42 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Jan. 
the waste charcoal from the rail-road locomotives. 
The application of a slight coating of this material, 
effectually stops any unpleasant smell from the manure. 
Common Schools. 
The Common School is justly regarded as the pal¬ 
ladium of our civil liberties. It is, and must be, from 
this source that the mass of our citizens derive the 
groundwork of the knowledge which will enable them 
to sustain the principles of a free representative gov¬ 
ernment. It is, then, of the highest consequence, that 
these schools be made to confer the greatest possible 
advantages on those for whom they are designed. In 
regard to their character and utility, much depends on 
the countenance and encouragement given them by pa¬ 
rents. The improvement of children will be compara¬ 
tively unimportant, if parents are indifferently disposed 
towards teachers and schools. This subject is brought 
forward in a striking light in the following circular, 
addressed to parents, written by an observing and in¬ 
telligent superintendent of schools, in a neighboring 
state. Eds. 
I know you feel an interest in the education of your 
children, and therefore I wish to call your attention to 
the winter schools, which are about to commence. 
What shall be the value of the school in your district 
to your children? Are you aware that the success of 
your school will depend much upon your co-operation 
with the teacher? I find throughout the county, that 
where the parents take the most interest in schools, 
there they have the best schools, and where they take 
the least interest, the poorest schools. It is the uni¬ 
form testimony of teachers, that the active co-opera¬ 
tion of parents is essential to success in their schools. 
Shall your teacher have this co-operation the coming 
winter ? You may receive the public money, pay your 
taxes, employ a good teacher; but unless you take an 
interest, yourselves , you cannot have a good school. 
The school will be what you make it. Do you ask 
what you can do to secure a good school ?—There are 
many things you can do. I will mention some of 
them : 
1. You can furnish your chidren with suitable books. 
2. You can see that your children attend school, 
punctually in the morning , and regularly every day. 
The tardiness and irregularity of scholars is one of the 
greatest evils in our district schools. Parents can cor¬ 
rect this evil, if they ivill. In Putney, the average 
attendance last year was much greater than the year 
before—the average attendance in one school of 50 
scholars being 60 days out of 66 day’s school. In most 
schools in the county, the average attendance is not 
over 40 or 45 days—more than one-fourth of the 
schooling being absolutely lost, needlessly lost, while 
the value of the remaining three-fourths is greatly di¬ 
minished. If your children are tardy, or occasionally 
absent from school, they will not be interested in the 
schools, or make progress in their studies. A few 
days’ absence frequently destroys the value of more 
than half a winter’s school. If your breakfast is half 
an hour too late, it may be the means of preventing 
your children from being interested in their studies for 
that day, and so through the winter. Will you not, 
then, as parents, see to it that your children attend the 
school.punctually in the morning,Sc regularly every day? 
3. You can visit the school. The practice of visiting 
schools is becoming more common in some towns, and 
the good effects of such visits are seen in both teachers 
and pupils. Still, there are many districts where nei¬ 
ther the parents or the committees ever go into the 
schools, and the best teachers accomplish but little in 
such districts, on account of the indifference of parents. 
It is impossible for a teacher to keep a first-rate school, 
where parents do not feel interest enough to look in and 
see whether their children learn or not. You may as well 
expect to raise corn in winter, as to find a good school in 
such a district. The neglect and indifference of parents 
will be as fatal to the interests of the school, as the 
snow and ice to the growth of corn. If you have a field 
of grain, are you not accustomed to visit it, now and 
then, to see how it grows, and that, too, when your 
visits do the grain no such good as they should do your 
children ? for the grass and the grain have no eyes to 
see you, no smiling faces and cheerful hearts with which 
to greet you, as the children in the school-room have. 
If the sun shines and the showers fall, the grass and the 
grain will grow on. But what the sunshine and show¬ 
ers do for the fields, the interest of parents will do for 
the school. A visit from you who are parents, will of¬ 
ten be as serviceable to the school, as a shower of rain 
on the grass, or the warm sun, with a dressing of plas¬ 
ter, on the corn. Will not every parent in the country 
visit the district school at least once during the coming 
winter ? If the teacher is a good one, he will be glad 
to see you. If he is unfaithful, negligent, or incompe¬ 
tent, there is still more need of your visiting the school, 
even though the teacher should not wish to see you. 
4. You can sustain the teacher in the government of 
the school. There is great complaint in our country, 
that the schools fail for want of order. This want of 
order is sometimes the fault of teachers, and sometimes 
of the parents. If parents do not govern their children 
at home, if they allow them to stay at home for every 
petty dislike they may have against the teacher, or if 
they are accustomed to take their children out of school, 
when a favorite son or daughter is punished, no teacher 
can govern the school. One of our town superinten¬ 
dents stated in a public address, last winter, that most 
of the failure of their schools in government, had arisen 
on account of the unwarrantable interference of the pa¬ 
rents in the government of the school. If parents listen 
to the foolish complaints of their children, the children 
will generally have complaints enough to make. If 
your teacher has faults, it is .better for you to go and 
speak of them kindly to him, than to find fault with him 
or backbite and slander him behind his back. For much 
of the trouble with teachers arises from some misrepre¬ 
sentation or misunderstanding, which a little explana¬ 
tion from the teacher would have removed. Where 
there is a decided public opinion in favor of order, there 
will seldom be much disorder or rebellion in school. It 
is because the unruly and disobedient expect “ aid and 
comforV' among some in the district, that they venture 
upon open disobedience and rebellion in school. If your 
teacher is incompetent, or unfaithful, let him be fairly 
dismissed ; but do not let a faithful teacher be put 
down or driven away by the ill will of an offended pa¬ 
rent, or the clamor of unruly boys and girls, to the dis¬ 
grace of the teacher, and the still greater disgrace of 
the children and the parents. Your duty as parents, 
and as good citizens is not discharged by simply not 
encouraging disorder ; it is your duty to sustain order t 
and frown on rebellion by your words and your influ¬ 
ence. Men may encourage mobs in school, as well as 
in government, by looking on and keeping still, when 
they ought to speak out, and frown down rebellion. It 
is because the orderly keep still, that the few disorderly 
in our school districts make so much trouble. 
5. You can do much, also, to benefit your children, 
by endeavouring to interest them in obtaining an edu¬ 
cation ; by encouraging them to study and improve their 
minds during evenings; by discouraging those amuse¬ 
ments which take off their attention from the school, 
and dissipate their minds; by showing that knowledge 
and virtue are better riches for them than any treasure 
of silver and gold. James Tufts, Supt. of Common 
Schools. Wardsboro’, Vt. 
