Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1890 — More About That Barkley School Trouble. [ARTICLE]

More About That Barkley School Trouble.

Fair Play Avkxuk, [ Bauklkv, Indiana. ) j Mu. Editor : In looking over the j columns of last week’s Rkpdblican i ; noticed a communication from “A ; Farmer” in which the said Farmer; complains of “a spirit of evil brewing i 1 hi our public schools,” but does not! ; mention either the cause or a cure j for the same. Of course a teacher. ! should keep order, but should lie try j to make underlings of pupils just be- i ‘ cause they have disturbed some other ; 1 teacher a year of two previous ? Who | ever heard of a quarrel and only one i si<le to it? : Mr. Nichols’ son, Alva, says he | did not do right in school, but when t hid father took him *from school he (Mv. Nichols) voluntarily gave him the extreme penalty of the law. Then i the teacher seeing he had lost some 1 | notoriety by not punishing the boy ! Alva, tried to induce his (the bov’s) mother to send him back to school die eleventh day after Alva was taken from school, and, although they, (the teacher and boy) had not been ! speaking, said he believed they would get along all right. It seems evident from this that the

teacher wished to get the boy where he, (the teacher) would have all the law on lus own side, but, as the boy w its still kept at home this object was defeated; then the teacher it seems, concluded to whip the boy the first ols wasn’t close.) Accordingly as Alva was returning home after dark, be was met by Mr. Hammond who told him, (Alva), that he, (Hammond), intended to whip him, then caught and threw him on the ground and was choking him, (Alva) when Mr. Nichols having heard his son’s wagon had walked down the road to see why he, (Alva) did not come on home. When Mr. Hammond heard Mr. Nichols speak he, (Hammond) took to his heels and went in search of a new “roosting-place,” leaving his plug hat on the fence, but it was gone the next morning. If a teacher cannot “curb” or restrain himself bow can he manage a school successfully? When a teacher hasn’t good morals how can lie or she teach morality? If teachers do not do right how can they expect their pupils to do right? And when teachers do wrong they certainly cannot expect good order in their schools. Any man that will waylay and overpower a bo}', (the one mentioned above being 16 years of age) should be considered a dangerous person and sent where they can be cared for accordingly. 1 have talked with all the parties herein mentioned, also to reliable witnesses and [know] whereof I speak. A Workingman.