Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-04-23
To the sold Teacher.n


Mr.. EDToR:-In your paper Of April
l6, / saw an article entitled "School
Government and Corporal Punishment"
signed "An Old Teacher y the whole
drift of which was evidently intended as
thrust at our teachers, (better than
whom our school has never before had.)
and as vindication of the conduct of
such as with impunity have said and
done all in their power to injure and i'm
pair the best school Prescott has been
able TO boast.
This Wanted teacher "rejoices that
the people of Prescott are awakening on
this subject," etc. What particular ava
kening has Teacher" discovered 20
Was it the several belligerent demonstra-
tons made by certain parents at our
school house, whereby they disgraced
themselves, outraged societ y, and incul-
Gated in their own children a spirit of in
subordination, which it will require years
of better culture and discipline than cen
be expected from such parents, to eradi-
cate Perhaps your correspondent is
one of the aggrieved PARTIES. If so, al
low me TO ask him, how often have you
visited tie school-how often have you
examined the school register, to see if
your child's credit marks show him to
have been a studious. obedient and pune
tual scholar, or truant, rendering false
excuses to the teacher, when you, if per-
chance you thought of him at all, sup
posed him at schoo! /? How many times
during the last term, or any other, have
you sat down with that son, by your
own Preside, and with the pleasant face,
mid words and winning ways, you SO
modestly recommend to our teachers, in
structed him in the duties he owed his
teachers-the blessings attendant upon
well regulated moral life from youth up
the importance of improving every mo-
ment of time as benifeent gift of that
God, who requires the return of his own
with use ? How often have YOU ad-
monished him that discipline. positive
and firm. is necessary to the successful
carrying out Of every means which soci-
ETY. has, or can institute for the diffusion
of knowledge and the exaltation of
the race; and that it was his duty to bear
reproof without reseniment-to cheer
fully obey every direction and rule of the
school without murmur; and that these
obligations are not simply arbitrary rules,
to be obeyed because they are rules, but
that they are founded in principle, and
are duties he owes to himself, bis COM
rades, his parents, the circle in which he
is to act in future life, and above all,
10 God, who will hold him responsible
for the proper Improvement of such great
privileges +?
If your boy has grown up by your
side, his moral culture your imperative
duty, 10y the most sacred obligation God
has imposed upon man, that of parent
aud child, and yet you have failed to
entbronc the "good, the mild passions"
and dethrone the bad" of which you
so earnestly remind the teacher, IT is, to
say the least, poor commentary upon
your common sense. TO expect the teach.
er to take them off your hands. and by
a single winning smile or moral lecture,
make infant saints Of them.
Now, "Old Teacher" either you have
utterly failed in your duty to your chill
drcn as a parent, or your theory is not
correct. If the former, is not The beam
in your own eye rather large to admit of
your seeing clearly TO pick the mote from
our teachers eyes If the latter, i
would advise you to leave it to wiser
heads until you are better informed
Aud the next time you write, if you will
turn your able pen to the edi6cation of
parents, instead of teachers, you will
find more prolific field, and strike near
err the root of the evil you so much de-
plore.
So long at parents use the rod at
home, so long will the child regard it as
condition precedent to obedience at
school. So long as parents suffer their
children to deliberately disregard their
iajunctons, just SO long will the child
disobey the requests or commands of the
te icher, unless enforced by something
f