Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1875 — VALVE OF HOME SCHOOLS. [ARTICLE]

VALVE OF HOME SCHOOLS.

. Nearly eighteen hundred years ago, in the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan, Pliny the Younger, who is accounted among the world’s great men, wrote to his friend Tacitua thqse words: Being lately at Comum [ComoL the place of my nativity, a young lad, son to one of my neighbors, made me a visit I asked him whether he studied rhetoric, and where? He told me he did, and at Mediolanum [Milan]. •'And why not here?”. ’“Because,” said his father, who came with him, “We have no professors.” Iso, said I; surely it nearly concerns you who are fathers (and very opportunely aever&l of the company were fathers), that your sons should receive their education here, rather than any where else. For where can they be placed more agreeably than in their own country, or instructed with more safety than at home under the eye of their parents? .i 1 Upon what very easy terms might you, by a general contribution, procure proper masters, if you would only apply towards raising a salary for them the extraordinary expense you sustain for your sons’ journeys, lodging aud for whatever else you pay iu consequence of thqir being educated at a distance tronf home; as pay you must for every article of every kind. Though I have no children myself, yet I shall willingly contribute to a design so beneficial to mv native country, which I consider as ray child or my parent; and therefore I will advance a third part of any sum you may think proper to raise for this purpose. I would take upon myself the whole expense, were I not apprehensive that my benefaction might hereafter be abused and perverted to private ends, which I have observed to be the case in several places where public foundations of this nature have been 'established. For though they may be negligent in disusing of another’s bounty, they will certainly be cautious how they apply their own, and will see that none but those who deserve it shall receive my money, when they must at the same time receive theirs too.

Let my example, then, encourage you to unite heartily in this useful design; and be assured the greater the sum my proportion shall amount to, the more agreeable it will be to me. You can undertake nothing that will l>e more advantageous to your children, nor more acceptable to your country. Your sons will, by these means, receive their education where’ they received their birth, and be accustomed from thejrjufancy to inhabit and alfect their native soil. May you be able to procure professors of such distinguished abilities that the neighboring towns shall be glad to draw their learning from hence; and as you now send your children to foreigners for education, may foreigners, in their turn flock hither for their instruction. What was good advice to the men of Como eighteen huridred ( years ago, is also goot£ advice to the parents of Jasper county to-day. If then it was questionable policy to send children among strangers and away from home influence to receive instruction, it is just as questionable to-day. If the love of home and birthplace prompted men to establish institutions of learning in their native cities eighteen centuries back, the same considerations should have equally potent influence now. If then wise men considered it bad man agement to send their money to foreign pans, to build up foreign institutions and mantain strangers, when it might be kept at home to build up home institutions and encourage home talent and home enterprise, what shall be thought ot those who, to-day, with the examples of history and eotemporaneous times before their eyes, continue to transport their children from home and its influence to be managed, reared and tanglit by others, and send abroad riioney to enhance the wealth and prosperity of strangers? Within twelve months not fewer than twenty of the youth of Rensselaer and its immediate vicinity have gone to other places for instruction. They represent such families as th<v. e of A. McCoy, A Thompson, E. T. Harding, Rial Benjamin, Hon. R. S. Dw'.gyins, F. ,J. Sears,’ S P. Howard, W. Jr Wright, David Novels, Berry Par is, D. T. Halstead, John Florence, John Coen, Jno. M. Austin, Lufld Hopkins, A. D. Swam, and Judge E. P. Hammond. They have at i tended the schools at Lebanon, 0., Alin Arbor, Mich., Evanston, 111., ihe Purdne University, the Valparaiso College and at Logansport. There are or have been others, probably, that are not now' recollected; besides several from Remington and other parts of the coutaty. No doubt forty pupils have been away to attend school during the year. The cost of board, tuition, traveling expenses and incidentals can not ! average less. than fifty dollars each per quarter; and probably will rreariPi 'i tllf TiigKcr*lig ure. This

atnonnis to the aggregate snm of two tboasgnd dollars each term of school, or eight thousand dollars per annutp—the rate of yearly tribute and drain from Jasper county for the support of foreign institutions, the maintenance of strangers, and to add to the wealth and prosperity of other towns. Eight thousand dollars is the lawful worth of the use of eighty thousand dollarsfor one year. Is it good policy for people here to pay it into the laps of other towns if it can be saved at home? Twenty thousand dollars, worth two thousand dollars per annum, will build and famish with apparatus and everything complete a house pf sufficient capacity to accommodate all of the advanced pupils of Jasper county. Three thousand dollars a year, or the interest on thirty thousand dollars, will procure a corps of competent teachers to instruct them. Here, then, would be a saving of three thousand dollars per year, or the interest on thirty thousand dollars, to tbepock-

ets of Jasper county parents, in addition to the satisfaction of the company of their children and the pleasure which arises from watching the unfolding, petal by petal, of the flowers of their minds. Not only this, but an institution would be established in our midst to reflect credit and honor upon the enterprise of those who founded it, and add to the value of their property. It would also be the direct means of bringing to reside here men, women and families of culture, education and refinement, whose influence upon society could be none other than beneficial. Five thousand dollars a year would provide school room, school apparatus and competent teachers more than necessary for the pupils of this county, and students from localities less favored might come apd partake of tlieie advantages without in any manner interfering with those fdr whom they were especially designed. In tins way the expenses of the institution upon its founders, would be very much lessened; and the drain of money now flowing out of Jasper county for educational purposes would be forever stopped, while a continual iufiux from the source named would soon manifest the stimulating influence of its presence by new improvements and other evidences of material prosperity.