The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1906-05-31

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And read what is still unread
In the Manuscripts Of God
And he wandered away and away
With Nature, the dear old nurse,
Who sang to him night and day
The rhyme of the universe.
And when the way seemed long,
Or his heart began to fail,
She would sing mora wonderful song
Or tell more marvellous tale"
It is impossible to overestimate the
simplest elements that enter into the
earliest educative processes. Those
children are thrice blessed who have
continually thrown about them the in
fluence OF good books-from the earliest
nursery rhymes to the highest thoughts.
AS one has said: "Let them roll on the
library floor to the strains OF good
music"
And then comes the school-room as
such. How short the years, whom, as .
dream, the day comes for the eldest
child to start for school, for the young
lamb cannot always gambol in the home
meadow. At this time new world is
opened up to the parents. They must
now combine home influences with
school.life. II, therefore, the home has
been up to this time what it was de-
signed to be, the child is prepared to
meet the difficulties and delights Of life
at school. And here, permit nae to say,
that the kindergarten system, founded
by Froebel, supplies the missing link be-
tween the home and the school.
Now, making all possible allowances
for heredity and environment, the school
plays a most important part in the
child's career. Such being the case, it
is of supreme moment that the parents
at once make themselves acquainted
with all departments of the child's
school-life, his studies, how he studies,
his daily time table, his preferences. his
dislikes. the hours and kinds of recrea-
ton he enjoys-with all these details
parents should be familiar, and, in fact,
very much interested. 1t is not too
much to affirm that the parents should
be tolerably acquainted with the school
surroundings of their children, as 10
light, heat aud modes of ventilation.
They should be greatly interested in all
plans and programs for certain holidays,
and discuss with them the particular
question or name associated with the
day or institution. 1t is an excellent
idea to discuss at the tea-tablo what has
transpired at school during the day.
This not only encourages the child to
express himself we'll, but rivets upon
the mind anything specially helpful and
worth remembering.
1t is we'll for parents to visit the
school-room occasionally, to express ap-
probation for interest manifested in
their children, and to enquire after
their general department and progress.
Permit reference or two to the teach
er and his profession. The professional
question has been variously designated
or classified. Teaching is an art. Wheth-
or am right or wrong, would place it
among the fine arts.
The teacher is the sower or planter.
An idea possesses his soul, and, growing
too large for its abode, as the plant in
the house of glass, becomes restless and
demands larger place for growth. The
teacher gives his idea to society, and in
the soil Of human life it grows and null
tiplies. The teacher, like the planter,
cannot say which seed will grow, but he
can plant and leave to the soil of human
life and to God, the rest. Whether he
be likened to the sower, the pioneer, the
foundation builder or the liberator,
whether he labor in the religious or Sc
cular field, to bis or her work attach
both dignity and nobility. In the teach
er's work the distinction between the sa
cred and secular is superficial, and is
justified, if at all, only by usage, for it
may be very properly asked if any hon
est toll should be termed secular when
the Divine is everywhere.
Holding such conception, then, Of
the teacher and the profession, the func-
ton he performs becomes all-important
in our life and thought. The TRUE
teacher ever remembers that the chill
dren, committed to his or her instruc-
ton, are in preparation for the STORMS
Of life rather than for its sunshine. A
visitor entered shipyard one day, and,
seeing great piles of steel and iron, in
uuired what was to be done with all the
metal which he saw. The shipbuilder
informed him that the steel and iron
were for the construction of ships.
When his :visitcr seemed greatly sur
prised at this, the shipbuilder told him
that he prepared the vessel for the
storms at sea and not for the sunshine.
A vessel goes to sea, and perhaps for
many days does not encounter storm,
but sometime the storm is sure to come.
First the little cloud, then few drops
of rain; a great splash of rain, and the
hurricane is upon the ship. The clouds
come down to the water, and the waves
in their anger leap as if to slap them
with their forked and twisted lightning,
they seem to bayonet the waves.
Drenched with foam, the good ship,
strong and free, rides upon her watery
way. Why? Because she was built for
the storm. The point of the figure is
easily seen. The storms and ships upon
the ocean are no more real than the
storms which young men and women
upon the great sea OF life encounter.
Every earnest and sincere teacher should
have vision of the future of the chill
dren-not life of ease, but life of
temptation and trial.
Now, inasmuch as the home and the
school, the parent and the teacher, de-
sire the best and highest type of man
hood and womanhood for the children
their mutual trusts-their cooperation
becomes vitality necessary and of SUI
preme Importance, in order that the best
results may be obtained. If teaching
may be defined as causing the pupil to