Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-21
Sending Babies to Public Schools

Sending Babies to Public Schools
"As the twig is lent, the tree is
inclined" says the proVerb, and
when the twig is bent out of shape
the tree will be crooked if not
dwarfed finally.
I have been a mother for a long
time. My early children died, and
| was left a childless mother at the
close of the Civil war. Two of my
boys went away inside of nine
months; then ailments were much
aggravated by malarial conditions in
a poor refugee home. Bad drinking
water, long drouth, malignant mea-
sizes and congestion of the brain took
them away at the ages of SIX ana
eleven. l found the Oldest at SIX
and eleven a very apt pupil. lie
could learn any lesson that l gave
him promptly. He was remarkaple'
The little boy of only six, the dear
est and most dutiful of children, was
slower in his educational efforts
at my knee. He hardly could place
his A-B-C's when he died. L under-
stood the difference in the mind
methods of these precious chlldreh.
What one absorbed with aVldlty at
the age of six, the other had no IN
clination for and the result was dill
ferent of course.
am reciting these facts to prove
my interest and also results. NO
two children even in the same home
are alike. What one will grasp WltE
avidity the other must be prodded
to acquire. One may be checked, the
other spurred.
Perhaps all mothers who are ear,
nest and anxious in child rearing Will
agree to what I here mention, III
their individual experiences. / mean
those mothers who indeavor to teach
them. One of the greatest hindrances
of state education in bulk, is the
cast iron methods for all public
schools, the same books, the same
grades. the same teachers and the
hew-to-the- curriculum for the
guide.
After my Ions experience as
mother and my arduous experiences
as a school teacher, at the close OF
the Civil war. do not hesitate to
declare in this presence, that all
children six years of age should pc
privileged to remain at home with
the mother as its own first teacher:
There are reported to be 100000 OF
these six-year- olds in Georgia, by
superintendent NJ. NJ. Parks.
To raise the school age to seven
would relieve the congestion III
great measure, and if the starting
place was fixed at eight years, the
child would be that much better Off,
physically and mentally.
Children should have opportunity
to expand in freedom, from strain as
to mind; like lambs and colts, they
should be ut liberty to grow in mus
Gle and bone before they are fas-
tended down to routine discipline.
They have but one time to be care
free in life. 1t is always best Tor
them; eight years of public school
education should be only\ eXacte1
from pupils who are fit and ready
to take on book learning. Babies
that need a mothers tender, private
care should not be forced to attend
public schools. before they are capa-
Bile of looking after themselves in
and about the schoolrOOm. Explana-
ton is needless, when you recollect
that a Child's health may be jeopar-
died seriously by its inapitude to
look after itself in a mass of older
and perhaps ruder children. 1t is
too much to expect a first-grade
teacher to perform such maternal
tasks or to do more for a little child
than to teach it the plain elements
of reading, writing and spelling,
when it is only a baby in mind and
daily habits.
There is universal dissatisfaction
over present methods of forcing the
compulsory attendance of siX-year
olds, when it surely taxes the
strength of mind and body of an