Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-08-04


day is "a system of sacrifice. When
children spend six or seven hours a
day in school, and then must spend
two or three hours in prepaI alton Tor
school the next day, will you tell me
how much time they will have for sun
shine and fresh air. and the obtaining
of that eXuberance which is necessary
for the duties of coming ! fe?
M one can feel more thankful than
/ do for the advaueemC mt of common
school education. The printing of
books appropriate for schools. the
multiplication of philosophical apper-
atus, the estA nlishment of normal
schools viii hp Divide for our chill tren
teachers of largest calibre, are themes
upon which every philanthioplst
ought TO he congrat Ilated. But this
herdinF Of great multi tudes of chill
dren in ili-ventilate | sSho rooms and
poorly equipped nails Of lnstru, ton is
making many f the places of know!-
edge IN thi~ country a huge holo aust.
Politics in many of the cities gets
into educational anairs. and while the
TWO political parties are scrabbling for
the honors, Jephthahs daug ter per-
isheS. Il is 30 much so that IN r. are
many schools in the country to-day
which are preparing tens of thous nds
of invalid men aud women for the lu-
tur,; so that, in many places by the
time the chld's education is finished
the child is finished. In many places,
in many cities of the country, there
are large appropriations for every
TN ng else, and cheerful appropria-
tions, but as soon AS the appropriation
is to be made for the educational or
mo al interest of the city, We are
strucl; through Nth an economy that
is wellnigh the death Of us
In connect on with his | mention
what / might call the examining sys-
TEN of the common schools and many
of the "A al mics; children of delica c
brain compel d to tasks that might
appIl mature in elect; children
gong down 10 school " tn a strap Of
books half as high as themselves. he
fact s, in some OF In ties parents do
MOI allow their chi drcn 10 gradu tt,
for the simple reason. they say. I'VE
cannot an nd t. allow our child en- y
hea tn to be de troved in order That
they nay ga her the honors o.! an in
5 tuition. Tens of thousands of chill
dren educ ted Into i nbe .iliJy; SO, con-
nertcd with many such literary eStaD-
lishmentS ere ought to b. a>y ums
for the wrecked. II is push, and
crowd. and cram, and stuff, and jam,
until the cuild s intellect Is lewild red,
ana the memory i, wrecked and the
health is gone There are children
turned out from the hoo no once
We're II of rompingand aughter, and
had checks CRIMSON VITA health, VINO
are now tUrned out IN the afternoon
pale accd, irri;atel. asthmatic, old
before their time 1t j. one of the
stddest sights on earth an o,d-mannish
boy or an old-womanish girl.
Girls ten years o, ase studying al
zebra. Boys twelve years of dge rack
ing I cir brain over trigonometry!
Children unacqua ntcd with their
mo her tongue cry in 2 uve the Latin,
4 ren h and German lessons. All the
vivacity OF their nature beaten : of
them by the heavy beetle of Greek
e >icon. And You doc or them for
this and YOU We them little medi-
cine for that, AID you wonder what is
the matter with I EN-. ! will tell YOU
what l. the matter with them. Tney
finishing tn ir education.
In my parish ia Philade phil title
child was so pushed at school that she
vas thrown into fever, and i her
dying deirium, all night long, she
was trying To re tie the multip ication
table. In my boy Ood | remem be r
that in our class scho i there W S
one lad who knew mo than all of MS
put toIeti err. If w were fast in our
rithnetic, he eXtri ated us. When
we stood up or The spelling. lass, he
was almost always the head of The
class. Nls tors came 10 his father
! house, and he was almost always
brought N as pr Dig. At eighteen
y ears of age he was an idiot. lie
ii ell ten years an idiot. and died an
idiot, not knJwing his light hand from
his left, or day from night. the
| paren and the teachers made
hIm N lido.
on may fatter your pride by fore
| ing your childrrn TO know more than
any other childr n, but YOU are max
| ing sacrifice of that child, if by the
additions to S intelligence you are
making a subtraction from it's future.
| I he child will go away from su h
maltreatn, mt wi h no uherance TO
| fight the battle of life. such children
nay get along ry well while you
take re of them. but when YOU are
OF dea alas! for them. if, rough
Tn wrong system of education whi h
you adopted, they have no swarthi-
ness or force of character to- take care
of themselves. Il careful how you
make the CHI Ids head ache or it's heart
futter l hear a great deal about
black mems rights, and Cinnamon S
| rights, and Indians rights, and
| women's rights Would God tn It
somebody would rise to cad for
childrcn's rights. The Cartha . in ans
used TO sacrifice their children by put
I ng them into the arms of an idol
which thrust forth its hand. The
child was put into he arms OF the idol,
and no oner touched the ar rs than
it drop ed into the fire. But il was
the art of the mothers TO keep the
children smiling and laughing until
the moment they died. There may be
fascination AID hilarity about the
styles OF education of which / am
speaking; but it is only laughter at
the moment sacrifice. Would cd
there were only one Jephthah's
daughter
Agan: there are many parents who
| are sacrificing their children with
wrong systems of discipline - too great
rigor or too great leniency. There are
ch ldren in families who rule'the house
hold. Il heV come To the authority