The Belding banner-news., 1920-01-21
VERY GOOD PAPER
RECENTLY READ At
FARMERS MEETING
MRS. b. l.. STRUNK TOUCHES ON
Y MANY MATTERS OF TIME
LY INTEREST TO ALL

The following interesting paper was
read by its author, Mrs. Birney
Strunk at the meeting of the East
Otisco Farmers Club recently held
in the Congregational church. Mrs.
Strunk chose for her subject the fol-
lowing:
What We can do to make the COM
munity Setter for the next gener-
alton to live in.'
When / was youngster there was
an old teamster about town who often
said to his horses Whats the mat
ter of ye? Ye're hundred years old
and afraid of your own shadow" SO
while / am no doubt a number of
years older than his horses really
were, find l am inclined to be scared
too so lest / forget what / most want
to say on the subject assigned me, l
shall confine myself quite closely to
my notes for the subject is SO very
broad that it would take great deal
of time to discuss it thoroughly so +
have chosen to put the emphasis on
the word 1--WE" meaning each one of
us present today.
Those of US who are parents are
most anxious to see the coming gem
Grafton enjoy living in community
that is efficient in every way, and each
one is responsible in some way for
the efficiency of the community in
which he lives and the day is past
when one man does not care what
happens to the other, we must extract
all thought of selfshness if we are
to gain efficiency.
Won oil rao1i1a fbot x.a x,,,,e+ coo
to it that the next generation have
good schools, good roads and good
church influences and so far as posi-
BILE, that desease must be stamped
out, but all this as a whole looks like
SO big a job that no one of us alone
feels capable of insuring our poster
ity of all these good things, but the
question, it seems to me is, What are
you and i doing to pay this insur-
ance?
First, what are you and / doing to
make the schools better?
l dare say there are parents here
today who have children in school
who would not know the children's
teachers if you met them face to face
on the street. If this is true how do
you know she or he is the right kind
of teacher for your boy or your girl?
My own boy has had some splendid
teachers and when find that a teach
er is splendid / feel that the men
whose job it is to hire the teachers
should know it, do you? He has had
some poor ones as well. / had only to
visit the school room one afternoon
to learn, why he was adopting sar-
casm when spoken to at home, for
being asked a civil question by a
student she gave him this reply"
"What do you thing I'm here for, my
health?" and meeting this same
teacher at reception l made myself
known to her as parent of one of
the students in her room and her
head tilted a little higher and she
declined to be the least bit sociable.
Now | ask, does sarcasm pay or do
you think that the teacher who is
capable of love, not only for the we'll
dressed student but for the poor un-
fortunate as well, is the kind of
teacher you want to help make your
community better now and hence
forth for truely as Goethe has said an
praising or loving a child, we love and
praise not that which is, but that
which VIC hope for"
Another side of this school question
is this. If trouble or misunderstanding
comes up in a grade and your child
rem come to you with it, do you tell
your children to "Tell their troubles
to the policeman or tell them that if
they think they can run the school
better than the teacher you'll try and
get them the job" thus driving the
child to some outsider with his troub-
les, or do you investigate both sides
of the story before you give your
child an answer for "who feels Unjust
ice, who shrinks before a slight, who
has a sense of wrong so acute and so
glowing a gratitude for kindness as
a generous boy or girl. ."-Thackery.
Do you know if the school your boys
and girls go to is properly ventilated
and if the desks and floor are kept
reasonably clean that desease may not
be terminated in the school room?
These are few of the questions we
must ask ourselves to insure our
schools for the future.
Macdonald has said that "The best
preparation for the future is the pre-
sent well seen to and the last duty
done. $50 it is with our roads we pay
our war tax and are apt to think our
duty done but while wondering what
we as individuals could do to make
for better roads. | remembered an
incident that happened when l was a
young girl and some how it seems to
fit in just here.
1t had showed quite hard during the