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Show Good Advice. If lynching were ever Justifiable it would be In the case of a parent who pushes a child In his studies. Norbcrt Weiner, the 0-year-old son of Prof. Leo Winer of Harvard, Is readyto enter en-ter that great university on the book-learning book-learning basis. He is well prepared In Latin and Greek, higher mathematics, mathema-tics, the sciences, etc. True, his eyesight eye-sight has been injured In the cramming cram-ming process, but what does that matter? Talk about child-labor laws! What we need is a law that will take Intelligent Intelli-gent and well-to-do parents by the nape of the neck.and shake some common com-mon sense Into them when they set out to slowly kill their children by forcing their minds. What does the gain of a year or two, or even 10 years, stolen from the childhood of a boy or girl signify? Rotter let the child develop rationally ration-ally all round during his natural infancy, in-fancy, up to full maturity; the mature ma-ture mind can grasp a subject in a fraction of tho time the immature mind requires. You can force the child mind to do astonishing stints, but Is the child a freak to be exhibited exhibit-ed for the wonderment of others, like an educated pig? In most cases the forced child will die off, or suffer later from arrested development and have to repay with compound' Interest for the vitality that was'spent so recklessly In making mak-ing h'lm show off while undeveloped. God knows how many fine minds are snapped and ruined by this overloading overload-ing system. Rear In mind It is the finest minds that break; you need not be so afraid or overworking a dull mind. Any intelligent gardener or fruit-raiser fruit-raiser knows what happens to a rose bush or tree which Is allowed to overbear over-bear before maturity. I had a fine young pear tree, and though knowing the danger I let It bear several huge pears; the result was It exhausted tho life of the tree and It died. If you let a rosebud bear too many blossoms the first ycaV it will die or at least show arrested growth and not do so well later. Exactly the same principle applies to the human mind; why not? Norbcrt Nor-bcrt Weiner, at nine years of age, may be, as Is claimed, tho youngest boy who was ever prepared to enter alirst-class alirst-class university. Rut Instead of being be-ing proud of that his parents should bo ashamed of It. Oh, how It rings the heart of a sen-sltlvc sen-sltlvc observer to see so many little children with big heads, tense, old faces, and so many wearing glasses. They are like rose bushes which In the hands of ambitious but Ignorant gardeners gar-deners have been allowed to bear too heavily the first year, thus leaving their little lives stunted and deformed deform-ed for all time. 1 have In mind a man who did not go to college until ho had seen a good deal of tho world and become be-come acquainted somewhat with men and affairs. When he went to college he found the work there comparatively comparative-ly easy and had little trouble In bcat-Irg bcat-Irg on their own ground many better "prepared" students whose equipment equip-ment embraced more knowledge but less wisdom. Wc plcadsfor less pressure on budding bud-ding minds. Even adults In our day are often wickedly overworked, but the adult Is supposed to have enough knowledge of his own streiifgeh not. to overdo. The child on tho contrary docs not know the limitations of his powers and Is in greater danger of being be-ing overburdened. Then something snaps, and It Is too late to help. Of course It Is the fashion for parents par-ents to get rid of their children by packing them off to school as soon as they can toddle. This throws on the teachers a heavy responsibility which rightfully belongs on tho parents and which they should not be allowed to evade. Of the two classes, parents and children, I believe parents arc In the greater need of education. I see little to complain of in the Intelligence displayed dis-played by children, but parental ignorance ig-norance Is a greater death cause than pneumonia Is, though the statlclans never mention It. Rut parents are mcorrlglblc'and the dullest pupils In the world. It Is for this reason partly that education seems to bring such meager results. If the parents would again come to realize their duty to' their children as they once did, Instead of shifting it on to the public school system and running off after false gods, what might not be .done? True co-operation between the home and the school, not In the Interest of cither, but In the Interest of the child alone, will yet be arrived at, and It will work miracles. Pathfinder. |
