It is time for those who do not believe ignorance to be a blessing, to
move in behalf of common schools. Many teachers are not practised even
in the rudiments of the spelling-book; and as for reading, they
stumble along the sentences, like a drunken man on a rough road. Their
“_hand-write_,” as they felicitously style the hieroglyphics, would be
a match for Champollion, even if he _did_ decipher the Egyptian
inscriptions. But a more detestable fact is, that sometimes their
morals are bad; they are intemperate, coarse, and ill-tempered; and
wholly unfit to inspire the minds of the pupils with one generous or
pure sentiment. We do not mean to characterize the _body_ of the
common schoolmasters by these remarks; but that any considerable
portion of them should be such, is a disgraceful evidence of the low
state of education.
Farmers and mechanics! this is a subject which comes home to you.
Crafty politicians are constantly calling you the _bone and sinew_ of
the land; and you may depend upon it that you will never be anything
else but bone and sinew without education. There is a law of God in
this matter. That class of men who make the most and best use of their
_heads_, will, in _fact_, be the most influential, will stand highest,
whatever the theories and speeches may say. This is a “nature of
things” which cannot be dodged, nor got over. Whatever class bestow
great pains upon the cultivation of their minds will stand high. If
farmers and mechanics feel themselves to be as good as other people,
it all may be true; for _goodness_ is one thing and _intelligence_ is
another. If they think that they have just as much mind as other
classes, that may be true; but can you _use it as well_?
Lawyers, and physicians, and clergymen, and literary men, make the
discipline of their intellect a constant study. They read more, think
more, write more than the laboring classes. The difference between the
educated and uneducated portions of society is a _real_ difference.
Now a proud and lazy fellow, may rail and swear at this, and have his
labor for his pains. There is only one way really to get over it, and
that is to rear up a generation of well educated, thinking, reading
farmers and mechanics. Your skill and industry are felt; and they put
you, in these respects, ahead of any other class. Just as soon as your
_heads_ are felt, as much as your _hands_ are, that will bring you to
the top.
Many of our best farmers are men of great natural shrewdness; but when
they were young they “had no chance for learning.” They feel the loss,
and they are giving their children the best education they can.
Farmers’ sons constitute three-fifths of the educated class. But the
thing is, that they are not educated _as farmers_. When they begin to
study they leave the farm. They do not expect to return to it. The
idea of sending a boy to the school, the academy, and the college, and
then let him go back to farming, is regarded as a mere waste of time
and money. You see how it is even among yourselves. If a boy has an
education, you expect him to be a lawyer, or a doctor, or a preacher.
You tacitly admit that a farmer does not need such an education; and
if you think so, you cannot blame others if they follow your example.
There is no reason why men of the very highest education should not go
to a farm for their living. If a son of mine were brought up on
purpose to be a farmer, if that was the calling which he preferred, I
still would educate him, if he had common sense to begin with. He
would be as much better for it as a farmer, as he would as a lawyer.
There is no reason why a thoroughly scientific education should not be
given to every farmer and to every mechanic. A beginning must be made
at the common school. Every neighborhood ought to have one. But they
do not grow of themselves, like toad-stools. And no decent man will
teach school on wages which a canal boy, or a hostler would turn up
his nose at. You may as well put your money into the fire as to send
it to a “make-believe” teacher—a great noodle-head, who teaches school
because he is fit for nothing else! Lay out to get a _good teacher_.
Be willing to pay enough to make it worth while for “smart” men to
become your teachers. And when your boys show an awakening taste for
books, see that they have good histories, travels, and scientific
tracts and treatises. Above all, do not let a boy get a notion that if
he is educated, he must, of course, quit the farm. Let him get an
education that he may _make a better farmer_. I do not despair of yet
seeing a generation of honest politicians. Educated farmers and
educated mechanics, who are in good circumstances, and _do not need
office for a support_, nor make politics a trade, will stand the best
chance for honesty. But the Lord deliver us from the political honesty
of tenth-rate lawyers, vagabond doctors, bawling preachers, and
bankrupt clerks, turned into patriotic politicians!