The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-08-31
LAST CENTURY
LESSON TO THIS
Success Dependent on Saving
and Economy.
EDUCATION FIRST OF ALL
Money for This Far More Wisely Spen
Than for Prisons ana Asylums; and
kIndergartens Pay Better Re-
turns Than High Schools.
EDUCATION FIRST OF ALL
BY Miss a. N.Parker.

,(,y by the nineteenth is tnat success
Is dependent almost wholly upon saving
oi waste and economy of EFFORT. The
main trend OF modern industrial life is
towards stopping little LEAKS, preventing
unnecessary duplication, making every
tinng that is done effective. BY econo-
Hizing his labor and time, by making
Steam. electricity, and machinery do the
GEGdSerE, While he does the thinking.
tic modern man has been enabled not
cAlN to accomplish infinitely more than
did ms grandfather in the course of a
sngse lifetime, but also to make that
lie richer in physical comfort and in III
telIectual and aesthetic pleasure.
But, while this principle of economy of
effort and prevention of waste is seen
by almost everyone to be of the very
essence of success in business and in
manufa curing. only a small minority
yet perceive that the same principle APP
pies with equal force in all our social
relations Waste and misapplcat ton OF
eHori are just as h,irtIul in the affairs
O. a town ". of a household as in those
OF mill or a dry goods store NO city
o. town can be well governed until its
citizens learn thai extravaganza in pub
]ic affairs is fully harmful as in in
Gustrial affairs: +, household can be
smoothly run until its members realize
that shiftlessness and misdirected effort
there are quite as nischiepous a in car
lying or a shop
EDUCATION MOST IMPORTANT.
Now, me most important business OF
every community and of every household
is the education Of its children. for igno-
rance is the mother OF vice and the
grandmother of social destruction.
Therefore in education, beyond all other
social forces, economy of social effort
and prevention Of moral and Intellectual
waste are of the Utmost consequence.
For almost all the present expenses of
city or town-aside from those of
rcaintainng its schools and its streets
arc preventabe expenses. OUTLAWS made
r"cessary only because of ignorance vice
and crime Were al the citizens virtu-
Gus. would there be need of police?
Were all builders good workrnen, all
householders careful in the use of fire
all men equally Mortified at the thought
OF incendiarism. woulu there be need of
n fire department? Were all those who
live in town prudent, moral and indus
t!ious. would there be need of aims
houses. insane asyluns, prisons? Yet
taeSe Items of expenditure, adGed to the
money wasted by incompetent or ras-
cally officials. make up a large part of
the outlay for which the people of every
'own or city are submitted 10 taxation
We're ii possible to stop these wastes
how much more the city and the city's
people would have to spend upon useful
things. upon positive benefits and pleas
nres.
The perfect public education would de-
Nelop every child in the direction best
suited to his needs and capacities, would
do this at a minimum cost of money and
labor. and would result in making OF
every child the best citizen that it is
possible for him to be. OF course this
ideal is and always will be Impossible.
OF attainment. Human effort IS too
feeble and human shortcomings are too
potent to permit of developing simply h.,
education, every boy and girl inro or
fective citizenship. But the ut,uost
strength of every community should be
spent towards this ideal. striving to :each
ii by the greatest economy of social
effort and with the least loss in socia
waste.
The first principle of economy of effort
is to begin ones work early. 1t is childs
play TO dam a rill as it energies from the
parent spring; ii costs millions of dollars
to dam that same stream grown into 4
broad river Anyone, by twist of his
hand. can break sapling but powerful
machinery alone can hew that saplng
grown into a giant oak. A boys finger
placed in a tiny leak saved Holland from
an inundation that later no human power
could have stayed. The same is true CT
education. A good teacher can correct
in a child of four a habit that at twenty
years of age the whole Faculty of a.,
university could not eradicate. To benz
the character of little child is almost
AS easy as to twist the sapling: but to
straighten the character OF an evilly-
nurtured boy of fourteen is nearly as
difficult to sway the giant oak. The
little bad traits of the small boy or girl
can be stopped by means as little: but
the criminal propensities of youth OF
seventeen no human power can overcome.
To economic its forces then, and to
stop the frghtful social waste due to
youthful vice and crime. the public
school must get hold Of the children--of
those many unfortunate children, that is.
whose parents have no inclination or no
time to train them properly at home-at
the earliest possible moment. AT three
four years of age almost everything
IN the child works in favor of the tea cher;
al eight years. Of age many things IL
him work and strive against her. AT
four the child's character is plastic and
needs but the slightest effort to turn ii
towards the right; at eight the will
power is much stronger and fights harder
against being led. AT four the child has
few interests outside the school and car
be brought to complete absorption in the
he is beginning to have many outside
interests to which the school Will pe
subordinate IL not, indeed. antagonistic.
AT four the child tends to regard his
teacher as a sort Of goddess. whose word
is law and whose edicts are supreme: al
eight the teacher will occupy no such |
commanding position and will be for |
eunate II she IS not, in the boys mind. |
Inferior in authority to any corner loafer |
AT four the child be appealed to |
through the anecfions-that shortest road |
70 character; at eight he must be gov |
armed almost wholly by authority. The |
GARNER the school can catch the child |
then the greater will be its hold upon |
aim. the better will be its chances of &C |
comprising that chief end of all educa-
don-the formation Of good character.
A child OF three or four cannot, how
over. be sent, probably, to an ordinary
school. though in many cases it would
be better for him TO be studying his