Studies of Elementary School Life

Evening Star, Issue 7859, 16 March 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

Studies of Elementary School Life

[From ' Longman's.'] (Concluded.) Iu every school there is always a moderate percentage of hoys who must be original, or otherwise they simply collapse ignominiously, an/1 fail to execute the requisite number of lines for a complete exercise. It is aut Cesar aut nullw with them. I have remarked, too, that it is these littlo originals who, when their brief schooHife is over, ore the very ones to get on in tho world, and to chip their way to comparative ease and comfort. Boyß of this calibre " play when they play, and work when they worts." In the playground they are the nierrie.it of tho merry, fairly perspiring with enthusiasm and energy, romping "like mid," and making, meanwhile, such havoo with jacket and trousers as generally to necessitate an hour's darning and patching after bedtime by a mother's never-tiring hands. They are invariably the "leaders of the sides," the arbiters of disputes, and the general referees of the schoolyard's busy round. I have chosen the exerciseof Tom on "The Cow," because little Tom was just such ft lad as I have described. His parents were poor, being cat's meat vendors in a very small way. Their customers were snread far and wide about the district; and, in the last year of his school life, the Board accorded Tom the privilege of half-time, so that be could assist his father in hia rounds. Thus the poor lad had to work _ hard with his brains in the mornings, whilst in the afternoons he had to trudge weary mile after weary mile with a huge basket of cats' food swung upon his arm. I forbear giving the lad's full name, because now he is a junior partner in a large firm of "horse slaughterer?," besides being the chairman of a local board, and, as he lately hinted to me, he has higher aims still. _ The following, then, is a verbatim transcription of Tom's composition exercise on ' The Cow': The cow is a noble quadrerped, though not so noHo oh tho horse, much less the roaring It has four i»uo*t legs, a big head for its size. and a thick body. Its hank legs are bent, and there's two big bones sticking out just above. Its fail is mwe noble than the donkey's, but nothin to come up to that of the racehorse. The now gives us milk, and niced beef, and shoolether. How thankful should children be to this tame qmdrorped. The reason why beef is fo dear is that cows cost so much, and tho earth is full of people. I alluuys have beef to my dinner on Sundays; on other days bread and'drippin or bread and lard, sometimes r Mother sves that if I'm hungry on my rounds I nan eat a bit of cat's meat if i*. doesn't smell; but I mustn't eat the liver, she says. How thankful ought we to be to the cow for nice hot beef. Pcrtaters grows; they are not on the cow. Tho four things what you sees under the cow's belly are what the milk comes through. How thankful should we be. The cow makes milk from grass. God teaches the cow how to do it. A cow's feet is split in two, like sheep s; thev are called hooves. Little cows are called carves. Carves aro the stupidist of all tame quadrerpfds, except pigs and flnvkeys. When you drive a carf. never prick it beh'nf*, but push it cenHv with your flat hand, M»n aro crewel to carves coz they cant draw milk from them. You can genly find mushrooms in cow's fields, but you mußtnt go in if there's a board up. How would your mothers like you to be called Trespass ?

Bulls avc very much like cows, but are fierce quadrei pedi-i You can allways tell bulla from cow?, c. z bulla are black, and not. quite so fat. Bulla are not tame quicl;e;p ila, ami they 'omr a< if they could run. Youc.n allways t II ilo-m that w.-iy. Whin my mother secs a bull sc alhviys stands with her back to tbcw.vo ii.l its qoue just, ami she bolds n.y hand, 'f a bull wanted to hurt my mother, f .should pull mother in a hedpe, and then kick out, (Jo.vs are printed different colors; white, r.nd red, and yellor. When they arc black and wnite, they are penoialty half bulls, so you must not f;o near them. There is what is called cream, which rich people cat; it is got from cows which are all white. How thankful should rich psople be f >v getting what they call cream front the row. You can learn lessons from this poor quad I Clpeil ; not to kick, imt to trespass, ami not to persecute people.

