FROM DAY TO DAY. 
The school symposium, which forms 
our chief feature again this week, ap¬ 
pears to be unanimous on one point at 
least; that is, that no home education 
can take the place of school unless fol¬ 
lowed out systematically. Mrs. Stevens 
remarked last week that a child must 
not only know a thing, but also know 
how he knows it and why he knows it. 
If the mother feels unable to teach the 
child the reasons of things, as well as 
the things themselves, she would do 
better to send her child to school. 
* 
Even though the mother may not give 
the children all their instruction, she 
may lighten the teacher’s labors ma¬ 
terially by giving them love and respect 
for disciplined 6tudy. We say “ disci¬ 
plined ” advisedly, because, in most 
schools, the teacher encounters far more 
difficulty from the undisciplined dispo¬ 
sitions of her scholars than from any 
form of stupidity or ignorance. Too 
often the mother allows the child to 
grow to school age without the least 
idea of control ; it is the teacher’s busi¬ 
ness to make him obedient. This view 
is certainly most unjust to the teacher ; 
if the mother does not teach anything 
else, she should, at least, train her child 
to submit to legitimate authority. 
* 
The Friday Evening Club described 
by Mrs. Jack, was very suggestive. This 
reminds us of the Sunday object lessons 
of another busy housewife. It was 
rather hard to keep her active brood 
reasonably quiet on Sunday ; they were 
not all of an age to be interested in 
books, and week-day amusements were 
barred. Finally, the object lessons were 
decided upon, and were found to be both 
profitable and interesting. The children 
were allowed to select some object noted 
by them during the week ; it might be 
a seed, a plant, a stone, or some article 
of domestic utility. First the children 
were asked to give their impressions of 
the object selected, and this was fol¬ 
lowed by a general discussion, the 
mother giving a descriptive talk, and 
answering all the children’s questions 
to the best of her ability. Naturally, 
the questions asked often went beyond 
the mother’s knowledge, but when such 
was the case, she frankly admitted her 
deficiency, and searched for information. 
The elder children usually wrote a little 
essay on the subject afterwards, fixing 
the discussion on their memory, and 
showing their comprehension of it. 
“Nature study” has its place inmost 
schools now, but its influence is greatly 
strengthened by home training on simi¬ 
lar lines. 
A SCHOOL SYMPOSIUM. 
WHEN AND HOW TO START THE CHILD. 
(i Continued from last week.) 
Writing and Talking. 
It was a long distance to our country 
school, and I was just eight years old 
when I first saw the inside of a school- 
house. I was in the grammar school 
reader, had been through the primary 
geography, knew the multiplication 
table by heart and could write fairly 
well. My writing lessons were letters 
to friends, written by my mother, and 
copied by me ; in fact, letter writing 
was commenced when I was only six 
years old. This is one branch of educa¬ 
tion that is sadly neglected. What a 
joy it is to receive letters from some 
friends ! They are looked forward to 
eagerly, and read with the feeling that 
they were not written because they had 
to be—not a task, but a pleasure. When 
13 years of age, I entered the academy, 
and the writing of compositions was 
rigidly enforced. I found it much easier 
to write the composition than to read it, 
and when others were worried about 
what they should write, I told them of 
my early teaching in this direction. 
My mother was a farmer’s wife, with 
no help, but we were isolated from 
society to a great extent, and her 
daughters were kept from the outside 
world and its contaminating influences. 
The young minds are always busy, and 
if directed in right channels of thought, 
how different the after life may be ! A 
mother who can instruct her child in the 
formation of the rocks, the different 
parts of the plant and flower, the soil 
and air that gives them life, the whys 
and wherefores of things seen and un¬ 
seen, is laying a foundation strong and 
deep in the youthful mind. 
One thing greatly neglected is to 
know how to express one’s thoughts 
orally in the best possible manner. We 
may know how to put them on paper, 
but to talk well is another matter. How 
often we hear the expression, “ I know, 
but cannot tell!” The art of conversa¬ 
tion should be taught in our schools. 
Illinois. MRS. FREDERICK C. JOHNSON. 
A Home School. 
These are very important questions, 
and I wonder that the agricultural press 
has not taken up the matter more gener¬ 
ally. All the criticism I have to make 
is that there are rather too many topics 
to discuss adequately in a short article. 
