EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 685 



would not matter for hibernating animals, but for men and women cloth- 

 ing and food must be had for the whole twelve months. 



Success along any line cannot be secured unless one gives his whole 

 time to his work. Who knows a man who is a success as a farmer six 

 month of the year and success as a merchant, a druggist, a banker or a 

 politician the other six months? No. No man is so constituted that he 

 can be jumping from one vocation to another every six months and still 

 be a leader in any profession. Men may be interested in many kinds of 

 business and succeed in all, but no man can be six months this, two 

 months that and four months something else, and still retain a mastery 

 or leadership in anything. 



No more can a teacher be seven or eight months in a school room and 

 the other four or five in the hammock, or the kitchen, or a clerk. A 

 teacher must be a teacher all the time, just as a doctor must be a doctor 

 or a lawyer be a lawyer all the time. Each may and should have a short 

 vacation, but should not engage in a new line of work. Our rural schools 

 should run not less than nine months each year. Why should the pupils 

 in the cities and towns be given better school privileges than the pupils 

 in the country? But there is yet another reason for the scarcity of teach- 

 ers, and a reason for which the parent is directly responsible, and that 

 is the lack of co-operation between the home and the school. If I were 

 asked to name the one greatest need of the rural schools I would un- 

 hesitatingly say it is the need of a more sympathetic understanding be- 

 tween the parent and the teacher. 



That the teacher will make mistakes is a foregone conclusion. That 

 she will sometimes misunderstand the pupils under her charge is equally 

 certain. Children are sometimes misunderstood in their own homes. How 

 many of you who so severely censure the teacher for an occasional mis- 

 take have made any attempt to assist her in understanding the mental 

 makeup of your child? How many of you who do so recognize the fact 

 that the environment of the school room is different from that of the 

 home, and that, therefore, the teacher may not always be able to employ 

 your methods in dealing with your child? How many of you realize that 

 offenses which would be trivial in the home become serious matters in 

 the school room because of the crowded conditions, the pressure of time, 

 the stress of work and the different natures of the children therein? How 

 many of you realize that an accumulation of small offenses becomes as 

 serious as a great offense? How many of you are training your child in 

 insincerity and falsehood by allowing him to work you with their talk 

 of abuse at school which they know well you will make little effort to 

 verify. Just the other day a parent came to the office highly excited over 

 the shortcomings of one of the teachers. After listening to his story I said, 

 "You know all these charges are true, of course; you have been to the 

 school and Investigated the conditions?" I was not surprised at the reply, 

 "Oh, no, but my child told me so." Subsequent investigation on my part 

 showed there was very little ground for the charges made. 



How many of you allow your children to speak in disrespectful terms 

 of the teacher at home? How many of you extend the same courtesy and 

 consideration to the teacher that you do to your other friends? How 

 many of you praise the teacher's virtues as loudly as you condemn her 