I find I have kept a record of a remarkable answer in grammar given by a little lid, Harry Sharnuui. He was a sehuhir whom J. had the greatest difficulty in instructing, on account of bis nerves being so sensitively strung. An effusion of bis on ‘ Doctors’ is now in my baud, and you shall have it after I have given his “ slight mistake ” in grammar. I will first simply state that Harry was a very, very poor lad and that lie died of brain fever at the age o[ twelve years six months, the result of a fall, the district doctor said; but I have always thought that he was one of the little victims of educational over-pressure. \v c!l, I was trying to instil into the boys the mysteries of the degrees of adjectives, regular and irregular, and, after giving phe class numerous examples of comparatives and superlatives, I concluded the lesson oy a recapitulatory catechism. Amongst other questions I asked for the superlative of the adjective “nioe,” and, seeing Harry Sharman’s hand instantly elevated, I called upon him for the answer. And what do you think was Harry’s superlative of “ nice ” ? Reader, it was “ jam pudden ! The bump of association was evidently well developed in Harry, a.id, as with most children, the concrete was more attractive than the abstract. And now I give you the essay written by Harry only two weeks before be sank into bis grave. I should just premise that I had permitted the hoys to write upon any topic they liked to select for _ themselves, and Harry chose the extraordinary subject of “ doctors.” As I remarked above, association was very strong with Harry, and you will quite understand, reader, why the lad’s nervous temperament should have led him to the choice of such a grim theme:

The Doctor,-Being a doc‘or is a very good trade. Doctors have most always niccd bhek winkers at the sid’, and are tall men. They a r e also very fierce-looliing, but they arc very useful. Doctors aro men who never walk, except from a carriage to a house door. Doctors arc skinny men, with black eyes and coats. Doctors bring babies to good little boy’s bouses. I was very good and he brought my mother ours. It is a nice little girl, and it is called Agues, The doctor has seen mo three times for the purpose, cuz I have headaches. My mother looks at me and crys when he’s gone. I never te'ls mother I have headaches, except it hurts me very much. I love my mother. I wish my head was same as other boyses. /esday I arskt Webster if ho ever felt dizzy, and ho said no. All boys I ask says no. What the doctor gives mo makes me feel worse, But mother likes me to take it, so I don’t mind. I wish I was a man; but I’d rather be a woman like mother. Doctors havnt nioid bourns; there is bottles all round, and no vraslim. Doctors havnt loud voices like men you hears m the street, but their eyes aro blighter. I am not so frightened of doctors as of porlice. When I’m in bed I cant sometimes go to sice)) 1 can say my money tables best in bid. I dreamed one nito that the, doctor came upstairs all in" the dark, and took me out of be I, mid cave me to a uerliso to bury. But I woke up just afore he*buried me. and my mother was akbsin m ) and cry in. Mother says doctors can cure nearly all tilings, and that they arc kind men, Head iclu-a is not dangerous.

Do you know I always had a strangely weak fondness for my dunces, although 1 confess that out of school I take pleasure in recapitulating their freaks of genius. Ihc quivering lip, the restless eye, the twitching fingers, and the glances of wonderment to right ami left on hearing an ordinary classfellow give an ordinary answer to an ordinary question ! How often have I wit-nr-s.sed these piteous signs of incapacity. Georgia Lee was one of these pool little creatures of weak intellect, Lis fathci was a well-spoken, respectable man—a hardworking* law writer, who had to catch his train at nine in the morning, slave through his folios in a copper-plate hand till dusk on the tally system, and when he got back to the bosom of his family in the evening he was often (he- has told me) too fagged out to chat with Ids Georgia, who liked to stay up for a parting good-night fondle. Hero before me on the table lips an essay of Georgic Lee’s upon ‘ A Day in the Country, and I give it you word for word just as he wrote it; —

