H. [whispers.] Say, Sam, didn't the Atlantics do the big thing? Twentyseven to seventeen! [SAM shakes his head and looks at the board.]

J. [whispers.] Hoh, the Eurekas can beat 'em any day.

Mr. R. Whispering again! Come, come! Attend to the example. [Reads.] How much of the grain at $1,28% per bushel, and of that at $2 per bushel

12

J. [whispers.] The Actives thought they were going to-[Mr. RUSSE looks that way.]-Mr. Russe, how do you begin that sum?

Mr. R. The explanation will be given in a minute. [Reads.] Must you mix with the other three

J. [whispers.] The Actives thought they would do the soft thing when they played with the Eurekas

Mr. R. [sharply.] Attention!

J. [aside.] Mr. Russe is getting up steam, ha ha! ha!

Several Boys. Ha! ha ha! [NED strikes at NICK with his slate, and the slate falls to the floor.]

N. Get out! [NED looks innocent.]

Mr. R. [Rising from his chair and facing the class. All attend. He goes to the board and draws the following figure:

A C

E

K

M

B

Turning to the boys.] Do you see that straight mark, AB?
All. Yes, sir!

Mr. R. That represents the study or recitation hour. Now, if you should begin at A-as some of my boys here do-and attend to your work right through to B, you would, with rare exceptions, have your lessons from to day. But you do not so attend. Some of you begin at A and study on to C, when the thought of something else pops into your head-some kind of amusement, a base-ball match perhaps and off you go from the straight line of attention to your study to D. Suddenly you remember that you have a recitation before you, and down you come to the straight line again, having lost time however, from C to E.

S. Mr. Russe, you've told us that a perfectly straight line can't be drawn. Mr. R. I'm glad you remember it, Samuel. But that is now a departure from the straight line of attention to what we are considering. It is like the departure noted by the line FGH, by which we lose the line FH. Nick, what are you doing?

N. He keeps getting my things.

Mr. R. Ah, now you are going towards K! Nick, do you see-does the class see, that Nick and Ned are losing time by turning their attention to something else?

Boys. Yes, sir.

S. We are all losing time, too.

Mr. R. Certainly. Put those things into your pocket, Nick. Now, suppose we go back to H. You begin there to study again, and you attend to work till you get to I. There the thought of something else pops into your mind-a big apple you're going to eat, perhaps-

All Ha ha ha!

Mr. R. You think about the apple, and all the while you are going away from AB towards K, and there you think of something else—a new bat, perhaps. Is it not so?

Several. Yes, sir.

Mr. R. Well, you think about the new bat till you get to K, and then you get into a boyish reverie, in which you keep on thinking of apples, and bats, and balls, and other things, till you are suddenly started by the remembrance of your lesson; so back you dart to the straight mark and try to be attentive; but thoughts of balls, and apples, and bats, and games, mingle confusedly with the matter of the lesson, and that is represented by the curved line from M to B. Do you see?

Boys. Yes, sir.

Mr. R. Now sum up and see what you have lost. All that part of the study or recitation hour from C to E+F to H+I to M+fully M to B! —about AB—that is, about two-thirds of the time. Is it a wonder you come here and say Can't? Away with the word! Can't! Inattention rather. When you meet with difficulty, work at it. If in due time you don't succeed, then come to me. But never again say Can't. Now for the remainder of the example. So much as I have read, Richard has on the board. Those who have been inattentive may copy it on their slates. [Reads.] That the mixture may be worth a dollar a bushel? [All the boys give close attention, copying the example on their slates.] I wish to leave the room a few minutes. I shall expect you to be attentive and to behave yourselves. [Exit. Boys maintain order and work at the example.]

J. [presently.] I've got it!

H. So have I. Mr. Russe rather got us on that line

S. Hush! Don't whisper! [Silence again.]

Mr. R. Boys, your conduct

have finished the example?

[Enter Mr. RUSSE.]

pleases me. So let it ever be! How many [Nearly all raise their hands.] Very well.

Now can you tell me what other lesson you have had this morning?

All. The Straight Mark!

Mr. R. True. And what have you learned by it?

All [together]. To be attentive-never say can't-keep to the mark! Mr. R. Will you remember it?

All. Yes, sir.

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY.

DECEMBER, 1866.

SCHOLASTIC RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF PARENTS.

RIGHTS and duties are inseparable; they must be accepted or

rejected together. In the case under consideration they center on one common object, namely, the welfare of the children; and since they have but one end, it is evident that they should operate together. Separate them, and in many cases they may and do nullify each other; unite them, and almost any thing desired can be executed.

