The Washington times., 1920-05-09

Inc man VINO would Olush III ne
put the accent on the wrong syl-
liable in the world Iphigenia, say
the ante-pensult instead Of on the
penult. where il belongs, is not
ashamed 10 confess that he never
heard Of a ductless gland.
Many ask, "Of what use is edu-
eationT Mathematics builds your
houses, railroads and bridges.
Physics gave you the steam en-
glne. Chemistry gives your fer
tilizers, medicines, dyes, methods
OF obtaining copper, zinc, gold,
also your home distilling.
Biology, study of life, is worth
while. Ii tells you that when your
sheep are dying of "the stsggers"
you can save them by taking out
a little "entozoon" pressing on
the brain. A soft spot in the skull
tells where.
Is geology useless! Not exactly.
Millions have been saved by
knowledge that in digging for coal
you should stop when you come 10
a fossil found in old red sand
stone. There is never any coal be-
low that. And so on indefinitely.
Mothers should read Spencer's
pages on Results Of Parental Ig-
norance." For one parent that Sc
riously studies the problem of
raising children, forty farmers
study seriously the problem of
raising pigs. Pigs cost money and
are salable.
About the mind, as about the
body Of the child, parents know
little.
"She (the mother) knows moth
ing about the nature of the emo
tions, their order of evolution,
their functions, or where use ends
and abuse begins. She is under
the impression that some Of the
feelings are wholly bad, which is
not true of any one of them; and
that others are good, however far
they may be carried, which is also
not true Of any one Of them"
Necessary instincts and emo
tions the mother looks upon with
horror. She acts upon her child
"by threats and bribes, or by. ex-
citing in it desire for applause,
thus cultivating hypocrisy, fear
and selfishness in place Of good
feeling"
And while insisting upon truth
fulness, she constantly sets an ex-
ample of untruth by threatening
penalties which she does not inflict.
While inculcating self-control, she
hourly visits on her little ones
seedlings for acts that do not call
for them
The formal instruction of chill
dren is begun too soon, instead of
letting them learn, as one should
all through life, that which one
learns most easily at the time.
Children at first should learn with
their eyes and ears only, getting
in that way, before they are seven,
more information than in all the
rest of their life put together,
including the use of their language
and their bodies. They must not
then be crowded with such things
"as grammar, which should come
quite late"
When a child dies of SCARLET
fever and the doctor says it died
because weakened by overstudy,
it is for the mother small conso-
lation that she can read Dante in
the original"
We haven't many mothers in
this country that read Dante in
the original, but many that fore"
knowledge unwisely upon their
children, running digestion and
nervous system, foolish enough to
believe that the way ito give my
child the advantage | lacked is to
stuff that child with knowledge As
a Strasburg goose is stuffed with
food to make it's liver swell.
An ant in the path is much in
terested in the dead caterpillar,
not interested in the live cattle.
And, as Herbert Spencer puts it,
'men are Indifferent to the grand
est phenomena-care not to IN
derstand the architecture of the
heavens, but are deeply interested
in some contemplate controversy
about the intrigues of Mary Queen
of Scots" Or as an American
might put it, care a lot about
scandal but not cuss about as
tronomy."
As you read and think about
education, slowly climbing the hill
to old age, do not be discouraged
by the mass Of detail or let it hold
you back
The young surgeon, if conscien-
tious, must study anatomy at
least half a dozen times, and
think he knows it each time, be-
fore he KNOWS it. You need not
know so much about it. There
were when Herbert Spencer wrote
three hundred and twenty thous-
and species Of plants, two million
different kinds of animal life, and
many more Of each are listed now.
With books, even the great
books, it must be with the major
ity Of us as with cities. You may
know something about Paris. Lon
don, Rome, the Athens of TODAY