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The R. J. Schoolmaster.

AUGUST, 1881.

VOL. VII.

For the Schoolmaster.

Patriotism.

NO.8.

But the design of this article is, to show the necessity of inculcating PATRIOTISM, as one material part of education.

and liberty follow from the government of intelligent and moral rulers. The wise and humane government of England, as compared with that THE public school has always been consider- of any other of the great European powers, is ed, by statesmen and legislators, as a necessary at the present time largely owing to the sound agency for the cultivation of those qualities principles of her monarch, and these have rewhich make good citizens. It is a settled con- sulted, without doubt, in a great measure, from viction, that in order to have a republican gov- her careful education. ernment, stable in its character and efficient in its execution, the people must be educated, and this education must include more than the knowledge derived from books merely. There must Men who have grown up under a good governbe a training of the moral powers, in order to ment, surrounded by liberal institutions, will secure that character which will result in the have some love of country; but a certain amount choice of good rulers, and which will qualify of instruction or discipline is necessary to promen to become good rulers, good legislators and duce a full measure of this love. Our fathers, in good citizens. This must be done, to a great the revolution, sacrificed and suffered for their extent, in the schools, since so large a part of country sufficient to give them an ardent love for the time during which the principles become es- it. They taught their children to love it, but now tablished is passed in the schools. But for an- their children's children need to have the lesother very important reason, there should be sons of patriotism taught afresh. They should moral instruction in the schools, because it is be taught that they have a country which exso largely neglected, in so many families, at erts a benign and paternal influence over them. home. These qualities do not have a sponta- They should be made to understand that they neous growth more than intellectual knowledge; have protection under its government, and that they result from long-continued and faithful its institutions afford to them high privileges. training. To belong to some families gives to the individ

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The fact that the people are the rulers, ought ual great respectability and high esteem. to be distinctly understood. In countries where member of such a family should cherish for it power is hereditary, great attention is devoted a high appreciation and strong attachment. He to the education of those who are to become should be interested in everything that is spoken rulers. But in our country, power is hereditary to its honor, and sensitive to whatever is derogin the people, and it is no less important that atory. So our youth should understand that they be educated with reference to its exercise. the privileges secured to us by our country are The evil of living under ignorant rulers is a of no ordinary character, and claim, in return, most fearful one. It is prolific; prejudice, pas- the same hearty interest in its welfare. We talk much of our freedom, and still it is sion, cruelty, and a countless host of evils flow from it; while virtue, justice, peace, protection necessary to go into a country where freedom is

greatly abridged and the people are oppressed, in safe against the attack from foes without and order fully to understand how much we enjoy. traitors within. Such a love should be nurturWe understand something of the protection of ed by early and diligent cultivation till it has a good government, but this would be put in a acquired a maturity by growth. No country much clearer light by going into a country which can long prosper without such a hold on the had not power enough in its government to ex-affection of its citizens. Without friends, it falls ecute the laws and defend its citizens. A citi- an easy prey to enemies.

zen of our country, after living, even for a short No one can be insensible of the fact that much time, in one where crimes are common and go has been done of late among us to inspire a love unpunished, and criminals become bold, would of country, and it is most gratifying to find return with a high appreciation of his govern- that so much is cherished. The flags which ment, that has the power and the morality to have arisen in such numbers and with such rapunish crimes, and protect all classes. pidity all around us, and all over that portion These facts should be presented to the minds of our country which remains true to the govof children, and so brought to their comprehen- ernment, speak eloquently of patriotism. They sion that they would feel that the benefits con- are the emblems of nationality. They repreferred upon them by their country, make a sent the dignity and power of the government. strong claim to their love. They do not consid-The sight of one floating aloft arouses and er what they receive from it and what they owe strengthens patriotic feeling, and meeting them to it, till it is pointed out to them. everywhere, so distributed that we have one alWe have, as a nation, become greatly esteemmost constantly in view, this feeling is not allowed abroad for the character of our government, ed to slumber. and the degree of prosperity which our country It is an interesting fact that our institutions has reached under it. An American citizen is of learning have, in so many cases, reared flags, esteemed and has respect and protection in all for it teaches a lesson such as we now urge as enlightened countries. This character which is important. The flag discourses freedom to all esteemed abroad should be prized at home. Let beholders, and the number of young men who the idea be taught to the young.

