The following short essay, titled "On School", was written in the 1850's by a young Elvira Johnson when she was a school girl at Dublin Academy in Dublin, Indiana.
It was found among some family papers.
I have only made two correctional additions (in parentheses) to Ms. Johnson's text.
We could not spend our time in a more useful way than going to school. There are many coloured children that are deprived of the privilege of going to school because they are of a different colour. The colour ought not to make any difference but it does make a great difference with some people. It is not always that we have the opportunity of going to school therefore we should (be) very attentive. If we do not improve (in) our time in school while young, in old age we will look back with regret and think "were I to have this life to live over again how different I would spend my time in school." There are some children that do not go to school with the intention of learning but with the intention of having a little fun. They do not yet know the necessity of education.
Elvira Johnson was my wife's great-great-grandmother.
She was a good observer of life.
ReplyDeleteSteve
I give her an 'A'.
ReplyDeleteSo true. I often think back on my college years and wish I'd applied myself more.
ReplyDeleteWise words. It's almost like she was talking about me. She was SO right!
ReplyDeleteA budding abolitionist. Very good, a good heritage.
ReplyDeleteYes and yes. As a friend of mine observed a few years ago, "if we had taken 25% of the time we spent pissing around in school and invested it in ourselves...."
ReplyDeleteA wonderful historical nugget.
ReplyDeleteVery wise.
ReplyDeletePS--that's a lovely header photo--is that near you?
ReplyDeleteNope, just plucked from the Interwebs.
ReplyDeleteWise child.
ReplyDeleteWow, those are some very wise words. I was listening to a radio program today that was asking for comments about the current Trump agitated talk about the football players who kneel during the National Anthem. I was one again amazed at the amount of people who just don't understand the inequalities in this nation.
ReplyDeleteVery wise!!
ReplyDeleteVery cool - and wise! And I was intrigued by the "British" spelling of color (colour).
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if anyone would comment on that "u". Judy said it was when teachers were trained in Latin and perhaps some of them were newly from the UK. A side note: Latin was taught in my high school when my brother was there but it had been phased out by the time I got there.
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