The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-01-08
From Fillmore.
January, 1875.

DAYS are over, and now to business.
Our little town has been quite in
tercstcd and entertained for a few
davs,by the meetings of the Teachers
Institute, which have been held here
during the past week. Such meetings
are Il benefit to any society; and if
the people could all attend them
three, four, or even six times a year,
no would be loser by them. 1t
vas expected that Holt county would
join with us, but from some cause
unknown to your correspondent, only
one or two of the teachers of Holt at
tended. No doubt the Auditor of the
Institute will furnish you u complete
record of the dOings of the Institute,
but he, being a very bashful man. may
not be willing to give himself and
others of the teachers, all the credit
due. The Institute was a success, in
every particular, so far as those who
attended were concerned. For those
who remained away, it is their loss.
All those present seemed to enjoy
themselves; and if the Institute could
have held all the week, it would have
pleased many in this vicinity.
For u part we are not i'll favor of
holding the Institute during the holt
days, for two or three reasons. One
is, that many of the teachers wish to
spend those days among their friends,
and others wish to attend the festi-
walls and social gatherings generally
held during the holidays. These dis
tract the attention of the teachers
from the business of the Institute
Another reason is, that it 10 nearly
always cold and disagreeable wealth
er, and although this season was not
so bad as last, and two years since,
still it was not pleasant. Your cor
respondent thinks that this season of
the year is too cold, and six months
from this time, or July. is too hot,
and that a mean between the two
would be better. Say for instance,
during the month of March, or about
the time that the winter schools arc
drawing to a close, and again in Sep
TENDER, OF about the time that the
winter schools are about to begin.
Teachers of Andrew, think of this,
and let US so work upon our Execu-
tive Committee, that they will sec
that the best time shall be the time
for holding the Institutes i'll the
future.
You will get all the proceedings of
the Institute from the proper officer;
but there are a few points we wish to
touch upon, that will not be in the
regular proceedings. We wish to no.
tice the lecture of DR.. Simmons, of
Rochester, and must say that it was
a lecture full of interest to all those
engaged in the high and noble calling
of educators. We wish that the
teachers of this county could be as
well entertained at every Institute 4;
and if the Institutes could meet
monthly, and be as we'll entertained,
all the better.
Some Of the questions discussed,
from the query box, were full of in
terest. One In particular was not all
brought cut, viz: What relation dc
parents sustain to the public schools?
So far as our experience goes, a ma
jOrity Of them sustain no further re-
latiOn than this: They are conven-
lent places to send their children to
get them out Of the way, but so far as
anything else is concerned, the pa
rents do not know or seem to care
what the children are doing-wheth-
er they are improving mentally, NOR
ally, intellectually or physically. In
fact, u experience is, that they car
more for the physical part than any
other, as some of them are told to
whip certain others, and, of course,
this must be to develop the physical
powers. The parents never come to
the school to see what is going on,
whether the teacher is endcavoring
to do his duty or not, and all they
know about it is hearsay, and if it is
anything good about the teacher, they
will not believe it, but should it be a
mistake or wrong action on the
mart of the teacher lot how nuicE