San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1889-12-19
Letter to My Parents.
NUMBER At

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NUMBER q
To the FREE Press.
If you will look with anxious eyel
to the educational, moral and re
ligious culture of your child, ant
not so much to the mercenary, yor
will develop better body, q better
mind, better neighbor, and a better
citizen. Don't bank so high on
money. Don't educate with that
end alone in view. I sometimes
fear that this educating alone fol-
money values will degrade our ma.
ton. Don't squeeze the dollar SO
hard when it is necessary to spend
q little for the absolute good Of your
child, you know some men can hide
whole family with all its future
wants and pleasures, behind a half
dollar. A dollar is us large as the
sun, the child's interest is rs dim
as the milky way. The teacher is to
pay, books are to buy. Don't squirm
and twist over these matters so much.
If the the state gives the tuition,
you can surely furnish the books.
But you say these children have to
be fed and clothed, that IS true; and
all honor to the toiling man who is
trying to battle against odds to do
this honorably, you deserve credit,
but don't let this form q plea for
your greed, "They must live" has
made o hiding place for many o
stingy father. If you take advan-
tage of this great and splendid op-
portunity before you, it will cost you
q little sacrifice, but in the end you
will reap rich harvest Six years
of Free School will soon be gone,
and here you will stand with perhaps
a few more mules or cows, and
family of ignorant children around
you, ready to imbibe the damnation
of the vicious, the low the mean.
You could have started that boy to
school last September, why did you
not do SO? Some of you were really
not able, many more Of you could
have done SO, but you would have
had few dollars less.
Please, dear parents, excuse me
for gong SO far, or saying so much
about money. I wish now to draw
your minds back to cooperation in
school government. Good govern
ment in schools is little harder to
bring about than many of you think,
why! some never are simple enough
to believe that one whipping will
subdue bad boy. Good govern
ment is not begun and completed in
a day, it takes time to subdue the
passions, curb the tempers, smooth
The irritable, check the ambitious,
pacify the restless subjugate the re-
and after all to restore
luiet over the entire household.
Good government is not impossible,
put 1T comes by slow measured
spaces. The first steps towards it
ire made at home. The home is
where the impressions are made
hat stay with the child throughout
ife for veal or woe. Cant you
'egin from this good hour TO help
Is at your bomesi Remember the
eacher has his hands, his head and
lis heart full without going back TO
10 the work that you should have
lone ten years ago. Try to inspire
our child with the true. the noble,
nd the good in life. Don't impress
pon him that IL is necessary for him ,
o be punished like q mule. En- ,
ourAge the lad only Is q last resort
)ont send ony open word to the
sscber BY the child abOutbOoks pens
? ink The fact is you should ]
ever send open messages By your
hiIdren. This Is not The place for
1veule conm1nicatOus- II
YOurs truly, &