The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-07-30
Living Issues.
WHY DO WE SEND CHILDREN TO THE
COMMON SCHOOL?

the parents OF children, ana we 6nlnK
Justly, who insist that their children
shall "study their books" rather
than bugs and things in the common
schools and besides because they
interfere with the curse of study
and much of the time in the busy
season keep the boys out. We be-
lieve she is quite right in stating
that much of the ineffciency of the
country schools is due to the parents
themselves and, therefore, we think
it worth while to raise the question +:
What is the object of sending a child
to the country school?
Of course the reply will be, to get
an education. That only provides
another question, what is an educa-
ton and what use is it? Why do we
want our children to be educated in
the common schools? A clear and
distinct answer to this question
would be a very great help in i'm
proving the schools. If we stop and
ask ourselves the reason why we do
many things, we put ourselves in the
way of finding out how best TO do
them.
Now, what is an education? Is it
a certain amount of knowledge
poured into a child's mind as you
would water in a bucket? Not by
any means. 1t is simply the develop
ment of the latent powers and capa-
cities of the mind and without much
reference to the use that is to be
made of these powers afterwards.
To be able TO see things as they are
and not as they appear and to tell in
plain, simple English what you see
is a very large part of all education.
There are three fundamentals in
every education, the ability to read,
write and calculate, or the ''three RS,
reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic."
But these cannot be poured into a
child, he must for, himself learn to
read, learn to write, and learn arith
metic. 1t is only by reading that he
can put himself in touch with the
world of thought. 1t is only by
writing that he can communicate to
the absent. Tt is only by a knowl
edge of the science of computing by
figures that he can keep accounts.
Hence these three lie at the base of
all future education.
The child, however, must learn
these for himself. The main help
that the teacher can give him is
through the contact of his mind with
hers, stimulating, helping and en-
couraging him TO master these fun
damental principles. All these should
be taught thoroughly in the public
schools. Writing and reading of
course involve spelling, pronuncia-
ton, punctuation, etc. The child
must learn these for himself with
the teacher as a helper. If the child
be not thoroughly grounded in these
elementary studies it can never sue
coed. These lie in the very founda-
ton of all education.
But while the child is acquiring
these he may as we'll acquire a great
deal more, much of which is not
written in books and never will be.
1t is important for the boy or girl to
be able to tell the different kind of
snakes, toads, bugs, birds, leaves
and plants in the neighborhood of
the school house as vii as to learn to
read, to write or to cipher. 1t is
even more important for the child to
know how to calculate the area of
fathers corn field or the number of
cubic feet in a crib or the amount of
bushels in a pile than it IS to do any
of the sums in the book. In fact he
does the sums in the book only to
enable him to do those out of the
book. 1t is quite important for him
to know the insects that inhabit his
fathers farm and to discriminate
between those that help his father
and those that hurt him as it is to
know the capitals of the various
States or to bound the Chinese en-
pire. In fact, it is of vastly more
importance. If through the infu-
ence of the teacher the child is
walked up and becomes eager and
anxious to know things, to get &C
quainted with the school house and
surroundings, with the neighbor-
hood and the life that is in, on and
I'VE it there should be no trouble for
it to learn to spell, to write, to read