Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-04-19

lsMiss Florence Minis Gives
Some Effects of School
Discipline.
lDear Advertiser:
az az Tonight, several Of the faculty,
ssome from the East and some from
1.-THE west, were discussing schools, as
He is sometimes our habit, and COM
lparing those of the southeast with
fthose Of this part of the country:
H My ideas of education are para
tdoxical, and while admiring the idea
sfef knowledge, ] condemn the systems
aof imparting it, even as Dickens did.
Far be it from me however, to think
t4that my pen would ever shape such
Thoughts on paper as did his. There
fare reformers in all ages, but so few
iOf them leave their statues in Halls
4of Fame, so few are quoted years af-
per their death, as authorities, and SO
flew are recognized by their contem-
tporaries as successful revolutionists,
Ethat / fear to cast my lot with them,
tbut rather choose to make no preten-
tsions and TO write as one who knows
little, but thinks much and feels
|more.
My remarks may be combination
fof mud and gold, mostly mud, which
ilatter part will crumble away. The
former will only be minor re-echo-
ling of what other people may have
said.
Though my ideas of education are,
fso far as / am conscious of them, orr
lIginal, it is with no malice afore-
Thought, no premeditated judgment
born of prejudice, that write, but
frather with an understanding that
wishes to be constructive.
As look back upon the seven lean
years of my early school life, and the
lseven lean years that followed them,
81 marvel at the blind faith and the
Harge-eyed wonder which / felt to-
ward my teachers. Their desks were
Mt. Olympus, and they were gods or
tgoddesses reigning there. / was only
a mortal, and as such, keenly felt
my lferiority. But was not infe-
sts5, II should have taken no such
1saisparaging attitude toward myself:
/ may be inferior now, for ! am
grown, and may have fallen far short
of accomplishing at my age what
they did at theirs. But child is nev-
er inferior. He is not ignorant, be-
cause knowledge is not expected of
him. He is not of lesser Importance,
he is just child. He does not take
his place as an inferior or superior
until he has tried himself in the great
wide world.
And these remarks bring me to my
first point. Education tended to make
me, and does still tend, l think, to
make the student depreciate himself.
I read the life of Joan of Arc; /
heard of great singers; 1 was told of
great inventors and learned long pas
sages from poetry, but l was never
told that or the little freckle faced
boy who sat beside me, might some
day do what these people had done.
Like the teacher, they lived on Mt.
Olympus, and l was thing apart,
who trembled and obeyed because in
scholastic things, the teacher was in
fallible.
My idea is here that the student
should early learn that he has pos
sibilities however much he may have
them hidden under bushel.
I often think of how Caruso was
laughed at in the early days of his
singing career, because people under
estimated his abilities, and how he
proved himself great in spite of it..
Lest 1 wander too far afield, l must
say again that the student early
learns self-depreciation, and through
the long after years strives again for
that which was his birthright, deep,
abiding self-respect, and self-confi-
dence.
1 should be fool hardy to, recount
these things only as sort of auto
biography, and / would take another
person as an example did / know any
other child heart half so well as |
knew my own. My idea is this, that
having self confidence and trust of
our innate good judgment stified in
us, the student early lacks initiative,