The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-12-25

aScrlOcd to the courage anu WlSuOm ol
those six Kings who governed and
protected its childhood, so, no doubt,
The training and education of boy hood,
and even at an earlier age, even if it is
unobserved, and noticed by 60 one,
have an influence not equalled by the
most persevering and assiduous indus
try in after years" Roger Ascham,
Queen Elizabeth's preceptor, and au-
thor of the justly celebrated volume en-
titled, "The Schoolmaster," declared
that Learning teacheth more IN one
year than experience in twenty; and
learning teacheth safety, when eXpe-
rience maketh more miserable than
wise," and in the quaint language OF
his day the same again says, she that
would prove wise by experience, he may
be witty indeed, but even like swift
runner, that runneth fast out of the
way, and upon the night he knoweth
not whittier" Examples Of similar
expressions, from sources equally high,
may be almost indefinitely multiplied,
and Erasmus himself is said to have
set it down that experience is the
schooihouse of fools One is obliged,
therefore, to learn when one is young,
for without the knowledge such study
is presumed to bring, experience has
little to offer. Upon the good or ILL
effects of the education of children will
depend, therefore, in no small degree,
their success or failure in future years.
1t need then be scarcely added that the
dominant feature Of every good system
of education is the school; that beyond
the training received there, the educa-
ton of by far the majority of children
does not extend; that all the learning
acquired in after life is but the super
struction of that received in youth,
that unless the instruction received at
the school is of q character sufficient to
properly prepare one for more advanc-
ed studies, he may almost valnly sit at
the feet of the wisest of the earth and
that unless a good system of elemental
~ training is behind the institutions of
higher education, bricks piled upon
bricks until they brush the sky and
the most high-sounding or captivating
labels to this or that building will, to a
great extent, fail to produce either
useful citizens or profound scholars.
They may work downright harm. By
causing people to mistake the SEM
blance of things for the realities-the
spurious articles for those whose hands
have been misapplied-they may cause
serious mistake.
The basis of all learning being laid in
the school, every true reform or i'm
thefe sucn q fmpfoVement or rei6rm
to be entirely successful may, however,
assume many things. 1t may assume
that the rights of every human being
to the privileges of an education is uni
versally admitted. 1t may assume
that society has sufficiently ad-
vanced to recognize that it is not
only safer and wiser bue far nobler
and grandeI to transform ignorance
into educrtion. It may assume that
hindrances in the way of intellec-
tual progress do not exist. 1t may as
sumo that government-locala and gen.
eral but practically local-is able and
willing to aid in the upbuilding of
better systems of education. It may
assume that an intelligent, fearless
and self-reliant public opinion will, if
necessary, demand the construction of
buildings with some view to the COM
fort, health and happiness of the chill
dren filling them; that the schools be
kept open long enough to be useful,
and that they be taught by teachers
sufficiently recompensed to be efficient.
Such reformation or Improvement does
assume that individually and collec-
lively man is not only IMPROBABLE and
progressive, but it assumes the exist
ence of a desire to improve and pro-
gress. That desire is indeed said to be
one of the leading distinctions between
the homo salojeus and the lion of the
Jungle or the magnolia that blossoms
in our gardens. These appear to lack
all desire for improvement. BY culti-
walton they may, it is true, be some
what developed, but such cultivation
will be wholly involuntary, and appa-
rently unconscious Oh the part of beast
and flower; and tie same kindly ma
ture who nurtured their ancient proto-
types in the dawn of creation will guide
them through the twilight Of the ages
to come. Had mankind been similarly
constituted we might still he shaping
arroWheads or seeking shelter in the
cores Of the mountains; when the first
prehistoric man, however, with his
rude abode and implements tried to
secure better ones, education took up
its march. Wisely, therefore, is it said,
'the civilization which We contrast
with barbarism is simply the result of
that action of mind on mind which
carries forward the tea ching of nature
in other words Of what we call educa-
tion.n
From what has already been said it
may be almost unnecessary to add that
nearly all discussion respecting educa-
ton centers itself around the two aues-
tions of what child should be taught
and of how it should be taught. The
answers to those questions have not
only been the dream of philosophy, but
the worlds responses to them have for
thousands ofyears powerfully shaped
the course of human events. Practice
giving rise to theory; theory reacting
again on practice; the growth of knowl-
edge and the necessities from time to
time created by the widening investiga-
ton of the material world have each
and all affected the ideas, both of the
scope and method Of instruction. Nor
is it surprising to be told that even in
our own day many principles which
competent authority believes should be
recognized in systems Of education are
not recognized. Improvement there
has been, however, and there is no
very great cause to fear that there will
not be still greater improvement. The
wonderful discoveries in those branches
of science more directly affecting our
knowledge ofthe human species that
have added such peculiar lustre to our
century, have already caused ms terial
modification in educational theories.
With increasing knowledge of mans
nature will come more light respecting
his bodily and spiritual needs. Mean
while it is vain TO wait for better the
cries. No surer means Of bringing
better theories can be devised than by
the pursuit of better practices. These,
sense and the opinions of
others and the practices of others, will !
aid US in making better. In respect of
education, therefore, much may be
done in the way Of Improvement by |
~.,1