Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-02-08

ing. The next day | bought a Sec
ond-hand grammar and began to
study; and bought still other books
on the use of words, studying all
the time without help, hoping to
overcome my early lack, SO 1t
was with schooling. Some twelve
wears. ago as ! was sitting on the
porch OF m yhome / heard some
remark about schools, Immediate
lvI thought | would take up their
study and investigation. This l
have done ever since. | have
bought school books from the lat
est published to those Of century
ago. | have gone to Albany to
to look into the Regents eXamlna-
tions. | have watched the chill
dren in the Montessori schools. |
have had women visit schools and
colleges for girls. | have taken
my automobile and gone to kinder
gartens, to primary and grammar
schools and have gone to Gary,
Indiana, to study the system that
Mr.. Writ has wrought out in that
city.
The first thought that came to
me in the study of this question
was the difference between the
human kind and that of the lower
animals. A bird dog at a year old
will be 50 developed that he can
point and retrieve, and do any
thing that any dog can do in that
time, showing a wonderful deyel-
opment in the short space Of
twelve months, but there is no de-
velopment beyond. he may get
a little steadier as he grows older,
but that is all.
Man can go on learning as long
as life lasts with a mind that is
capable OF marvellous development.
To produce such a mind nature
does her work slowly. At year
what is a child; at two, three,
four or even five? Scarcely more
than a baby Yet in some states
a child is compelled to go to school
at the age OF five, wearying the
tender uniformed brain, giving it
a set that will deprive it of its
flcXibility, the most valuable Of
all mental assets.
When my boy was fifteen he
said he would like to own an auto
mobile. said, Buy it." He look
ed at me in establishment, but |
said, Buy it." SO he bought the
car. Think of the experience and
the business training and the con-
tldence that transaction gave that
boy. | have a friend who decided
to give his son, who is about six
teen years old, an automobile. He
had the chauffeur buy a car and
put 1t intd the garage. Thenhe took
his son into the garage and said,
This IS your car That did the
boy about as much good in the way
OF training as giving a child a
piece Of candy.
These thoughts l applied to
bringing up my boy. How well
they have worked out those who
are associated with me will clad
ly tell you, They will tell YOU
that at the age Of twenty-four
when most boys have no know
ledge OF banking, nor of handling
money, ne is fully trained bust
ness man, successfully managing
Tor me factory in distant city.
! would not allow my boy to study
LATIN. Life is too short to learn
English fully, and mixing Latin
with 1t only confuses it. Nor
would | allow him to study psv-
choiogy, nor logic-studies that
could have been introduced into
the schools only by the unwise
The human mind was not made to
remember much, it was designed
Tor thlnking;and in the efforts that
are made IN the schools to have
1t retain much, it is injured, and
sometimes even destroyed.
l went to work on a farm when
was about thirteen years of aoe
and IN looking back over those
days 1 can think Of nothing that
gives so wide development to a
ooy as working on a farm: and
II l had not had a country Mace
where my son could run a launch
ana work in other ways, thinl,
! should have let him live on a
farm for a while. The Times we
90 give the normal nj natural
development to the mind. Poring
over the stuff that is in books IS
harmful and much study produces
only freaks.
l have written a little now and
Ihen on schools, but l think that
later, from the large amount of
information that have gathered I
VIII write a more complete story