Connecticut western news., 1899-04-20

coming llfef No one can reel more thankful than I do for the advancement of common school education. The printing of books appropriate for schools, the multiplication of philo- sophical apparatus, the establishment of normal schools, which provide for our children teachers of largest caliber, are themes on which every philanthro- pist ought to be congratulated. But this herding of great multitudes of children in ill ventilated schoolrooms and poorly equipped halls of instruction is making many of the places of knowl- edge in this country a huge holocaust. Politics in many of the cities gets into educational affairs and while the two political parties are scrabbling for the honors Jephthah's daughter perishes. It is SO much so that there are many schools in the country today which are preparing tens of thousands of invalid men and women for the future; so that, in many places, by the time the child's education is finished the child is fin ished In many places, in many cities of the country. there are large appro- priations for everything else and cheer ful appropriations, but as soon as the appropriation is to be made for the edu- cational or moral interests of the city we are struck through with an economy that is well nigh the death of us.
 Danger of Overstudy.
 In connection with this I mention what I might call the cramming system of the common schools and many of the academies; children of delicate brain compelled to tasks that might appall a mature intellect; children going down to school with a strap of books half as high as themselves. The fact is, in some of the cities parents do not allow their children to graduate for the simple reason, they say, We cannot afford to allow our childrens health to be de- stroyed in order that they may gather the honors of an institution. " Tens of thousands of children educated into i'm becility so that connected with many such literary establishments there ought 10 be asylums for the wrecked. It fs push and crowd and cram and stuff and jam until the child's intellect is be- wildered and the memory is ruined and the health is gone. There are children who once were full of romping and laughter and had cheeks crimson with health who are now turned out in the afternoon pale faced, irritated, asth- matic, old before their time. It is one of the saddest sights on earth, an old mannish boy or an old womanish girl. Girls 10 years of age studying algebra Boys 12 years of age rackins their brain over trigonometry Children unac- auainted with their mother tongue cry ing over their Latin, French and Ger man lessons All the vivacity of their nature beaten out of them by the heavy beetle of a Greek lexicon And you doc tor them for this, and you give them little medicine for that, and you won- der what is the matter of them. l will tell you what is the matter of them. They are finishing their education
 In my parish in Philadelphia little child was so pushed at school that she was thrown into fever, and in her dying delirium, all night long, she was trying to rocite the multiplication ta- ble In my boyhood remember that in our class at school there was one lad who knew more than all of us put to- gether. If we were fast in cur arith
 netc, he extricated us When we stood up for the spelling class, he was almost always the head of the class. Visitor came to his fathers house, and he was always brought in as prodigy. At IS years of age he was an idict. He lived ten years an idiot and died an idiot, not knowing his right hand from his left or day from night. The parents and the teachers made him an idiot.
 Wrong System of Education.
 You may fatter your pride by forcing your child to know more than any other children, but you are making a sacri- flee of that child if by the additions to its intelligence you are making sub traction from its future. The child wi i go away from such maltreatment with no exubercnce to fight the battle of life. Such children may get along very well while you take care of them, but, when you are old or dead, alas for them if through the wrong system of education which you adopted they have no swarthiness or force of charac- ter to take care of themselves! Be care ful how you make the child's head ache or it's heart futter. I hear a great deal about black mans rights, and China mans rights, and Indians rights, and woman's rights. Would to God that somebody would rise to plead for chill dren's rights The Carthagenians used 10 sacrifice their children Ey putting them into the arms of an idol which thrust forth its hand. The child was put into thel arms of the idol, and no sooner touched the arms than it dropped into the fire. But it was the art of the mothers to keep the children smiling and laughing until the moment they died. There may be a fascination and hilarity about the styles of education of which 1 am speaking, but it is only laughter at the moment of sacrifice. Would God there were 'only one Jeph- thah's daughter!
 Again, there are many parents who are sacrificing their children with wrong system of discipline-too great rigor or too great leniency. There are children in families who rule the house. hold. The high chair in which the in fant sits is the throne, and the rattle is the scepter, and the other children make up the parliament where father and mother have no votel Such chil- dren come up to be miscreants. There is no chance fin this world for child that has never learned to mind. Such people become the botheration of the Dr. l. fz-1z- Al 4 T Children that do not learn to obey hu- man authority are unwilling to learn to obey divine authority. Children will not respect parents whose authority they do not respect. Who are these young men that swagger through the street with their thumbs in their vest talking about their father as "the old man, t" ''the governor, "the squire" ''the old chap, or their mother as ''the old woman?" They are those who in