Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1895-11-14

Within the past few years much has
been said about the advisability of in
stilling patriotic sentiments into the
minds of our school children; flags fly
from every school building in many If
not all of the states in the union and
in some localities the question of Civ
ing the pupils military drill is excit-
ing much interest. If there is now one
thing more to be desired than another
in the training of our public school
pupils it Is the faculty for instant and
implicit obedience.
1t is a we'll known fact that Ameri-
can children to greater extent than
those of any other nationality lack
in obedience. This is a misfortune
rather than fault of the children and
is leading to the gravest national con-
sequences. 1t would be vain to seek
for all the causes of this character
istic; it would be most discouraging to
trace it's far reaching effects Teachers
recognize that children o. foreigners
are much more amenable to the re-
quirements and discipline than our
own American children, until the for
eigners become Americanized, when
the very qualities which contributed to
their good behavior in the first place
intensifies results when they reverse
their actions. All children have an
erroneous idea of liberty or freedom,
and confuse the conceptions represent
ed by liberty and license"
To protect children from their own
and their guardians ignorance and
shortsightedness the various educa
tional bodies have adopted courses of
study which, although frequently un-
satisfactory to the individual, include
and compel that which is the best for
the majority. The great difficulty in
our schools today is in matters of dis
cipline. In the first place, too much
is required of one teacher. No teacher
can do justice to the course of study,
to herself, to the pupil or to his par
ents who has under her charge from
forty to sixty pupils during the school
day. Not the slightest opportunity
is given for individual work, for the
Strengthening of weak faculties or for
the Development of force. Much time
is necessarily used in the mere
machine work of distributing and col
Letting material and exercise books
and tasks. This time though lost
from actual study of book-vork, is, or
may be, valuable to the pupil as
slight bodily relaxation and as an ex-
ercise in rapid, silent, accurate move
ment.
After many years of thoughtful OBJ
servation and experimentation in this
feature of school work, have come
to the conclusion that those children
learn the most rapidly to obey sig
nails instantly and go through such
drill accurately who are descended
from races whose men are subjected
to strict military duty.
1t must be true unless the doctrines
of heredity are all false, that the child
whose ancestors for generations have
been trained to respect for authority,
secular, religious or military, will the
more easily give obedience TO the nee
essary rules of school life. If our Pur-
titan forefathers were too strict, the
parents of this gem ration are too lax.
The discipline enforced at our army
and naval schools illustrates the old
| saying that The who would command
must first learn to obey" This say
ing like all other proverbs and popu-
I Ter adages has grown out Of, not a
| mere happy juxtaposition of words,
but from solid aubstratum of actions.
/ Its foundation, so to speak. is a wall
made of solid blocks of cause and effect
with the plaster of reason binding
them firmly. Obedience implies at
tention, self-control, which in turn i'm
plies self-respect and might mention
many other qualities developed and
strengthened by the habit of obedi-
enee. That all of these qualities are
essential in commander all will con-
cede. Are they less essential in a eiti-
zen in our future lawmakers, trainers
as we'll as voters, and far more import
ant in the parents of our future citi-
zens? All children, girls as well as
boys, are fascinated by whatever per-