When our oldest child was five years 
old, we felt that she might learn to read 
at home. We intended to send her to 
school when she arrived at the age of 
eight years. We procured a reading 
book, and began to teach her at home. 
She learned easily, and when we found 
a suitable arithmetic, etc., we began to 
instruct her in other branches. I am 
fond of teaching, though I never taught 
a regular school. My wife does not like 
to teach, and has had no time for it, but 
has helped me a little with the younger 
children. As time went on, we liked 
home teaching better and better. One 
bad thing about country schools is the 
corrupt moral influences to which child¬ 
ren are often subjected. Some, how¬ 
ever, are quite free from this. A teacher 
can do much by talking plainly to the 
children, giving them such moral teach¬ 
ing as they need. There are things 
about country school houses which no 
civilized community should at all toler¬ 
ate. I give an extract from an address 
by one of the foremost educators in this 
country : 
What sanitation ! Was there ever anything 
more fiendish in the immorality of New York 
under Tammany Hall than is the indecency of 
the sanitary privileges (?) and associations of 
many a rural school ? As well expose a boy to 
the street life of New York at 18, as to the lava¬ 
tory (?) arrangements of some rural schools 
at 10. 
There are, usually, some children in a 
school of any size with whom careful 
parents do not want their children to 
associate. When these children live on 
the road between our homes and the 
school, our children must unavoidably 
be thrown into their company on the 
way to and from school. This is one of 
the greatest evils of the ordinary coun¬ 
try school. As to the system of educa¬ 
tion, after several years of experience, 
I am better and better satisfied with the 
system which we have adopted. Almost 
any reader will do for the beginner. We 
have used different ones with different 
children, and the only difference we see 
is that the newer books are the best. 
The beginners’ readers are three little 
10 cent, paper-covered books which con¬ 
tain a great amount of reading for the 
price. Then Cyr’s Children’s Primer and 
First, Second and Third Readers are 
good to follow. They are instiuctive 
and very valuable. The thing to care 
for in teaching children to read is to 
use a number of small readers, first and 
second readers, instead of using only one 
first, one second, etc. Then get some 
easy books to read in history, geography, 
etc. Learning to get thoughts and in¬ 
formation from the printed page is the 
most important part of education. It 
can be well taught at home, as the 
children need to spend only a little time 
twice each day in learning to read and 
spell. 
Writing is easily taught from the 
school copy-books now in use. We like 
the Educational Series the best. They 
begin at the very beginning and go up 
to the highest book. The best arith¬ 
metic for beginners is Wentworth’s Pri¬ 
mary, and it is so made that it can 
easily be used at home. Some children 
are very quick in arithmetic, others 
backward. After going over to where 
it gets too hard for the child, which will 
ordinarily be about 200 pages of the 
book, then take South worth’s Essentials 
of Arithmetic, Part I. This and Part II. 
are the best books on arithmetic that I 
have been able to find. It is not difficult 
to teach one or two children if they are 
easy to learn, but more than that take 
a good deal of time. History is easily 
taught at home. Thomas’s is one of the 
latest and best histories. 
You will want books on nature study, 
and you will not find anything better 
than Sea-side and Way-side. Even when 
children go to school a part of the year, 
they can do some studying at home. 
Home study is a most excellent discipline. 
Vermont. j. w. newton. 
Too Much Haste for Accuracy. 
My opinion is that the pupils are hur¬ 
ried over their studies so fast that they 
have only a hazy idea of the facts, and 
lack the power to apply them in the 
solution of practical problems. I gave 
the weigh bills of the loads of potatoes 
sent back from the cars, to a boy who 
had “finished” compound numbers, 
and asked him to tell me how many 
bushels there were, and how much was 
due me. He could do neither correctly. 
New York. c. k. chapman. 
No Rule Without Exception. 
