LETTER VI.

PARENTAL CO-OPERATION.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

THE highest success of a school demands the united and harmonious efforts of three parties,teachers, parents, and pupils. If you would hope to be truly successful in your labors, you must not only have your own efforts earnest and judicious, but you must also be able to devise means and adopt plans that will awaken and keep alive an interest on the part of your pupils and their parents. It will be my purpose in this letter to offer a few hints in this direction.

You must manifest a deep Interest in your Daily Work. If you possess true enthusiasm, and labor with a will and with efficiency, your pupils will not only imbibe of your spirit, but they will impart it to their parents. Let your scholars see that you feel a sincere interest in their studies, and that you take delight in their improvement; let them see that you are ever devising plans which will tend to make their lessons more intelligible, pleasant, and profitable, and they will be quickened

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Interest in your Work.

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in their efforts and cheered in their labors. "O mother!" said a little girl, "I never loved to go to school till this term, and now I don't wish to be absent a single hour." "But why," said the mother, are you so much interested in your school now?" "Because, mother, our teacher is so pleasant and kind. She always helps us all she can, and then she makes our lessons so interesting! All the scholars love her, and mean to do all they can to please her."

Do not, however, imagine that you are to gain the good-will of your pupils by an easy discipline, or by making the lessons so simple as to excuse them from all mental effort. Pupils like order and study, if secured in the right way. Teach them how to study. Cause them to feel that they have a special interest in the prosperity of the school, and that they will be doing the most for themselves, when they are earnestly co-operating with you, by yielding an implicit, prompt, and cheerful compliance with your wishes and requirements. Make them realize that your success and theirs are identical. If they thus feel an interest in you and your efforts, they will not be slow in making their feelings known at the home fireside.

Visit the Homes of your Pupils.-Do this for your own good, and for the good of your pupils and their parents. These visits, made in the right spirit, will give you an influence that will be worth much to you, and prove valuable in all your labors.

Visits to Parents.

Make them occasions for learning all you can in relation to the home influences, which conspire to aid you, or to counteract your efforts. It will tend to please both parents and children to see that you have an interest in them, that extends beyond the limits of the school-room. But that these visits may prove mutually pleasant and profitable, manifest a friendly and cheerful spirit. Exhibit no angular points of character or disposition, but strive to make your conversation both agreeable and beneficial. If questioned by the parents, in reference to the progress or deportment of their children, give prudent and truthful answers. Do not feel that you must utter words of commendation. If there has been a lack of interest in study, or a disregard of the rules of the school, or misconduct of any kind, say so in the spirit of kindness and courtesy, and ask for friendly sympathy and co-operation in your endeavors to secure better results. Unless you, and the parents for whom you labor, can have a singleness of purpose and union of action, you cannot reasonably expect to accomplish much that will be desirable. Diversity of opinion, alienation of feeling, or want of harmony in action, between teachers and parents, will in results prove like "a house divided against itself." In all your acts and words study for those things which make for peace, and be strictly careful not to utter words or perform acts that will "need to be repented of"; and be not over-sensitive in regard to what may be said to you, or of you. So live, so act, and so speak, that

Visits from Parents.

words of scandal or misrepresentation will fall powerless. If parents prefer charges, or utter complaints, listen in a spirit of candor, - answer in a spirit of frankness and conciliation. Many teachers prove their own worst enemies by uttering unguarded words, or doing imprudent or injudicious things. They should strive to be "as wise as serpents, but harmless as doves."

Invite the Parents to visit the School. This is of the greatest importance. It will do them good, encourage you, and stimulate and cheer your pupils. But when such visits are made, put on no unusual airs, make no attempt at parade or show, neither strive to exhibit the proficiency of your best scholars. Go on with the regular exercises of the school, and if some pupils fail to answer, or make blunders, do not make a bad matter worse, by saying, — as I have often heard teachers say, "I never knew my scholars do so badly before; they always do the worst when I have company!" You know that some of them will fall short of the true standard every time they recite, and there is no reason why you should be unwilling to have visitors see your school as it actually is. Let them see that you daily meet with difficulties, and that, with all your efforts, you cannot always get the results you may desire. If you attempt anything unusual when company is present, you will fail to meet your own expectations, or those of your visitors, and perhaps forfeit the confidence and respect of your pupils.

Special Occasions.

You will find some advantages in having special seasons for the visits of parents, in addition to those of an every-day nature. Exercises in declamation, composition, etc. possess more than ordinary interest for visitors. Let such exercises be given occasionally, not as evidence of proficiency in daily studies, but as an exhibition of what can be done in particular departments. Examinations and exhibitions are both important auxiliaries in school matters; but the latter should in no instance be made a substitute for the former.

I will not enlarge on the subject of this letter, but will merely urge that you make every suitable effort to awaken and increase parental interest in school matters, ever bearing in mind, that, "As is the teacher, so will be the school"; and, "As are the parents, so will be both teacher and pupils."

Your sincere friend,

C.