expected to load him with censure instead of praise. Let a particular answer, and a true one, always be given to the inquiry"How does my son get along?" The parent has a right to know, and the teacher has no right to disguise any of the facts. Sometimes private teachers have feared the loss of a pupil, and have, therefore, used some indefinite expression, which, however, the doating parent is usually ready to interpret to his child's advantage. But sooner or later the truth will appear, and when the teacher is once convicted of misrepresentation in this particular, there is rarely any forgiveness for him. For this reason and for his own love of truth, for his own reputation and for the child's welfare, he should keep nothing back. Tell the whole story plainly and frankly,and the parent, if he is a gentleman, will thank you for your faithfulness to him; and if he have any sense of justice, he will be ready to co-operate with you for his son's improvement.

The main duties, which the teacher directly owes to the parent, we think we have now noticed. He should study faithfully and feelingly the relations he sustains to his pupils and their friends; he should carefully perform every known duty in its time and after its manner, according to the dictates of his own conscience. Let him do this, and he can be happy in his own mind. Yet, when he has done all he can do, the question of his success will depend very much upon the PARENTS OF HIS SCHOLARS. They must come forward and crown the work, or very much will, after all, be wanting.

Let us, then, devote a few pages to the consideration of the

DUTIES OF PARENTS.

On entering this part of the subject, we feel an impulse to speak plainly and feelingly. We have had more than ten years' feeling on this subject, and, if we have not always felt right, we certainly have, at times, felt intensely. It will be difficult in what remains of this address, to define all the duties of parents. It will be our object to speak of some, such as most strongly suggest themselves to our mind.

1. Parents should reciprocate the attempts of the teacher toward a mutual understanding. It will discourage the most faithful instructer, if at the outset, he meet with coldness and unconcern. The parents should never forget, that the teacher is their appointed coadjutor for the time being, to educate their children, and as they love their offspring and desire their

advantage, so they should be ready to encourage all the advances which he may make toward the better understanding of their wishes and intentions, and the explanation of his plans.

2. Parents should candidly listen to the plans of the teacher, and, unless they are manifestly wrong, should do all in their power to aid him in the execution of them. We say unless they are manifestly wrong. Many parents suppose, if a teacher's modes and plans are not the best, in their opinion the very best, they are under no obligation to help them forward. But we say, every teacher may not have the wisdom to devise abstractly the best plans, (for all teachers are not alike,) yet most likely such as he will devise, will be the best for him. He has taken much time, and after long solicitude and many desires to be useful, he has fixed upon a course one, which under all the circumstances may seem to him the best. Now suppose this course should chance to strike the parents' minds unfavorably; shall they at once abandon the teacher, give up all hopes of benefit from the school, and withdraw their co-operation? Is it not rather their duty, either to suggest a "more excellent way," which they may ever do, if they have a right spirit, or to give their co-operation in carrying out his plans -such as they are? The teacher, be it remembered, is appointed to conduct the school for the time, and unless his services and his plans, however inferior they may be, are rendered useful, the youth are, for the time, to be the losers. Parents may be as particular as they please in the choice of their teacher, and in requiring the highest rate of qualifications; but after they have appointed him their teacher, they cannot without a breach of contract, withhold from him their co-operation. If they have been imposed upon, if the incumbent is found to be absolutely incompetent for his office, they may decently dismiss him, and employ another, but to continue a teacher in office, in whom they have no confidence, and whom they refuse to aid, is a breach of good faith; it is a violation of the axiom that "two wrongs can never make a right."

As a general rule, we repeat it, the teacher's own plans will be found decidedly the best for him, and it is no good policy for parents, upon slight causes, to attempt an obtrusive interference. The right of adopting his own measures, as a general thing, should be conceded to the teacher; and all pa

rents will find their own interest promoted and their children's advancement accelerated, in cheerfully aiding him.

3. They should thankfully listen to the teacher's faithful account of their children, even if that account be not a flattering one. We have before said, that the teacher should be frank, always telling the parents the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This must sometimes of itself, be an unplea sant duty. It is self-denying enough for the teacher to make an unfavorable statement demanded by his duty, under the best circumstances, and the trial is peculiarly severe when the parent receives it with expressions of displeasure, or perhaps, of undisguised reproach. Nothing should deter the teacher, however, from the faithful discharge of this duty,but we do say, he has a just right to expect cordiality and gratitude on the part of the parent for his faithfulness, whether his tale be bright or dark, and the good and wise parent will always exhibit them.

4.

