The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1857-03-19
Irregularity in Attending School.


NUMBER II.
tits mistaken idea to suppose that
children can be benefited in proportion to
the time of their attendance at school,
provided that attendance is not regular
and punctual. 1.-THE school were green
cheese or barrel Of cider, and every pu-
pill permitted to nibble at or draw from it,
then each ones share might be in proper
ton to his time; but there is nothing more
absurd than to suppose that, in classi-
fed school, an irregular or periodical at
tendance will result in anything but mis-
GHETTO the pupil. Some parents seem
to regard their children as SO many emp
ty bottles, and the school and its exercises
as vast reservoir. from which they are
to be filed; and that they will be filed
just in proportion 10 their time OF attend
ance, i. e., il they are there one half the
time, they win get half full, if one-fourth
of the time, one-fourth full, ETC., whether
that time be so many consecutive days or
hours. or be every other day or hour. not
taking into consideration that if the con-
nection between such reservoir and
the scholar be interrupted, or broken of.
it requires time and labor. more than can
be spared. to make the connection COM
plete again. Neither do they consider the
fact that others are interrupted in SINH
lar manner, and that when these Interrupt
tions are frequent, as they usually are in
our common schools, no connection at all
can Be kept ap. The whole school, there
fore, is made to suffer-is kept in an un-
settled state, perhaps from one end of the
term to the other.
Now, is it right and just that every
member Of the school should be made to
suffer in consequence OF the faults of the
few? Should one scholar be permitted
thus to destroy the real benefits of the
school, and to rob, yes, rob directtyhis fel-
lows Of their legitimate rights? No more
right than it would be for hiE- to put his
hand clandestinely into your pocket and
extract money therefrom.
"Time is money" and under these
circums,a ancesit is peculiarly SO; therefore,
he who thus unnecessarily takes it, is gull
ty ofrobbery.
The parent or pupil may plead, II did
it ignorantly." 81 was not aware OF the
extent, or turpitude of the crime" This
flimsy excuse offers no mitigation. Is
man any the less dead because | kill him
with myeyes shut, or accidentally? Is he
any the less poisoned if, through accident
or ignorance. give him arsenic instead
of ashes? And yet some are weak enough
to excuse themselves on the ground ofig-
ncrance.
Now, where school is thus interrupted
in its exercises, every pupil feels it. and
thusfarbecomesdemoralized, ,disheartened,
discouraged, and thus the way is paved
for future course of idleness and crime.
In this case, the poor teacher is too often
made the escape goat" to bear the sins
of "a whole neighborhood. He is blamed
for the poor success of the school, when,
in fact, il an angel had taught the same
school, no better success would have at
tended. Nothing, therefore, is farther
from the truth than to suppose that a
scholar can keep pace with his classes
when he is habitually late or irregular in
bis attendance. If the school is at all
classified, (and every school should be, }
his whole class is compelled to fall back
TO accommodate him, or to proceed with
out him. In the former case, the inter-
est and progress the class are Interrupt
ted; in the latter, the scholar is degraded
both in his own estimation and that of his
fellows.
Now, there is no more reason why the
pupils of school should thus be compell
ed to wait on the tardy movements of one
of their number, or to retrace their steps
to accommodate him, than that one neigh
Dor should be compelled to wait for anoth-
er in commencing. his spring plowing or
sowing, or gathering the harvest of his
soil, or that he should be compelled to
unplov or unsow that which he had already
accomplished, because, forsooth, he had
arisen in the morn and prepared his labor
in dus season.
The analogy is not a forced one; and
the results are similar, save that, in the
latter. the injury sustained is not to be
compared with that in the former.
We hope that parents and communities
will soon awake to their interests in this
respect; and that our schools. thus bur-
dened and retarded in their efficiency, will
soon wash themselves from this iniquity
Then shall they be what they were de-
signed to be, nurseries Of intelligence and
purity. J. OGDEN.
HopEDALE, May 8, 1856.
sLAY STILL, GRANNY."-A boy got his
grandfather's gun and loaded it, but was