Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-12-21

have dared to stand for truth, in advanc
OF utS popular acceptance.
Every reason once argued in support o
alcoholic drinks IS today overwhelming.
authorities in the world Our State fa.
made it mandatory that the children II
| our public schools shall be put in posses
sion OF the truths concerning it, as 6
saIeguaru gadnSt the ruin wrought by ig
norance:in view of this responsibility botf
moral and legal. the question arises
How shall we teach scientific temper
my empiric counsel. In an hour of grea;
national perplexity Horace Greeley
showed the way out of the difficulty in a
sententious phrase, never to be forgotten,
The way to resume specie payment, is
to resume" The way To teach scientific
temperance is to teach It, by the self
same methods that experience has proven
TO be most successful in imparting other
knowledge. There is no magic process.
1t cannot be impaired by hypnotic in
huence, or administered after the manner
or con, vaccination. There must be
have found books in our schools that
are not endorsed because their state
ments do not conform to the highest
scientific authority.
Some boards think the law requiring
scientific temperance instruction fulfilled
II our physiology. with something about
ing must be scientific, and scientifically
taught. We cannot succeed in this branen
unless we conform TO the primal pedago-
gle quality of adaptation. Vast numbers
OF our. scholars finish their education in
the primary school. If they are reached
at all with this subject 1t must be taught
there, adapted to their comprehension.
Oral instruction should be given during
the period that experience has shown il
to be the best method of imparting other
instruction and no longer. When child
has reached stage of development
where greater results are accomplished
With textbooks in hand, he should be pro-
vided with it in this branch, as in any
other. We should hardly consider a dis
school. an equivalent for drill in the null
duplication table in the primary school,
and yet, ] submit, We have temperance
instruction as wide of the mark as that
There is another defect in the method
of instruction in our Stale. There are
schools in the State where this subject is
given no recognized place in the schedule
of studies. No definite time and place are
assigned it, 1t depends entirely upon the
teacher how much RECOGNITION it shall
nave, and in some instances 1t has none.
nent in arithmetic and geography taught
in such a way? Would we wonder that
pupils went out from our schools unquali-
fled to meet the demands OF life in these
branches? And yet some people think
scientific temperance instruction does not
amount TO much. because it does not
teach itself! In order for the children of
our State to receive the fun benefit OF
our law, We must follow out the approved
course of study. 1t requires three lessons
Il week Tor II term of fourteen weeks
each school year, below the high school"
After. strongly recommending the school
Physiology Journal edited by Mrs. Hunt
as help to instructors, Miss Yates con-
tinued as follows:
with suitable text -books adapted 10
grade, adequate time assigned in the
course of study, THE School Physiology
journal in the hands of every teacher
the conditions are fulfilled that will rem
der our law for scientific temperance in
structIon practically successful. Thus,
Will be given to the youth of our State
counter the snares and pitfalls that have
entrapped so many in the pathway of life
Our State superintendent an the report
of last year, emphasized the need of bet
ter instruction for citizenship; and wisely
declares, Our public schools as sucn
have as their primary function the pro-
motion of good citizenship Scientific
temperance instruction is a great means
To that end. Already we are encouraged
by tangible results. There had been a
marked increase in the per capita con-
for many years. prior to 1888. But during
the past decade, the period of special
temperance activity in educational lines,
1t has decreased 80 per cent. according no
the New York Medical Record The brew
ers report a decrease of one and half
millions of barrels of beer sold in 1897,
and we anticipate the report of 1898 will
show greater reduction in it's consump-
ton. Let us increase our endeavors that
our State may receive a large measure of
the fruitage from the seeds of truth i'm
planted, IF we sow snaringly. we shall
reap sparingiy. If We. sow beautifully,
we shall reap beautifully"
when should the education of a child
begin?' "A hundred years before he Is
born,' said Oliver Wendall Holmes. You
may not lie the full result of your en-
deavors in the childhood of today or the
manhood of tomorrow But in all its full
ness it will be manifest in the age to De,
when mankind no longer blighte ed by le
norance and cursed by hereditary, shall
walk this earth in harmony with Divine
law. They shall know the truth and the
truth shall make them free