Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-04-07

: directors. She is cut off from the
stimulus of healthy influences, left 10
I depend on her own mental resources,
/ perhaps imperfectly educated, proba-
! bly, very young, inexperienced GER
( tainly, OveTburdened with rough and
i turbulent scholars, who, with the
quick perception OF youth, soon spy
/ out the weak points of her position
and unscrupulously stand on the
/ watch to assail and master them, IN
| less deferred by the exhibition of
/ physical force, when the sceptre of
command happens to tie welded by
| the strong arm of one OF the stalwaTt
"lords of creation"
1t ought surely to be needless, at
this time of day, to insist on the
| necessity of each country schools
having at least tlro suitable recitation
rooms, we'll ventilated, comfortably
seated, amply provided with
black board, maps, globes, and other
! proper school appliances, not forget
ting a 5, lect school library, suited 10
the age and capacity Of The readers
and calculating by mutual exchange
among the various schools of the same
locality. 1t seems equally obvious
that the school should be placed under
the care, not of one but of two teach
ers,-a principal, qualified by age and
experience to direct and control the
whole machinery; the other, though
tolerably well versed in common
school lore, as vet untitled from want
of experience to undertake the sole
control and responsibility OF n school,
and, therefore, acting as assistant un-
der the eye of the Head Teacher and
thus learning by practice the duties of
the profession.
Again, seeing how insulted most of
these country schools are, cut Off from
any healthy sympathies and stimula-
ting influences, il surely ought not to
be necessary TO urge, year after year,
upon the country the need of normal
training schools and of a regular sys-
tenn of vigilant and constant superVis-
ion by eminently qualified inspectors,
who, in each county, shall take those
lonely district schools under their
especial care and protection shall in
fuse into them a spirit of system, in
stead of their present irregular, often
jarring and contradictory, working
All but the eXpensei How can the
lay? II wonder what fraction this
outlay would be of the sum annually
expended on drink and tobacco
What? The country cannot afford TO
educate her children, the future uD-
holders of whatever makes a country
precious and dearI That additional
cost is trifiing compared to the waste
fulness of our present clumsy and in
sufficient machinery.
That is an expensive economy that
grudges the cost of a superior article
and is unwilling TO calculate the loss
of precious time, the cost of habits of
dawdling, of wOrk-shirking, of insub-
ordinatiOn-habits which the rough
realities of after life will hardly be
able to subdue. Takeinto the account
the poor quality aud scanty amount of
the instruction secured only by the
smarter and better disposed portion of
the scholars and the almost complete
failure of the rest generally the larger
number) to scrape up more than
mechanical knowledge of some arith-
metical processes, a drawing, taste
less mode of reading, poor writing,
ard worse spelling. Yet it is chiefly
i'm district schools that the Sons and
daughters of settlers in the remote
parts of the country must get whatev-
er training Is TO fit them TO act their
part as heads of families, responsible
voters, influential members of their
community, possible Legislators, ,rllersl
Ohio Educational HOnthby.