Year: 1872




Upon this subject, most people are apt
to fall into the great mistake that none
can enlighten them more than they are,
and this ia the very reason why lectures
by educators are not more needed. If
we wish to buy good pair of boots, we
know of whom to obtain them. Do
they need mending? Certainly, no one
but the cordwa amer can do it as it should
he done. Thus it is in every profession,
when we, as mutual helpers here, phys
ically and morally, have become satis-
fed that we cannot be instructed, we are
surely on the highway to disappoint-
ment.


This leads us to another branch of our
subject-nIutual obligation. The shoe
maker needs his pay, the professional
men Of all work theirs, that they may
be better able to perform the duties of
their business. And now, applying this
principle TO the educator, what relation
do he and the parent sustain to each
other, beyond the mere duty of pecunia-
ry remuneration We have known it TO
be the case that parents were perfectly
satisfied in this matter OF education, that
all would be right for the day, having
started their children of in the morning.
We often think, and we express it in the
treatment of our children, that the teach
er will keep them right if we do fail.
This is the fatal error. What if teach
ers fail Then commences that unsub-
lection at home which eliminates in open
rebellion at school for we are satisfied,
not only from a general knowledge OF
the human mind, but also from particular
phases, that those parents who subject
their children to no moral and physical
discipline at home, are oftentimes dis
pleased when it is meted out to them at
school. A teacher may be skilled in all
sciences, and unexcelled as a discipline
rian, physically and morally, and yet he
utterly fails, because he does not find in
the parent one to sustain his laudable
course.


Now, how shall we sustain him ? Just
visit the one to whom you have confded
the moral welfare of your children. Go
there often, and let The poor teacher,
who is doing his best, understand that
those children are Your treasure, and
where that is there will your heart be
also. Certainly. farmer who has q
fine horse or COW in ncighboriug pas
ture, though more than twice the dis
tance from his home than the school
house, will go and salt and water his an.
imals, curry down his horse, and, in fact,
seem to exhibit a great deal of anxious
solicilude. Is not the child of your own
flesh and blood, whose soul is immortal,
worth, at least, the same attention as
the beasts of the field, that perish?


The animal nature is predominant in
childhood, and this development is an
arrangement for wise purposes and the
true theory of the education of children
is, to govern the animal for them until
the moral can be made strong enough to
hold it in subjection. Do not heed every
little story of disaffection that the child
may tell. The reason of their frequent
displeasure is, that wholesome restraint
and discipline dta1ays runs counter to the
animal. The worst condition of child
hood, the most destructive to its future
welfare, is that which circumstances have
made amenable to no authority or dis
cipline; and no phase of childhood more
needs the cooperation of parent with
teacher than that selfsuficient one of
''paddling their own canoe" in the
school-room, unsolicited to any whole
some restraint.


Then 60 often to the school-room, and
consult with the teacher about your own
child; find out what his capacities are,
and then educate them. We often lose
sight of this fact, and push our children
into studies for which they are lily ca
pacitated. Many good mechanic has
been spoiled to make poor professional
man, just because the test of capacity
was ignored. If your child shows apti-
tude for mechanics, talk about it with
your teacher, and then put him through
a course of study, that will effect the
desired end. Educate his capacities if
in the right channel. But always lock
on childhood as human animals-metted
chargers-ever under the curb and eye
of the parent or teacher--or as goods an
trdnsitu-at the disposal of the consign-
or until their arrival at the consignee's.