There is an illustration of this point in the

have come out promptly and cheerfully to the
maintenance of liberty and the defence of the

flag, is most encouraging. Let all our youth be
animated by such a spirit, and our country, un-
and its liberties will be perpetuated.
der the blessing of the Supreme Ruler, is safe,

W. G. A.

events of the present time. Those States which have so promptly and so fully done what was required for the assistance of the government, in this time when it was in peril, have acquired an honorable character for their patriotism. Among a host of other loyal and liberal States, THE GREATEST NAVIGABLE STREAM OF THE Massachusetts and Rhode Island are now spok- OLD WORLD.-Admiral Hope, of the British en of only with flattering words. This shows navy, has succeeded in ascending the great river that these States have a character which claims of China, Yang-tse, to a distance of 570 nautithis commendation. cal miles from its month, without any accident, A citizen of either of these States, now living and it was stated that it was navigable for 157 elsewhere, feels a noble pride in their acts. "It miles further up, making in all 727 nautical, or is my native State," is the animating thought. about 842 statute miles from the sea. The Yang. Here is patriotism of the State to the country, tse, therefore, although it be in point of navigaproducing patriotism of the citizen to the State. tion neither the Mississippi nor the St. Lawrence, The strength and resources of the govern- far excels the Ganges, the Rhine and the Danube, ment are the result of the loyalty of the citi- is indeed the finest navigable river of the old zens. They give their influence and furnish the world. The expedition saw the Yang-tse in the Were patriotism lacking, citizens months of February and March, when it was at would not coöperate for the good of the State; the lowest, but with the rain it rises from twenty In the dry season, but when patriotism is strong, influence, servi- to twenty-five feet higher. the current, when most rapid, was at the rate of ces, property, and even life, are freely given, three and a half knots an hour, but the average and the State is rendered powerful. only two knots. This current, would, of course, Love for our country, then, is our security. be greatly increased in rate when the river was As it becomes strong and universal with the swollen, but it seems at no time to be so rapid as to be an impediment to native navigation, and of citizens, it renders the country comparatively course is none at ali to steam.

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had to get the geography and search out some of those awful Russian names with half of the alphabet in them without regard to how the letters come together, before he succeeded.

66

"MOTHER, I don't like to go to Miss Stone's school. She is as cross as a bear to us all," Well, the summer that I was sixteen I got said Louise, pettishly, as she came in from anxious to put my school knowledge to some school. I was about to ask what made my lit- good account, so I began to look about me for tle daughter think her teacher so unamiable, a school. We had school agents then to emwhen aunt Bethia spoke. She crushed her knit-ploy teachers, just as they have now in out-ofting together when no where near the "middle the-way places where they have never stopped of the needle," and I knew this augured great to consider what nuisances they are, and I could irritation of mind. talk two days, describing the odd geniuses in the shape of agents that I encountered during that search after a summer's school.

"Some of them thought I was too young

"Now," said she, "I don't hold to being over harsh with children, but if ever my fingers tingle to give a young one a good whipping, it is when he comes home from school with that book larnin',' as they called it, wasn't of complaints against his teacher. I never gave much account. They wanted a middle aged my Joseph and my Hulda but one severe whip- critter, who could make 'em mind and larn 'em ping apiece, and that was when Joe cut off the manners.' But the majority had promised their end of the maltese kitten's tail, and when Hulda schools to some niece, cousin or wife's sister, said she fairly hated good old master Greenleaf. without regard to their fitness for school duties. You know I'm slow to anger, as the Bible says, However, father succeeded in getting me a sitbut then my spirit was up." uation in a district ten miles from home, where

"But aunt," said I, "do you think that the agent knew my mother to be a good 'stiddy' teachers are never culpable?" woman, and took me on the strength of this

"That's not the question, niece. Children knowledge. ar'n't always fit for judges. They don't see things as they are, and they make mountains out of mole hills. I've kept school myself, and I wish from the bottom of my heart that these fault-finding fathers and mothers were obliged to be confined in school-rooms a few months as teachers of their own children and those of their neighbors. I'll warrant they'd be a deal wiser for it."

