Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-05-31
MINING JOURNAL,


enough of it to copy it in support Of its
own untenable position.
But there IS this:
Then again, isn't and custom barbarous
that allows a stranger to be the custodian of
the acts of your child to such an extent that
he can administer stripes without consulting
its feelings, or the feelings of the parent?
Perhaps the parent does not desire the child
to be whipped by the teacher. If this is So
isn't any system barbarous that would de
prlve him of his parental rights and relcgate
il to a stranger? We think so.
"Without consulting its feelings ,"
That would be nice thing for an ed
ucated adult to do-ask an ignorant
child whether it feels like being
whipped for some otfense that deserved
whipping. That is a notion of equal
ity that outdoes all the maXims and
"relics of barbarism'' we have heard
Of.
There is Il time foretoId by the
prophets when the child shall be more
than an equal-shall be 'fathcr to the
man." but that day is not yet. Mod
ern fanaticism has something like it on
the wing, but the schoolmaStcr with
out rod in one hand is a vision of
that great eclectic future when orig
inal sin" wiped out Of human nature.
will leave no law to obey, heaven to
attain, or hell to shun.
But how about ''the feelings Of the
parent? Perhaps he does not desire
his child to be whipped by the teach
er p Then that parent should be COM
PEELED by law to teach his own child.
He has no business to place Il trust in
the hands of teacher and then deny
the teacher the means of administer
ing the trust. He has no right, more
over, to demoralize a school by fore
ing therein a pupil with special priv
ileges and special exemptions. In
short, the child has not, and cannot
have single right that overrideS the
teachers prerogative to conduct the
school as to him seems best for its eff
fciency as a whole.
But if this mans child is to be mas
ter, and that mans child is to be man
ager. and the other mans child to be
boss, what becomes Of the teacher
What becomes Of his requirements.
his aspirations, his experience All
merged into sub ugation to a few petty
sovereignties, and he Il despised pre-
tender to the throne of IL little system
Of anarchy.
Such contention is the baldest bosh
1t has not dignity enough in it to be
called an absurdity.
The Nem DomU,ion argues
that the rule Of the common law which
was made to apply to a school and to a
teacher that We're directly chosen and
employed by the parent cannot be made
to apply to a school which is set up by
the State and to a teacher employed by
the State and not by the parent, and who is
in many instances offensive to the parent-to
say that such teacher stands in loco parcttiS
is absurd, false and frvolous-and that,
therefore, when the school system was 50
changed as to make the common law rule
inapphcable and incongruous, that the com
mon law rule was thereby abrogated SO far
as the State school system is concerned.
Long drawn out and, at its best.
technical. Literally interpreted, it
means that while the State has the
right as we'll as the power to impose an
offensive teacher upon a parent, it has
not an equal right to invest that teach
er with the means Of discipline.
In other words, the State may levy
upon the Nec Dominion's property for
money. perchance to force upon the
Men Dominion an Objectionable teach
er, yet this arbitrary, almost despotic
power dares not 90 Just one step
further to make its money, its system
and its teacher effective.
The argument against the right of
the State to maintain discipline in its
schools is equally good against the
right of the State to have schools at
all. For the matter of pre-eminence
in school is Il vital one. If the teach
er, the agent of the State, is arrested
here, he need not pass the Threshold
of the school-room. "Where no gods
are says Novalis, "spectres reign"
and no schoolroom is worth the name
where the teacher is subject and the
rod a ghost.
We will conclude this article with
brief attention to the following chal-
lenge:
But while we do agree that such was the
common law rule and its universal interpret
alton by the courts under another and diff
ferent and defunct school system, we do
deny that the common law rule is applicable
or even reasonable when appled-to our
present school system, and we will give the
editor of the Echo fifty dollars as an attor-
ney's fee if he will find any lawyer, at his
bar or any other bar, who will produce any
law or any decision of our West Virginia
court which says that it is.
SO much the worse for West Viz
ginia law.
Meanwhile, the keySer Echo may
safely offer the Netc Dominion fifty dol
lars to produce single schoolroom in
West Virginia that has III it IL whip
niuunoSt