Year: 1865

tempt to shirk duty, it is not liberty, but
the abuse of it. for no man has the right
TO give existence to family of children
and send them into society uneducated
and ignorant; but it is his duty to lay
hold of every means in his power to give
them an education, and if he will not do
this, then it is the duty of society TO
compel him to send them to school; for
the interest of that society is paramount
TO that of the individual But, why be
so particular about having the children
at school every day? l answer by say
ing, that the irregular attendance among
pupils in our common schools, is one of
the chief causes of imperfect scholar
ship existing among them, and how
could it be otherwise, when to acquire
a thorough knowledge of the branches
the pupil is studying. it is necessary for
1t 10 be regular in its attendance, and
punctual in its recitations. Every teach


er will agree with me in saying that there
is nothing so injurious to the scholars
education as this one thing. But let me
illustrate. John commences going to
school. is progressing finely, is in frac


tons, finding the greatest common di-
visor, or least common multiple, on the
thorough knowledge of which his fu-


ture progress in those fractions very
much depends; when some morning he
is making preparations to be off to
school, his father says to him, you will
/ low
there is some extra work to be done, and
you must help do it; SO John, disap-
pointed, remains at home; while his
class moves on, and when he returns, he
finds them in addition or multiplication
of fractions. He opens his book, and
sees before him the example, add togeth


er ID of 3-4 plus 1o-15, or some simi-
lar example. He is amazed He knows
nothing of the greatest common divisor
or least common multiple, for he had to
remain at home when his class passed
over there He does not know that be-
fore one fraction can be added to anoth-
er, that all compound fractions must be
reduced TO common denominators. He
commences the operation and fails
tries again, and fails, and so after sever
cral efforts, with like results, he becomes
discouraged, throws down his books, de
claring that there's no use trying, he can
not master it! and thus, often the best
pupil, and the most intellectual, becomes
the poorest, and the most indifferent.
Now what interferes with Johns pro
. I -,
like manner in all the rest of his studies,
and John will illustrate as many other
Johns and Marys' and their names are
legion, who are similarly situated But
Johns father may be ready to enter as a
justification for his keeping him away
from school, that he could not get along
without him; suppose you had no John,
or suppose John should conclude to
strike for himself, as a great many Young
Americans do nova days, would You not
do without him in that case? most as
suredly you would but because you
have him at home, you think you cannot
get along without him, and thus ruin his
education, and his efficiency in future
life. l know there are some occasions
when boys and girls must remain at
home; but / am firmly convinced that
in nine cases out of ten, if there had
been proper exertion put forth, on the
part of the parent, the difficulty could
have been mastered, without the aid of
John or Mary, and they could have been
at school studying their lessons, and
+ la.-
there are some Billies in school who are
not as highly impressed with the i'm
portance of an education as they should
be, and are at what the philosophers
would call the ''impressibie age" and
with this spirit moving them, they take
the old mans (as they politely call him)
horse and sleigh, and often spend three
or four nights out of the week in the
exciting amusement OF sleigh riding, and
the next day they come to school more
dead than alive, from the effects of the
last nights hilarity, and all the efforts of
the teacher to get them to study are
fruitless-and all their attempts at get
ting their lessons are abortive; for when
they do try to fix their minds on their
books, the sweet form of their fair
! 'Angeline Seraphina, or Laura Matilda
with her blue eyes, black hair, beautiful
/ form and rosy cheeks comes up before
/ their youthful Imagination, scattering to
the winds all sober thought or study;
and while the much abused teacher is
explaining some point in grammar, or
some problem in arithmatic, Billy, to
whom he is trying to impart this in
struction, whispers, "golly, did not we
we have gay time last night :" and so
it goes through the whole day or week,
while the pupil is in this condition. But
what has this to do with the common
school system? Very much, sir. It
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