The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-04
CRoWDING CHILDREN.
To the Editor of the Eagle.


Come my child you must practice; two
hours a day will not hurt you. Do you
want all the little girls TO get ahead OF
your" 4.
Thus stimulated she goes YEARLY to the
piano but turns to say: No mamma, l
don't, but oh, get so tired and my wrists
hurt me so-sometimes | wish there never
WAS a piano. hate it SO. p"
This unexpected vehemencs sets you
thinking. Rapidly you turn backward
until you come to the page which marks
your own obligations at 8 years of age,
and 10, your mental labor is confined 10
two lessons per day in the Second reader,
with perhaps half line of p-o 20 ny ny
pony, in the blue. back speller, while mud
pies" and marbles are the only kind of
finger exercises you ever undertook.
and here is your own little one wrestling
with geography, physiology. spelling.
reading, writing, arithmetic, singing
lessons, drawing, kindergarten worR,
grammar, composition, and tests; on Sat
urday, dancing, elocution. theory and
music lesson perhaps matinee and the
Sunday school lesson to commit.
o, she will be learned, but somehow
along with this exhilerating fact, comes to
mind story of DID, Just as the man
had taught MS horse how TO live without
eating the uugrateful beast up and died"
all that time wasted.
Take the silver strings of the ancient
harp, tune them to concert pitch ere The
last fibrous wire is turned which forms
the perfect string, and you ruin them.
Keep the delicate tissues of the child's
brain stretched to the fullest extent until
the child is grown, and if they haven't
given way meath the pressure-they
are at standstlll-ptterIy incapa-
bic Of further expansion. These
growing fibers must not only be
turned TO every branch OF learning, but
they must be keyed another notch in order
to vibrate clearly TO the twang of the tar
dy bell and other pleasantrles which Keep
the sensitive child in dread, and effect not
the ones who need goading; for, as rule,
the plegmatic temperament proves an Ell
fectual foil to the wbip and spur of am
biton. And the punishment which sinks
deep into the heart of the former, has no
effect upon the latter. The high strung
conscientious child who studies in the
morning is off to school at $50, neither
turns or whispers, through telling the
truth loses recess a. m, the hour at noon
is half occupied in practice, no recess p.
m, home again at 4 o'clock, tired, but
practices song lesson until sup
Inc your year old baby
pouring over decimal fractions till 9 p. m.
or crying because you will not let her do
the might work" designated by the prin-
cipal or teacher
Isuppose in few short years the six
months infant will lift its long robes
gracefully, and with an algebra beneath
one arm, and protest against catnip tea
under the other. trudge contentedIY of to
a iC
of sight Nine hours of the day-six days
OF the week-four weeks of the month and
nine months of the year, the growing
brain is kept at it, and { he mother wonders
why the child losses in fittul sleep at night,
and if the rigid test is continued (d8 1t Is
in many cases. nerve and brain force are
exhausted Ol the childs own heart anu
jud s!ment and prompt their usage IN she
direction which the Creator ID
tended. Into your hands were
reposed The sacred trusts OF the
child, and now it is OF age you discover TO
your sorrow that you nave squandered
that which gold cannot replace, without
which, life Is a mockery. ami the educa-
ton which you have so proudly, Srandly
reared stands monument IlVlng re-
Ininder of the health which lies buried
beneath it. For childish prattle you sub
stitu' eed grown up ways and smiled when
people said she was like grown up lady
in the ball room. For childish romps you
gave nerve and brain food, AMI, II instead
of healthy, vigorous womanheod you
have prepared a grave; the world need not
reproach your blind ambition.
It would seem that what SO many people
sanction must he right and yet the muir
der of Christ does not bear up this theory.
know young lady who is n graduate
in every hing but practical things" at 10.
She can clay down" the law OF graVltation
with Newton, point out new planets with
Pythagoras, but should You chance TO fall
down hard enough TO see all her little
stars at once, sue couldn't tell for the lie
Of her whether to suggest IA chest pro-
.ector or liver pad for the bruiss Aud
" lille her mamma digs around the plants
she explains all about the acatyledOHes,
dicotyledoleS, proceed
TO their subdivisions showing just where
Lindlev improved over Van Halter;
but ask what her mamma uses, I've or
soda. to counterfeit the acid OF sour
milk in the biscuits, she would
have vague idea that like certain
species of botany. they belonged to she
same family, and boring her eco
lomic Lessons, she would promptly say
ye because IL was the strongest and !
would take less. !
She is so nervous that she twitches when !
obliged To sit quiet. Her face is transpar- !
:nt' aud some now you feel more pity Tor |
his than admiration for her wonderful !
store OF learning.
She is determined to marry boy three |
7ears her senior, with 40 equally practical !
education, and nothing else to support her |
Upon. She can neither hem a towel nor |
boil an egg. and, suppose If we call 20 /
ca when mama's out OF town, we'll get a |
Dsrwiuian toast. a Latin pudding favored /
With a Beethoven sonata, until the poor /
,hild learns all about practical things, |
md forgets many Of the great things. /
which have taken all her life and most of |
ler health to acquire BETH |