The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-07-15


part of teachers and pupils that their re-.
spective classes might be more thorough
ly prepared to pass similar examination
in the future. e
Hwill also be observed that the school
fails behind last years report, fraction
of one per cent. in attendance. This re.
suits, to some extent, from prevalence Of
Scarlet fever during the Winter term, but.
more especially in the method of keeping
the attendance. The State Teachers As.
ISOLATION in order to secure uniformity OF
reports throughout the State, recommend
ed, in every instance, except promotion,
that the pupil he carried six half days
before being dropped from the number
belonging 10 the department. This meth
OF was followed the entire year. To IL
lustrate the difference between this meth
Cd and the one followed last year, sim
gle instance will suffice: quite 4 number
of pupils from the Higher department
left school last fall term to attend the
Normal. Now instead of Immediately
dropping them Gas would have been done
last ycar) they were each retained three
days in the reports. Had the attendance
been kept on the basis of last year the
percentage of attendance would IN all
probability exceed it by two per cent,
Yet Notwithstanding all this we re aware
that there is abundant room for improve
ment. And were the subject of the ne
cessity of regular and punctual atten-
dance not so hackneyed and distasteful
to both teachers and parents we would
be inclined to say considerable about 1t.
The responsibility in this matter rests
with teachers, pupils and parents, and
without the cooperation OF each, it is i'm
possible to attain to satisfactory results.
That schools should be made attractive
and interesting we believe, and acknowl-
edge the power of such TO attract; but
then it is nonsense to suppose that school
room attraction and interest, be it ever SO
great, will oyCr-matCh outside attraction
and interest, when brought in competition
with it, The combined appliances and
ties have not half the attraction for hun
dreds of students that await them in the
surrounding ball rooms and billiard tables.
Out of ten boys left entirely to their own
Judgment in the matter, nine will prefer
learning to shoot than to read, and the
same number of girls left to their own
sweet will, nine will be infinitely more
interested in unraveling the intricacies of
of new costume than in solving prob
lem. This simply goes to prove that
with the parents lie the responsibility
and duty of overcoming carefully and jul
diciously, those likes and dislikes by the
interpositon of parental authority. Cases
are not wanting of boys whipt to school
that shortly afterward cried harder be-
cause they had to leave it.
Teachers do not look for absolute per
lection. Nothing of the kind. They
very well know that the getting of "bread
and butter" is prime necessity and that
portion of the lime of many pupils is justly
and of right, occupied in assisting their
parents. They also realize the fact that
none are exempt from sickness, and that
often the most laudable purposes of pa
rents are interfcred with by this means;
but after making due allowance for all
absolute detention on account of work
and sickness, there yet remains the
causes unmcntioncd of a very large per
ton of the absence and tardincss of pu,
pills. 1t may be asked what are those
causes? They are lcgion-thc innumera-
bic ways in which pupils are directly or
indirectly allowed, often compelled, to
fritter away their time. Among them
| are want of encouragement, watchful-
ness eternal vigilance" is said 20 be
| the price of liberty, it is no less the price
of educated children; want of system;
having trifling things done about school
time that might have been accomplished
long before or postponed till after school
hours; such as errands to neighbors, to
the post-oflce, or places of business;
failure to sacrifice personal ease and con-
vcniencc, as illustrated in the habitual
late breakfast in cold weather, and so on
ad infnitum Small children environcd
by such surroundings are to be pitied,
especially so,- when it is remembered
that in a large majority of cases the first
few years of life are the only ones devot-
ed to the requirement of an education.
Parents that will allow trivialities to
stand between their children and the OPP
portunities of an education commit gre
vious wrong, the effects of which no fu.
ture repentance will ever efface.
J. J, ANDREWS,
n