THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
1057 
Little Talks on Education 
Public School or Home Teaching? 
I have a little girl seven years old, who 
has never been to school. I have never 
made any attempt to teach her at home. 
We live two miles from a public school 
which the other children attend with good 
results. Betty has had infantile paraly¬ 
sis. After years of treatment, she can 
run and play with the others, but has 
only a slight use of the right arm. and 
must make an attempt to use it daily, or 
lose all she has gained. This is very pain¬ 
ful for her. She is very nervous and 
needs careful watching, is eager to learn 
and wants to go to school. What do you 
think of the comparative merits of home 
and public school teaching in general? 
The magazines are full of articles giving 
wonderful results from home teaching. I 
want to do what is best for my three. 
A. F. M. 
Little Betty is suffering from a starved 
mind as well as a crippled little body, she 
ought to have teaching of some sort at 
once as her due. But she must have it 
from someone who can watch her closely 
A Lesson in Drawing. 
and prevent the work from tiring her, 
see that the prescribed exercise for the 
right arm is carried out and that she be 
allowed to use the left for other work. 
Betty is at present one of the children 
it is worse than useless to send to the 
public school. The busy teacher will not 
be able to look after her properly. She 
will have the disadvantage of starting 
first grade with children younger than 
herself, many of whom are not yet ready 
to learn. 
She will make more rapid progress 
than a child of five or six, and has a 
right to go ahead as fast as she is able. 
It looks to me as if the mother who knows 
the child so well would make the best 
teacher, if she has the time. If this is 
not possible, talk very frankly to the oik* 
who undertakes the task. Betty will find 
it a bit hard to settle down to any reg¬ 
ular work at first, and some days she will 
he so interested that she will want to 
work more than her strength permits. 
Let the work begin with “the three R’s,” 
get the printed course of instruction as 
used in the local school, and follow it as 
rapidly as Betty is able. Omit much of 
the busy work of the first two grades; 
Betty will be better off out in the sun¬ 
shine. The essentials of grade work are 
well planned and come in regular se¬ 
quence. The child will be glad to know 
she is doing the same work the other* 
children do. If at any time in the future 
she is able to attend the public school, 
she will be ready for a regular grade and 
will lose no time. Teach her to study, to 
be quiet at her work, and to pay atten¬ 
tion so when she does go to school the 
discipline will not seem so hard. Start 
Betty’s work in the morning and keep her 
an hour at first, with a rest after half an 
hour’s work. Be regular with it, and do 
not try to make it all play. Betty will 
have to do a certain amount of drudgery 
’ike all the rest. 
Those who work with the handicapped 
say that the worst thing they have to 
meet is the cruel kindness of those in the 
homes who fail to teach such children to 
be as helpful as possible to themselves, 
who keep them from the needed hard les¬ 
sons of life. That does not exclude loving 
patience in teaching. Have the work 
with the right arm come first, and follow 
it with whatever Betty likes best. The 
public school will furnish books, usually. 
I should be glad to go more into details, if 
you like. 
As to your second question, 10 years of 
private teaching have convinced me that 
the average normal child is better off in 
the public school. 
“There would be only two possible rea¬ 
sons for sending Sister to the public 
school, discipline and companionship,” 
said the most brilliant woman I ever met. 
She thought neither of these questions 
had ever come up. Sister did not need 
discipline, but I knew how many times 
she left her games and her pets to look 
wistfully down the road and say : “I wish 
Daisy would come over.” Sister’s early 
instruction had to he all oral, as her eyes 
were not strong. The advantages of home 
teaching are that the child need not be 
confined more than half the time of public 
school, and that the course may be suited 
to the child’s need. The disadvantages 
are that the child misses the contact with 
other minds and the wholesome discipline 
of school life. I know one spoiled little 
boy, the terror of the neighborhood, who 
was a different lad after a few weeks of 
school. lie was not unwilling to obey, 
only nobody had expected him to before. 
When he tried his usual fistic argument 
on the playground he was worsted a few 
times. 
Most home teaching is apt to follow the 
line of least resistance, the course of 
study leads to nothing in particular, and 
the child’s mind is likely to be unevenly 
developed. The discipline of the average 
home is more or less uncertain ; it seems 
to me as if children were not “made to 
mind” as in my childhood. They are 
coaxed, persuaded or bribed to follow the 
path of virtue nowadays. Then when the 
child goes to school, the discipline is hard 
for him. 
