The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-08-19
Correspondence
TRIALS OF 4 COUNTRY SCHOOL
MARM.
The Lights and Shadows. Joys and Sor.
rows Of the Teachers Life.

tiowery paths, and its rough, tliorny ones.
We experience hitter trials and disappolnt-
nents and enjoy pleasant surprises and sweet
triumpls. We can extract quiet happiness
from our employments, or muse the woes
which they may bring forth. We cannot
expect all OF the one, nor can we endure all
OF the other. "Tl,e darkest cloud has a sill
yer lining" We cali close our eyes to the
former and open them to the latter. Our
day is divided into darkness and light ; into
sunshine and shadow !; and SO is our life
divided. That Of the country school marin
is NJ exception to the rule. 1t is made up of
misery and joy and it depends much upon
herself how lutte of the on. or Of the other
shall be placed on the credit side Of life's
ledger.
This short prelude is written merely for
the purpose of investing my subject with q
somewhat learned it not d very dignified
preface, for school mar1ns are supposed to
possess immense learning, if not much digli-
ty. But great dignity and great learning you
know, are seldom found united in any one
person. Simplicity in style is, as you are
aware, an unerring evidence of erudition,
therefore the inference is plain that school
marins are not very dignified because they
are simple (not siIiy) and, because they are
simple, very learned. There's logic for YOU
In speaking Of this indispensable yet under
valued class Of mind-formers, l do not refer
to the one pictured to US as a tall, angular,
notwithstanding woman with near set eyes,
a | ng, sharp nose, thin, firmly compressed
lips, cheeks profusely embellished with three.
correred freckles, a sour, vinegary expression
Of countenance, overshadowed by a wilder
ness Of raging auburn hair, who, with rod in
hand, glOwers with malignant eyes upon the
trembling urchin that has unwittingly vio-
lated one of the two hundred and eleven
rules for school government which hang
colspicuously behind the teachers throne.
No; | don't mean her. l mean the soft-eyed,
sweet-faced lady who rules her charge with
love and not Ivy law ; whose heart is in her
work and whose work is in the hearts, Us
we'll as the minds, Ut her pupils the uncom-
planning, self-iminolated being who finds her
greatest recompense in viewing the little
pyramids Of knowledge which, day by day,
she Is building in the waste places in the
minds OF the wee ones around her. Her
labols bear fruit beyond the narrow confines
Of the school room.
School marms, l believe, are a purely
modern if not all American invention. The
Scriptures make no mention OF their exist
ehce. The sterner sex did all the secular
teaching, and therefore moulded the cllarac-
ter Of the generations of the early world, and
"a pretty mess they made Of it, too, if We are
10 believe history. Nothing but wars, rapine
anu bloodshed were the fruits of their i'll
structions. 1t was during the Dark Ages,
out OF which woman guided the world, that
men began to perceive the wonderful power
which she eXertet' over their destinies. From
the realization OF this fact sprang the first
yernis Ut chivalry, and women were imrnedi-
ately placed upon a higher plane in their
social relations with their lords and masters
up to the time when Ccrvantes slaned the
youth o. his day by holding up to their gaze
old Don Quixote as an exponent Of the then
state OF cllvalry. the world, through the
Influence OF the incipient school marin, had
OeeIl taking long strides in advance of its
former low level. In those days the slipper,
the birch and the ferule were the instruments
used by the good na,rons to hcw and smooth
oil the rough corners of their youths Lispo-
sltIon. But it has been reserved for the
school marlns of the nineteenth century,
aided ny loving mothers, to refine the youth
ana thus eXalt the NAL to a more exalted
sphere OF action and usefulness. This has
not been accomplished without great labor on
tlle part OF the mother and the instructress.
They have much to do yet. There is still II
great margin tor Improvement in those whom
we are taught to look upon as our lords and
masters. TO effect that improvement; is the
mission OF the school Hlal1ns vt to-day. In
the conscientious discharge of that mission
the teacher does not find her profession one
OF luxurious ease. There are too many an
!oya''crs, petty and trihing to be sure. il
taken. separately, but in the aggregate they
form IL great burden TO whicl, she must sub
MT IN order to preserve harmonious relations
with her pupils and patrons. Otl-tmcs the
s"nd mother, in Misdirected zeal for her
chllds welfare, imposes additional lrials upon
the u~nofrnding teacher. \ few instances,
taken from the diary Of a friend. who kindly
furnished me with the same, will suffice to
prove this. To-day Il fond mother sends II
very polite note to the teacher, requesting
her to seat her darling Johnnie nearer the
Stove, as he is very tender and liable to take
cold. Tomorrow an irate mother wants to
know why the marin keeps up such IL fire ?'
volunteering the information that .shc is
not u caLnibal and don't wait her children
baked brown" Another very rau,ions
mother. would like it it the teacher would
permit her little .Arabrlia to Sit awar from
that dirty Sal Mudover as she believes the
said Sally has the itch. At smother ,inle
some little "tot :" ~uivulsrs the %stat1lin. .,.for-
nation that Mary Brown had heard T.nmny
Smith say that he had heard Mis-. Robinson
say that Willie bod told Mrs. Roger, .,a, The
sc!l'"i marin punished her children and net
ted those OF Mr.. Johnson. the merchant. and
That MIS-. Rogers was going to see the trustees
about " them air kind of uuils.'
And then again Mrs. Soocl,ing, President of
the Tea Drinking Circle and Scandal Broth
tilrtory." declared upon her word and honor
and hoped I" die in a minute if it WASH, true.
that only on last Fir,iay r,,:i.ii,. si, seed ii
1"latr what h"l Oh store clothes, and IL tall lm,
ami shiny ho'ts, take the school marin in IA
buggy aud go towards town. AS for her rurt
she didn't want her S,,Sy Ann to go TO school
I" lcarli to spark" She believed SIN. would
just mention the matter to the Trustees.
lnm few days a flaming mole came from Mrs.
Mudo'ti. charging the school malm with
- showing lultialiiy towards that stuck ,p Ar
abrll:. NJ "hhinS.' and size meant to take her
darling Sally fright cut If school right away"
But 1t" greatest trial was Yet 10 come. !
Squire B,'iba!l. the most influential Trustee
IN the district. entered her school room one |
evening jns1 rs she had dismissed her charge |
fr the day. ln>tinctiraly the poor Scl!ool |
harm knew What was coming. 81. had re- !