Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-03-22

mittee. find quite an evil prevailing
among district officers in not keeping a
close, and through supervision over the
schools under their charge. line earii-
est district schools subjected the teacher
TO the authority inspective of a commit
tee. The larger and more philosophical
adaptation of supervision has come with
the enlargement Of our communities, and
educational institutions" The teachers
seeking the greatest excellency in their
schools, desire to have parents and edu-
Gators visit their schools and lend them
the inspiration of approval.
Parents l find are very negligent in
this important duty. A majority of the
visitors are personal friends or mates of
the teachers. "If parents would visit
our schools more, become acquainted
with the teacher, witness their labors,
exhibit an interest and sympathy for
them, new light would break upon them,
and instead Of complaints and cruel
asperslons, fraternal feeling would be
kindled that would carry with it a gen.
ial and kindly influence in which pa
rents, scholars and teachers would alike
participate" Learn from personal obser-
walton, not hearsay whether the school
is good one and whether the teacher is
faithful and competent.
Gentlemen, see that your children at
tend school. The report shows large
number of absentees, truants and nom
attendants. The increased illiteracy of
our State is most significant fact point
ing to these evils. How can these evils
be overcome and their effects be rene
died. To do this, the fact that in the ten
years from 1850 to 1860 there was an
increase of 1876 in our own State who
could neither read nor write, must be
brought home to every citizen. 1t is
idle to say these evils cannot be RENE
died Ii they cannot be, our homes will
soon become unsafe. Life will lose its
security, and property its value. Vice
and crime increase where Ignorance
abounds. The prison stands over against
| the school. The child is at home, or in
school to day in all his innocence, to-
morrow the man is in the dungeon
stained with crimes. / have had my at
tention called to families, where for sew
eral generations, the children have for
some tritiing cause, real or imagined,
been allowed to absent themselves from
school. They live as their fathers lived
If according to Darwin, apes are our
ancestors, there is no better way that this
to raise generation of monkeys. Our
legislature in 1870 took these evils and
their consequences into consideration
To the special act passed at that time, /
call your attention. Why not place the
vagrant from school, under the super
vision of the officer of the law, as we'll
as the vagrant from honest labor Let
honest poverty be assisted and the vi
cious poverty be reclaimed if possible.
We are taxed to punish crime. Why not
by the wise use Of every educational adj
vantage in our power, arrest its course,
before it blossoms and ripens into open
violation of the law, and outrage upon
society. However foreign to free peo-
pie it may seem, it becomes the duty of
our State to compel every parent to fur
nish his child with mental food, as well
as food and raiment for the body.
| The nation which has the best school
system obliges every man to educate his
child. Parents and teachers must be co.
laborers with the State in this great
work. The parent realizing that the ed
ucation of man begins at the cradle, the
teacher carrying the conviction with him
that it ends only at the grave. l will
allow, that teachers are not all alike in
drawing children to themselves. But
he should be the loadstone, around which
the children are gathered, by the attrac-
tions of his school.
Parents at home, can help the weak
teachers by avoiding criticisms of the
school and teacher, in presence of the
children, by teaching the child that at
tending school is business, and that moth
ing short Of sickness must detain him
from it,
4 Let parents do this, and at the same
time, have the foundation of the child's
character laid deepupon the moral nd re.
ligious instruction, which can be taught
by none, SO well as by Christian moth,
err, then "to let will be inscribed ON the
door of our State prison. There will be
no use for the jails, when children and
youth are taught the principles of NOR.
atty and justice, and sacred regard for
truth, and are taught to respect the laws
of their State and all the virtues which
are the ornaments of society. There
would be none of Rulof's type of char
acter, destitute of moral principle, muir.
derous, rapacious, cruel, besotted in soul
lsaWN l. -. II