Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-07-31

Ganges and you had been born in India,
/ you might have been throwing your
| children to the crocodiles. 1t is not be
cause we are naturally any better, but
because we have more gospel light.
SACRIFICES OF TODAY.
! Now, | make very practical use of this
question when tell you that the sacri-
fee of Jephthahs daughter was type
of the physical. mental and spiritual
sacrifice of 10000 children in this day.
There are parents all unwittingly bring
ing to bear upon their children a class of
influences which will as certainly ruth
them as knife and torch DESTROYED ,Tcph-
thah's daughter. While l speak. the
whole nation without emotion and with
out shane looks upon the stupendous
sacrifice.
In the first place l remark that much
of the system of education in our day is
a system Of sacrifice. When children
spend six or seven hours day in school,
and then must spend two or three hours
in preparation for school the next day,
will yol tell me how much time they
will have for sunshine and fresh air and
The obtaining of that exuberance which
q ecessary fer the duties of coming life?
L
do for the advancement of common
school education. The printing of books
appropriate for schools, the multiplica-
ton of philosophical apparatus, the es
Enlistment of normal schools, which
provide for our children teachers of lar
gCst caliber, are themes on which every
philanthropist ought to be congratu-
lated. But this herding of great multi
tudes of children in i'll ventilated school
rooms and poorly equipped halls of in
struction is making many of the places
of knowledge in this country huge holo-
causts.
Politics in many of the cities gets into
educational affairs, and while the two
political parties are scrabbling for the
honors Jephthah's daughter perishes.
It is so much so that there are many
schools in the country today which are
preparing tens of thousands of invalid
men and women for the future, SO that
in many places by the time the chi1d's
education is finished the child is finished!
In many places, in many cities of the
country, there are large appropriations
for everything else and cheerful appro-
priations. but as soon as the appropria-
ton is to be made for the educational or
moral interest of the city we are struck
through with an economy that is we'll
nigh the death of u.s.
SPARE THE DELICATE BRAIN.
In connection with this I mention what |
| might call the examining system of the |
common schools and many of the acaGe- |
mies-children of delicate brain COM
PEELED to tasks that might appall ma
ture intellect. children going down to
school with strap of books half as high |
as themselves. The fact is, in some of
the cities parents do not allow their
children to graduate for the simple rea-
son, they say, eve cannot afford to al
low our children's health to be destroyed |
in order that they may gather the honors
Of an institution
Tens of thousands of children educated
into imbecility, so connected with many
such literary establishments there ought
to be asylums for the wrecked. It is
push and crowd and cram and stuff I
and jam until the childs intellect is be-
wildered, and the memory is wrecked, |
and the health is gone. There are chill
dren turned out from the schools who
once were full of romping and laughter
and had cheeks crimson with health who
are now turned out in the afternoon pale
faced, irritated, asthmatic, old before
their time. 1t is one of the saddest sights |
on earth an old nannish boy or an old I
WON. n.sA ill.
Girls 10 years Of age studying algebra! |
Boys II years of age racking their brains /
over trigOnonetry Children unacQuaint-
ed with their mother tongue crying over
their Latin, French and German lessons! !
All the vivacity of their nature beaten
out Of them by the heavy beetle of a
Greek lexicon! And you doctor them
for this, and you give them little med
icine for that, and you wonder what is
tie matter with them. l will tell you
what is the matter with them; they are
finishing their education.
In my parish in Philadelphia child
was so pushed at school that she was
thrown into q fever, and in her dying
delirium, al night long, she was trying
to recite the multiplication table. In
my boyhood I remember that in our
class at school there was one lad who
knew more than all Of us put together.
If we were fast in our arithmetic, he
extricated US When we stood up for
the spelling class, he was almost always
the head of the class Visitors came to
his fathers house, and he was almost
always brought in as prodigy. At IS
years of age he was an idiot. He lived
10 years an idiot and died an idiot, not
knowing his right hand from his left, or
day from night. The parents and the
teachers made him an idiot.
THE RIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD.
You may fatter your pride by forcing
yoI1r children TO know moro than any
other children, but you are making
sacrifice of that child if by the additions
to its intelligence you are making a sub