Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-04-06
The Public Schools and the Home.

public schools in all sections OF this
country that there should be a more
complete, better organized cooperation
of the home with the school. The
school is free institution created and
supported for the benefit of the child
ren--to prepare the youth of the land
for the duties of citizenship; to make
the best institutions of society self
perpetuative by properly maturing the
individual and civilizing the race.
With this weighty matter the public
school is charged. To the teacher and
to the school officer this great end may
be seen as the true goal, but ends al
ways require means, and il the means
are not furnished the end will remain
only as an ideal with possibility of
realization. In this country those who
govern, or operate the machinery of
civic institutions, obtain their author
ity and power through the consent of
the governed When an institution
ceases to grow and embody the best
thought of the people, 1t is destroyed
and a more representative institution
springs up out of its ruins. So with
institution established above the heads
of the people and beyond the thought
of the sge; their roots are in the
clouds and lack the nourishment
which the earth alone can give.
Pedagogy has within recent years
enlarged it's horizon and taken in new
laws of pedagogic thought. In order
that this sphere of the school be not OBJ
liged to contract but that it may ever
expand, it is necessary that those who
support the school see the end in
view and have faith in the institution
to accomplish that purpose or end. In
other words, the home must encourage
and support the school.
But how can the home do this? By
enlarging its views in proportion to
the constantly enlarging sphere Of
the school, The public school is the
peoples free college, and in it every
citizen should have abiding interest.
Patrons of the school should know
what it is doing or attempting to do.
The public school should be closely
. scrutinized and criticised by its most
. intelligent supporters-it always has
an abundance of adverse criticism
from the other class of supporters and
from non-suporters. Let the calcium
light of truth shine upon every dark
corner. Commend where commentator
is deserved, censure where censure
, will be wholesome, and always see
, that you raise a new shrine for each
one that you tear down.
Unless the patrons know the school,
what it is doing and what it should be
doing, they cannot justly criticise it.
There can be no school without the
home, and no home without the school
Cooperation is the word-roll it
along. Let it resound throughout the
land. Parents must learn to know that
they owe a greater duty to the school
than merely to send their children to
school with regularity and promptness
and to pay the teacher Promptness
and sincerity in these matters are to
be commended, but duty does not cease
there. Parents need to know what
their children are doing in the school
room and what is being done for them.
But comparatively few parents ever
visit the schools. They have various
reasons for this. Generally it is not
because parents are not friendly to the
school. Often parents feel that their
coming would be an interruption to
the school. Uusally the parents are
not acquainted with the teacher and
many parents hesitate to call upon a
teacher who is an entire stranger. But
The teacher will gladly welcome any
parent with message of cooperation
and in the spirit of helper, even
though it be to criticise. There is a
vast difference between criticising and
fault-fnding, remember. The true
teacher welcomes suggestions that
will enable her to know her pupils bet
ter and thus to come nearer their indi-
vidual needs through their individual
characteristics.
1t follows, then, that parents should
visit the schools. Teachers should en-
courage it, school officials should en-
courage it, and the religious, secular,
and educational press should encour-
age It. Teachers and parents need to
know each other better. Many blund-
ers would be saved if teachers and par
ents could have their conferences be-
fore the threatening storm-cloud
bursts instead of afterwards Many
of the Misunderstanding between pu-
pill and teacher and parent would not
occur il each could profit by the know
ledge and experience of the other in
dealing with the child. Not only
would .le pupils respect for the teach
er be greatly increased, but parental
control would be strengthened by this
sincere cooperation. So long as
children are to hear their teachers Sc
verely criticised at home and are per-
mltted to contribute largely to the dis
cussion, just so long may we expect
the teacher to accomplish the least
possible good for the child
| There is another side to this nuas-