They make
the school room their nursery. Four
years is liberal and abundant privilege
It is four years more than John Buuyon
had, and two years more than Henry
Clay. Then there are Burns and Cowpe1
and Shakespeare and Patrick Henry who
picked up in the old field all the educa-
|-tion they got. These cases and hundreds
of others are cited to show that there il
more in the boy. than in the number Of
years at school. If a studious knowledge.
| loving boy is not satisfied then let him
go to college or to university and take
in all he can get. We want colleges and
universities for just such aspiring youths
We must have them and they should be
wall endowed 80 that poor boy could
Aaye chance if he was in earnest
Alex. Stephens was beneficiary oi
Franklin college. But the average boy
has no such ambition or expectation
Here are one hundred and fifty boys in
our public schools and not ten per cent
| of them will ever see college. They
have got to 60 work and earn living,
ond if thew had the pood education that