Litchfield enquirer., 1879-03-13

be preserved uncontaminated, Your boys are moral agents as we'll as yourself. They know the right-they love it; now let them learn to defend it.
 think many teachers are content to live autocrats, holding the reins of government in their sole hands, asking no sympathy, sharing no responsibility with their pupils cannot believe that this is the duty of an educator.
 You cannot make your school government a democracy, perhaps You must reign, suppose but cannot the throne be ady1sed 1? Can you not, upon occasion, call an advisory counsel of boys? All moral intelligence must be exercised to grew strong and becoilea moral force. The boy who knows right from wrong, and loves the right, must be trained to stand up for the right, to fight for it with his feeble arm while young, and then he will beqHalified to be a champion of the truth when nismuscle is mature Therefore call your boys to be judges of the right and vindicaters of it. If they love you they will be glad to helps you :; demand their help, their moral judgmeabupon all questions that arise in school How much of instruction of drill in the work of slnoral criticism, and how much strength of deiermi- nation you may inspire in them by this Iasans How sadly we need men! Men who hays the courage of their convictions, who will not lie, and who will not hold their peace. Let us train them in our schools to be morally intel ligent and brave as boys, that we may prepare d generation of men. Assuredly all good and faithful boys will share the confidence of their teacher. They will have no adverse conf dence. They cannot be brbed Or frightened into covering up a fault or crime. Not as spies, not as nfermers, but as citizens let them share with you the responsibilities of advice, and, in the last resort, of judgment. -s.
 THE ''TELL-TALE" QUESTION.
 There is a doctrine adverse to this prevalent in schools, which makes it the duty of pupils to keep the secrets of the guilty-to keep the guilty secrets of those who would lead them downward to perdition. This doctrine is the devils own gospel, and, so far as accepted, | blunts the moral sense of it's victim, makes him the slave of the worst elements Ill school and mars and destroys that sympathetic, gene rous, loving confidence which must always exist between ingenious youth and teacher whom they love. 1 am persuaded that false principle and fatally injurious practice pre- vails in many schools upon this point. Teach CTS are afraid to consult their scholars; boys are afraid to inform their teachers or the | wrongs that exist and from which they are destined suffer by secret but swift contam 1 ination. The conscientious child very likely one of the weakest in physical strength, comes to tell you that certain one older and smar- | ter than himself, is bully, and is every day exercising his tyranny over the small boys. He wants to tell you in confidence, for he is afraid of the bully's vengeance Moreover, | the other boys, for whom more than for him. self he speaks will regard him as tell tale and stigmatize him with one of those opprobrious epithets which their vocabulary, rich in cpl thets, furnishes for the occasion.
 What will you do? Tell the little fellow to go away and bear it Will you hear him in confidence, keep his secret, and thus make him spy? Will you go through life skulking and hiding and spying yourself? No! fold the little fellow in your arms; let him stand up before the school sure of your protection i; make the charge boldly. and thus become the champion of his mates. There is right and wrong in this matter. Where IS it Good l government is right. Confidence between teachers and their pupils is right; and this ous boy to complain against a vicious boy is wrong What is the duty of good citizen in similar cases in life 1 insist upon it that boys shall be trained up to be good citizens; brave to grapple with wrong doers and bring them to justice and they shall not, while young, be | trained to be the secret slaves of evil doers. For see, if boy of pure heart keeps guilty secret once, he will again and again. He finds no good occasion to revot-he grows familiar with the sin-he learns to love it at last and to | practice it himself.
 IS A BOY A "BoRN DEVIL?
 | But men say, "Will boys thus conscien- tiously bear witness against their mates? Will you not have school of tale e-bearers?" The answer will depend upon the teacher. A friend of mine, teacher, and, at the same time, a preacher of the Gospel, went to ask advice of another-a Doctor of Divinity, who was also a teacher-how to manage his school so as to make it grow in numbers and in excellence. After long interview, the Doctor, with inn pressive voice and gesture, gave my friend this parting advice: Remember, sir, every boy is born devil!' If that declaration be true or even if you believe it to be true, it is altogether probable that no boy will come to you with any complaint. But if, on the | contrary, you find boys, as a general thing, true-hearted, lovabe and loving; if you find the evil still so full of good traits that your heart will not give them up, then such conf- dence will spring up between you that, in all l fidelity you will be one A school of ale-bear- CTS? No! the tale-bearer cannot live among you. He will not dare approach you. You l will know the sneak afar off, and he will run | and hide himself You must pardon me if I allude to my own experience. AS 1 write there rise up before me, ln visions of memory, | little ones, the living, and alas the dead, who stood up boldly before the school and manfully bore their willing and eager testimony against some big sinners-not with any trembling
 with no shadow of reluctance, but calmly and cheerfully, as the proper thing for them to do. Did I protect them Never! I only asked the judgment of the sch~ol. ''As many of | you as feel in your hearts that little Dick has acted nobIy, and will defend him against all harm, will rise? ?" It is astonishing how tall l boys will suddenly become on such an invita- tion. You need never trauble yourselves about l the happiness of the little fellows who confide in you, if only you deserve their confidence. . AN IDEAL SCHOOL.
 My fellow teachers, if you were required to | repeat the most momenteus statement ever ev- pressed in human language, you need to utter but three words-':Ged is Love" On this sim pie but sublime declaration hangs the Christian religion, and whatever is of value Ill all the re- l ligions of the world. Love is the genial, all prevailing atmosphere which we must breath l if we would hope to do our duty in our chosen | sphere have in my mind an ideal of school. | (You will pardon mel was asked to speak of confidence between boys and their teacher but properly speaking, an ideal school should be composed about equally of boys and girls,) | have no time for the picture-a few traits must suffice. The school is situated in the country, or, if in the city. the generous city fathers have afforded it liberal space with trees and fowers-ample play grounds kept scrupu- lously neat by the boys themselves. The buil- dings are not only commodious but picturesque and attractive. The teachers are large hearted and loving, and absolutely free from dyspepsia or any morbid tendency. A morbid teacher communicates his favorite distemper to his whole school in one term. The boys are from all classes of society, and of all degrees of goodness-and also of many degrees of bad ness-just as they have always been from the time of that little kindergarten outside the city limits of Eden. You enter-the atmosphere is warm and genial. Love and confidence shine in every face, breathe from every lip. There is fun and frolic in every eye you catch. A martinet in education would consider it g scene of confusion and disorder. He would first convert the little boys into little machines receiving their motions from one large wheel himself. But in this school of which dream, there is cooperation, there is helpfulness, and, so far as the laws of nature will permit. equal ity. All moves on in harmony and peace
 Offences come, of course. Theteacher becomes impatient, sometimes unjust but when he