Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-03-18

| cation have still good deal to say for
| themselves. Certainly, outside the
professions, and far more inside even
them, than many suppose, the real
business and work of life is met by
the branches of the common schools.
Algebra, for instance, is useful as a
means of mental discipline, and to
some extent useful in the business of
life. But, how many persons have you
ever met, that ever found in their life
path, problem, that they needed to
solve by algebraic calculation?
would not show my ignorance by
in any sense belittling what is termed
the higher education, acknowledge is
power" Let all parents covet the
most thorough and extensive educa-
ton for both their boys and girls.
But what I am trying to say, and I
wish to say it with emphasis, is, that
you have in the line of education, the
best there is, right at your own door
and in your common schools. You
have the most practical, the most
essential, the most useable branches of
education. 1t is not impossible to
find both academy and college grad
yates who can hardly spell cat with
out K, Or write their names so that
the traditional Philadelphia lawyer
could read them, or reckon so as to
be sure they are right about it, the
interest on a note, or measure a wood
pile without asking some old farmer
how to do it. Many of the most emil
nent in the walks of life, never in their
school days got beyond the branches
of the common schools. But what
they learned of these, they learned
we'll. So thoroughly, indeed, that they
became to them $50 to speak real
tools WhereWith to do the actual
work, and real weapons, wherewith
to win in the actual battles of life.
By way of illustration here, allow me
to relate a circumstance that came
under my own observation:
On the day of rhetorical exercises
in the preparatory department of
certain college, young man who
would become a graduate of the col
lege at the next commencement, pre-
sented an essay for criticism. 1t was
a very brief production covering only
a single sheet of note paper. And yet,
short as it was, the professor pointed
out in it, thirty two words that were
in correctly spelled, and these, many
OF them, words that boy hardly out
of his primer ought to be able to
spell. While, as to the penman
ship, his paper looked as though a
brood of chickens had dipped their
feet in lamp black and had run q race
across the page. If that young man
could have had but one thing, ven
ture to say that a little less Greek
and Latin and a little better drill in
spelling and penmanship; little less
of what is falsely termed the higher,
and little more of what is with equal
untruth called the lower, would have
better prepared him for the actual
work of life. 1t is the veriest folly
for parents to be willing that their
boys and girls shall neglect or slide
over what is mistakenly called the
lower for the earlier attainment of
what is unduly termed the higher.
First a thorough knowledge of the
actually necessary, then get for your
children, all the comparatively orna
mental, that you can reasonably
command.
Imagine the before mentioned
young man with his So called higher
attainment, and his evident neglect
of what is falsely termed, the lower,
applying by letter for almost any sit
uation or employment, and at the
same time another, who could spell
correctly and write a decent hand ,ap
plying for the same place and work,
which of these two, think you, would
be the most likely to get the situation?
Again [ say, let no one misunder
stand my meaning. My object is not
to speak in any sense lightly of the
so called higher education, but sim
ply to impress upon parents, scholars,
teachers and all concerned, the unde
n1able truth, that you have in your
common schools the very best and the
very highest that there is, because
the most applicable to life's actual
needs. For the sake, then, of your
children estimate at their true worth
your common schools. Should the
Directors "devise" for them "liberal
things" be ready to second them.
Do not seem to require the branches
other than the law requires shall be
taught in the common schools. If
justice is done to the more important,
the time cannot be spared for the less