"I don't think that much learning had made me mad or foolish, but I did expect when I began that school to find the most of the scholars ready and willing to climb the tree of knowledge, or at least, to gather its fruits, if I only, as in duty bound, piled up the stepping stones or pulled the branches down within their reach. Of course, my expectations were not realized; and, before I had been mistress the space of one "Do tell me, aunt, did you ever teach school?" week over forty rude, prankish boys and girls, and I looked incredulously into her broad, good- I felt convinced that love or desire for useful natured face. There was not a school-marmish knowledge is not the inalienable birthright of line about it. Adam's fallen race, and became a full believer "Yes, of course I did." (Aunt Bethia re- in the doctrine of Total Depravity of the Husumed her knitting.)" "In my young days, if man Heart.' Oh! such grimaces over addition a girl could read, write, spell and cipher as far and subtraction, such heart breakings over spellas the Rule of Three, she knew enough to teach ing lessons and such downright aversions to & summer school anywhere in our region. If it anything like obedience to school regulations. does look like boasting, I will say that I was But I tried hard to do my duty toward the litthe smartest girl to learn that ever went to a tle ungrateful imps, buoying up my worn spirits district school; and when I was sixteen I knew for a time, with the thought that I should meet, the geography and Murray's grammar all by at least, with sympathy and encouragement from heart, could do every sum in old Kennedy's the parents. This fact alone shows my utter arithmetic, and as to spelling I'd like to see ignorance of the ways of the world.

the boy or girl now that could have spelled me "O dear! I don't believe people's hair turns down then. Spelling is not of so much account gray when they are young from great sorrow as it used to be-more's the pity. I remember and tribulation, for mine did not that summer. master Simpson tried to spell me down one Everybody in the district, except the doctor and night out of Webster's spelling book, but he the minister, seemed to know just how a school

bught to be kept. Neither were they backward implied that she considered me somewhat blind, about sending me hints of their knowledge but I smothered my vexation. Pretty soon a through their children; and every day my ears very old lady near me made a number of fruitwere greeted with something of this sort:- less attempts to thread a fine needle. Mother says I must sit in this seat,' or, 'Father "Please let me thread it,' said I. thinks I ought to read in that book,' until I went almost distracted.

"Massy on us, child, if you're as near-sighted as the children says, you can't do it to save your life. If you will try, jest put on my specks; they'll be a sight of help to ye.'

"Father came and fetched me home several times while the term lasted, but he declared the last time he carried me back that if I continued "Deaf and blind! I should n't have been surto lose flesh as I had all summer, when the prised after that to hear that I had a cork leg, school closed, he should have nothing but a false teeth and wore a wig. band-box and a skeleton to carry to my mo- "The gentlemen came in after supper, just ther. Poor man! he couldn't imagine how one could get so poor in flesh if they had enough to eat, and I overheard him telling the woman I boarded with to nuss Bethia up or he did not know but she'd go into a decline.'

as they do now at the evening circles, and it was then that I saw your uncle Jeremiah for the first time. He has told me since that he had heard stories about me and my doings all summer that I was a crosss-grained old maid, "I did n't go out much, for the people were and had whipped Tom Jones' little girl within all strangers and I was rather bashful then. an inch of her life. But somehow, he said, They never seemed to think that they ought to when he saw me that night, he did n't remember invite the schoolmistress to their pleasant homes, the stories at all. Well, I went to my boarding and make her acquaintance, so as to find out if house that evening, feeling as if I had just esshe were really fit to teach their children. caped from some horrid place of torture and "It was near the end of the term that I clos- dreamed all night, as I always do when I am ed school early one afternoon and entered into troubled, that I was floating on a shoreless sea a sort of a charitable circle' that held its meet- in a rudderless boat, while monstrous sharks ings once a fortnight at Deacon Stebbins'. Mrs. gaped around, just ready to devour me. Stebbins gave me an introduction to a number

"There had been a school committee appoint

of middle aged ladies, and seating myself be-ed to superintend the school in the town, but in side one of them, I began a conversation.

"It's a great misfortune to be hard of hearing,' shouted the woman in my ear, without seeming to notice my remarks.

"It is, indeed,' said I, speaking slowly and distinctly, for I thought the woman must be very deaf to speak so loud.

"Was it a bad cold that brought it on, or were you deaf when you were born,' she shouted again close to my ear.

those days they were no more faithful in discharging their duties than they are now in many places. So I had not been troubled with school committee visits and advice. But feeling somewhat proud of the progress my pupils had made during the term, I determined to invite the parents of the children, as well as the delinquent school officers, in to hear the recitations, the last day of school. I did not expect to see more than a dozen of the parents, but was ready to

"Me! did you think me deaf?' and I near-cry when the afternoon came and only two old, ly choked with laughter.

"La sake alive! you ain't deaf! Why, Jerusha Thomson said you were as deaf as an adder; and I've been pitying you dreadfully to think you ever tried to keep school.

