ISSUED EVERY MORNING BY THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING CO. Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday Morning, September 8, 1935. Only Fools Despise Instruction TRAIN up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Although Solomon lived in a primitive age of serious study and simple pleasures, long before the days of joy riding and seaside merriment, his observations concerning the training of children are still accepted As fundamentally correct. Even while surrounded by manifold lures to moral laxity, by temptations to enjoy idleness and luxury at the expense of honor, by pitfalls toward which pride and envy are constantly urging the weak and wilful, men and women of this reckless and riotous era recall and consider the truths and impressions received in childhood and make efforts to conduct themselves accordingly. The training of children in homes and schools is one of the most important duties of those who are responsible and competent. The development of the race depends upon a conscientious discharge of this binding obligation. Civilization requires it and society has devised methods and established systems by which to supply deficiencies of paternal attention and to extend opportunities pertaining to homes for the proper training of youthful minds. Education is the harmonious development and systematic cultivation of natural powers, by inculcation, example, repetition and stimulation of interest. It may be imparted to insects, birds and animals as well as to human beings. Applied to the latter, it includes culture, discipline, instruction and the acquisition of any useful knowledge. Harmonious development of an individual is not restricted to mental improvement. It embraces physical training, intellectual growth, moral refinement and social adjustment. Even a child is known by his deeds, whether his works be pure and whether it be right, said Solomon. Life and habits are conditioned by heredity and environment. Breeders of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and birds are cognizant of the influence of heredity. Naturalists have learned and demonstrated the effects of environment on plant and animal characteristics. The sway of these fundamental factors in forming the features, the inclinations, the attributes of species, may be altered, softened, strengthened, modified or intensified to conform in some degree to accepted standards. Herein lies the hope and purpose of the conscientious educator. As the physical structure of an individual is the basis of his existence, it must be nourished, developed and trained for the work it is destined to carry on. Few children are perfect in their mechanical construction. Most of them inherit constitutional weaknesses or functional deviations. This is a penalty nature is visiting upon successive generations for the error of stimulating the brain to outpace the body in a race for rewards of ambition and avarice. Physical development, therefore, is an important line of education. It need not be confined to tennis or football, both of which may be too strenuous for the growing child. It may extend to useful or gainful exercises, such as mowing lawns or washing dishes. But every encouragement should be given to wholesome contests and employment, in the air and sunlight as much as possible, under supervision that protects the weak from the strong. Mental training places every competent instructor of youth in contact with individual peculiarities, for which due allowance must be made to achieve the best results. There are instincts, emotions, sentiments and family traits to be trimmed or directed, since they are difficult to suppress. Pupils should be taught to think for themselves, but thought depends on perceptive faculties, on memory, on ability to make comparisons, on brain convolutions and capacity, which vary as much as thumb whorls do in different individuals. If any of the five senses be impaired mental reaction is influenced by such deficiencies. All progressive schools take cognizance of these matters. The sixth sense that of humor may make all the difference in the world in a childs outlook as well as that of an adult. It should be cultivated. Mark Twains writings were urged on parents and teachers by Dr. Henry Newman, head of the Brooklyn school for ethical culture, in the course of an address recently delivered in Salt Lake City. Teachers are inclined to suppose that the best boy is the one who sits at his desk politely all day and never gives the least trouble, he said, adding that many of the men and women who have given the most to the world have been looked upon as mischievous and idle minded in their school days because their brains were busy with thoughts and aspirations their elders did not try to understand. Good humor is a manifestation of energy which can be put to excellent service. It is like a stream which cannot be checked, but may be diverted to turn wheels of industry.