The record-union., 1897-02-21
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS
Copyrighted by Memo.


definite, pre-arranged shapes. Yet this
is too often attempted and too largely
successful. The result-destruction of
Individuality
In crowd no two faces are alike
though only the slightest differences
are discoverable, perhaps, when indi-
vidual organs are compared. Yet to
suit the shape and appearance of the
face BARRIERS and miliners go to elab-
oriate pains and we willingly submit.
But when it comes to the training of
the mind and the preparation for a sue
cessful life, though we know the vari-
ouS members of the family are diamet-
rically opposed to each either in tastes,
ideas. temper, disposition and intelli-
gence, yet we quietly surrender them
to the educational machine, with pos
sibly a slouchy i'll trained youth or a
self-sufffyient miss at the lever. The
grinding and forcing begins by those
| who ignore completely the physiology
of the child, and with no knowledge of
any hereditary infiuenceS, punish in
like manner the most different natures.
Like the offShOots on an eSpalier fruit
tree, every tendency towards indfvid-
uality is carefully trimmed away by the
| ma acilire teacher, in slavery TO un1for-
nifty. Graduation comes, and your SON
or your daughter stands up with others
all having traverssd SO many pages of
arithmetic so many books of Virgil;
and possibly stumbled over the pons
alsinorum (the bridge cf asses) in geo
metry Then the poor things are flung
out into the world with finished
education There in the midst of a
merciless crowd with no time to give
them Individual study, they have to
find" themselves and discover their
own possibilities in most painful fash
ion.
Lay you hand on almost any bIogra-
phy and you will find that in many in
stances the subject has been kept away
for years from the main purpose of life
by this self finding" process. He
gropes this way and that, and is as eff
feotually barred from his real function
i'm the world as tine average youth in
forced army service. AT 10 or ~ it is
altogether too late to begin looking for
indications of the line your child is best
fitted to follow From its cradle onward
you frave been in a position to note
hundred signs that could nave told you
its mental bias. But love like that is
showered on a corpse, your interest is
awakened only after the individuality
has been killed by violence or starved
by neglect
You must recognize that the magni
ficent battle for universal education has
been made a victory by Horace Mann,
DR. Barnard and a host of lesser note
in this country But we are not to
stop. Like the traveller in hilly re-
gFon, the higher we climb the further
we can see. RehnQuishing then not one
panticla of belief in education for aal'
we press forward to individual
study of each" Were you in a posi-
ton to read all the educational publ-
cations, and follow the speeches at the
various Teachers Institutes and the
Naltional Educational Association, you
would find this child study" the bur-
den of the exortations to the teacher
But I write unto you, parents, be-
cause you are many, and because you
are essential to the new purpose of
education.
Between the parent, worthy of par
entage, and the teacher, mental savior
of the race a most complete and con-
fidential feeling of common interest
ought to exist 1t would be most dar-
ing, and probably as incorrect as dar-
ing, to assert that any parents are de-
liberately opposed to the welfare of
their children. Your first interest is
your child. For it, as mother, you
would even forego food needful to
yourself; for it, as father you work
that it may be fed and clothed. This
deep, underlying interest Of the parent
in the child must now be appealed to
strenuously, as an aid to the teacher.
In your home it has shown forth its
peculiarities; when then you intrust it
to teachers also-the greater number of
them-sfncerely anxious for the well
fare Of their charges, it is your place to
give to the teacher for the good of your
child the total of insight you have
gained. In school, thrown in with
other children and compelled to strug-
gle in little world, further peculiari-
ties will show forth. These the teacher
in confidential relations with you
ought to divulge, SO that together you
may discuss the best way to train and
control the little restless being, with
such fateful possibilities within it. In
it's course upward through the vari-
Gus grades each teacher should give
the next one all the knowledge SO far
gained Of the child, and thus until
graduation.
| Think over this outline for a while
and see how much of gain there is in
vclved in it, 1t will mean fewer cruel
attempts to fit square pegs into round
holes; fewer high-spirited chill
dren tanned down at the sacrifice of
their individuality, fewer sullen ma
lures nagged at until smoldering fire
Of resentment burns out all that is
beautiful and possible in a sturdy ma
ture, fewer shrinking little hearts ter
rified into perpetual nervousness. 1t
will mean that more Of our national
hopes will step forward from school
into definite lines of work or profession
for which they are fitted, rather than
downward. as now, into bewildered,
fioundering struggle. Because you have
been subjected to all that was ill-ad-
| vised and imperfect in your up bring
ine or because you have found" your
self and come successfully upward, it
IS surely not within your heart to say,
Let others be treated as 1 have been"
The world moves, my beloved. Go
back to your childhood, and starting
from that point trace some Of the ad-
vancement in implements, In home
comforts, in buildings and other things
that have come under your own notice.
Good. These things that you can see
and handle are only q part Of the ad
vancement the world has been making.