I teach, never a question as to how I teach it. Some parents are not sure what grades their children are in. Every little while we hear that Bolshevism is being spread through the schools. It is no fault of the average parents if it isn't. The guilt is not all with the instructors when the fathers and mothers fail to take the slightest responsibility in the matter.

Still, I must not accuse parents of lack of interest when they are like Patricia Elizabeth's. In the beginning the whole family came to see me, and brought the little girl, daintily dressed in a manner suitable for an afternoon tea. I wondered if they expected me to provide it. Later I discovered that this was her usual attire. They explained to me that she was an unusual child. She was; that was evident at the first glance. Of course she had been carefully nurtured, spoke beautiful English, and, they hinted delicately, would certainly adorn my school. Moreover, she had a gift-later she would go on the stage. Meanwhile Patricia Elizabeth sat gracefully in her chair, and smiled appreciatively at the conversation. Why shouldn't she?

She was a direct descendant, I found, of John Alden, or was it Myles Standish? How careless of me to have forgotten when they impressed it upon me several times, always tactfully, of course! It is strange how many children are directly descended from the Pilgrim Fathers. Allowing for a considerable increase in the species, it seems to me I have met, here in my home city, nearly all the possible posterity of the passengers of the Mayflower. How strange that they all should have settled here!

Patricia Elizabeth's parents wished to be sure that her associates would be quite all that could be desired. I explained meekly that my pupils were just normal boys and girls, who, I hoped, would make good citizens when they grew up, and hinted that I feared that the ancestors of most of them did not come over in the Mayflower. I cannot yet see why her parents entrusted this paragon to me, but the fact remains that they did. More surprising still, Patricia Elizabeth, in spite of her descent, proved, when away from her ancestry, to be a fairly pleasant little girl, although never a brilliant one.

I wonder, though, what her family would have thought, had they happened in while she was reciting in the class with Abraham Stoleski, and being gloriously beaten by the enterprising little Hebrew. Doubtless they would have invoked the shade of John Alden, if it wasn't Myles Standish, to come and take her away from such contamination.

But their interest ceased at the really critical moment when they entrusted her to me, whom they did not know at all, and I am still high in their esteem. Perhaps they believe that I am overawed by their daughter's ancestry.

Now I should like to discuss my pet theories with these parents, but they are not interested. If I make the least motion in that direction, they blandly turn me aside by telling me how much Johnny or Elizabeth has learned from me. It does not seem to make any difference whether what these children have learned will do them any particular good or not. The fact remains that they have acquired knowledge of some sort. Sometimes, when I am trying to discover the best way for making Johnnie interested in his history lesson, his parents helpfully suggest that he drop the subject altogether. He doesn't like it, and, of course, children can't be expected to do satisfactorily what they do not like. Can I not suggest something else that he could take? Now when Johnnie dislikes history as I teach it, there is a strong possibility that a part of the trouble may be with me. If so, both the small boy and I would be far better off if his mother or father would dicuss the matter with me frankly, telling me what Johnnie says about the lesson at home, even if his remarks are not over flattering, and giving me any suggestions which may occur to them. A chance word may set me thinking in the right direction. Instead of that, they wish the child to drop his history forthwith. Only the other day a parent suggested that Susie drop her English because she didn't like to read; and yet, a little later, that mother will doubtless wish her daughter to take up Latin or French. Meanwhile we teachers are supposed to be training American citizensto-be! How shall I do it without English?

I do not mean to imply that the fault is all with the parents.

There never was a situation yet where one side was entirely to blame. A teacher, I believe, becomes so used to dominating in the classroom, that she persists in doing it at all times, and sometimes, she does not take kindly to suggestions. Often she is so self-sufficient that parents, harassed with other cares, are only too glad to leave Johnny and his troubles to her. And it takes considerable friction between the child and his teacher to cause his relatives to interfere. Sometimes I am tempted to see how far I can go before I start trouble.

When I first put my modest inch advertisement into the local newspaper, and fitted up my schoolroom, I honestly believed that I knew how to teach, but now I am by no means so sure. Perhaps it is because I have made so many glaring mistakes since. I feel now that, perhaps, at the end of a long life, if it is given to me, I may begin to comprehend a few of the difficulties which beset my path, and have a dim idea of how to meet them successfully.

