Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1860-02-03


standard Of scholarship will not rise very
high, while parents and guardians never visit
the schools. The best Of teachers will have
but moderate success with scholars, who
think their parents have very little interest
whether they learn anything or not. And
scholars wU think you do not care much, If
they never see your face in the school-house
/ Hence, every man and woman should regard
l it as an imperative personal duty TO visit fire.
quently the school. By their presence they
should let the children see that they have a
personal interest in their progress. BY their
presence they should convince teachers that
they sympathize with them in their work.
Want Of sympathy and cooperation be-
tween parents and teachers in the general
management and government OF the schools
is often great hinderance TO progress. Ma
ny parents and guardians may be found all
through the community, whose influence. wit
tingly or unwittingly, is thrown against good
order in school. They rarely, if ever, appear
inside the school-house to see what kind of
management is needul there-rarely consult
with teachers concerning the government of
their own children--or speak with them on
the subject, unless in the way Of ungenerous
complaint, lault-fnding, or abuse. But their
cars are wide open to catch the least murmur
Of discomfort on the part of the scholars
Co snatch up and magnify any indiscretion,
or actual fault, into which the teacher may
have fallen
Having disposition to find fault with the
teacher, it takes but small amount of luel
to make great outside fire. Children are
chtechiscd every night-not to know how
much they have learned and TO encourage
them to still greater eGort-not to know
whether they have conducted themselves us
they ought, and correct them, if not--but to
know what had things the teacher has said or
done Children understand at once what is
wanted, and they love to magnify their great
trials in school. especially as they see how
greedily everything against the teacher is
swallowed They learn very quick to be al
ways ready to make large reports When
the tender mammas, and the more tender
grand -mammas, maiden aunts. and sisterly
noighbors Of like spirit, have got all the facts
against the teacher, out of the children, they
can, and all the stories they can induce them
to manufacture, they hold a semi-private con
ference together--the children all present
to sec how much can be made Of it. Forth
with there comes a great ierment which de-
livefs itself in explosive ordinations Mad
"tN 80 VIZ NNNs W hhN u MlihNA lNluk lh
was for the teacher to whip Harry for not
getting that lesson I don't care if it was
only half-page in the Primary Geography, .
and had been Harrys lesson for a week III
Harry had no mind to get it, it was none of
the teachers business don't believe in
whipping children to make them study =
He'll get piece Of my mind when get
chance -
Grandma NJ. holds mp her hands aghast,
drawing out, How cruel it was for him to
make Clara stand at the black board half
hour-Clara thought it must have been two
hours-while he explained to her that sum
She must have been completely tired out
| wonder that she was not sick after such
abuse :"
And" says Madam E., There is my
Sally-he won't help her bit in the miscsl-
laneous cxamples-she has been on the first
page of them fortnight now, and has only
done six of them He showed her how to
do those six. But to-day, and Yesterday,
and the day BEFORE he would not show her
or could not, which is worse He even had
the impudence to tell her to try aud do them
herself; just as if it was not the business
of the teacher to do the hard sums for the
scholars | send my children to school to
get help, and if the teacher don't help them, /
| don't think the school is good for any
thingi'
Madam r. takes her turn. Just think
my Bill came home last night, and said the
teacher pokod fun at him, and made all the
scholars laugh, because he could not spell
such a hard word as Negohator. He told the
scholars that Bill spelt it Negro po-tq-to.-I
Now. don't send my children to school to
be made fun Of, anyhow !"
And so it goes on to the end of the confer
ence, and TO the end of the iever-the chill
dren present, and eagerly listening all the
while They are thereby prepared to go to
school the next day, with the determination
not to study, and not to regard the rules Of
the school if they can help it,
Children under such influences at home or
elsewhere, every night, never do much in
school. They come to regard their teachers
much as their parents seem to regard them
without afection--esteem-- even common
respect--in short as their natural enemies.
With such state of feeling, there is no pos
sibility Of successful study. The apparently
/ bitter opposition Of parents, to the general
management and government of the teacher,
/ will destroy respect and esteem for the teach
I er in the midst of the children And when
respect and esteem are destroyed, the teach
/ ers right arm is paralyzed No matter how
superior his abilities for his work may be, or
how faithful he may be, his labor will be
wasted on scholars thus filed with prejudice.
They are secretly determined that they ,oa
not learn under his instruction Their ioil
not is nourished at home Nothing the teach.
er can do overcomes it.
At the end of the term these same parents
point to their children saying. They have
learned nothing all this winter; which proves
what we said, that the teacher was not Git tc
teach whereas, the truth was, then them.
seives destroyed the possibility. on the par
of the teacher, to do their children any good
by the free use of their wicked and SANDER
Gus tongues against him, in the presence o
the children. If you would have your chill
dren prosper in study, cultivate among theu
respect and esteem for their instructors
Never let them hear word from you agains
the teacher. II he has proved himself unf
for his trust, take the legal method of remov
ing him quietly. Make not his presence
mong you four-iold injury to your children
by discussing IN their hearing his folies, hi
foibles, or even his positive faults
FELLOW CITIzESs Thus briefly have
: called to your notice, some of the things which
} seem to me to hinder much, the prosperity o