...Then this is Jerusha Thomson's revenge upon me for keeping her after school to get her grammar lesson,' thought I, but just then the President' came up to me with a very coarse piece of knitting work in her hand.

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wrinkled women, with their knitting works,
made their appearance in the school-room to
listen to the exercises.
their needles, and I went through my lesson

with a sorrowful heart.

The old ladies clicked

"I had counted upon having a few remarks made by the minister that afternoon as a closing exercise, so after getting through with the appointed duties I turned almost mechanically to the old ladies, asking them if they had any re"Miss Haynes,' said she, smiling, this is marks to make, saying that I should be most not the nicest work that ever was, but then it happy to hear them. Just the words I had inis not trying to the eyes, and I thought it would tended to say to the minister. Mrs. Bemis, the be just the thing for you.' Her words certainly elder of the two, responded to my invitation.

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glad that you have been trying so hard to train TRANSLATED BY FOUR MEMBERS OF THE CLASS IN FRENCH,

and faithful servant.'

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GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE,

our children. An' now, boys and gals, I want you to bear it in mind that this ere dear little gal has been a working and worrying the flesh off [THE following tribute to New England on her to edicate your minds, an' you must n't schools is an extract from the Revue Nationale, forget it as soon as you leave the school-house. edited by the first writers in France. It is I wish your fathers an' mothers had come up taken from an article on Public Instruction and here to-day to see how faithful the little creeter Universal Suffrage, by Edouard Laboulaye, the has been to you. I haint much larning, you all eminent Professor of Law at the Law Faculty know that by my talk, but I know when folks of Paris, and the author of a most admirable do their work well, if I can't tell jest how it's translation into French of Channing's Works :] done. An' it's my mind that you boys and gals Among the countries which have felt most have larnt well, an' that your schoolmarm de- the importance of the question, the United sarves to hear the text, Well done, thou good States should be mentioned. Originally, without doubt, it was religious zeal which caused "Mrs. Bemis sat down, and I tried hard to them to make incredible sacrifices in fighting keep my tears from choking my voice as I dis- against ignorance; it is this which explains the missed my school. Dear old soul, could the high degree of enlightenment and of morality minister himself have spoken words half so to which a people has attained, that ordinarily soothing to a weary, unsustained teacher? Peo- we like better to condemn than to study. But ple may talk and preachers may preach that we politics are intimately related with their religious ought to lean upon a Heavenly Father's arm interests. In proportion as liberty strengthenfor support in time of trial, and this is all well ed in the United States, they understood that enough, but 1 know - everybody knows - that popular education interested not alone the trusthuman arms to lean upon, the voice of human worthy; they saw, they felt, that in this they sympathy, are great helps and consolations at had for the republic a question of life or death. such times; and to no person in any situation An ignorant democracy is a condemned demoof life are words of sympathy and encourage- cracy. On the other side of the ocean they have ment so necessary and so often denied as to the not become deluded on this point. Let us lisschool teacher. ten, for example, to what was said in 1821, by "I hardly need to say, that the remarks of one of the most celebrated citizens of America, old Mrs. Bemis did me a vast deal of good, and Daniel Webster, at the moment when Massathat I went home half willing to undergo the chusetts reformed her constitution and derived same trials another summer. But father and profit from this reform, by giving a new impulse

mother come to the conclusion that schoolteaching didn't agree with my constitution, so after I had regained my lost plumpness they consented to let me go to the factory. I laid by money enough in three years to set me up in housekeeping in good shape, and then Jeremiah and I got married and settled down on a farm for life.

to the schools:

"New England may be allowed to claim for her schools, 1 think, a merit of a peculiar character. She early adopted and has constantly maintained the principle, that it is the undoubted right and the bounden duty of government to provide for the instruction of all youth. That which is elsewhere left to chance, or to

"I don't know as I am sorry now that I had that little experience in school-teaching. One charity, we secure by law. For the purpose of right-minded woman can do a deal of good in public instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation in proportion to his property, and a neigborhood; and when strangers come into our place to teach school, they find pretty soon we look not to the question, whether he himself that they have my encouragement and sympa- have, or have not, children to be benefitted by thy to cheer them while they are teaching, and the education for which he pays. We regard it somebody to commend them, if they are the as a wise and liberal system of police, by which least deserving of it, when their labors close.

Besides, niece, I don't know as your uncle's property and life and the peace of society are name would have been Jeremiah if I had not secured. We seek to prevent, in some measure, kept that school." the extension of the penal code, by inspiring a

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