The homes where children are wisely 
and successfully taught are many, and 
the children get better teaching than the 
public school teacher has time to give. I 
could name several such homes. But the 
children are either exceptional, like some 
the magazines have told us about lately, 
or delicate. The mothers in the maga¬ 
zine articles have unlimited time and 
means apparently and only teach one 
child. Many of the faults one hears as¬ 
cribed to the schools are really the faults 
of the homes; parents fail to realize how 
small a proportion of the time the child 
spends in school. 
Leaving Home for Education. 
I live on a ranch 30 miles from a rail¬ 
road or any school. I have a little girl, 
Eleanor, aged 10. I have neither time 
nor ability to teach her; my work keeps 
me busy all the time. On account of our 
location we cannot keep a teacher, but 
for three seasons we have had a teacher 
here during the long vacation. Eleanor 
forgets a lot before the next one. A 
dear friend in a city of the Middle West 
has offered to take Eleanor into her fam¬ 
ily, so she can attend school. I know she 
would he happy there, but I should miss 
her so. I)o you think it is my duty to send 
her I a. b. T. 
Of course you would miss her, but think 
of what the child is losing, and make the 
sacrifice for her take. I think that is 
the only thing to do. You will have the 
comfort of knowing you are doing the best 
thing for her sake, and can watch her 
progress as shown in her letters, and look 
forward to her company in the Summer. 
You will be glad your work keeps you 
busy ; I know what loneliness means. 
Lack of School Facilities. 
We have three little sons and live three 
miles from the city. There is a local 
school a mile from here, but not an Amer¬ 
ican child in attendance. The teacher has 
first to teach English to most of the 
pupils. Two of our boys are old enough 
to. go to school, but not old enough to 
drive to the city. ; nd there happens to be 
nobody who can be spared to take them in 
and go after them. What would you ad¬ 
vise? I could spare a room and pay a 
teacher a small salary. w. h. d. 
Furnish some room so it will do for a 
school room, for books apply to your 
school committee, and hire some experi¬ 
enced teacher who is in ill health or 
wants to rest. Or you could get a high 
school girl for a few dollars a week. Do 
this until the oldest boy can be trusted to 
drive into the city and back. Let the 
teacher use the public school course and 
discipline, so the children will lose no 
time. Choose your teacher carefully and 
then leave her alone to do her work as 
she deems best as long as things go well. 
K. 
Keeping Boy Out of School. 
I have two little sons about the same 
age. Artie is about six, and will be of 
school age this Fall. Bobby is a year and 
a half younger and a mischief. There 
are two babies younger, and I do all my 
own work, though I am not strong. Artie 
is such a help and often keeps Bobby out 
of mischief. I am tempted to wait until 
another year, and send both boys together. 
Do you think that would be fair to Artie? 
B. G. P. 
Since the children are so much together 
they would probably be happier to start 
school together, and surely their mother 
has a right to some consideration. By 
all means, wait until next year. 
A Sub-normal Child. 
I am a public school teacher and had in 
my room last year a boy of 12 who has 
attended the various public schools in this 
town for several years; he is gentle and 
quiet and has some mechanical ability, 
but cannot read at all yet. He will 
write or copy writing, hut it has no 
meaning to him. The mother talks of 
sending him to some special school, but 
hesitates, as he is so devoted to her. She 
wants me to tutor him this Summer, but 
our superintendent thinks it would be a 
waste of time. What would you do? 
D. B. M. 
Apparently you are an experienced 
teacher and have spent a year with this 
boy in your room, finding that only me¬ 
chanical work appeals to him, and this is 
all he understands. Probably your su¬ 
perintendent is right and only a teacher 
trained in work for such children could 
reach him. If you have any influence 
with the mother try to get her to send 
him to a special school. It is really cruel 
to deny him a chance to learn what he 
can, and she cannot always stay with 
him. Why do you not send for cata¬ 
logues and reports of your State school? 
They would interest you professionally 
and might have some influence with the 
mother. E. s. K. 
When you write advertisers meution 
The R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick 
reply and a “square deal.” See guaran¬ 
tee editorial page. : : : : 
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