The Portland daily press., 1893-12-26
NOT ALL PLEASURE.
The Lot Of a Public School Teacher
Not Happy One.

AZ as MOI 50 u1uCn Inc FeTV6TSltY OF Gn9
= Children as the Interference of Parents
That Hampers the Teachers Work.
Some Sample Annoyances.
The life of q schoolteacher, said one
Of them the other day, lis not all roses.
For long, sharp, omnipresent thorn let
me commend you to the average parent,
particularly the average mother. One
mother can make more trouble in school
than 20 children.
If have entertained one complaining
parent at this desk, have entertained a
hundred, and without exception they have
all made the same identical remark: Mary
or Johnnie or whatever the name may be-
is very nervous child!'
eff any one should ask me what con-
slider the greatest menace to the country, I
should unhesitatingly answer, nervesl
That is, if 1 am to believe what am told
by the parents of the coming generation.
Sometimes think I must have school of
freaks, because | am confidentially inform
ed by two-thirds Of the parents, who of
course ought to know, that their individ-
iual progeny is of a very peculiar tempera-
ment.'
"Once in awhile VIC have visit from a
complaining parent of the masculine gen.
der. We had one the other day. He was
stern and pompous.
My daughter tells me'-that's always
the opening that one of the teachers
made some very cutting remarks to her
yesterday. She was very much distressed
and was unable to sleep last night. Now,
there is just one thing about my daugh-
ter. She has very peculiar temperament,
ILL -4o Hot
sensitive, and if she cannot be treated with
kindness I shall remove her from the
school,
eff he only would But he won't. As
for notes, we have them Of all kinds. The
mothers send advice, complaints, threats
and excuses until the capacity of our waste
baskets is taxed to the utmost.
ssBut that is just the way with parents
They interfere when they should not, and
when you ask them to interfere they have
'nothin at all to say I've had mothers
come here and roll their eyes to heaven as
they declared that they must believe the
scholars story rather than the teachers,
because they had never known their child
to tell lie.
IA few years ago Ihad boy who would
simply dance up and down and howl il
anything did not suit him. And I had an
other who would lie down and pound his
head on the floor if his will was crossed
Imagine such pair in schoolroom! They
would demoralize any SO Of the best be-
| ,hayed children you could get together.
The first week that had these twin stars
/ celebrated the discovery of my first gray
hair The wonder is that I didn't turn
white in single day. When Frank was
quiet, John was dancing and bowling like
a wild Indian, and when John settled
down from sheer WEAKNESS, Frank was
humping his head on the desk or the floor
Occasionally they both broke loose at the
same time. Then sat still and wondered
| If there was shotgun in the building.
1.-THE second day sent notes to the two
women who had the awful responsibility
lof being the mothers of those two wild an
'imals. Wednesday morning came. So did
Frank and John. But the mothers did
mot put in an appearance. really didn It
blame them. Pm sure / should have
drowned myself rather than appear and
answer to the charge of having such chill
'dren. But / smothered my feelings of
pity-that is, Frank and George did it for
me with repeated howls and thumps.
sent two more notes, but Thursday and
the wild animals came and still no moth
ers. The notes that night were commands,
and Friday morning two complacent, COM
| Portable danes appeared in such close COM
| pany with Frank and George that could
| not mistake the fact that they were the
presumably unhappy mothers.
| II had expected to see women worn and
| haggard, as was fast getting to be- But
| these two careless creatures took my
| breath away. 1 stated the case to them,
| however. They laughed rich, unctuous
| laughter, which made me want to dance
| up and down and howl as Frank had SO
we'll taught me it could be done. Tt seems
| that Franks father had cheerful little
| habit of stamping around and swearing
| in thunder tones whenever anything dis
| pleased him. Consequently Frank IS moth
er had always said that he was just like
his father and had let him rage like the
most abandoned heather. And as for
George, he, too, was just like his father,
| who, when he recovered from spree which
had absorbed all his wages, would pound
| his head against the wall to get even with
| himself
| II went to see those two women the
next day, and labored with them till the
| going down of the sun before could con-
vince them that they ought to check the
bowling and humping resemblance of
those boys to their respective fathers
GAS for children themselves, they al
| ways select q time when their parents are
| present to show off their teaching in the
most unfavorable light. remember that
one time I spent all of one afternoon in
explaining the punctuation marks TO my
| pupils. The last thing put on the board
was quotation marks, and wrote out the
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