A Day in the Country is wot I has to giv. O the country is so nicely Yer woodnt bolecvc. I have seed it 5 or b times, It like a great big green fci. Yer woodnt beieeve. I only see it wnr.ee a yeve, when our sauintendunt talcs the Sunday School chihk-rn all for nothin, an givs us a tea an all sorts of niced things. This time it was to Ashsted Wo all wokod from our Sunday School, which is near the Itllifunt, to Yc.xhole station, the supintendunt luimin up and darn all the time, makin us joyn bane. Ikon we all got up i'-to the train at Voxhole. How niced it is to hav yer heds art of the winders and bold yer hankcrchiefs up, and sec the different people hooray to yer from the side of the railway. Yer woodn’t beieeve. They think as we can hear them hooraying, but wo can’t coz of the wheels making such a niced hj ud noise. An when we got past wot the supintendunt tclld us was Wimmeldau, wicheror side yer looked it was all green, an green, an green. It does make yer feel hungry, RPeshully with the wind gottindarn yer throats. Yer wc-odnt beieeve. When ve got to Ashtod yrr woodnt beieeve w'ot a niced place it was; why, I tell yer, its green cdl rarnd rite to thepkv, and foxgluvs, and ro=os. andbul'dayzies all abart. There’s im reads, and no walls, and no tre»pm hoards and there’s no pleoeemen lives there. They havnt found it art. When wesM had our dinners, the supintendunt plaid games with the little boys. The supintendunt is a niced f it i) an, with while limL, albs alarflo, an a big chain in his westcutt We plaid leapfrogs” and the fucinlcndunt took his coat off, and relt darn, and we jumped over him. Ha has a nice white short, just liki snow as yev seed. One boy, as r.oodnt jump, dropped on the supintendunt’s neck, and muckicd his niced white sleeves with his hoots Then wo all had teas for nothin. 1 had 5 cups, a lot of bread aud butter, 3 slices of plurmake, and 4 herrin buns. I only seed 7 hoys an girls wot got ill Then the boys an girls had races for niced prices bat’, an wcrkboxc-s, an all fortser th'nns. Then wc all sung a him standin in a ring°on :he hillside with the supintendunt in the middle, an the b ; g rod sun nearly touching the ground. Yer woodnt beieeve. I wonder wether Heaven’s like that was. The him wo sung was ‘ Tel mo the old, old story Of Jems and HuTlove.’ My teacher, who stood next to me, she started cryin a hit. she did, I seed her. I dont no where we shall go next yore. This is a Day in the Country, and it was all so niced. The next exercise in my collection is one by little Isaac Shepherd on the ‘ Postmau.’ Nobody could he happy in the world except for the useful gentleman what we call a postman. For hov wiuld we no whether those amts and uncles of yours who live right accost the fields and rivers was dead if the gentleman did not b’ing a henvclop with Idack all round? You would think they was still alive, and you’d keep on all writing to them That is why postmen are albs little thin men without beards, cuz they have to keep on walking quick all day. They are not dressed up so fine as soldiers, cuz they havn’t to go and fight aevost the sea. You never see postmen fieht, not even with their fists, cuz they havn t got no time with all those letters to take round. I don t think postmen dare even fight hoys, cuz when mo and some more boys was a looking at a postman unlocking a piller box and one of the boys pushed his head in tho hole and we all ran away, he wouldn’t even run after us, hut only told a pollccceman when he came round the corner. And when he came away from the polleeceman he was frightened of walking our way past us, but jumped on a tramway and shammed not to see us. Postmen allis nooks so as to waken babies, and then they tries to look as if they didn't ro as baby was behind the door. If the postman doseu’t brine your letters you can summons him, that’s why they’re so frightened. Two or three postmen come together without letters a Chrismas, and they ask your mothers for a Christmas-box. My mother gev them a penny to share amongst them, but some didn’t. Many boys become postmen cuz they think it is a good trade. I don’t think they get good dinners same as moo who hasn’t to dress up My father has a lot of meat and bread, and ho keens on a eating. Postmen allis black their boots, cuz they are frightened of being summonsed. They are very frightened men, and won’t hurt you whatever you do, Never be cruel to them, for they

have to take care of their clothes more than you, and are not so big as they would like. I once seed a postman not drested up, and he was snu.kin a pipe, and lie put it away wh.-n ho seed mo ;v d tin; other hoys. Bat wo seed him tin.ugh ; and some of the Imyi called out after him “ You’ll go ami get union nsul for smokm yer filler's pipe, you will.” Bathe wouldn't turn round, and "he puff, d the terb icca_ out again as soon as ho got further on This is all I n j about post men, except they are very ch an men most any time you like to lock.

