The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1903-09-03
a WORD TO PARENTS"
Snpt. Evans of Spartanburg Schools
Calls Attention to Parents Failure
tn Give Child Home Discipline.

7, the. printed report of the Spartan
hnrp CITY schools, Superintendent Evans
has the following under the caption,
"A Word to Parents" that will we'll
repay perusal:
Our course of study consists OF nine
grades of nine months each, and is so |
arranged that pupil may begin at SIX
wears of age with the first grade ana
hnish in the ninth grade at fifteen. But
the grades are steep, and it is necessary
for many children to stay more than nine
years at school to finish the course.
six years of age is entirely 100 young
for the majority of children to enter any
school Of higher grade than the KINDER
earten. Those who come to US at seven
do more and better work than those who
enter at six. Yet some parents try to
smuggle their little ones into the hrst
grade before they are six, because their
sixth birthday will come before the close
of the term. Many of the children ID
our high school are too young and unde-
| veloped to do the work expected OF them.
Some of them have failed; many have
barely passed. Primary children cannot
do secondary work.
| Parents are admonished to keep their
| little children out of school until they
are seven at least, that they may get
more thorough and adequate home train.
ing. The home is the first in point OF
time, and, indeed, if it be worthy of the
name of home, is the most important
school which the child attends.
"A wise and thoroughly trained teacher
said, not long ago, that her chief dlfhcuity
was not with pupils, but with parents.
Many parents are obstacles IN the way
of the true education OF their children.
Instead of cooperating with teachers
they antagonize them instead OF assist
ing in the difficult work, they throw
obstacles in the way of that work. They.
are always questioning the wisdom OF
the discipline, asking special faVors
which involve interruption of study, and,
consciously and unconsciously, in many
small ways hindsring the work which the
;. school is trying to do for the child.
The chief injury. however, which
many parents do the school is in seHdln
their children without that general train
ing, that steady discipline, that influence
; for refinement which the school cannot
give, but upon which it must build. Ihe
rawness and crudity of many children
who come from Well-to-do homes is
: amazing. These children know almost
, nothing of the things which in Intelligent
homes are in the very atmosphere. They
have no fund of general intelligence
/ they are unframed in manners, IN speech,
, in voice and in mind. and the school has
} had to do for them in a very limited time
! and under very difficult conditions the
work that the home ought to have done
under the best possible circumstances and
with the fullest possible time:
"Soms parents still complain that they
have to do at home for their children the
} work the teachers should do st school
If these people would only teach theif
children at home to speak properly, to
tell the truth and not to use meaningless
slang in their conversation with one
another; to moduiate their voices and
not shrek and scream on the streets, and
to be courteous and polite in their
manners-work which every parent is
J expected to Understandable stop crit
icising methods and textbooks which
, they do not understand, their children
would be better educated both morally
and intellectually"