The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-02-25
EDUCATION AGAIN.
MOST VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS
10 TEACHERS.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
Some Rambling Thoughts.
(Copyrighted.)
BY "NEMO."

(Copyrighted.)
Let us dismiss the idea once and for
all that school ought to be sort OF
brick machine to force the children
into definite, pre-arranged shapes. Yet
this is too often attempted and too
largely successful The result,-de-
structlon of individuality.
| In a 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 milIlners go to elabor-
ate pains and we willingly submit.
| But when it comes to the training of
the mind and the preparation for a
successful life, though we know the
various members of the family are dia-
metrically opposed to each other in
tastes, ideas, temper, disposition and
intelligence, yet we quietly surrender
them to the educational machine, with
possibly slouchy ill-trained youth or
a self-sufficient miss at the lever. The
grinding and forcing begins by those
who ignore completely the physiology
of the child and, and with no knowl-
edge of any hereditary influences, pun
ish in like manner the most different
natures. Like the off-shoots of an
Espalier trult-tree, every tendency
towards individuality is carefully trim
med away by the machine teacher, In
slavery to uniformity. Graduation day
comes, and your son or your daughter
stands up with others, all having trav-
ersed so many pages of arithmetic, so
many books of Virgil; and possibly
stumbled over the Pons Aslnorum (The
Bridge of Asses) in geometry. Then
the poor things are flung out into the
world with finished education. There
in the midst of merclless crowd with
no time to give them individual study,
they have to "fnd" themselves and
discover their own possibilities in most
painful fashion.
Lay your hand on almost any blog-
raphy and you will find that In many
instances the subject has been kept
away for years from the main purpose
OF life by this 'self-fnding" process.
He gropes this way and that. and is as
effectually barred from his real func-
ton in the world, as the average youth
is forced into army service. At fifteen or
twenty 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 have been in posi-
tion to note hundred signs that could
have told you its mental bias. But
like love that is showered on corpse,
your interest is awakened only after the
individuality has been killed by violence
or starved by neglect.
You must recognize that the magniti-
cent battle for universal education has
been made a victory by Horace Mann,
Dr.. Barnard and host OF lesser note in
this country. But we are not to stop.
Like the traveller in billy region, the
higher we climb the further we can
see. Rellnquishing then not one par
ticle of belief in "education for all" we
press forward to individual study OF
each" Were you in position to read
all the educational publications, and
follow the speeches at the various
Teachers Institutes and the National
Educational Association, you would
find this "child-study" the burden of
the exhortatlons to the teacher.
But 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 paren-
tage, and the teacher, mental saviour OF
the race, a most complete and confden-
tial feeling of common interest ought
to exist. It would be most daring, and
probably as incorrect as daring, to
assert that any parents are deliberately
opposed to the welfare of their children.
Your first interest is your child. For
ut, as mother, you would even forego
food needful to yourself !; for it, as father,
YOU work that it may be fed ard cloth
ed. This deep, underlying interest OF
i 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 peculiarlties !; then when you
entrust it to teachers, also-the greater
number OF them sincerely anxious for
the welfare of their charges-it is yonr
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 struggle in little world, further
peculiarities will show forth. These
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