Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1871 — The Education of Boys. [ARTICLE]

The Education of Boys.

A whiter in the Providence (R. I.) Journal offers well-considered advice, as follows: Each child has a natural aptitude for, and gratification in, some especial study, employment or pursuit. One takes to music,.another to mathematics; some boys turn spontaneously to mercantile undertakings, others are bom book-worms; it is the duty of parents to acquaint themselves with, and direct these inherent tastes. Few peoplC can do many things well, but almost all, with the proper training, could perform successfully, if not with marked superiority, in some one line of life. Superadded, then, to the general education requisite in all conditions, there should be the full development of any particular valuable faculty. 1) Excellent are our common and high schools, and important as may be a collegiate education, there is the further necessity—if the highest attainable point is to be reached—that the dedication of the life be made to that calling which the natural capacity .of the youth best fits him for. A large proportion of those who are stranded in the early part of the voyage of life, are wrecked because they, or others for them, have mistaken their vocation. They go on year after year, like an axle that is always cither robbing in its bearings, or hot from friction. They may rob j through with a decent success, but it is by haid effort and.-with an abiding dissatisi faction. We are inclined to think that the rage for entering professional life is somewhat abating, it having given place to that thirst for gofil which is promised a speedier satisfaction in commercial life. But every | youngster desires to begin where his father | left off, and most are likely to leave oft' : where their father began—in poverty.,