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Parents should visit the schools which their children attend. Without this, they can have no very correct idea of the state of things in the school-room. Common report concerning the affairs of a school, is not always correct. By visiting the school, parents can at once see, if the teacher is honest, the comparative standing of their children; they will become more interested in the objects and business of the school, and, what will be of infinite worth both to teacher and pupils, it will convince them all, that the parents have some sense of the importance of the improvement made there. The pupils will be quickened to diligence, and the teacher to activity and faithfulness, and is not the rate of purchase very low, when the advantage is so great?

5.

Parents should promptly and cheerfully supply the required books and apparatus for the school. The teacher cannot work without tools; the parent ought not to expect it. If a parent has any doubt about the propriety of a call for a new book, he should at once see the teacher, but never should he send an uncivil or angry message by the child. An interview of five minutes may put the matter peaceably at rest, and save both parties much unpleasant feeling. Besides, school books are now less expensive than formerly. The parent in most cases can better afford to buy a book, than to spend his time in talk about it. Often the pupil loses more by delay in one week, than the value of the book many times told, — for

We

there is no estimating improvement by dollars and cents. grant, the multiplication and frequent change of school-books are a great and sore evil, but this at least is not the fault of the instructor; and no good can possibly come of disputing a question with him, which in reality, has been settled already by the school committee.

6. Parents should see that their children are decently clothed, and cleanly in their persons. This duty belongs mainly to the mother, and her character may very readily be seen, as reflected in the persons of her children. The teacher has a right to expect of the parents the faithful performance of this duty. He ought not to be insulted with filthiness, and surely he need not, so long as soft water falls in rich abundance from the heavens, and a pair of scissors and a comb are possessed by every family. He can have no heart to come in contact with pupils, who are sometimes so sadly neglected in this particular. This point however is so obvious, that we need not waste words upon it.

7.

Parents are bound to secure the constant attendance of their children. This is no trifling article of their duty. Perhaps there is no one thing to be named, which contributes so largely to the perplexities of the teacher and to the injury of our public schools, as irregular attendance. Downright sickness of the child is a good excuse for absence from school, and perhaps we may add, in some instances, illness in the family. But beyond these, it seems to us, there can be no good reason for keeping a scholar from his school. It is heartsickening to witness for what trifling causes many of the children are kept away from our schools. Frequently it happens, that some unimportant errand, as trifling if we may be allowed to be specific-as the purchase of a cent's worth of yeast, is made the occasion of a half day's absence from school

an injury done to the child's mind, which cannot be estimated in dollars and cents. Who can compute the amount of idle habits of study, having their foundation in that indifference to education, which, for some trifling errand amounting, perhaps, to the value of a dime-oftener, however, to less than a cent, permits the child to be away from his class, and thus practically teaches him to consider his school as a very cheap affair.

Every school, if the teacher would lay out his strength to advantage, should, to a considerable extent, be classified. His

mind, as far as practicable, must act upon masses of mind. But irregularity of attendance is most ruinous to classification. A scholar, by being absent one half the time, it may be demonstrated, is, to all the intents and purposes of the school absent all the time. One day he is absent, and of course, loses all that day's lessons; the next day he is present, but is still deficient in his lessons, because, as he says to his teacher, — "I was absent yesterday, and not knowing where to study, I have not studied at all!" Again he is absent again he is present; the same result follows, and at the week's end he has learned nothing as it should be learned. Such is the effect upon the pupil himself.

But the difficulty is not now half told. He is a member of the school the teacher must consider him such;` and as the parents of such pupils often make fair promises for the future, the teacher feels bound, if possible, to keep him along with his class. To effect this, the class must be often put back on his account, which operates as a severe discouragement to them. Sometimes the instructor is obliged to devote particular attention to this scholar singly, by which the other pupils are robbed of the proportion of his time which is their due, and they are obliged to suffer an injury the most of all unpleasant, -for when scholars, who are always at their post, have learned their lessons well, it is cruelin the last degree, that they should be deprived of the pleasure of showing their faithfulness - the pleasure of a good recitation.

Nor is this all. The teacher the unthought of teacher is not made of iron or brass. His patience being so frequently, so thoughtlessly, and so unnecessarily taxed, and his best efforts being so ill requited, he may unless he is superhuman, he most certainly must - relax his exertions. He will find it next to impossible for a series of weeks or months, after having labored faithfully without success, to maintain his interest and his efficiency under all the discouraging circumstances of the case. As soon as his spirits flag, the whole school will imperceptibly catch the feeling, and they all are the sufferers. This is not an extreme case; it is not a fancy picture; it is not speculation. IT IS HISTORY! and I am sorry to be obliged to add, it is the exact history of most of our public schools!

Can any wouder, then, that we should earnestly urge, that parents should co-operate with the teacher in this particular?