The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-08-23

II bHS hiuBuOu Ol IIdiS, Insist Vnat
any teacher who says she or he las
the case may bel is not partial, de-
ceives themselves, and themselves
only.
Human nature is so constituted. that
in a given 40 or so pupils, there are
some that are not SO apt as others,
and unconsciously, teachers do not
treat them as well as they do the more
favored ones.
Teachers make very grave mis-
take in getting UP at the commence
ment of term and celebrating
great lot Of rules, for governing their
charges, just as though rules were
what taxpayers sent their children to
school to learn. The successful
teacher needs no rules and gives none.
The teacher that writes and promul-
gates as many rules as the moral law,
frequently Furnishes by authority of
an Elk Post Facto Law, or under the
general crime of conduct unbecoming
good pious little effeminate mama's
baby boy pupil. II | could have my
way in this county, each school board
would say to their teacher, "We will
fine you $2.50-take it out of your sal
ary, for every pupil that you whip or
expel"
What we want you to do is to in
terest our children in their work SO
THAT it will not be necessary to spend
an entire forenoon three times week
to look up the Statutes made and pro-
vided.'
| Children who are interested in their
work do not require governing, as they
unconsciously govern themselves.
Think of the kind of laws, or the
condition that person would be in to
execute laws, on Monday morning,
after having had a lovers quarrel with
a sweetheart the night before.
| We should get out of the habit of
thinking LAWS sacred. That sayors
too much of the absolute monarchy of
Russia or Turkey.
If the school boards would adopt
my idea of the fine system, / am
certain that even here in Vinita, deli
cate little children would be saved
from the brutality of teachers | feel
VERY confident that the pedagogues
would see a great light, and when they
met in their next association, the
muscular fellow with the long paper
ION "The Necessity of Corporal Punish
lment,n would be conspicuous by his
absence.
Iowa has one of the best school sys-
TENS in the United States, stands first,
and corporal punishment there is not
permitted. The world still turns and
lIowa's citizenship will compare favor
ably with any state in the Union.
/ A lady from Iowa said to me last
winter: Il am going to have to take
my little boy out of your Vinita public
school, as. he is a very nervous little
fellow and can't bear to see his little
playmates dragged out in the hall and
hear their cries. He doesn't sleep at
might and is very much worried
If the teachers of this county would
make a diligent and careful effort with
1.-THE charges placed under their control,
they could IN almost every case ihtcr-
est the Bad Boy" of the district, and
the necessity Of any sort of punish
ment would be gone.
Interested pupils require no govern
ment-particularly no beating and
bruising of their bodies by dignified
numb-skulls, who pose as instructors;
but whose greatest aim is the collec
tion of the monthly warrant. LEI
teachers take their pupils into The
fields. and teach them all about the
flowers, the birds, the soil, all about
the different phenomena of Nature
teach them something that interests
them here and now, and leave Cram
mar, Rhetoric, and other abstruse sub
jects until much later in life.
Teach the children about their own
bodies and the care of them-teact
them physiology, teach them about
the stars. and teach them the common
branches such as Arithmetic, Writing
Spelling. Teach them how to measure
crib of corn or stack of hay, or Q
cord of wood
venture to say that there are moi
three teachers in this county who
could tell you the number of gallons
in a cistern with the dimensions before
them. unless they had books to refer
to.
. If children are taught subjects that
, they can grasp, it will not be neces