Many teachers prefer having children 
sent to them without any preparatory 
education whatever, but I have never 
been able to rid myself of the notion 
that what a child knew before starting 
school (if thoroughly learned), was so 
much clear gain. No rule for age could 
be given, as this depends on the char¬ 
acteristics of the child. I would not 
send him until he is seven, unless he was 
anxious to go, and had a natural bent 
towards learning. I knew one child of 
four years who could count and spell, 
who begged so hard to attend school 
with his older brothers that he was 
allowed to go. Instead of becoming 
tired, as was expected, he went every 
day and has always been a credit to his 
teacher. On the other hand, another 
boy of my acquaintance was eight years 
old before starting to school, could 
scarcely count to 20, and did not know 
one word from another. His third term 
saw him in the second reader, and he is 
unusually accurate in arithmetic. 
I believe the education a busy house¬ 
wife would find possible to impart could 
scarcely be called a system, as regular 
hours would be well nigh impossible. 
Better give it the form of an amusement, 
for younger children, at least. 
We should not expect anything like 
perfection in the management of a dis¬ 
trict school. The teacher has a great 
deal to contend with, but as a rule, our 
teachers are conscientious and try to 
do the best possible. There are gener¬ 
ally persons in every district who 
attempt to regulate the school accord¬ 
ing to their own views, but observation 
has taught me that an individual effort 
to bring about a reform usually results 
in disaster, with, frequently, a worse 
state of affairs than before. If matters 
became unbearable, I would quietly 
take my children from school, keeping 
my own counsel, unless those in author¬ 
ity questioned me, waiting, if necessary, 
until the advent of another teacher 
(which is of frequent occurrence in the 
country), then state my grievance to her 
and ask her help in a reform. 
New York. sweet fern. 
The Township School System. 
The child should be sent to school as 
early as five or six years of age. Experi¬ 
ence has shown that any education pre¬ 
vious to this is as likely to hinder as it 
is to aid the teacher. Attempts at edu¬ 
cation by one who has the cares of a 
household weighing upon her, must, of 
necessity, be desultory. Something 
might be done in the way of stimulating 
a healthful curiosity in the mind of the 
child, to know something of the objects 
and phenomena with which he daily 
comes in contact. From its nature, the 
education of a child, if it is to be satis¬ 
factory in any degree, requires the atten¬ 
tion of pupil and teacher a considerable 
number of hours daily. 
The education which was thought to 
be sufficient for the child 30 years ago, 
is deemed inadequate at the present 
time. A child is expected to know more 
facts now at 12 years of age than for¬ 
merly at 16. The ability of the country 
school has not kept pace with the de¬ 
mands made upon it. The graded schools 
of the villages and cities do undertake 
to meet the increasing demands. The 
brainy boys and girls who were for¬ 
merly the life of our district schools, are 
early sent where their opportunities will 
be commensurate with their needs. 
While, many times, this degeneration in 
the rural schools is due to parsimony 
and false economy on the part of the 
officers, I believe, generally, that the 
districts are doing about all they can be 
expected to along this line. The length 
of the assessment roll measures the 
efficiency of the school in a given locality. 
The time has come when the present 
system of public schools should be rele¬ 
gated to the past, along with the other 
relics of that time. The conditions 
which it was created to cope with are 
now so intensified that it is no longer 
adequate. The township school system 
is the solution of the problem. The 
union of the resources of many small 
districts is the next step to be taken in 
the cause of popular education. 
New York. c. edwards. 
Pros- 
tration; ex¬ 
haustion, 
nervous- 
Nerve 
ness, etc., 
are due to a weakened condition of the neiye 
centers of the brain, and a consequent in¬ 
sufficient supply of nerve fluid to the nerves 
throughout the whole body, rendering 
the patient weak, irritable, tired, nervous and 
completely unstrung. The cause of these 
troubles are varied. Over-work, mentally or 
physically, worry, over-exertion, continued 
strain upon the nerves in any capacity, will 
sooner or later result in some form of nervous 
disorder. In such cases you will find that 
Dr. Miles’ Nervine 
Restores Health. 
Rev. O. O. Wiard, of Buffalo, N. Y., says: 
“Hard work as pastor, editor and lecturer, 
F laced me in a condition which plainly told 
must obtain relief. I was nervous and com¬ 
pletely exhausted. Dr. Miles’ Nervine prompt¬ 
ly and permanently restored me to nealtn.” 
All druggists guarantee first bottle benefits 
or money refunded. Book free. Address 
Dr. Miles Medical Co., Elkhart, Tnd t 
