The Placer herald., 1872-09-14
PARENTS RELATIONS TO TEACHERS.

rents should cooperate in their execution This
they can do by properly preparing their children
to be benefited by his instructions If me-
chanic be furnished with poorly prepared mate
rial, it is not to be wondered at if he fail to pro-
duce good workmanship. If the material be
not prepared to yield to his efforts to produce
the desired effect, he may totally fail in every
respect. Now, the material that the teacher
works with is the immortal mind, the soul. 1t
his responsible lot to seize hold of, mould and
direct the immortal mind How important is il
then that the material should be properly pre-
pared to yield to his efforts to produce n healthy
body, elldeveloped faculties and noble mind
able to grasp great truths, reject error and throw
off the fell NANTES of iniquity, and seize the
shield of virtue with the firm grasp of man
The mother moulds the mind in infancy and
participates with the teacher in the same work
in after years What blessing it would be
could every mother be brought to realize the
immense weight of her responsibilities, which
are synonymous with those of the teacher, only
in greater degree.
The imbecile mechanic may haggle and ruin
the material he works upon, and produce de-
formed piece OF mechanism, yet the cost is easily
counted up i'll dollars and cents but let the care
less parent or pedagogue produce deformed
mind and ruined intellect, and he or she may
count the cost in his Satanic Majesty's domain,
there to writhe under the reflection that they
were the cause of leading innocents under their
charge to such horrible results.
This is no overdrawn picture Many parents
and teachers, having the best interests OF the
children at heart, err through a mistaken idea Of
kindness and do them great and lasting injury
in many ways at first impercephble to them
selves, by over indulgence and procrastination.
"Procrastination is the thief of time;' therefore
we should not allow bad habits to form IMPLY
because in our opinion the child is too young to
know better that does not obviate the necessity
of teaching it to the best of our ability to
know better, nor does it lessen the responsibility
for proper training.
Again, the parent care prepares the material
for the teacher to work with in the same
manner that the quarryman can that which
the sculptor is to shape. If the quarrymen send
to the sculptor block that is hard, warped and
uny.: Gliding, how greatly does it augment the
difficulty to shape the figure and produce model
image. Likewise, if the parent send to the
teacher mind warped by prejudice hard and
unyelding how greatly does it increase the
teachers labors to produce n well developed
specimen OF Gods owl image. Confidence lii
the teachers justice, and respect for his opinions
will induce love of appreciation, which Is con-
ceded to be among the most efficient incentives
to study and self-improvement. In order, then,
to inspire children with love for their teacher
appreciation it is highly essential that they have
proper respect for his opinions, confidence in
his justice, and entertain for him a feeling of
affection not easily shaken otherwise the truth
of his teaching and assertions will be doubted,
his approval disregarded, his opinions set at
naught, his appeals to conscience and the high
est incentives fruitless, and acts of kindness on
his part, with view to their own interest, re-
garded, not in their true light, but as being ex-
emplary of that bastard friendship begotten OF
selfshness. The teacher, thus stripped of the
power of appealing to the best incentives to
study as well as good department, is compelled
by force of circumstances to the low and debas-
ing methods embraced in humiliation, shame
and corporal punishment, in order to insure the
good results that might have been accomplished
otherwise than by thus striking at the root OF
everything manly, or branding with stigma OF
disgrace and who can foretell the woeful results
that, being incident to debased mind and broken
spirit. might befall child thus stignatized.
Would to God that all parents would view this
matter in its proper light, and for themselves
what incalculable injury they do their children,
saying nothing of the injury they do to the
teachers, by encouraging in them a disrespect
for him; thus totally blasting all his hopes O..
ever ruling them by love, and renders him pow
erless except as a tyrant who glories in despot,
ism and arbitrary compulsion.
Parents work directly antagoni tic to their
eva interest when they derde the teacher in
II ,ence of their children. If they have just
cause of complaint, so long as they can do no
better than send their children to him, it is pol
icy to say nothing detrimental to him in the
presence of their children. If either have been
injured by the teacher in any way, the parent
should confer with the teacher personally, and
if he fail to explain the matter, to redress
wrong or concede right, then the trustees
should be applied to. Should the parent still
fail to get satisfaction, it would be to his own
interest to let the children remain in blssful ig
norance of his dislike to the teacher. And if he
concludes to withdraw his children from school,
or send them elsewhere, it would still be better
for the community to drop the subject, and thus
prevent the spread of communicating influence
among the children.
l do not wish to be understood as upholdng
the teacher in any wrong; but children more
frequently suffer from imaginary than rea
wrong.
1t sometimes happens that through some local
cause parents become prejudiced against a
teacher. Mr.. Page, in his Theory and Practice
of Teaching, has ably explained this: still there
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