EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG by C. W. Stone

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 4, 1876

EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG.

By C. W. Stone

How can the youth and children, best be educated?” is a question worthy of the thought of every parent. The youth of to-day are to become the principal element of society. What future society will be, then, depends much upon the character of the youth of to-day; and that character depends for its formation chiefly upon three things: natural disposition, discipline, and association.

The little child has a certain disposition, and its first characteristics depending upon the formation of the brain and the health of the body. This early, pliable disposition is fashioned and molded by whatever it comes in contact with. Parental discipline is the first influence that acts. If that discipline is not what it should be, what God demands that it should be, the natural disposition may be molded as to become the pride of the parent. If that discipline is bad the mind of the child will be molded by it just as readily; and how many bad children and evil men can we find, for the cause of whose bad qualities we may point to bad discipline in early days. This is a serious question for parents to consider.

It is a sad fact that a large portion of those who assume the responsibilities of parents are not well qualified to govern or instruct. A parent who cannot govern his child, cannot love that child as well as if trained to obedience. The child is not so lovely, and no one will regard it as he would the child that obeys cheerfully the wishes of its parents. The little child that can understand should be taught by love and firmness to obey when spoken to once. A stick should never be kept on the shelf with which to scare into obedience. The child soon learns that if he minds just before the parent reaches him with upraised stick all will be well. This is a good way to teach a child to delay as long as he dares to. Never take the stick into your hand on such an occasion unless you use it; and do not use it as long as patient, loving firmness can effect obedience without it.

The reins of parental authority are held with a very slack hand at the present day. Quite too generally do boys and girls of fifteen feel it beneath their dignity to yield implicit obedience to mother’s wishes, and they do not hesitate to do what father forbids when they think he will never know it, and in some cases they do not stop to consider that point. As long as the son or daughter has a home beneath the parental roof, it is the duty of the parents to require and enforce obedience to proper commands.

The youth cannot always be in the presence of his parents or guardians; and unless he be very strongly fortified against bad example, or wise enough to keep out of bad company, he will at such times absorb the spirit of his associates. It is very important, then, that parents know where their children are, and with what company they associate. Here is where the greatest danger lies. The boy who at home is thought by his parents to be free from those vices which have ruined so many promising young men, and brought desolation to so many happy homes, though he may be innocent now, is liable to be led into evil by fast companions. The evil may have a charm for him; he may be so carried away with the gravity of his leaders that he will begin to plot and plan secretly to be with them; and step by step will he go on, concealing from his parents what he knows to be wrong, until he loves the scenes of midnight revelry, debauchery and crime. Parents, it is your duty to know where your children spend their evenings; and doubly is it your duty to know where they are and what they are doing when they are out at midnight.

“Oh, the morals of the times!” St. Paul has well described our day in 2 Tim. 3:1—5. Please read. A great responsibility rests upon parents. Theirs it is to give the first lessons, to make the first impressions. “As the twig is bent so the tree is inclined.”

The principal part of the training which a person receives should come from his parents. How easy it is for the observing teacher of the public school to tell what kind of training each of his scholars has received at home! This leads us to speak for a moment upon the duties of parents and guardians in relation to the public education of their boys and girls.

The true teacher is keenly alive to the interests of his school. He watches anxiously every move of the school, and calculates its effects upon its character. Everything that would tend to attract the mind of the pupils from their studies, is regarded as a foe. He tries to elevate the aspirations—to create a desire in his pupils to excel. He tries to open to their view the great store-house of knowledge, and he labors to impress them with the necessity of giving their time and energy to the study of their books.

Parents are anxious to have their children improve. They wonder why it is that their children go to school term after term and still make no progress. Why do they go over the same ground so many terms and know so little about it at last? I can give you some of the reasons. The mind when overtasked will not grasp and retain every idea that passes through it. Those thoughts that are the most exciting will make the deepest impression and last the longest. When a youth is attending school, all unimportant business or pleasure should be avoided. One of the most deadly foes to the school is the party.

The party occupies the mind for a week before and a week after its occurrence, provided there be time between two parties. “Whom is John to carry?” “Who is going with Lucy?” are the important questions. The day of the party arrives. From two to twelve pupils want to be dismissed at recess to get ready for it. The guests assemble. The tin is rolled, and the pawns are paid. Sometimes singing is introduced, which is well; but if all the knowledge one ever gets is what he hears uttered at parties, he never will be noted for his wisdom. There is nothing in the party that elevates the mind or refines the manners; but the effect is powerful in the opposite direction. It gratifies the desire for chaffy chit-chat and foolery. It creates a reciprocal desire in boys and girls to be together. This, though right when regulated by common sense and sound judgment, is allowed to rise to such a pitch as to make boys and girls silly and imprudent. On every occasion the boys are on hand to see the girls home. It is so apparent in many cases that we fear the evening prayer-meeting itself would lose its charm for each if the other were not there to go home with.

We have watched the working of this evil carefully, have noted its effect upon the mind of the pupil; we have compared the advancement of the pupils when attending to nothing but their school duties with the progress of the same ones while suffering the pangs of the girl-boy mania; we find here a fruitful cause of slow progress in books. The pupil may, by putting all his energies at work when he does study, contrive to recite very well; but he will not remember. He comes to the class with a green lesson just studied, and while he can remember how it looks in the book he can repeat it. Ask him about it to-morrow, and he can’t remember, but he can tell you everything that was said and done at the party last week. Give me a lesson that is ripe, one that was learned yesterday, one on which the mind has had time to dwell.

Let me speak especially to parents. I need not tell you that your school costs money—you are alive on that point; but I cannot say that you are awake to the duty of seeing that your children are obtaining an equivalent for your money. If you cannot discover in what the pupils seem to be interested by talking with your own children and watching them, visit the school; inquire of the teacher. The keen observer will tell you much, not only by the conversation of his children, but by their countenance and actions. Watch them closely. If they are not interested in their studies, will you not see if there is not some outside attractions that are the cause? Are they dissatisfied with some restrictions of the school-room? Find out who it is that says the most about it; find out who their leader is; ascertain the facts from the right source, and see that your children are not beguiled into wrong doing by more positive characters in school. One disaffected scholar of a positive nature will work much evil in a school in a short time. He will work as a leaven, until a disturbance is made.

Read the minds of your children. Keep posted. Guard against everything that will turn their minds from their business, the study of their books. As a teacher, we labor to impress the pupils with the duty they owe their parents and their Creator, and to improve the God-given privilege of educating themselves. We labor to interest them in their studies, and ask them to let alone parties and night rides, and give their energies to the business of school. Do parents want a successful school? Do they want to see their children advance? Let them co-operate with the teacher in shielding our school from the contaminating influence of parties, late hours, and evil associates. We leave the subject right here. Twenty articles of this length would fail to express all that we feel upon the school question. We want to see good results from our labors. We like to see children improve; and when a pupil by orderly conduct and close application to study shows a disposition to learn, he has our respect, our love, and all the assistance he will accept. Parents, visit the school!—C. W. STONE, in Frontier Sentinel.