“I think it is or may be.”
“How d’ye make that out? I never went t’ school much. I c’n make out th’ scores in th’ Rodman ‘Reflector’ an’ I c’n chalk up th’ charge for fixin’ Deacon Stillman’s horse-collar, but I never went t’ school none whatever.”
“Going to school does not necessarily mean obtaining an education.”
“Go on! I guess ye’re tryin’ t’ stuff me.”
“Suppose a boy should go to school and not learn?”
“His teachers will give him th’ learnin’.”
“Unfortunately that is one of the things no teacher can give—at least he can’t give it unless a boy takes it.”
“I guess th’ may be somethin’ in that, same’s ye c’n lead a hoss up t’ th’ water but if he takes a notion he won’t drink, then th’ whole o’ jumpin’ creation can’t make him swallow a cupful.”
“Precisely. And a boy can be sent to the best school, but if he won’t learn there’s no education or power for him. I used to know some of the boys when I was in school who thought they were getting the better of their teachers when they cheated in exams, or dodged a lesson. The foolish fellows! They didn’t know enough to know that they themselves were the only ones that were cheated. A school or college is a place where a boy learns, or rather can learn if he tries, how to use his brains. If he doesn’t do the work then he doesn’t learn—at least he doesn’t learn there.”
Walter was somewhat uncomfortable at the turn the conversation had taken and interrupting, he said to Silas, “Don’t you think Dan will make a good pitcher for the Tait School nine?”