Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-12-29
DUTIES OF PARENTS.


Ira G. Holt, Superintendent Of Public
Instruction delivered the following address
on " What are the Respective Rights and
Duties of Parents and Teachers in the
Management of Schools
The school is for the benefit of the home. and
we may properly ask what rights has the parent
when he places his child in school?
In answering this question, we say first-The
parent has the light and it is his duty to re-
quire the school to care Tor the health of its
pupils, to the end that nothing be allowed to
interfere with the complete physical develop
demand of the teacher that he or she
possess a knowledge of physiological
and hygiene laws to the end that his training
shall tiss make of the child D rfect ANIMAL in
limb, liver, lung and stomach.
But the parent has no right to expect the
teacher to maintain the health of the child
when in addition 10 his school work the child
is required to practice two hours each day on
the piano. and allowed to attend two or three
parties week during the winter months re-
naming up till the early hours CT morning
The Parent may properly expect that the hours
| of school, the severity of the tssk and the phys
zeal conditions of the stairways ventilation
etc should be well looked alter by the teacher
But the school should not be blamed for respou-
sibilitieS that rest upon the home in conse-
quence of its failure to supplement the work of
the school and cooperate with the teacher in
preserving the strength of the constitution and
the bloom of the cheek.
The parent may demand that the teacher
train the intellectual faculties OF the child to
such an extent as to make the mind an engine
70 do any work TO which il may be called
knowledge, like food, should not be kept but
should be consumed TO produce mental force
and power. The chief object in knowing is the
| discipline which the etfilt to acquire and the
| act OF acquiring gives. and not the storing and
examining of each corner Of the mind with
| facts. 1t may not be a misfortune to us if we
| have forgotten our geometry and our Greek,
| provided we have CONVEX ed our geometry ard
/ infnlIpPfna1 ~,
teleetual culture. Some one has said: 'slf the
| teacher can stimulate the minds of hs,pupils
and give them powerful impulse and enthusi-
| asm he accompllshes his best work" How the
child learns, not what he learns; the method,
| hot the amount, is the chief question.
Exactness thoroughness and patience go to
make thinker; and the judgment, the power
TO weigh evidence, intellectual candor, thor
oughness i'll search and accuracy in statement
axe the qualities to be developed. The teacher
| should be expected to turn out not walking en-
| cyelopedlas, but knowing, thinking human
| characters. The parent should demand of the
| teacher that the moral qualities of his SONS and
daughters be properly trained, that the daily
| walk and example of the teacher be such that
| he may safely and proftably stamp his own
character upon the minds and hearts of his
pupils.
The teacher should inspire in his pupils a rev.
erence for justice, and teach them to enjoy
pleasures by their temperate use and to abstain
/ from evil indulgences. They should be made
TO feel that the indulgence in alcoholic stimu-
|
/ be made to understand the responsibility of
power and sehooled TO prudence foretbought,
and self reliance. They should understand the
underlying principles OF revenge and forgive
ness. and be inbred with a philanthropic and
/ patriotic spirit
The child should be made to know and to
| practice, as duty, obedience TO authority, and
/ 10 feel penitence for wreng-doing. Pure thoughts
end pure feelings should pervade the minds of
the pupils, and moral thoughtfulnes should be
securely enthroned. The teacher and the
school should discipline these moral qualities
They are more valuable than of "all the stores
of learning y
! The ehild's individuality should be respected
! by the teacher. While it must ever remain
| true under our system of instruction that good
| OF anyone must be subordinate to the good OF
many, il should nevertheless be remembered
! ibat each child is not the exact equal of every
otner child IN intellectual endOwments, any
All children should not be measured by pre-
cisely the same intellectual gauge, depressing
the mentality when il is above the average and
attempting to initiate it when below The average
il ability.
There should be no attempt at transformation
OF the child's individuality when It's tendency
| Is good, but we may properly eliminate and cor
rect II when IL is evil. The teacher should no
consider his pupils rs so many freight cars, Z
be loaded with learning and shipped across The
continent of life, at an equal rate, by single
engine as a motive power. He may rather con
sider them as different varieties of fruit trees
which he is to prune, train, cultivate and keel
free from the scale pest of evil.
The teacher may properly be expected q
teach the child the correct value Of things