I have grown to appreciate the Irish in literature, when they in minority take pen to write, as the story of With Axe and Rifle, a memoir of an Irish American family from the lips of one of the boys.
The following is a portion though which is as Benjamin Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt of the reality of what is truly important of education.
TL was by fortune a home schooled genius. I had always longed for this as a child, but I fully assessed that my dad would have exploited it had me at labor more as a child than I already was.
I will not go into the details of how TL overcame the obstacles of education, but TL is a genius and I marvel at the Wisdom and knowledge which teaches me from TL.
It is for this reason that when we have children, we will home school them, and we will seek to as in Anne of Green Gables, be teachers who have the children out in the natural lessons as that schooling will indeed teach greater lessons than those of the streets.
It is this quote from the book which I include in this, for even if parents choose to use the indoctrination of the predatory educational system of this world, there is always the lesson of table and field where children need to be taught the morals of life and survival that no desk in a school could ever prepare.
Quote:
"From that day Mr Tidey became domesticated in our family. My father being convinced that he was a man of sterling worth, we were duly placed under his care, and immediately he set to work to afford us the instruction which it must be confessed we at the time greatly needed. We made rapid progress, an evidence that he possessed the art of teaching; and, as Kathleen grew older, she also came in for her lessons. Mr Tidey was of opinion, much to our satisfaction, that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy; and we consequently spent a portion of each day in shooting or trapping, often making excursions to a considerable distance from home.
Sometimes in summer we camped out for several days together. On these occasions we gained a considerable amount of information from our worthy tutor on natural history. “You shall have a lesson now from the book of nature,” he used to say when we started. “It is a big book, and, if studied carefully, more knowledge can be gained from it than from any other source. It might not be of so much use in the great cities down east, but I opine that you are not likely to spend much of your time in that direction, and it is well worth obtaining for many reasons, besides the satisfaction knowledge always affords.”
We used to start with our rifles in our hands and our knapsacks on our backs, making our beds at night on a heap of leaves, the blue vault of heaven for our only covering; or, when the sky looked threatening, we either built a hut of boughs or occasionally took shelter in the log hut of one of the pioneers of civilisation, as the hardy backwoodsmen are called, although, in most instances, but little civilised themselves. We preferred, however, taking up our abode at night in a bower of our own construction.
We met with many adventures, but, owing to Mr Tidey’s caution and judgment—though sometimes we were exposed to dangers—we always escaped from them without any serious mishap. We had had several encounters with bears and wolves, and now and then we met with more formidable enemies in the shape of a party of Shawanees who had ventured back to their old hunting-ground in search of game, or in the hopes of stealing the sheep or hogs of some solitary settler."
William Henry Giles Kingston. With Axe and Rifle
For all the ivy league education Theodore Roosevelt engaged for his children, their earliest lessons were of their father, on outings teaching them of nature.
There is nothing which makes one so responsible than a rifle, knife and learning of nature in obtaining and cooking of food, followed by a secure night's sleep.
TL spoke of an outing in which a spider gnawed upon her with indulgence and I will remember the hordes of spiders who ran across me on an outing. Neither of which we appreciated, but it is lessons one learns to not repeat and to always lay with care.
Benjamin Franklin could never in a laboratory ever calm a pond by pouring on of oil to wow observers. There is just something of nature which teaches physics, geometry, science and the Christian virtues which no classroom could ever expand a mind with.
The parents did not stop any of this exposure to danger as it was an education, as life was a danger as it always was in a horse kicking one in the head to dying of lock jaw from a cut.
It was how one was educated to deal with the obstacles of life in overcoming them, instead of controlling them, is the greater lesson involved.
"Our tutor always spoke them fair and showed them that he was not afraid, and if we had any game, presented it to them as a mark of his friendship. When we came across an Indian trail we took good care to keep a bright look-out on every side and a strict watch at night, so as to prevent being surprised, lest the Indians might be tempted to murder us for the sake of obtaining our arms and ammunition, unable to resist the desire of possessing what to them would be a rich prize."
William Henry Giles Kingston. With Axe and Rifle
What makes a better statesman, in facing a hostile force armed as you are, or reading about theory in an ivy league university?
Children must be learned to kindle fire to warm themselves early so they do not burn down themselves and the forest later.
Lame Cherry
Not all people are teachers in talent, but each person can teach a lesson inside a family. People need to be educated, and the reality is all the education in America for the first hundred years was from self taught people and not college indoctrinated.
America was the better for it.
nuff said
agtG