Education means simply "leading forth." Physical education may be compared to the attention given to the proper construction of the human locomotive; intellectual education forms and develops its motive-power, and moral education applies this power to its proper use-instructing it how to labor for the common good of society. It is yet very questionable whether these portions of one whole can wisely be separated and placed under different delegate authorities. It is certain, however, that they all center under the proper charge and special supervision of parents.

Notwithstanding this general admission, it is singular, and much to be regretted, that both here and in Europe, many if not most writers on the subject of education ignore or forget the use of parental power. Their strictures refer to children and teachers, whilst the rights and duties of parents are very rarely discussed. To make no use of these highest natural authorities, is to set them aside as worthless. Is this wise? Consider how important a part for good or evil home education is constantly performing !

First, then, parents have supreme right over their children. Any other authority exercised by the State, city, or another individual, is only delegated. Penalties for neglect of duties by parents or their delegates are therefore naturally and rightly visited upon the former in after-life.

In order to make a proper choice of a delegate, parents have a right to erter a school during working-hours. The capacities of children are so various, that the abilities of a teacher cannot always be correctly estimated by an examination of his pupils. One hour's careful inspection of a school in action will give a better idea of the trustworthiness and capa

bility of a teacher, than a volume of regulations, or a yard of printed references. To neglect this duty, is, on the part of parents, a serious

error.

Parents have no right to expect more than a simple recognition of their presence in the school-room, inasmuch as teachers are paid for the use of their time, and have no right to appropriate the time set apart for tuition to other purposes than those for which they are remunerated.

It is not wise for parents to take counsel of their children with regard to what school the latter prefer, for it is natural in them to prefer play to study.

If parents wish their children to respect a teacher and to improve under his training, they will do well not to relate their own youthful delinquencies and school pranks, in the presence of their little ones, unless they desire them to be imitated, with additions and improvements, first at school, afterward at home.

It is miserable policy on the part of parents to threaten children with the school as a place of punishment. It forms a barrier which must be removed before children can pass up the hill of knowledge.

Having selected an instructor, it is the duty of the parents to support his ordinances as supreme laws over their children at home, as well as at school. Any clashing between parental and scholastic authority is productive only of evil.

When parents can be relied upon, teachers can render the simplest home deprivations the most effectual punishments. Latitude in amusement should always be regulated by high or low standing in the school.

When parents neglect their duty, they set before their children a lesson in negligence. To forget to sign the weekly report, is to lead them into paths of disorder and disobedience. It is an unmanly wrong done to the teacher, and a grievous injury to the children.

Parents who, to please themselves, sacrifice their children to ignorance, by constantly writing excuses for their lessons, are very reprehensible. Three regular exemplars of this crime are sufficient to demoralize a school.

The public will is, in this country, supreme. Parents should understand that they form and model the systems in operation in our public schools. If they demand the right to elect politicians to perform solus their proper parental work, they have little right to complain if it be ill done. In private schools the same carelessness on the part of parents, as to the use of the right of their supervisory powers, begets carelessness in the children, and sometimes in the teachers. For the many aberrations

which spring from this neglect, fathers and mothers, the blame rightly rests on yourselves.

Oh for some Horace Mann to publish a work on this subject! Principals of Schools and Teachers have been lectured, addressed, written to and written at, in order to post them well as to the best methods of performing rightly their parts in the great work in which they are engaged. Volumes upon volumes have been addressed to children and youths with the same purpose and intent. Alas! even in our most elaborate educational compilations how short and how few are the paragraphs devoted to the instruction of parents with regard to their duties; how little care has been taken to obtain their co-operation, or to secure their aid and power over their families as instruments requisite to and necessary for the full development of all that is worthy of commendation in any system, either of public or private school education!

TEACH PRINCIPLES.

PRINCIPLES are few, and widely applicable. Details choke the

world with fullness, while but few can be acquired individually. A principle explains and prepares the way for the acquisition of a multitude of details. Let more of principles, then, be taught, and fewer isolated facts which point-somewhere. Put a principle into a child's consciousness, and he will inevitably acquire the corresponding details easily and orderly. And, animated by a spirit of intelligent inquiry, wherever he goes in God's beautiful world, he will have eyes open to see, and mental hands to reach out and take hold of, and classify, and understand, and possess.

Do away with details? No! introduce as many of the most important as possible. Introduce them by incidental remark, by talks, by lectures; but do not cram. Many an ambitious pupil crams for the highest grade; and, when graduated, is stuffed, not taught, overloaded with unclassified facts-not educated. Often he is mentally burst and physically broken, and, after all, knows much less than that obscure pupil far down in the class, whose eyes have gleamed as a living principle has flitted past him, to be inquired about, but lost for want of time-or caught, perhaps, in that momentary flash, and made his own.

We need a great reformation here. We must come back to generals, in order that we may get details into the pupils' minds in an orderly and