In every school there is generally one boy who so conspicuously excels his schoolfellows in one or other of the showy subjects of the curriculum that he becomes the acknowledged “ head of the school ” as regards that particular department ol study. By showy subjects, 1 refer to such branches as recitation, music, and the various specific courses. The master is sometimes tempted to trot out such a pupil before visitors in order that the lad may display his special ability, At any rate, the pupil soon recognises his own superiority, and I have frequently remarked, with regret, how soon ho giver, himself airs of conceit, and assumes a die tatoi inland authoritative manner of speaking and acting, So flagrant are these facts that even inspectors (whoso intercourse with the children is comparatively limited and remote) do not fail to observe it, and from lime to time they justly take occasion in their reports to remark upon it in very strong and condemnatory terms. In the exercise of Francis C upon ‘ Perseverance,’ which I shall give you shortly, you can scarcely fail to perceive this uuplaasing characteristic. This lad as a reader of music was really a prodigy. In the metropolitan and provincial Board schools the tonic sol-fa system of notation is the one almost universally adopted, and I may remark that before a child leaves school ho possesses as a rule a very fair acquaintance with sight singing. Well, you could put before Francis C the most difficult piece you liked, and after a quick glance or two from leaf to leaf along the measures or bars he would turn back to the front page, pull himself together, fix bis large blue eyes earnestly upon the music, ami sing straight through it with case and confidence in correct tunc and time, and expression. At the Government examination the inspector was so struck with C ’s remarkable aptitude in the “ ear tests ” that ho called him out in front of the class, and, jiwt to sue how far the lad’s car for music would really permit him to go, he ETing by way of test a particularly difficult chant, using nothing but the syllable la. He then asked the boy if he would write down on Ins paper the correct musical notes of the chant. This C did immediately, not only giving all the notes with exactness, but also accurately dividing them according to time. The inspector was simply amazed, and I remember he placed his hands on the scholar’s shoulders, and said to him kindly and impressively : “ My boy, I hope you will try to be as good as you are clever.” Well, reader, I have related to you how a few of my boys have made their mark in the world, and also how some have died early in life, whilst I sincerely trust the great bulk of my scholars have become good, honest, industrious working men, And now it is with the utmost pain that I briefly chronicle a startling exception in the clever little Francis C . He is now_ twentyfive years of age, and at the beginning of the present year he was sentenced at the county assize to a term of seven years’ penal servitude for being the principal accomplice in a gigantic swindle in the North of England which not only rendered rich men poor, but also scattered the life savings of scores of work a,-day men and women to the winds. It began at school, this career of deceit, aitnough it was not till the very last daynay, the very last hour —of his school life that J discovered the lad’s real character. G had applied for and had all but obtained a position as a barrister’s oflirc boy ; or, rather, it appeared to me he was to be the joint property of two of these gentlemen, whose chambers were on the same door in the Temple. One of these young men had written me a note asking me to kindly furnish the applicant, Francis C (who, he understood, was a pupil in my school), with a testimonial as to character. He was quite satisfied, he assured mo, as regarded ability, and lie concluded by pointing out what a grand opening it was for the lad, etc., etc,, and that duties could be commenced in the morning, I called C to my desk, and for five or ten minutes I said all I could to encourage my pupil, and also to fortify Ills principles. I patted his head, and told him to return to my desk at halfpast four, when I would have the testimonial ready for him. At closing time ho came again to me, and I handed him his testimonial, and once more, in the stillness of the empty schoolroom (for only the teachers were present), I exhorted the lad to cling to the right and the true. He was apparently much moved, and on turning away he pulled out his handkerchief to place to Ins eyes, and at the same time dropped from his pocket something glittering to the ground. It was a silver pencil-case, His teacher, who was standing by, at once exclaimed “ Why, why, that is mine ! ” The rest of the scene was so painful to me that I will ask you to permit me to refrain from describing it. I can only add that before C left the room it was known beyond the shadow of a doubt that this theft, of the pencil case was only the last of a long series of petty pilferings, the agent of which it had baflled all my ingenuity to discover. The peg-tops, the balls, and numerous other little articles that had from time to time been stolen ; the hoys’ dinners that occasionally bad been surreptitiously removed and consumed ; the valuables that one or other of the masters had missed from their rooms in the most mysterious maimer—all these offences had been perpetrated by this guilty lad. The parents, who, at my request, came the following day to see me, wept bitter tears of sorrow in my private room over their son’s shame and delinquency. Anguish such as theirs may I never see again. One thing particularly struck me about the mother. She appeared to fear her son—to stand in awe of the sixteen-year-old boy ; and although her grief was as keen and pronounced as the father’s (nay, I think it was more so), still I could not but receive the impression that she herself had had previous cause for thinking her boy dishonest Could it bo, I thought, that she had found her son out from time to time in falsehood or theft at home, and had failed to chastise him, or, at least, report the facts to her husband ? If so, oh ! bow terrible her punishment; for it was now too late, and she knew it.

Nowadays lads of thirteen do not brook chastisement from a mother, and I frequently overhear boys aver to one another that they can “ nearly fight tho governor.” So Francis C , being now thirteen and the son of work-a day people, must go from bad to worse; and, as you are aware, reader, he did. However, all I know of his career is told in a word. At about sixteen years of age he was a stockbroker’s clerk, and at twenty-one or twenty-two he had already opened offices in one of the large cloth towns of Yorkshire as an accountant and general agent. Then a few years later came that cruel financial fraud which so shocked and startled good north country people at the time ; and Francis C is now a convict at Dartmoor. I remarked that in tho school exorcise of Francis C , viz., an essay on ‘ Perseverance,’ there is a simpering vein of conceit which is as displeasing as it is ridiculous. As regards the orthography, there is cot a single word spelt wrong throughout, and the writing, although not as good ns several of ray specimens, is fluent and decided. But the didactic inclination of (he juvenile writer, and the false similes and conclusions ho makes, will, I think, recall to my readers that “a little learning is a dangerous thing.”