San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-04-28
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLS.


and sometimes they are not. This
word school" is one of the some
times not. 1t is according to the
philologist, "a place of primary
Instruction." and the idea that we
associate with it is a room, with
scholars and teacher and maps
and blackboards and other appli-
ances Of teaching, that is of con-
veying knowledge and calling out
ideas. This is one kind Of a
school, and San Antonio is justly
celebrated for the attention that
she has paid to the equipment Of
her schools; for her liberality in
supplying the very best means Of
educating, drawing out, the latent
mental powers of tho children. The
LIGHT has always been ready to
second this effort of the schools in
every way, is so now, but it is Of
some entirely different schools that
this, and perhaps some succeeding
articles, are to speak.
If the school" is a place Of
"primary instruction" then the
"Home" must take the first rank
because it is in the home that the
primary, the first, Instructions are
given. By this it is not meant that
the child learns his letters at home,
or becomes acquainted with maps
and figures on his building blocks
and nursery playthings. On the
contrary, it is now the usual thing
to defer all this until the kinder
garten opens its doors to the little
ones of three or four years. "But
before with their a, b, C, you start,
there are things in morals as well
as in art, that play very import
ant part, impressions before the
letters" 1t lis these impressions
that constitute the sum Of the in
structions in the home, the earliest
school of all. The character of this
home instruction is therefore one
of the most important Of all con-
considerations.
Great care is taken in the selec-
ton and training of teachers for
the "primary schools" the "gram-
mar schools, the singh schools"
This is as it should be, wise and
commendable. What care is being
taken in the selection and training
of the teachers in the "home
school?" What authority passes
upon the fitness or unfitness Of
parents to conduct these home in
situations? Going even deeper
than this, what fitness for parent.
age is there in father and moth
or? The transmission Of the inner
emit and acquired characteristics of
parents is accepted everywhere,
and yet not the slightest attention
is paid to this matter. Men and
women Of every kind and condition
marry and beget children in their
own likeness and there is no help
for 1t. Vice is as prolific as virtue.
Appetite marries appetite, passion
marries temper, and children with
fatal tendencies to drunkenness
and gluttony and violence are the
result. Greed marries covetous-
ness and defalcations follow in the
children which Inherit the parent.
al tendencies. Deception marries
cunning and the fatal tendency to
) theft and forgery is born into the
child. The sins Of the parents are
thus visited upon the children and
there is no remedy.
Looking back upon the home life
and the inherited tendencies, how
many grown up babies are there
who would give half their sum OF
life could they have chosen differ
lent parents. How heavy is the
weight of disability that these
children born Of ignorance, greed,
untruth, unchastity, passion and
cruelty carry with them from their
cradles? Even in the race for a
handicap the tillies and colts are
allowed weight for age and carry
less than their older competitors,
but in this race for life the child
rem are handicapped from their
cradles, and even before their eyes