directory. - Surrounded by Reality

MAD ISOX DIRECTORY. 117sons, is a pern icious one, an d oug ht to be disconti nued. Atti mes as many as t wenty pupils, in one depa rtment, have brough trequests from parents, that their children might be dismissedfrom school, in a single aftern oon. I n severa l instances t heywere dismissed from school for the purpose of t aking lessons ofsome itine rant singer, who taught them just enough to qualifyt hem to take par t in a public concer t for his benefit. F or a fewsongs. which have been learn ed, and which have been almost assoon forgott en, more than a hundred pupils have been allowedto leave their school. get behind their cla sses, and lose interestin the ir stu dies for almost an ent ire term. I nstead of requestin~a repetition of concert s, which are prepar ed at such a sacrificc, it would be more just to prosecute such individuals for.. obtaining money und er false pretences." I n other places theyhave rule s for the pr event ion of such evils as the ab ove, andthe good of our schools demands some such regulation here.Parents can have t he privilege of hearing several hun dr ed childrensing together, almost any day , by coming within hearingdistance of the school houses, to which they would be kindlywelcomed, without any admission fee." If four from a class of sixt een, which is about the ratio ofabsenteeism among t hose who ar c enr olled on th e school registers,ar c absent every day , there is, besides the loss of just onefourth of the tea cher's time and thc scho ol expen ses, a fearfu ldrawback on th e industry and progre ss of the scholars who arcpresent. Of th e twelve present to-day, four, that is, one-th irdwere ab sent yesterday, and having not heard tha t lesson recitedand explained, they ar e not fitted to understand the pre sentlesson. The teacher must therefore go oyer it rapidly to themand this will cause a loss of time to the othe r eight, and beingdone rap idly willnot be underst ood by th e four absent ees. H ereth en arc three losses, no one of which is inconsiderable-t hotime and stren gth of t he teacher , the time and patience of thescholars who were punctual, and the loss to the absentees themselves,resulting from the imperfect und erstanding of th e r re\'iouslesson} and all the se arc add iti onal to those enumerate dabove. As thi s twenty-fire per cent. is th e constant ra tio ofabsenteei sm, these losses arc every day losses, and thei r amountin a yea r is fearful. T he effect of t hese is t o introduce discouragementinto the breast of th e faithful and courngooust eacher, and confusion and loss of interest into all tho class esand exercises of the school. 11 ** ReT. Robert Allyn, School Commissioner of Rhode Island.