The Kalida Venture

A great deal is being said and written on the subject of education. Nearly every newspaper that comes to our office has something to say about Common Schools, Free Schools, or High Schools: but they all seem to labor under the erroneous and false impression that in order to educate the youth of our country it is necessary to build school-houses: buy books and employ teachers-overlooking the fact that children will learn anything, whether they had books or not.

There is one system of education, that has not received sufficient attention. It is the free public; one or more of which may be found in every town and village in the land. Its lessons are usually given in the street, and its classes are generally the largest about dusk. Bad boys, and those who are impatient of restraint, attend this school. Indeed. it is chiefly a school for boys, and of the rude class. Idleness is one of the first lessons taught in this school; disposition to sing vulgar songs and use filth language and vile jests, is another. That parent who sends his children out into the street to get rid of their noise in the house, or free from the care of governing them, is a portion of this school. The boys that hang around the circus, or that follow the constable when he takes a prisoner to jail, or that gather in crowds on the street after dark, are all taking lessons in this school. Parents can get their children into this school with but little. Never mind how late they stay out at night, nor what kind of company they keep. Let them have their own way. They will learn anyhow; and the only question is, what shall they learn? In which school shall they be taught? It is better to let them go to the school we have been describing, and let them pay for it in loss of conscience and character, or send them to a good school and pay for it in money?

-Democratic Register.