The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-04-06
County School Letter

Miss Elsa Gronwall closed a sue
cessful term in Peters school No,
IS. Why are the country boys and
girls not entitled to eight or nine
months of school as we'll as the
town and city children?
This is a very good time to plant
trees around the school houses
We wonder how many teachers
and school boards are making
plans for such improvement.
The teachers and the school
board that "leave behind them" a
few good substantial trees have
left footprints on the Sands Of
lime" which will always be a
credit to them and a source of
pride and pleasure to the pupils.
The way to drive the bright,
energetic, ambitious boy from the
farm is to keep telling him, by
word and deed, that he does not
need to go to school much-that he
does not need to know much to be
q farmer. This sort of argument
has made city dwellers of many a
bright capable girl who had they
been dealt with wisely they would
have remained in the country and
been successful there.
Il is right and proper thai! e g hey
or girl should be anxious to learn,
lit is hight and proper that they
should be anxious to be intelligent,
it is right and proper that they
should nave their full right and
opportunity to prepare themselves
so that they might measure up
we'll with their fellew men and wo-
men. The Creator never would
have endowed the human race
with the power to improve intel
lectually if He had not intended
that they should improve that
ability.
1t is argued by a few hat cd
ucation does not help a person in
meeting and solving the problems
of life. These persons will cite as
proof such facts as: that General
Grant in his military campaigns
did not follow the methods and
principles advocated by the book
on military tactics which he had
studied al West Point. Certainly
he did not, he would have been a
failure if he had, for no book on
tactics, nor on any other subject,
can be made to properly fit the
circumstances of the various in
dividual situations. But these
same people do not tell US how
very much mental power and dis
cernment, how much military keen
ness and ability to grasp the real
military situations, how very
much better General Grant was
than if he had never studied some
good book on tactics. W. may
never again, after leaving school,
use the individual rules of algebra,
geometry, Latin or Greek which
We learr ed in school. but. who.
that has faithfully studied these
subjects, will say that they have
not aided him greatly in every
matter to which he has given his
attention. Edison is pointed to as
another proof that schooling is
yalueless. But the fact that Thos.
Edison became a great electrician
without much schooling is no proof
that the many books on electricity
were not of great value to him in.
his experiments, it is no proof
whatever that what others had
learned and recorded before did
not suggest to him many new ideas
and thus lead him on to great dis
coveries which otherwise he would
not have made. Edison, in the
heart Of Africa with no references
and authorities on electricity to
spur him on, would have accom-
plished nothing in that line. Lin
coin, too, is cited as another proof.
But Lincoln, like Edison, really