The Press., 1908-01-15
HOME NEWS.
STAFFORD SPRINGS.
 (Communlcated.)

To the People of Stafford :-The
 statement which appeared over my
 signature in The Press of two weeks ', ago was written to do myself justice,
 and no one else injustice. An expla-
 nation should be as broad as the accu-
 sation which provokes it. This was
 my only motive in stating my case
 publicly. My opponent has the same
 right to justice that have, but he
 lfas no right to justify himself by
 telling the misleading truths which
 appear in his letter of last week. The
 lie that is half truth is the meanest
 lie of all. Hiding behind the fine
 distinction that exists between an in-
 formal and a formal resignation, he
 tells the public that was solemnly
 discharged before I resigned. That
 is a lying truth. It is quibbling l
 "threw up my job''-if he likes that
 phrase better than the word 1esigna
 tion-informally. long before handed
 in my resignation formally, and was
 discharged officially. If he forgets
 the date, will refresh his memory.
 It was the day on which closed the
 school for lack of necessaries, ex-
 plRiDed to him the reason why, and
 resigned then and there, as far as a
 teacher could do, on 8 public high
 way, and in presence of one mem ber
 of the board. It was the same day
 that he invoked the Deity to em-
 phasize his anger, on being notified of
 the wretched condition of branch of
 the public service over which he had charge. It was the same day that he
 urged me to push the matter no
 further, when followed his advice and resumed teaching. AS to the late opening of school and early dis missal, had an excellent reason for so doing, the few times that it oc. cured. This happens in the best regulaeed public schools, our own high school for example. The matter was carefully explained by me at the time, and the official had my promise that every lost moment would be sup. piled according to law He says that the bell rang one day at twenty minutes before ten instead of at nine o'clock, but he carefully hides the reasons why. Here it is His long promised wood had so filled the room with smoke, that I feared to make l hams and herrings of the children after having kept them so long in cold l storage. As to my lack of discipline, that is the old stock charge which an enemy fires at every teacher when a more deadly missile is not at hand. It is so very long since my aocuser was a boy himself that he forgets to makBk Bkallowance for youth In others School committees are generally hig.4 np in the theory of child control, butJ If they exchanged places with the | for one day the theorists would go insane before night It is the same with parents. A wife who is worried almost to death by two chill dren at home, is the first to complain If the teacher cannot keep fifty chil- dren as still as a row of statues. The incident in mathematics has some but it suffers from over. feeding. It does not always prove igno. rance if person sometimes employs a longer and sometimes shorter method in solving 8 problem. Teachers who are even as highly qualified as school v rkoS 0f p1I answer till further trials have been made, and they frequently f1atter the superior knowledge of the official visitor by requesting him to decide the result of the operation be correct or not. In the case referred to, the visitor did not air his erudition IS he attempts to do in last week s Press. He told the teacher to search the book for the answer. and so she lid. Have we not seen even banks make errors in figuring, and even school critics also, when both knew the principle perfectly? Captiousness s not criticism The school official who digs up mud with both hands and 'mears the face of teacher, in older that his own begrimed visage may look cleaner by comparison. does not consider that by so doing he befouls 'he reputation of the teachers, and 'he system and the recognized public 'chool that graduated and passed the teacher as fit for duty. To all these