McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LIX · Part 6: Lessons XLIX-LX: Sieges, patriots and pilgrims
65. Necessity of Education (Lyman Beecher)
Goal: Your student follows an urgent argument and explains why Beecher thought education decided the nation's future.
You'll need
- The book, or the scan beside this guide
- A notebook and pen
- A dictionary
What's in the book
Beecher's plea that schools and churches must keep pace with the fast-growing West, or the republic will be lost.
The lesson, step by step
Words and meanings
Before reading, find these words in the selection and look up any your student does not know: perish, prosperity, perpetuity, universal suffrage.
Read it aloud
Read the opening together:
We must educate! We must educate! or we must perish by our own prosperity.
If we do not, short will be our race from the cradle to the grave.
Your student reads the rest with urgency.
Talk about it
SayHow can a nation "perish by its own prosperity"?
SayWhy is Beecher worried about the West in particular?
SayRead: "Her destiny is our destiny; and the day that her gallant ship goes down, our little boat sinks in the vortex!" Explain the picture.
SayWhy did Beecher think a republic where everyone votes needs everyone educated? Is that still true?
Tell it back
Your student gives Beecher's argument in four or five steps.
Copywork and memory
Copy and learn:
We must educate! We must educate! or we must perish by our own prosperity.
Write (optional)
Write a paragraph on why education matters for citizens, not only for jobs.
Tip
Beecher's life is in the author note to Lesson XXIII.