Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-12-01
nv DOLLAR PER ANNuM, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.


with this he is dissatisfied, and determines to
worry out the hard, unreasonable master, as
he now thinks he is, and so to carry the cheat
ing operation farther, he concludes that he will
not study that particular lesson at all, seeing
that he is required to stay and recite it. only
to accommodate the master In fact, he has
no time to look over yesterdays lesson, for
those of to-day presses much harder upon him
than upon the others of his class The first
principles must therefore be wholly neglected,
or the teacher must take time out of school
hours to give the same instruction as was Civ
en- to the class but with the additional labor
consequent upon hearing lesson that never
has been studied
The scholar soon discovers that his class
mates are getting ahead of him, and as the
lessons grow more and more difficult to one
who neglected the first, he soon stays away
again because he does not understand his les
sons On his return again, he finds matters
worse than before. He soon has a settled dis
like to his teacher-thnks he is cross-unne-
ceSsarly eXacting, unwilling to give him pro-
per assistance, and partial to the other men,
bers Of the class who get along so much better
than he does and finally hates to go to that
school. His parents, after talking the whole
matter over with him, without hearing word
from the teacher unless he obtruded himself
upon them, conclude that it is of no use to drive
the child to a school where he dislkes the mas
ter and he is therefore kept at home, or sent
to some other school, there to re-enact the
same scenes, if the teacher is faithful, and leave
for the street school, where hundreds of the
youth of our village are receiving their only
education
In this school he loses no lessons he is pre-
sent at every recitation of vulgarity, obscenity,
profanity and blasphemy he hears all, learns
all, remembers all, practices all, and when he
graduates, he goes forth to teach all. Now,
where was the root of this evil |? Was the
teacher to blame for requiring perfect lessons?
For insisting upon the Importance Of constant
attendance at every recitation, when atten-
dance was possible, not convenient but Poss1-
BILE. leave these questions for parents to
answer
But, it will be said, are children never reaHu
sick while attending school? Certainly they
are, frequently, really sick, and when so, should
be most carefully attended to, and their health
should, at all times, be watched over by the
parents with anxious solicitude, and all unne-
ceSSary exposures and irregularities in diet and
hours of sleep, should be sedulousy guarded
against but in the case of the scholar, We
would have the parents investigate the cause
and degree of the indisposition, as rigidly as
they do in cases where money or pleasure is to
be the sacrifice for non-attendance
Parents occasionally, need their children to
do some chores after school time but, the
same care i'll the case of the scholar, as is ex-
erciSed in other cases. would make those occa-
sions, like angels visits, few and far be-
tween"
1t may be asked again, how do parents know
when the most difficult, or the most important
lessons are to be recited They do not know;
hence the impropriety of allowing scholars to
stay out of school moment, if it can possibly
be avoided. If they do not know which are
the most important, they do know, or they
ought to know, that all are of sufficient i'm
portance to require the attention of their chill
dren
Ifparents could be induced to go with their
children to school, and to remain through the
day and hear them attempt to recte after an
absence of a day or two, and witness their
trouble and perplexity in endeavoring to keep
along with those who reeite every lesson--if
they would perform, for one or two days only,
the extra labor that the teacher has to perform
for their scholars, these annoying and dscour
aging absences would soon cease to trouble the
teacher Y.