COUNTRY VERSUS CITY by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 24, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 43.

COUNTRY VERSUS CITY.

By Editor

WE have noted from time to time the superiority of the country over the city in the early education of the boy. The following, from Prof. H. W. Foster, superintendent of schools in Ithaca, N. Y., printed in the Independent of August 2, is so good that we give it to our readers. Mr. Foster's article is headed "Physical Education versus Degeneracy." He says:—

It is generally conceded that the country-bred boy has made for himself a strong record. Necessity, difficulties, effort, struggle, are essential factors in maintaining a vigorous stock. City life can be shown to lack certain essential elements in the training of a vigorous manhood. This fact becomes extremely important in view of the present drift toward the city, and the marvelous increase of the means to make life easy.

The old, ungraded district school is often given credit for the success of the country-born. The country boy's success in the world has been attained, not because of the ungraded country school, but in spite of it. The real cause lies in the home life on the farm, and not in the district school. Through that life these elements of character are directly cultivated,—fearlessness, pluck, self-reliance, activity, responsibility, patience, endurance, judgment. The boy becomes conscious of the necessity and dignity of labor, aggressive in the pursuit of his purposes; he gains skill to contrive various ways to meet difficulties, and a ready use of his physical powers. Here are the foundations of a vigorous character. Without these how shall success be attained? The boy may not, indeed, react against his environment. He will surmount his difficulties and grow thereby in manliness, or, failing to react against them, he will live unresponsive and dead to progress.

Upon the farm, labor is dignified; to rich and poor alike it is honorable. It calls for the application of intelligence. It is no mere tending of machines, to be assumed at the strident, imperious call of the whistle, to be dropped without interest the instant the whistle blows again. The child sees it not only honorable, but a necessity. Seed must be sown for the harvest, but before the sowing the plow must break the ground. Live stock must be fed, and the living animals appeal to his loving care. Fires must be supplied with fuel, that the household may enjoy the comforts of the fireside. However unwillingly he may sometimes appear to go about his toil, he never doubts the justice nor the honor of labor.

Your farm boy has responsibilities placed upon him, and his judgment is cultivated. He must rise early enough to get his chores done before school; he must get back and attend to them after school. There is wood for him to split and get in; there are cows to be milked, stables to be cleaned, live stock to be fed. He must push ahead with his work to get it done in time. He must feed judiciously, he must milk clean, so that the cows shall not go dry. He feels that he shares some of the responsibility for the sustenance of the family.

He becomes self-reliant, because he finds in himself power to do. Ox and horse are obedient to his will. The tough knot will yield at last to his vigorous axe. Where he sows, the green crops spring up and grow to maturity. He endures cold, heat, and fatigue with fortitude. For his labor he is rewarded with strength of body. He must learn to manage and repair the farm implements and machines. He is compelled to be a "handy" man. The farm has furnished a training of the vigorous mind and body in that "just familiarity betwixt mind and things" which Bacon so aptly states to be the object of education.

There is another element which the country boy's association with nature brings him, and which is wanting in that of the city lad, and that is sincerity and honesty. Not that the country boy is by nature more honest than the city boy, but the country itself is more sincere, more honest, than the city. Nature does not deceive the boy. She meets him always with commendable ingenuousness when he has learned her ways. She does not cover up; she does not hide the corrupting cesspool with a fair exterior. She does not say, "Sow thistles and reap wheat." It is man that does this, and the city is the fruit, the reflection of human effort; with all its dishonesty and insincerity.

Let us say to the farm boy, Do not long for the city. Use your opportunities for the building up of a strong, noble manhood, on the farm. Let parents study the things suggested in these thoughts. The character, the education of their children is of importance beyond compare.