Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1876-05-20
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT NO. 3.
Home Training las auxiliary
to, and cooperative with
the work Of the Teacher.

school-rOom is the want of proper
Home Training by parents and those
who have the charge of children
The home school is preparatory to
the common school, and if child is
not properly fitted for the latter, it's
department is very likely to disturb
the equilibrium Of good order thro'-
out the entire room into which it has
been entered. Bad influences are
much more easily communicated
than good ones. And while the child
is corrected for a misdemeanor, the
punishment indeed falls upon it, but
the parents are in all probability the
more culpable party. Those who
know nothing of the trials and diff
culties of the school-rOom may think
that it is too severe to censure par
ents for the faults of the child, but
the teacher kao,os that it is deserved
in the majority of cases. 1t is not
too much to say that an experienced
teacher can infer the main traits of
character in the parent Especially
the mother,) from the conduct and
habits of the child. He obtains a
knowledge of the nature of Home
Training, without as much as peep
into the family.
1t is an undeniable fact that, In
this age, many children have their
own way at home, and in some in
stances are the ruling power in the
Jamily. Naturally this spirit accom-
panies them into the school-room,
where they become disturbers of the
peace and when punished they make
complaint to their indulgent parents
who are but too ready to charge the
teacher with partiality and unfair
ness, based upon the one-sided story
of their pets. Many are so blind to
the faults of their children, and SO
over-estimate their good qualities as
to consider them perfection ITSELF"
AS All illustration A boy is brought
to school with the recommendation
remark: "You need not be strict
with my Willie; he will not give you
any trouble, for he is good, quiet
and obedient boy, and the first
thing, perhaps, he does, after he has
heard his mothers laudatory words,
and viewed the situation, is to strike
up a stalk" with Johnny, ''pinch"
the arm of Freddie, or ''stick" Har-
ry Jones with pin.
There are four things necessary to
the healthy growth of country,
namely School, State, Church and
Family; and 1 hesitate not in main
tanning that in the workings of the
family we are, as nation, more de-
relict than in any of the other three.
The family school is primary to all
these, not only in the order of time,
but in the Importance of its agency,
and in the permanency OF the i'm
pressions for good or evil. You see
marks of the family on the child in
the school, on the citizen in State,
and on the member in church. The
family impression made upon the
child is carried through life and into
eternity. How great, then, the re-
sponsibility resting upon the parents,
and all those who have an agency in
shaping the plastic mind of the child,
and giving direction to the aspira-
tions of it's immortal soul.
One of the principal sources of evil
habits formed by children is contact
and association with each other be-
yond the family circle, in places and
at hours utterly improper. The do
nestle group is not kept sufficiently
close together in its own private fast
ness. Street.-The has been called the
Devils school," in which the young
are taught in various branches of
wickedness both night and day. It
the father of rebellion and lies does
not directly superintend it, he does
it Indirectly and most effectually by
his assistants. Whose fault is it
that there is always material at hand
to fill this pernicious school? The
fault lies at the door of parents and
wards. Let each and every family
close it's doors against it, and it will
cease to exist. The influences that
60 out from it are widespread and
ruinous to society, church and State.
1t leads to an invasion of domestic
privacy and that which should be a
close and sacred retreat, is wretch
eddy open to the world. The Israel
itish children stroll out, and the Ca
naanitish children stroll in, and the
result is the language of Ashdod be-
comes common to all.
The family has, in many instances,
become simply a place for eating,
sleeping and dressing. Home seems
to have become only a place for chill
dren to be born and nursed, instead
of a place for pleasant intercourse
and culture. Home and Family =
How desecrated! And yet this is
the heaven-appointed place to make
men and women sure candidates for
honor here and glory hereafter.
parents presume to excuse them
selves by saying that they cannot
keep their children at home? Let
the pestilential breath of the plague
be in our streets, and how soon these
same persons will shut the door and
keep the children within But is
there not always a moral pestilcnce
n. 4. a = Al