Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-06-13
AN ABLE PAPER.
Extract from Mrs. Slaughter's Paper
on "The Relation of Educa-
ton to Labor"
Read at the Burleigh County Teach
ers Institute at Glencoe on
the 9th inst.

NAS ~ ouAOluuAAS"A
We boast of our free schools and talk
voluntarily of the advantages ofieducation
being open to the child of the humblest
citizen, but alas, it is too often the case
that when the poor man has paid'the tax
upon his small possessions he finds it a
heavy imp 'sition to purchase the neces.
sary books and school supplies for his FAM
lily of children, SO greatly has the cost of
school books increased, and so frequently
are they changed by the school authorities.
This is a delicate subject and | shall go
no deeper into it than to say that there IS
an abuse here susceptible of remedy. ANY
one who has ever held the office of princi-
pal or superintendent of county schools
can cretify to the unusual percentages on
the sales of school books offered by their
publishers.
1t is a sad commentary on existing
methods that in this day of cheap books
the cost OF al average set of school books
is much higher now than the price of a
similar set twenty years ago, while the
cost of handsomely bound and elegantly
printed volumes of all other descriptions
Is scarcely One-twentieth of the same.
Teachers, school officers and friends of
education, ann We do something to pre-
vent the poor man who is struggling to
support, as we'll as to educate his children,
from being robbed Of his hard earnings to
enrich INSCRIPTIONS school book agents,
no matter in what guise they may appear ?
Let us try.
Again, u common schools which we
proudly claim are nurseries of freedom,
N cradles of republican Institutions, are
in danger of losing that distinctive feature.
a school is.
A REPUBLIC IN MINIATURE.
Wherein each tiny citizen stands On an
absolute equality with his fellows, and is
entitled to be judged alone by his W con-
duct, and to have his standard guaged by
the worth of his, W works and character,
instead OF by the station of his parents, or
the opinion of his classmates.
But how often does 1t happen, especially
in the smaller towns aud villages, where
there is usually a small clique of people,
who for no diSrernible reason arrOgate to
themselves special eXcellencies and who
appear to live in anxiety lest the world at
large should not discover and acknowledge
their social merit, "a state of feeling too
often transmitted to their children) that
the republican form of government be-
comes merged into that of a limited aristO-
crazy wit, its privileged classes, its ia
vorites and its prescribed citizens.
it is the reproach of our profession that
so many teachers lend themselves to the
preparation OF this ~unrepublican form of
school government ad by a servile ECO
uiti on of the rights of the pretended nobil-
ity of the school room, deal untold injury
to all the subjects Of their little republic.
Partially is a destructive vice in any
teacher, but when, as is usually the case,
its objects are the children of wealthy and
influential parents, or relatives of members
of the school board or of the political mag
mates who must be consulted in the en-
ployment of a teacher, then this unjust
discrimination becomes n0t alone ruinous
to the school. but destructive to the teach
er's independence and influence.
Regard for the integrity of our profess
sion should lead the teacher to
SET UP A HIGH STANDARD OF RULE.
And although there are schools in which
no teacher not known to possess this sub
servient spirit can find employment, yet
he honor of the profession should be held
greater than individual success.
The faculties OF children unfold in an
atmosphere of love and comfort as flower
petals expand in the sun. The dwarfed
and stunted plant, deprived of light and
nOuriShment. dropping on its wasted stem.
| will grow into a hardy shrub and be.
come n beautiful flower. under the stimuli
of light and sunshine.
SO the little child, shrinking under neg
lect and harsh treatment: If brought from
the environment of chilling poverty into
the peaceful atmosphere of a schOOlroom,
! warmed by love and ruled by justice, will
develop a true and kindly nature, and re-
pay a thousand fold the hand that nour-
iShed it.
Shrink not then from the repelIant in
sigma of poverty: the patched or ragged
garments; the smudged hands and the
dirty face. They cover a soul that weighs
as much in the scales of humanity as any
OF kingly birth, and it is sad indeed when
Christ's little ones are thus early made to
feel the inequalities Of station and to learn
by cruel object lessons the false estimates
the world places upon wealth and position.
Earth has nc sadder sight than the chill
dren OF sorrow who must begin life's pill
grimage low down in the scale, feeling
that the weight of a parents misfortune
or wrong rests upon their slight shout
ders. To such the first lesson impaired by
the teacher should be that his life is all his
own, to live for himself, and that in the
| standard of the schoolroom he will be ad.
judged by no eXtraneous circumstances of
dress or birth or position, that in our
schools of boosted freedom, the child of
the %Outcast, the unworthy, the wretched
| and the unfortunate, is just as welcome,
and has as just a right to respect and kind
ness, as the child of the president. Such a
lesson will
DEVELOP sELF-CONFIDENCE AND sELE-RE.
SPECT.
The two main foundation stones of char.
acter and success, and the life that under
the blighting influences of scOrn and I'm.
kindness would seek the dark places of
crime and obscurity, will be lived in the
daylight of contentment and happiness.
Nor will any sensible patron of the pub
I lie schools find fault with such a course,
since there are always select schools for
those who object to the democratic equal
ity of the free schools. t.
Then let no harsh word or sneering look
| convey to the sensitive mind of the child of
poverty and neglect the thought that he is
lower than his fellows in the estimation of
his teacher. who is the highest embodi-
ment Of authority in his small world. Con-
vince him that he stands on q perfect
equality with his mates and that there is
but o single rule of justice for them all;
then impress him deeply with the fact that
| nothing but his own misconduct can dis
| grace him and lead to a forfeiture of the
esteem in which he is held. This lesson
we'll learned and the boy is half q man,
This principle ingrained in life and char
acter and the man becomes a knight, ever
| valiant for the truth, and with knightly
| scOrn of a base action, moving among his
fellows with strong and helpful hands.
Teachers, how high and noble a task is