The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-05-26
SCHOOL GOVERNMENT.

School Government has its origin in
common reason; but it must take def
mite character from the higher Judgment
of experts. Any government to be eGec-
tive must have its sanction in authority;
so School Government must have its
sanction in professional knowledge. Most
any one can make an historical criticism
in regard to schools, but to be able to
give specific prescription, this is bust
ness. The necessity of such government
IS known a priori, but its permanent
character must come q posteriori Ham
erton, before he made criticisms upon
etching, bought ''coppers" and set up
press. Ruskin, when he wished to study
Venetian architecture, collected all the
specimens he could find, and spent three
winters in draughting To surrender
this school matter to the caprices of cut
slders would be as absurd as to submit
one of the higher questions of Political
Economy to child. 1t would be like
handing over state government to ignora-
muses. who annually shock the political
senseOf the people by the enactment of
unconstitutional laws. We must appeal
to those who have the qualification, to
obtain an intelligent decision. Other
wise, all is collision, abortion, Reed S
railroad.
The power to sustain good School
Government resides in three parties, the
parents, the school board, and the teacher. |
by setting aside any one of the three, one
angle of the triangle is wanting and the |
method of solution is lost. IF the three
parties are essentially faulty, there is
vacuity which has analogy only in the
brains Of the pupils.
The teacher has delegated authority,
and this authority is complete so far as
1t extends. School Government is in a |
| way parental, for certain it is that in its
higher sense, it draws largely upon pa
rental instincts. 1t is plain, the charac-
ter OF the governed requires correspond
ing relations On the part Of the one gov
erning. 1t is a question whether, other
things being equal, the married man is
not superior. Here we remark by way
Of diversion, we are single yes, but
are always ready to accept the fact,
though it be death itself.
The teachers authority should be abso-
lutte; and his acts should be publicly free
from question. In no case is an inter-
ference in this right admissible, except
for long continued and bare faced incom-
potency. No democracy is admissible in
the school room. The executive power
of the the teacher should be unfettered:
and what he proposes should be acted
upon without hesitation. But there are
a thousand influences to undermine the
efficient action of this authority; and
when so, farewell to all order. Once
destroy this absolute power and you let
in flood upon a sand bank BY the de-
struction Of this power the disarmed
teacher is subject to the bites of young
teeth, and exposed as victim for older
heads to butt ogainst While the intel
ligent action of all concerned should be
felt, but one voice should be heard, and
that the teachers. Let it be otherwise,
aud he who has the profession at heart,
will feel a soul nausea as he hears through
a vista of hoofs and horns a confusion of
many voices.
This unreasonable and loud-mouthed
intcrmeddling is the bane Of school
teaching. If you wished to 'clean OUT
den Of wickedness, it would be unwise to
trumpet your intentions to the Devil.
Yet this is the very thing that parents do
in regard to the evil that has its support
in the untutored notions of youth, Thus,
instead of seeing this matter rest upon
sound principle, we see it diffusing itself
into windy yells, immoral fsticufs and
general brawls.
A kind Of ibertinism of action re-.
suits from our free institutions. It is the
wild ass principle that takes possession Of
; ignorant minds in an excess Of liberty.
Pot-Yaliant. they, with cooked hat and
a sqpint eye, fling mud into the faces of
decent people, and wear slckly express
sion of profanity upon dirty muzzle,-
and ali for liberty. Young America thus
infected by the example of older people,
challenges all the urchins Of the world
for his equal in disobedience. With his
little body set off by precocious swag.
ger, he regards his mother as the old
woman, his father as dad and his home
as chebang. It is hard to see low such
i'll hammered boobies can develop into in.
tell gent citizens. Yet some parents are
|; SO silly as to smile in their sleeves over