Arizona republican., 1898-06-19
A DIVIDED RESPONSIBILITY.

| The following is an esay by Miss
 Charlotte B. Perry on "A Divided Re i sponsibility," and read at :he com
 mencement by it's author, who received
 most fiattering demonstration.
 The leading educators and the earn
 est teachers have decided that the highest end of education is character
 building. How to reach this end is a
 question of especial moment to the ed
 Ucational world
 One of the greatest means toward this end is the cooperation of parents and teachers-the closer union of home | life and school life.
 | The important elements at work to build a child's character are the church, outward social environments, the school and the home. We speak here of the school and the home. Every
 child is born with certain tendencies. and upon the development or suppress sion of these tendencies the building of the child's character, whether good or
 bad, depends. From the earliest date the development of these tendencies is steadily going on. For six years be- lore a child enters school, influences
 nave been at work developing and moulding his character TO be sure, the influences in later years have per haps more to do in shaping and build ing chllds cha -acter, yet many a mental or III ,'a1 tendency has been partly developed or entirely suppressed
 before the child enters school. During these years previous to his entering l school who is to shape the child S course and determine the influences to
 be thrcwn around him? It cannot be done except in the home.
 | Then when tke child enters school at the age of six or seven the influence lof the home is still vital question. I.
 has been truly said that from the mo-
 ment you leave your little one at the l school room door you have added to the responsibility of the teacher, but in
 no wise lessened your own.
 | This is point that is not understood
 or appreciated as it should be by par ents and we may say by teachers, also How often we hear mother say she elmost wishes she could keep her child babe always, because he grows away from her so fast after he once enters school. There seems to be feeling that the school and home have no con- nectioI and so should be separated. When a child comes to his parents. seeking an answer to some puzzIing question in his baby experience at school. he is told to run away and play and not bother his little head about it. as school is the place to have those questions. Soon he comes to feel that the home and the school have no con- nection.
 Since our concepts are built up out of precepts furnished by previous ex- pefience, and the mind acquires all its new ideas by means of these old ideas already in the mind, how can a child be expected to acquire and assimilate the new knowledge found in the books if the experiences of his life previous to this time, are not brought to bear cn these new ideas with which he is entirely unacquainted
 The tendency of the mind is to ad vance from the individual to the gen. eral, from the concrete to the abstract.
 The text books in the schools are ire Cuently constructed in the opposite manner. They first present the gen. eral law or concept and afterward illus trate by specific or concrete examples. This difficulty the teacher must over- come by the use of concrete examples by object lessons; and this cannot be done in any better way than by bring ing into use child's home experiences. All children are more interested in what they call real live" things than in unfamiliar or imaginary things, ab- stract numbers or general rules.
 One end for which all earnest, active teachers are striving is the classified tion and relating of all Knowledge so it may be used by the pupil in his later experiences, both during school life and after the school days are over
 We often wonder what bearing one study has on another. or of what use 1t will ever be to us. This feeling is the result of the neglect of teachers to make apparent, as they should, the relation of studies.
 In order to classify and correlate studies so that the best results may be produced, it is necessary to correlate home influences with school work and bring their united value into the daily service of the school.
 There is a natural tendency of the mind to sift all it's experiences, to keep and unify those for which it has no apparent use. We see this tendency in the number of things we forget. Those for which we have no apparent use are most quickly forgotten. liar mony between the home and school life of child aids this tendency of the mind to unify and correlate all it's ex- periences, and so produces strength and consistency of character that could not otherwise be produced.
 One of the first steps toward close ly relating the school and home is recognition of this need by both par ents and teachers. Too often teachers do not realize that they should know more of the influence of the home on the child. A teacher, who is thorough ly familiar with a child's home envir- onments can interest and instruct the child at school more successfully than he could possibly do if he had not this knowledge of the home life. Often while at home or among his associates, child may be forming a tendency that will soon become stronger than