The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1854-12-15
Isoafds Of Edncalinn.

"As to their rights, (tbe rights of Boards Of
Educaton,) they are ample. The law makes
them, for the time being, and for the purpo-
ses in view, nc district, i. e., the parents or
the guardians Of all children who enter the
public school or schools ef the district, and
it is their right, and this implies that it is
their duty 10 pr0toct their children, /. e., all
The children OF the distric. to throw around
them all the guards that they would throw
around their own offspring. II is their right,
aud no less their duty, to knoW the character
70 whom they commit the priceless treasure
entrusted to them And that they may knolc
the character Of those whom they are about
10 employ as teachers, they should, unless
well assured already OF the fact by dligent
and careful inquiry fully satisfy themselves
| th5t the applicant is of irreproachabe moral
character. II this fact be not ascertained, or
| if the School Director places in the school
room Is a teacher, one whom he would not
receive in his own family, as private tutor
OF his own children, he is guilty of gross vio-
lation Of sacred trust. How else can be in.
terpreted the oath, which each member . {
the Board swears with upifted hand! Can
he do less than this, and yet discharge the
duties Of is office according to law, and The
best Of his abtLttyP In the moral purity of
sixty, or i. may be six hundred children, less
important than that of his own six or perhaps
one! Surely no one in his senses will say
this in words, and yet how many hundreds, by
their actions, express this opinion And how
great the folly to attempt to guard the NOR
ais OF ones own children and at the same
time to commit the children of others to the
care of all Immortal teacher!
''But after the teacher has been selected
with proper care, and the school is commen-
ccd, has tbs Board of Education any further
tn'y tnan to provide fer the physical comfort
Of teacher and pupls!- Each member Of the
Board has still dmv no less imperative res.
ting upon him. To make assurance doubly
sure, he Should frequently visit the school.
not with a !ault-linding spirit, but with de-
sire to become intimately acquainted with
the teacher, with his character, his influence
upon the Children, boti social and moral; his
habits, both of body aad of mind. For like
object, among others, he shoId associate with
him out of school, And if the result of this
most intimate acquaintance convince the
Board that the teachers moral is not such as
it should be, if his habits and practices wheth-
er in the school room or out of it, be such as
to lead the scholars, II fully knopa 10 them, to
see less beauty in ,reH doing, and less deformly
in rrony doing, they SHOULD at once dismiss
such an unworthy teacher from his desecra-
ted post, and report their action and the ground
Of Il, TO the Board Of Examiners, for the pro-
lection OF others. ] am aware that to some
this may seem too Sercre; bat | ask, is 1t not
strictly in accordance with the Golden Rule!
yea, more; is it not positively demanded by
the spirit OF that rule!
No one can look at ell the fl cts which bear
upon this subject without acknowledging to
himself that Boards Of Education under esti-
mate the import ,nce Of their office; that they
fail to realize that upon them rests, in an i'm
rortant sense, the respen sibiity OF the char
acter Of the Using generation; that upon
their tets depend, in no small degree, the
perpetuty Of our free Institutions, and the
temporal and eternal weIl-being of children's
children to remotest ages. What school Of
tcer can look along down the future of this
mighty Republic, washed by two oceans,
thousands OF miles asunder, and not feel his
bosom swell with emotions too big Cor utter
ance, in view Of the magnitude and impOr-
lance of the work in which he is call d to
act.--Ohio Journal of Education.