_Letters of a Citizen to his Friends in the Country._
No. II.
My own observation, and the opinions of others, induce me to
believe, that generally speaking, less attention is given to
_education_ among the farmers of Pennsylvania than was the case
half a century ago. At any rate, the opportunity for instruction
within the last fifty years, has not kept pace with the increased
ability to furnish it.
Land has appreciated, and the productions of the soil have yielded
great profits to the husbandman; but the intellectual harvest has
been of little account. The habits and manners of each successive
generation, display the avidity with which foreign customs and
fashions are embraced by the yeomanry of the country, but these
_outside_ evidences of what is called _refinement_, have added
nothing to the stock of our mental resources, and greatness. My
purpose however, is to suggest plans of improvement, rather than
to find fault with existing errors, for I am convinced that if a
liberal and judicious system be adopted for enlarging the minds of
our youth, and storing them with sound principles, the follies,
(perhaps the vices,) which now so much engross their attention,
disfigure their character, and mar their usefulness, would be
ultimately corrected. Scholastic learning _alone_ will not, I am
fully satisfied, mend the heart, or sanctify the understanding; but
I am equally sure, that _ignorance as a quality_, never contributed
to render the mind over which it held a dark and dreary reign, in a
greater degree susceptible of those benign views, and exalted aims,
which give to the _accountable being_, a just conception of the
design of his Creator.
If my opinion be worth any thing, of which you must be the judges, I
would recommend the establishment of schools in every neighbourhood;
but upon a very different foundation from that which generally
obtains. Instead of an itinerant schoolmaster, who goes forth in the
latter part of autumn in search of subsistence through the winter
months, often without qualifications for the task he solicits, and
not unfrequently of equivocal moral reputation, select a teacher
estimable for his private virtues as a man, and respectable for
his literary and scientific acquirements; remunerate him with a
liberal salary; erect a suitable and comfortable building for the
accommodation of the school: supply it with maps, globes, &c., and
commence a library of useful books. Send your children regularly
to school throughout the year, and thus make their education as
much a business, and duty, as the cultivation of your farms. Short
of this, will not fulfil the obligations which every parent owes
to his offspring. We are social beings, and our prosperity and
happiness depend primarily upon ourselves, and secondarily upon
others; so that we are advancing our own interests and comforts,
when we promote that of those by whom we are surrounded. In every
neighbourhood in the country there are a few individuals whose
pecuniary means will not permit them to defray the expenses of
education, which the more wealthy can afford, and the condition
of the indigent has been seriously affected in this respect,
by the institution of _boarding schools_. To those seminaries,
the children of the affluent are sent; the common schools are
consequently neglected; the poor go uninstructed, and a wide, and
fatal distinction is thus created, among the inhabitants of the
same vicinage. Rather, fellow citizens, than perpetuate this sort
of classification in society, direct your attention to the formation
of good schools at home, to which every child may be admitted; where
all may partake of the same common benefits and blessings. You will
thus place all on a par in the advantages of instruction, create in
the minds of all, the same respect for those moral obligations which
hold the community together in the bond of safety and peace, and
confer upon your offspring the most solid security.
A youth, the son of one who is competent to defray the expense of
his education at a boarding school, or college, is sent from home
at the age of sixteen; is absent three or four years; has formed
new associations, and contracted new notions; he returns to his
birth-place; he has outgrown the recollections, and intimacies of
his childhood; he feels a sort of elevation above the children of
his neighbourhood, who have been groping in ignorance during his
absence; he stands aloof; jealousy takes hold on the minds of those
who observe this difference, and every evil passion begins its
operation; the consequences are as sad, as they are certain.
Contemplate the reverse of the picture. Behold the youth of
adjoining farms for several miles in circumference, collected
together in one school; pursuing the same studies; partaking of the
same general care, in a moral and religious point of view, which
every conscientious teacher will find it his pleasure to extend
toward his pupils; participating in the same innocent recreations;
growing up together with similar views of private duty, and public
obligation; witness such an instance as this, and you may be assured
that from hence will proceed much which will dignify and adorn the
locality, where it is found to exist.
As these reflections have occurred to me, I have taken the freedom
of presenting them to your consideration. I am influenced by no
other motive than that which would induce me to be the humblest
agent in promoting the true interests of our country, and enlarging,
if it were in my power, the circle of human happiness.