Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1899 — The District School. [ARTICLE]

The District School.

By Merle Gwin, At The Farmers’ Institute. We are proud of the fact that the privilege of attending the District .school is not denied to any country child. For it is the school which places a poor man on an equal footing with the rich man and enables him to occupy any position or trust which the rich man can hold. In this democracy the majority and ruling class is the poor man so we must educate them and fit them for casting an intelligent vote. It is generally the case that the man with no education is the man that accepts bribes from the politician. Therefore, all children should be compelled to go to school—for it is not only a great advantage to them individually, but also an advantage and a duty to their fellowmen. Boys and girls from the country are more liable to remain out of school than those in town, because the parents, as a rule, need them at home and look ou the school work as a waste of time. This is especially the case with boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen and then is when they need the school the most and when they begin to realize some of the benefits derived from a schooling. So I will appeal to the farmer to hire a hand if need be and allow the boy to remain at his desk as long as possible. The compulsory educational law is reaping a good harvest among these boys and is a great benefit both to the individuals and to the interest of good citizenship. The course of school work should be the best possible and it is a duty to the board of education, teachers and patrons to make it the best and most practical, for they owe it to the future generation. We are indebted to the preceding generations for vast improvements in all lines of science. They lessened our labor by the invention of telegraph, telephone and even curbed

the lightning of the air and utilized it for our use and now electricity is almost indispensable and so we are made debtor to our future generation by the deeds of our forefathers. What then can we do for the country child? Can we not make the school course so beneficial to him % I that he may be able to probe yet deeper into the bowels of the mysterious? The course should train the child for life and its duties. The District school more so than any other, for sometimes the District school graduate never enters a higher school, then he must have a firm foundation on which to begin the battles of life. And we can feel that this is in a way true for the brightest scholars in our high school today are graduates from the district school. The teachers should be the best obtainable, they should be well trained, setting a good example to follow, being the best morally and leading the pupils to a higher regard for themselves. And each teacher should encourage athletics for the body is to be trained as well as the mind. The pupil himself must first be | sure of the purpose of a schooling ■i faculties ena falife better and lality with other realize the true i which sprang orefathers until oke of tyranny liberty we now will not come »abows interest u d perseverance and a determina-

tion to succeed. Many boys and girls think that the purpose of a schooling is to cram their heads full of knowledge or thoughts of other men but their heads cannot hold enough knowledge and if they do not acquire wisdom or thoughts of their own, the school work fails in its purpose to them. We often hear a scholar remark “what’s the use in'learning that, we won’t remember it.” The child is not expected to remember all he learns but if he masters a lesson his mtnd will be developed and he can use each lesson learned as a stepping stone to something higher and more difficult and then when the boy and girl has learned all the lessons set before them, and have done their duty during school they may feel assured that they will succeed and do their duty in life. And if their teachers aud surroundings have been the best you may be sure that they have become men and women of character. And as they step out into the world, putting their shoulders to the wheel of humanity the load will be raised, humanity elevated and thair duty will have been discharged both to themselves and to their fellowmen.