The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-06-20

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in the school; and a public. record is
made Of these to be examined by Visi-
tors OF school officers, OIL paraded on
small tinted papers before their par
ents. The cry of the boy,
"Don't view me with critics eye,
Bot pass my imperfeetions by, !"
lis unheeded under this cruel practice.
Some one has said, "A teacher should
have one blind eye;" many faults COM
mitted BY scholars, though observed
are not noticed and punished. But
this system shows no such mercy; it
asks for an exact and full confession
from every delinquent or culprit, or it
charges him with concealing and de-
ception.
tits the tendency Of the self-report~
ing practice to direct the mind chiefly
/ to ones mistakes and short comings
Every teacher must know that this
/ habit is extremely hurtful. 1t creates
i a sour temper, makes one oVer-critical
and censorious, and forms a hesitating,
seryile, and coWardly spirit. 1t is not
best to argue that due attention should
4 not be given by pupils to their imper-
fections; we all know that it is the
very nature Of school-life to do this.
WHAT oondemnedjs the improper en-
phasis placed upon this self-notice and
self-condemnation. Page says, with
rare instinct, of school registers, "If
they are to be kept at all, they should
record the successes and virtues Of the
child, rather than his failures and
faults. The teacher should not show
a willingness to record and publish
the faults Of d pupil. lie should, on
the contrary, show a tender regard for
his reputation. Besides, the child is
less likely to be mindful Of duty, when
his reputation is already blackened by
his teacher" What would he have
said Of this tystem, sought to be in
troduced into SO many public schools,
"a system which violates all the prin-
ciples enunciated by him in this para
graph.
/ a writer in the American Journal of
Education, while fayoring self report
ing, admits that under it "habits of
concealment, evasion, duplicity, false
hood, and the invention Of plausible
pretexts, are established; and the con-
science becomes insensible to the enor-
nifty OF what is hourly perpetrated. .
"This testimony is given" he says.
after long years Of intimate acQuain-
lance with the workings Of the sys-
tenn, where all the working hours Of
the tWenty-four were subject to re-
view at the confessional" What he
could see good in it, after such an ex-
perience, is beyond our comprehension.
In a public school Of intermediate pu-
pills, the writer lately saw q young
girl, when the school was called upon
to report their misdemaanors, delibor-
ately lie by holding up her hand to
show that she had not communicated
during the afternoon. A woman says,
"The delicate task of dealing with the
forming conscience generally falls to
mothers. They know what a differ
ence there is in children, and how the
conscience has to grow by small de-
grees, trammeled by a weak reason ON
the one hand, and by strong viii on
the other. They have too often taken
their children alone and labored long
to make them see even one fault, ex-
planning, demonstrating, weeping per-
maps, and praying to be willing ever to
trust their children to such q hasty,
hap-hazard system"
This is the account given by one
who has intently watched what is
called "the work Of the system" Go
with me to one of cur public schools.
1t is late III the afternoon; the teacher
is finishing her reports for the day.
In the matter Of recitations, she her
self is the sole arbiter of the records
but in the matter of department, each
child is put on honor and required to
answer for itself. She calls upon each
little one by name to rise and give an
estimate Of its own behavior. Ten is
the highest record; each instance of
misbehayior takes off one from the
number. Now observe. There rises