nial of anxious parents, have risen, unaided, to stations of honor and affluence.

Not only so, but these very children have come up to give their honored parents a liberal support, and to comfort them in their declining years. These parents had "cast their bread upon the waters, and found it again after many days." Such results are legitimate. Wealth with ignorance is always a curse to the young; poverty with education, always a blessing.

Every considerate parent will, therefore, make the first and most liberal outlay for the education of his children. in the common school. He will not be satisfied until the school is provided with every facility for the greatest improvement and most thorough discipline.

But the necessary expense of a good district school is a profitable investment, not only in view of the results upon the future of our children, but in view of the increased value given to real estate, in any community. Whereever the condition of our schools is improved, there, and in the same proportion, is the value of property increased. What is a good farm worth in Sodom? Yet, the educa tion of our children, in the proper sense of that term, is all that can prevent any district or neighborhood from becoming a Sodom. How, then, is it possible for parents to manifest so little interest in the welfare of their schools? Why bestow so little care upon the selection of teachers? Why take so little interest in the school while in operation?

The utmost caution should be exercised in the selection of the person to fill this high office, but when once employed, the good of the school requires that he should receive the encouragement and co-operation of the whole district. He may not prove to be as efficient as would be desirable, still he must be sustained. As long as he is allowed to hold the office of teacher, parents have no right to take sides against him. The influence of such opposi tion is always destructive of good order, and tends to fos

ter a spirit of rebellion in the school. Better sustain an unworthy teacher than encourage insubordination; if he is to be dismissed, let it be done by the parents, and not by the pupils.

But if parents would co-operate with their teacher and secure to their children the benefits of a good school, they must feeland manifest a deep interest in its success. The indifference of parents has chilled the enthusiasm and blasted the hopes of many an earnest teacher. When he entered the district his heart was warm and his hands strong for the important work assigned him; but he found no sympathy, met with no encouragement, and received little or no attention from his patrons. The children imbibed the spirit at home, and brought it to the schoolroom. Compelled to toil on alone and amid such discouragements, he gave up in despair, when, with suitable encouragement, he might have been successful.

Parents should always have a mutual understanding with their teacher. To this end, they should form an early and intimate acquaintance with him. And while he reveals to them his views and plans for the management and instruction of his school, they should give assurances of their willingness and determination to aid him in carrying out his measures. They should frequently visit his school. This habit cannot fail to have a favorable influence both upon the teacher and the pupils. If the practice should become general in our community, the change would mark a new era in the history of common school education, and result in untold good. Not only are teachers quickened to activity and faithfulness and pupils to diligence by such visits, but parents are enabled to gain more correct views of the progress of their children, and the efficiency of their instructor.

It is the duty of parents, also, cheerfully to furnish all necessary books and apparatus-not under the direction of interested book agents, but when the good of the school requires it. All scholars of the same standing must

have uniform books in order to be properly classified, and sometimes the old should give place to the new and improved books, for the entire class. It is admitted, however, that uniformity is more important than change. Apparatus is needed to aid in the explanation of principles and facts; good books, black-boards, maps, globes, cubeLlocks, et cætera, are the tools for our "artist," and he should not be required to work without them.

Again, parents should not indulge their children in irregular attendance, or withdraw them temporarily from the school, except in cases of absolute necessity. Such irreg ularity is disheartening to the teacher, and injurious both to the school and the individual scholar; it tends to destroy his interest in the school and his ability to retain an honorable standing in his classes. It is the manifest duty of every parent, therefore, to insist upon punctuality in attendance and promptness in the discharge of every school duty.

Once more, we may remark, parents should never publicly censure the teacher for supposed faults. Too often has he been tried, condemned and executed without a hearing. A rebel chastised in school, has told his griev ances to indulgent parents at home; they believe his exaggerated story, manifest their sympathy, and, without stopping to learn the facts in the case, pass judgment against the teacher. Now the offended parties proceed to excite prejudice, and create feeling in the school and district, in view of this fancied outrage, until half the neighborhood are in open rebellion against a faithful master, whose only fault is that he did not crush the offender while in his power. But such sympathy and opposition are all wrong; unjust to the teacher, injurious to the child and ruinous to the school. The teacher has a right, in all cases, to demand a fair trial before condemnation, and it is his duty to maintain supremacy over his school, at all haz ards and by whatever means necessary. If the pupil or

parent can rightfully interfere, the teacher's office is di vested of its power and the school of its utility.

Let parents consider well the toils and hardships of the true teacher, and learn to co-operate and sympathize with him; let them pay him a fair compensation for his valuable services, and render him all needed encouragement and aid; then may they hope to secure for themselves, their children and their country, the lasting benefits of a thorough Common School Education.

SCHOOL GYMNASTICS.

BY DIO LEWIS, M. D.

0.

The Bean-Bag Exercises are the best to begin with. For the average of pupils the bags should be, when finished, eight or nine inches square, sewed with double linen or silk thread, and three quarters filled with beans.

The beans should be rinsed until the water runs from them quite clean, and then dried before they are put into the bags. As often as once in two weeks the bags should be emptied and washed, and as often as once a month the beans should be rinsed.

The young ladies who continue to use the dirty bags which I see every where, soiling their clothes and hands and filling their lungs with fine dust, must have a strong instinct for exercise.

The bags ought not to be used more than a quarter of an hour each day, and never at all except under the eye of the teacher, and with thorough discipline.

When a military company shall prosper with dirty muskets and bad discipline, then a school may continue to feel a lively interest in these bag exercises, managed as they usually have been.

A trunk or box with a lock, in which these bags may be kept when not in use, is a good expedient. All this will cost but little money and time, and must be carefully

observed by all who would not see their pupils kick a mass of dirty bags into a dirty corner, to leave them there in disgust. Schools in which I have taught between one and two years, use the bags now with more than double the interest of the first month.

Fig. 1.

No. 1. Arrange your players in two classes, standing in the aisles between the desks, or otherwise. The classes should face each other and be about six feet apart. Each pupil plays with the one standing exactly opposite him, one bag to each couple. The teacher gives the word, one, two, three; and the bag is thrown backward and forward, ten, twenty, or fifty times, as the teacher may indicate. It should be thrown from the position represented in Fig. 1, and never tossed from the lap. As each couple finishes the number announced by the leader, the bag is

held up as high as may be, and the number cried in a loud voice.

No. 2. The same as No. 1, except the right hand only is used, the left one being held on the side as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

No. 3. Same as No. 2, except the left hand is used in throwing the bag, while the right hand is held on the side.

Fig. 3.