Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-05-19
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN !
GUY STANTON FORD, Editor.

uuf SiANiON FURD, Editor. 6
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The most satisfying thing when you
are reading a book or a newspaper,
listening to lecture or a sermon or
carrying on an ordinary conversation is
to feel that there is a personality back
of the spoken word or printed page.
To feed a thoughtful mind is to give it
what one thoroughly believes after as
full survey of the field as the thinkers s
powers permit.
Nowhere is this desire to read some
thing from somebody who speaks be-
cause he has something to say more
often untitled than in the search for
light on teaching questions. 1t is such
relief when something good is found
in this mass of pedagogical theory and
thoughtlessness. Last week [ found
something so good for teachers and par
ents that | intend to give the space in
this column for several weeks to its
publication. 1t is an article on the
school and the home in report of State
superintendent Stetson of Maine. The
general subject of the report is the
country schools of Maine and it is so
full Of good things that it ought to be
in the hands of every county superin-
tendent, director and teacher in the
state. Parts of it should be reprinted
and distributed to parts. The report as
a whole deserves to rank with the
famous reports Of Horace Mann:
SCHOOL AND HOME.
We are to look to the common schools
for the education of the masses, of the
great body of citizens termed the COM
mon people. But not to them alone.
The home has much to do here, and
somehow it must be brought to cooper
ate with school. To the two agencies
working in harmonious coordination
we must look for the building up of
people intelligent, virtuous, thrifty,
thoughtful, law loving and law abiding,
able to appreciate the good things of
life rightly lived, and so appreciative of
the best things that can make life worth
the living. 1t will not be out Of place,
then, to consider how the right training
Of the child in some of its more general
aspects, involves this coordinate action
of the school and the home, and some
of the conditions which will make such
action most efficient
1t is matter Of commoni knowledge
that the men and women who are occu-
pying most of the commanding posi-
tions in all walks and stations of life
today, came from the homes Of the COM
mon people. Whenever a man or
woman is found in professional or busi-
ness circles with unusual capacity for
the efforts Of others, or with
unusual skill in the use of his or her
own powers, it is usually found that
such person was born in a county
home, trained in a common school and
performed the work of farmers boy
or girl. 1t has become an interesting
study to statisticians to discover how
many of the presidents, members of the
presidents cabinet, members Of con-
gress, governors and other persons
holding distinguished and responsible
positions, have passed through these
This condition of affairs
is somewhat peculiar to this country;
I,,t hi1, ~ ic, ,0oa,,lior iC
of the genius of our people, and is des-
tined to be as true in the future as it
has been in the past. There is some
thing about the surroundings and infu-
ences Of some boys homes and lives,
which to an extent deprive them of the
experiences which develop those mas
terful qualities necessary to ones sue
cess when tiey reach a point in life
where they must depend upon their
own efforts. The fact that a boy has
few cares and little Of what is known as
personal responsibility, accounts for
that peculiar quality of character which
makes it difficult for him to grapple
with trying situation and wiring sue
cess out of hostile circumstances.
Again the boy reared in afluence
knows the obstacles which must be
overcome if he is to win first place in
the fields in which his father or his
fathers associates have won their pre-
eminence. The fear induced by this
knowledge, together with his lack of
physical and mental sturdiness, renders
it difficult for him to enter upon COL
test which seems so unequal. On the
other hand, the country boy is trained
from his youth up to overcome obsta-
cles, grapple with difficulties, act upon
his own judgment and be personally
responsible for doing work under try
ing circumstances. These struggles
develop in him those qualities which
urge him to enter the conflict in larger
and more difficult fields. He starts in
the race ignorant of the trials which
beset the professional or business mans
career. This ignorance saves him from
Encouragement and his native resolution
and desire to excel push him into the
fight, and once in he knows no Issue
but victory.