The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-12-14
The School recess.

y
Joseph Carter. in recent Foruta,
Science Monthly thinks there is q grow
ing tendency to abolish the school re-
cess" The experiment has been
adopted in Rochester. N. T., and it is
said by the editor of the Boston Journal
of Education, that it has given "per-
feet satisfaction" We don't know who
was perfectly satisfied" the article
maintaining the silence of the grave on
that very important point. but we are
inclined to think it was probably the
editor of the Boston Journal of Educd-
sion. who, it may be assumed, would be
quite as well satisfied with his own sur
roundings and habits and work if the
schools of Rochester should abolish all
HOLIDAYS and vacations and gradually
grow into the habit of holding all night
sessions. But we believe, with Joseph
Carter. whose article all teachers should
read, that the tendency is bad one. ;"
1t was bad one twenty-five years ago,
when it was exhibited only in individual
cases. ard it must be far worse now,
when it threatens to become general.
We can recall now many instances in
the days OF long ago, when this
tendency to s.abolish the school
recess was manifested in the case
of one boy, quiet. sensitive lad
with sweet brown eyes, the face of a
cherub and the heart of an angel, q
good, studious bright boy. He was in
the writer's class. He sat in the writ
alone that good boy was his only COM
panion And well do we remember
what hard times it was for that boy
when the occasional tendency to abol.
ish the school recess" afforded him the
melancholy pleasure of remaining in
his seat. trying to get at the true in
wardness of adj, ante, dpud, and twenty.
three other heggars. that were followed
by the accusative. while he could hear
the bowling mob of boys down in the
yard kicking a football half way TO the
moon. OF course this tendency to abol-
! ish the school recess is bad one Ii
something must be abolished let us stick
to the recess and abolish the hour for
luncheon in the Office of the Boston
Journal of Education. Not that lunch
hour ought to be abolished, for it de-
serves and commands our honest re-
spect and esteem, but because the recess
was established first and the schools
can get along much better without
the Journal of EducatioB's luncheon
than without their recess. Sc
if we must abolish something, let US
abolish something we can get along
without. Let us abolish the McGuffy
text books for instance. Let US abolish
the system of changing text books
oftener than four times a year; let us
abolish the book agent, the map ped
der. and the desk man at the teachers
institutes; let us abolish some of the
difference between the S1,5e0 principal
and the $500 assistant; let us abolish
the treasurer who skips with the school
funds; let us abolish the member of the
Board of Education who hasn't been in
side school-room since he was nine
years old; let us abolish the teacher who
hates teaching and is going to teach
only until he can be admitted to the
bar, or begin the practice of medicine;
let us abolish the woman who comes to
the school with blood in her eye, hunt
ing for the principal who caressed her
boy with strap for kicking pickets of
the school fence and breaking the win
dows in the primary rooms. Oh, if the
Journal of Education wants to abolish
something, there are plenty of things
about the schools to abolish, without
beginning with the recess.-Burdctte. tn
Burlington RdUkeye.