-W -R

,THEI  W I BGO NSBIN PFARMEBR .



ration tends, not a little, to lighten the teach-
er's labors and inspire him with new resolution
and corresponding effort to make his school
what it can and ought to be.
  Frequent visits will often prevent that dis-
satisfaction which arises in the winds of pa,
rents, from not understanding existing circum-
stances or from perplexing disadvantages un-
der which tha teacher labors. It will enable
the parent to enter more fully into the plans
whereby the teacher would promote the useful-
ness of his labors, and make the instrumental-
ities provided by the community for the ad-
vancement of education more effective.
  The presence of parents has decidedly a ben-
eficial effect on all the members of the school.
Children love to be noticeed; they will take
special pains to do well when they know that
their labors are to be witnessed by their pa-
rents. The thought that their success, arising
from particular and long continued effort, will
be approved and commended by those whom
they love and respect, while their misconduct
and unfaithfulness in preparing lessons, will
be a source of grief and disapprobation, is a
strong stimulus to a conscientious pupil.
  Visiting schools affords opportunity to see
under what disadvantages the teacher labors,
and prepares parents to co-operate with him
in removing them. There are, in almost all
schools, defects and hindrances, which lie be-
yond the teacher's reach, and which might be
removed, were they generally known to the pa-
rents of the district.  But, for want of this
knowledge, they continue to exist, term after
term, and the school is not so productive of
good as it might be. Would parents visit their
schools, their defects would become manifest,
and with a little effort might be removed. Pa-
rents, will you visit your schools? Say not
that you have no time. Take time, though it
be at the expense of other interests. The ed-
udation of your chidren is of paramount im-
portance. If you can aid or encourage them
in the least, to strengthen their minds and
treasure up knowledge, it is no light matter
not to do it. Say not you have instruction of
one in whom you have entire confidence. This



is praiseworthy, but it is not enough. Stop
not here, when your presence in the sehool-
room may make the teacher's instructions more
efficacious. Say not, other parents do not visit
schools, but set the example, and they will fol-
low it, and thereby you will be the means of
interesting others in a good cause. Go not
once only, but often. The oftener you go, the
more interested you will become. Say not, I
will visit the school next month, or next week,



but do it now. Say, reader, whether parent or



not, will you visit your school?
                            N. F. Axtume.



  ToL'LON'. lil.

           School House Dedilations.

  The dedication of churches has been prac-
ticed from the earliest times, and ceremonies,
more or less imposing, have long been common
at the laying of corner stones of collegiate and
other public institutions; but the dedication
of common school-houses is a custom of very
recent introduction.  But why should it not
become universal?  The true theory of the
common school is that it is the nursery of the
youth of the country-uot alone of the intel-
lectual powers, but also of the moral and phys-
ical. In other words, the school is established
for the development of the whole being of the
child, and what work can be more important?
what more sacred!
  If, then, it be proper to dedicate a temple
to the worship of God, is it not also fitting that
the school-edifice be consecrated by public
ceremonials to the noble, divine work of edu-
cating the youth of the land in those princi-
ples, material and spiritual, that shall fit them
for the responsible duties of citizens of the
Republic, and entitle them to the just rewards
of virtuous men and women?
  But the dedication of the school-house is not
only befitting; it is likewise eminently calcu-
lated to promote the success of the school there-
in to be held, by awakening on its behalf the
interest of the whole community in the midst
of which it is located.
  In view of the vast consequences which hang
upon the success with which it is managed,



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