The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1913-10-24
PARENTS HEAR
ABLE ADDRESS
Principal Showalter, of Cheney,
Shows How Cooperation of
Parents Will Aid Teachers

lnat the parent-teachers cooper
atlve movement has aroused keen
interest in this community, was
evidenced last evening by tn e
crowded house which listened at
tentlvely to the excellent address
made by N. D. Showalter, principal
OF the State Normal school at
Cheney.
Mr.. Showalter had just returned
from Portland where he had de-
livered series of lectures. He re-
ported that parent-teachers associa-
tions had been formed in about 300
communities in this state alone and
the movement was also proving very
popular in Oregon.
The parent-teachers cooperative
movement is founded upon the
sound principle that no matter how
efficient the child's training in the
schoolroom may be, it loses much
of its effectiveness if the environ
ment and influences of the home
are not in accord with those taught
during school hours.
Education, the speaker pointed
out, is no longer a mere process of
book learning. Rather, it has come
to be recognized that a great per-
| centage of the child's education de-
pends upon the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
the child sees and hears in everyday
affairs inside and outside the home.
1t is then of the greatest Importance
that the ideals which are or should
be transmitted from teacher to pupil
be reinforced by similar influences
constantly at work within the home.
Mr.. Showalter said that in too
many cases the order, organization
and discipline of the schoolroom loses
much of its effectiveness because
there is no similar forces at work on
the child's character outside of
school hours. The home should be
as well organized and disciplined as
the school room-each child should
at the very earliest moment be made
responsible for the performance of
certain duties in the home as we'll
as at school. By this, the speaker
said, he did not mean that the home
should in any sense be made un-
pleasant or unattractive, rather that
the necessary measures of discipline
should be merged always with a
spirit of happiness, love and good
cheer.
Mr.. Showalter advocated strongly
that the principles of sex hygiene
be explained to children as soon as
| they reach an age of understanding.
He pointed out that sex knowledge,
taught in the moral atmosphere o1
the home, was infinitely more to- be
desired than that the child be left
to gain half-knowledge of these
things from other and often unmor.
al sources.
| Before the lecture the audience
was entertained by selections by q
seven-piece orchestra, choruses by
children from the first and second
grades, and an enjoyable piano solo
by Miss Shier.
It is planned to hold probably
three more of the large public meet
ings during the coming winter fol
the general study of problems ot
child life. To address the next
J meeting the association has three
we'll known educators in view. These
are Mrs. Josephine Preston, state
superintendent, Miss Edith Hickey
of Spokane and President Foster o.
Reed college; but it is not known
at this time which of these will bt
secured.
Auxiliary to the public meetings
there will be several meetings be.
tween the teachers and the parents
of pupils in the several grades, al
which time problems concerning the
particular pupils in those grades
will be worked out either in meet
ing or privately between teachers
and parents. Several of these meet
ings were held last year and much
/ good came of them. especially il
correcting conditions in some of th'