The Portland daily press., 1892-06-25
IT Is A MAGIC WORD.
What Interested" Means in the
Education Of q Child.


tie Creature Taken from 'the Slums'
of q Great City--several Methods That
Failed of Success.
There was once child, and because
he was born less fortunate than others,
he was less good. And those people who
were better, because more fortunate,
said among themselves: at is very sad
that he should not be good. Let us be
kind to him. What shall we do%' And
they said, educate him" But what is
education? sit is teaching him facts.
We will teach him that two and two
make four. Then he will be intelligent,
and when he is intelligent he will be
good"
So they taught him that two and two
make four, but he did not become any
better nor did he seem much more in
telligent. Then they said, 'sPerhaps it
is the bad air." for they were teaching
him in the same old haunts where he
had lived, where the rooms were small
and sitting, so that his muscles were
cramped and there was scarcely any air
to breathe, and what he did breathe was
almost poisonous. And they said: eve
will be kinder still. We will build him
separate school house, in good locali-
ty, with large rooms and plenty of win
dows, and good air outside of the win
dows." /
This they did and taught him again
that two and two make four. This time
he learned it more quickly, because the
air was better, but he did not become
good boy, and, although he had little
more intelligence, it seemed almost as
though he used his intelligence to in
crease his ingenuity in evil resources.
Then they said, "We will build other
schools-moral schools, Sunday schools
and tell him how beautiful it is to do
right and how terrible to do wrong"
But this did not have any perceptible eff
feet upon him. Then they said, ssWe
will frighten him; we will tell him that
God will punish him if he does wrong"
But he wasn't frightened. And then
they said, "We will punish him our
selves; we will build a Jail with bolts
and bars and shut him up if he does
wrong" 1
THE SECRET DISCOVERED.
But still he did wrong, and was shut
up, and when he came out he only did
more wrong, because all the time he had
been in jail he had been angry at having
been shut up, and had been thinking
what he could do when he should get
out to show that he was angry. And
then came some one who said, 'sLet me
take him." and she took him into room
where there was piano and an Ameri-
can flag and big heap of damp clay,
and she said to him, 'sWould you like to
make arabbit?" And his eyes sparkled,
and he said he would. Then she took
some of the damp clay and began
molding it in her fingers, and she let
him take some and watch how she
worked, and SO they worked together,
and by and by his rabbit was almost as
good as hers. Then each of them made
another rabbit, and she asked, GLOW
many rabbits are there nowY' And he
said instantly, "Four rabbits"
This time he had learned his lesson
very quickly, and his eyes sparkled as
he gave the right answer. Then she
told him he could not make any more
rabbits that day, but he might come
again the next day at the same hour
and they would make some more rab-
bits and perhaps a bird. So he went
away; but he was so interested in the
rabbit making that all the rest of the
| day he was thinking about it, and pick
| ing up little mud in the street and get
ting bit of the dough for bread that
his mother was making, that he might
| practice making rabbits and be ready
for the next day. And he was SO busy
over this and so happy that he forgot all
about a lie be had meant to tell and a
| gingerbread cake he had meant to steal.
TILE MAGIC WORD.
This was what had happened to him.
He had learned even more easily than
before that two and two make four, but
something else had happened to him
he had forgotten to be bad. He had not
been given any higher aspirations, any
wider knowledge of good and evil, or
the results of good and evil; he had sim
ply forgotten about evil, because he had
been interested in something else.
Interested is the magic word.
The problem of the age is to make vir.
tue, knowledge, philanthrophy inter
esting. We all know the witty advice,
"If you would be wise and good and
happy, educate your grandmother" !"
And in this recognition of the immense
power Of heredity we are apt to ac-
knowledge the discouraging factor of
the impossibility. We cannot educate
our grandmother, we say, but there are
grandmothers whom we can educate.
| Let who will make the laws of the ma
ton, so only we can educate the chill
| dren.
| And what is education? Ii is teaching
people to know things, you will say. So
it is to some extent; but to far greater
extent 1T is teaching them to feel things
AS the little boy in the kindergarten
feels far more patriotic waving a little
American flag as he marches around the
room to stirring strain from the piano
than he feels after he has simply learned