Gilpin observer., 1908-01-23

faith in the school, and prove their faith
and belief in the school and its results
by keeping their children regularly ct
school.
A large majority of parents belong to
this type. They are anxious and keen
that their children shall go to school,
Why? Because they feel deeply in their
own minds the need of some means by
which their children's mental selves
may be not merely improved, but well
trained to the end that it will be use
full and valuable asset to them for guild
ance throughout life. If this sort of an
idea can be kept constantly and forcibly
before boys and girls by their parents,
(and it can be done) and if they can get
out of their school experience enough to
satisfy the thirst for knowledge kindled
in their minds by their home influence,
it is quite likely that they will not give
away to the habit of wanting to stay
out of school. Grant that this desire
for learning is first stirred and created
in the child by its parents, and it should
be, though often times, it may be in
very crude form, now if it works out
that the teacher is unable to supply and
satisfy the hopes and desires with which
the child enters upon his school exper-
ience, there is pretty apt to be trouble
for the parents, and business for the
truant officer to keep the child at school.
Parents of the second type present an
entirely diffent problem. 1t would be
hard to figure out what per cent of par
ents in the average community belongs
to this type. Every teacher knows that
there are by far too many if the record
is a true guide. The attitude taken by
its purposes, its aims, and its good as
an agent of helpfulness to the child, is
one of sour Indifference. Not that such
parents are Indifferent as to whether or
not school keeps far from t-apparent-
ly they are very much concerned that
the school shall keep. This is shown by
the obliging interest they take in other
parents children when they do not go
to school. But how about their own
children? 1t is quite likely that they
will start their children to school when
school opens for the new year, but after
that the children are turned completely
over to themselves, thereby leaving the
job of going to school, or staying at
home, mostly to the children. Children
are always glad to learn that they are
both counsellor and adviser in matters
of such close concern to themselves, 50
they are likely to fall an early prey to
the habit of making their school record
very irregular in attendance and their
work just as unsatisfactory in results.
The third type of parents, the don't
care kind, seem to have nothing in
common with the school. The spirit of
their attitude toward the school is al
most one of rebellion. They hold their
children aloof from the school until
they see that the law is going to be ap-
piled to compel them to give up their
children to the school. So long as the
idea of the supremacy of the law holds
sway with, parents of this type, they
permit their children to continue in
school. but the moment the school
board aud teachers show signs of lem
iency and timidity about enforcing the
law on them, the children of such par
ents soon cut themselves off from all
contract and its influences.
Now it is hard to determine whether
it is the second or third type of parent
that is the greater menace to the in
terests of the school. One thing is
true, and that is, when the law is in
voked on parents to get their children
in school, such children nearly always
show better record of attendance
than do those children whose parents
belong to the Indifferent type. Parents
of the third type fear the law sufficient
ly to see to it that their children make
an average record of attendance, while
the second type of parents upon whom
there seems but little likelihood of the
law being made to fall, botch up all
sorts of cunning and deceitful excuses
to make it appear that the absences of
their children were unavoidable, there
by keeping both school board and
teachers in suspense as well as at bay,
to the extent that they let the children
of such parents go along in the lax and
hapless ways without jolting the par
ents out of their loose and hypocritical
methods of dealing with children.
If school boards and teachers are so
timid as not to interfere with parents,
who dupe and deceive them as well as
their children, into thinking that the
children are going along in the right
10,