Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1889-10-08
SPARE TIE CHILDREN.
Do NOT STUFF THEIR HEADS 81
FORE THEIR BODIES ARE STRONG.

Into Scla0Oa They should To Given Tlne
- stretch TheIr Llmba--A waraing y
BEothess
.sBut she Is five years old. and don't
know her letters.
'sWell, good woman. replied our fam
ily doctor. your little 5-year-old is as
blooming as rose. Why not keep her
50 for q lifefirneTn
NY wife was sure she would only be
too glad To do 20. But howp The wise
old lnan replied: by keeping her out Of
the hot. close school room just as long
as possible.
The child never entered a school house
till she was years old. She could read
at Z, but how she learned no one knows
No effort whatever was made to teach
the child anything from books Yet
within one year ahe swiftly traversed
oil that many children are compelled to
drag themselves over in drudgery from
Eve to ten years. Nor is she any more
than ordinarily intellectually endowed
She Is. however. of robust health, Of iron
nerve, OF great vitality. The physician
was right Thanks to him. the little girl
is well launched.
Nothing can exceed the unspoken mis-
cry Of childhood sent into the prison of
school before its time. Mute, inglorious
suffering. A little fellow of my acquaint
ancerecently caught sight of weeping
willow" as we stopped at q railway sta
tion on the Boston and Maine railroad
It stood near a blacksmith shop. why
do they call them weeping willowsg''
asked lady of our party. Cause they
gently grow near school houses was
the lads instant reply.
The useless grind, as It seems 30 the
child, before any sort of interest Is taken
in the studies, must appear to him moth
ing else but pure cruelty. A tyranny
that he is powerless to resist fastens him
into seat--for what? He is q reason
able little creature and he can see no rear
son whatever for this imprisonment.
There is no motive whatever. Men toll
for a motive. The child Of FIVE or six
years can have no motive for the school
toll, except to crafty the unreasonable
parent.
To make child love school Is impossi-
bic. To entice his interest forth with
skillfnl effort is possible with almost any
child. BY eight years old, say, he can be
made aware Of the great world into
which learning Is the window. Heloves
story by that time. He wants you to-
read to him as often as you can find
time these three or four years past. Now
tell him to read to himself. He wants
nothing so much as to s'be man like
father. Well, what does his father, all
day at the Office? He practices this hate
ful arithmetic, /" adding and subtracting,
multiplying and dividing. You cant be
q man, my boy. unless you have whiskers
and know the multiplication table.
You are as tall as | am, says his
mother: but am woman, who can
add and substract. Will you allow mo-
ther TO distance you? You are head and
shoulders above little Tom. Equal him
In knowledge; he can speak piece like
an orator. In short, you must and now
can easily touch his self esteem. Be
sides. you will not succeed. And If you
should succeed. your child would be a
sort OF unnatural creature, neither in
fantile nor manly. Everybody can be
enticed. charmed. led into good course
far better than driven.
Why are not the good things all as
lovely as the bad thingsg' q child once
asked me. They are-far more 30. IL
norance Is hateful. Knowledge IS love
IL. But we are just beginning to pro.
ceed On this line in schooling. All, that
old red school house at the cross roads.
where many Of us begunl Contrast its
hard bench, its small windows, its box
stove. rosy hot on one side and emitting
smoke through crack on the other
contrast It with the new elegance Of the
modern kindergarten. Think Of the
mean books. the learning BY rote with
out particle0 Of understan ndfnr--the com
mingling 0f bic boys and little. girls and
boys indeed: the culture Of rudeness b.
strength toward weakness; and remem-
Der that even The pretty farmers girls
took On bearish manners Ii the struggle
of the promiscuous playground The
world moves No one thing iii this great
century deserves more notice than kl1e
emancipation pf the school child. from
many Of BIS woes which We fathers r.
member
Yet the forcing grocesa remains Toc
young they are sent 70 school. Hear
me, al you ambitious parenasl plead
for ! little more time to expand e.
chest. 10 stretch the limbs. to prAsarve
and strengthen the young eyes, Is atts1ue
the voun9 sDirif with s esrfa hn1snk fl,os