Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-04-26
Talks on School affairs.

The following is part OF an eX-
tremely interesting and suggestive
address delivered by Ex-Gov. w. d.
Hoard at the Southern Wisconsin
Teachers association, Racine, April
Z, 1900.
1T has been repeatedly affirmed,
and | think the statement is true,
that 90 per cent. of the native born
farmers sons and daughters of this
country have never attended any
other school than the country district
school. More than that, thousands
upon thousands of men in all the
ranks of business life, who were born
on the farm, have never had any other
schooling than that obtained in the
Little Red School House.
Not man among this great host
WHO have come from the peoples
college, but will lament most bitter
ly three things in his school life.
a. The lack of good teachers.
o. The lack of thorough, practical
training in those studies that would
have prepared him best for the life
that fate had in store for him. (3.)
His own lack of devotion to his stud
les while in school.
What can be done to better this
state of affairs? For the first difficult
ty, the farmers are greatly to blame.
They have held the penny of expense
so closely to their eye that they can
not see the thousands of dollars worth
of result to their children, which lies
behind it. Then the teachers are not
altogether blameless. They have al
! lowed themselves to be dominated
with the idea that the great object
and end of their profession is the So
called Higher Education" They
have unwittingiy, perhaps, educated
the youth OF the ianC away from the
farm and industrial life, by calling
such education, in effect, lower edu-
cation. They have forgotten the
great basic truth that the deepest,
most abstruse of all problems are
those that confront the man who un-
dertakes to deal with natures laws
and wress from nature a livelihood.
The banker, the editor, the mer-
chant and the lawyer are called upon
to interpret the operation of man
made laws only. The farmer and
physician must interpret the laws OF
God. 1t requires deeper intellectual
insight to interpret the laws of God
than 1t does the laws of man. 1t has
been wittily said that the earth, how
ever, most kindly covers the mistakes
in judgment of both doctor and farm
er. BLESSED Earth, Mother of us
| all.
What an advantage it would have
been to every farmer-bred boy who
becomes farmer, if a little more
money, little more foresight and a
little more of what Guizot calls 1.-The
Genius of Common Sense" had been
expended in the humble school of his
youth.
Aristotle said, Teach the boy that
which he can make use of when he
becomes a man" We are sure that
will mean something practical and
constructive in him, and for the COM
monwealth in after life. Some teach
ers who are greater than Aristotle are
disguised with the narrowness of such
a mental ration, and they construct
men who cannot make use of what
they learned. Is this wisdom?
DR.. Priestly, in 1865. wrote these
words: 1.-The studies of youth should
| tend to hit them for the business of
| their manhood. The object of their
attention and turn of thinking in
younger life should not be too remote
from the destined employment of
their ripper years. If this be not at
| tended to, they must necessarily be
mere novices upon entering the
world; be almost unavoidably embar-
raised in their conduct, and after all
the time and expense bestowed upon
their education. be indebted to a
series of plumbers for the most useful
knowledge they will ever acquire.
want to see greater sense of re-
sponsibility in parent and teacher con
corning what is taught in our country
schools; greater responsibility for the
success OF the agriculture OF the state
that comes ont Of it and goes into II. E
INPASoING bv !. Weber shoe
store just pause am take look IT BIZ,
grand window display 81 all kinds OF
footwear. Is the finest display q
ii, kind ever plasej oa exhibition in
tic city