The students who came first seemed to be fond of memorizing long
and complicated "rules" in grammar and mathematics, but had little
thought or knowledge of applying these rules to their everyday affairs
of their life. One subject which they liked to talk about, and tell
me that they had mastered, in arithmetic, was "banking and discount,"
but I soon found out that neither they nor almost any one in the
neighbourhood in which they had lived had ever had a bank account. In
registering the names of the students, I found that almost every one
of them had one or more middle initials. When I asked what the "J"
stood for, in the name of John J. Jones, it was explained to me that
this was a part of his "entitles." Most of the students wanted to get
an education because they thought it would enable them to earn more
money as school-teachers.
Notwithstanding what I have said about them in these respects, I
have never seen a more earnest and willing company of young men and
women than these students were. They were all willing to learn the
right thing as soon as it was shown them what was right. I was
determined to start them off on a solid and thorough foundation, so
far as their books were concerned. I soon learned that most of them
had the merest smattering of the high-sounding things that they had
studied.
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