Teachers discuss their troubles with each other, and read learned discourses on education written by instructors, and this is valuable in its way, but it is viewing the subject from but one angle. I want to get the father and mother interested in my side of the problem, just as I wish to be concerned in theirs; I want them to give me good reasons why their children should drop studies or take up new ones, and I want them to listen to my reasons why the youngsters should put their time on certain work. They ought to criticize me intelligently, not take me on faith. I believe that every child should study history, not only that he may know of the great epochs of the past, but that he may see how movements recur, with modifications, again and again, and bear upon the questions of the present day. I intend to go into the problems that the nation has to meet now,-in as far as I understand them,-with the child, to the extent that he can grasp them, and I need the parents' view point on these questions. I believe that children should not study algebra, if they do at all, before they can solve questions in simple interest and fractions. Yet fond parents often demand that Willie take algebra because Johnnie Smith is doing it, thereby showing that they have not studied the situation at all.

We talk about an all-round education, and there is a good deal to be said for it; yet it seems to me that, too often, we give an allaround one instead: a little French, a little algebra, singing, drawing, and what not. Meanwhile, the best books, and even the second best, are entirely beyond the pupils because they do not know the meanings of the commonest words. If I can, I want to teach my pupils to enjoy good literature, and I need the parents' help in keeping good books within reach of the children, and bad ones out of it.

I used to flatter myself that a private school teacher, because she had smaller classes, could become better acquainted with the parents, and exert a more direct influence on the pupil than the public school teacher could do, but I am not doing it to as great an extent as I should. I invite parents to call, and they do occasionally, when I give them to understand that Johnnie or Willie is doing so badly that something must be done about it. Nearly always they assure me that they do not blame me, and treat me as if they marvelled that one small head could carry all I knew. (What they say of me elsewhere I do not know.) The worst of it is, that my head is astonishingly empty at times. They could, perhaps, fill it with something worth thinking about. If I did not agree with them, so much the better; I should get more mental exercise. Many parents seem to believe that teachers are turned out like shingles, for instance, complete and unchangeable; that they are good or bad according to the material of which they are made, and the firm which produces them. It does not seem to occur to mothers and fathers that an instructor can change, growing better or worse, according to her environment. It is fatal to a teacher's improvement to vaguely praise or blame her.

"Johnnie doesn't like Miss B. But next year he'll have Miss C. all right."

I'm sure I don't know why. Everybody likes her, so he'll be

This is no help. If Johnnie's mother would only visit school, she might find out why her son doesn't like Miss B., and why everybody does like Miss C. If the fault is Miss B's, a little tact

ful criticism is sometimes a great help, and if it is Johnnie's, cooperation between parents and teacher may do wonders.

Sometimes we hear it said, "What can you expect among so many ignorant foreigners. They can't even understand what you say to them. They don't take any interest."

I beg your pardon, they do. I wish I never had anything worse to deal with than foreign parents. Perhaps they cannot talk with you, but often they will come to see you, and bring someone as an interpreter. They may not have very clear ideas in regard to education, but a large part of them, at least, try to keep their children in school regularly, and watch what they are doing. Sometimes, too, they will ask questions that are straight to the point.

"Why my boy he take algeebr'? It no helpa him in beezness?" "Why my girl spend so much time sing? I want her learn how sew."

It is the well-educated parents who should put their shoulders to the wheel, study conditions, and co-operate with the teachers. A few do their duty nobly, but most of them feel that their work is done when they have voted for the school board-an abomination unto the Lord, if ever there was one-or when they have dropped their unprotesting offspring into the nearest private school. The educated, well-to-do parent is the hardest kind to deal with. If he would stop thanking the Lord that he and his are not like other men are, and remember that all children, his included, start in life untrained and susceptible to all kinds of influences, we should get somewhere.

If fathers and mothers did investigate and follow up school conditions, it is safe to say that many teachers, both public and private, would be seeking more congenial occupations, and the rest would be doing more effective work and receiving adequate compensation for it.

Parents, stop as you pass the school, look, and listen!