The Red Cloud chief., 1898-03-11
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY MEMO
copyrighted by Dave 4 Tabor

grewseme manner, Of midas Car Of
J%uggernaut. This huge structure, be-
jeweled and blood. stained, was, at GER
tain seasons of the year, dragged hith.
er and thither Owe the bodies of living
people. And in my immature iudg-
ment thought that such things could
never be, save in the land of splendor
and of plague. But Time changes all
of rs, How clearly one now sees that
these J%uggernaut cars Of prejudice
have been in many places, and ii not
quite so tangible yet quite as real as
the brutal car of India. What a jug
gernaut has been Eccleasticism Dur.
ing the darker ages Of our world
those ages that followed a great time
Of great light-it demanded from all
men the giving up Of private judgment,
it tried to compel similarity of belief
(of course impossible) and in the com
pelling it killed. Thanks to enlighten-
ment and charity of thought that car
Of human violence has wheels that
now scarcely move. What a Jugger-
naut has been education! With but
few exceptions, until a few years ago,
il demanded uniform treatment of all
children. 1t has not crushed willing
victims, but helpless little ones, who
were cast in its insensate path by those
SO deluded that they verify thought
they did righteous service TO the race.
No more than the winds car be re-
duced TO a system, q one child be
made exactly similar to another child
by giving IL similar training. 1t can
not be done and the attempting Of it
Injuries the child. Look on the Board
School System of England as it was
first organized and you will compre-
bend the automatic way in which lit.
tie heads and hearts were ruined. Let
your imagination run riot and under
stand all that ii meant of routine when
q French statesman declared one day
Oh looking at his watch: 81 know
what every child in France is doing at
this moment" But happily, just as u
better day has dawned for India and
religion, so there now grows into
strong light a new day for education
wherein the individuality of the child
is to be respected instead OF crushed
and forced and warped as it was never
intended to be.
Among children's rights therefore,
let us who want to be in the van of
progrt IS, reckon "Child Study" as it is
called. How foolish the young farmer
who strives to make his farm look lust
like his neighbours. II he graded down
this hill and plowed up that past ure,
he might secure some similarity of APP
pearance but he would destroy his own
farm in the process. The way to get
most out of his farm is to suit his treat
ment to it's peculiarities, and those pc
culiarities cannot be learned over his
neighbours fence. Behold the farm is
the child and its needs must be similar.
How natural is the question, "what
will it becOmeY" when a smiling infant
looks up in the face with all the beauty
and freshness of a new blown rose.
The answer is not to be found by pour
ing knowledge in but by drawing it
out. In other words, the new educa-
tion--the education that contains hope
for the race and Joy for suffering, i'm.
mOlated childhood-sits first at the
feet CT the child and learns from it the
needs that IL has, and then rises up to
minister to the new Individuality that
has been discovered. just as u great
teacher once said regarding Sabbath
observance, The Sabbath was made
for man and not man for Sabbath"
So says the new revelation Of our later
day, Education is to be fitted to the
child and not the child TO Education"
*.~
The child has a RICH. also to be well.
born. TO be we'll bred is mere surface
detail; but to be well born affects
every tissue, every thought, every i'm
pulse. But to make a declaration of
rights this has happened quite often
in human history by no means assures
those rights save by long years, long
centuries OF strain to secure them.
Thus does it happen that though We
a iew-are coming more and more to "a
full understanding of children's rights,
ohu many stll i've WITHOUT reallZlnp
b debt they owe to the future on be.
a OF their progeny. They snatch at
Natures pleasurable bait, trying every
means to avoid the hook, so that chill.
dren receive a heritage of life that is
unattended, and appear on the scene of
their life unwelcomed. Is this their
right? / seem 10 hear the yoiceless
ones, who are yet to live, pleading in
tones of unuttered sadness for n share
OF life that is ungrudged and that de.
liberately represents the highest and
the hottest and the best in those who
give it, These little ones whose hands
are to grapple with works that we
shall not see, whose eyes are to behold
the growing wonders and duties of a
new century, whose minds are to be
the inherit ors of the wisdom of all the
ages, whose shoulders are to be clothed
with majesty, dominion and might un.
dreamed of-what are they to usl Ev.
erything that Is worth esteeming. The
gentle spirit Of a mother, purposely
held in geutleness and in restraint, en-.
Nnra .nN. .. Ill. ~ a