Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1903 — SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES [ARTICLE]

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

After a trial in the Criminal Court, in which the law and the evidence were pretty thoroughly threshed out on both sides, a jury, after deliberating only a few minutes, acquitted Miss Kate Mason, principal of one of the Indianapolis schools, from the charge of assault and battery for whipping a boy pupil. Under the strong and clear charge of the court the jury could not have done anything else. The court’s charge was good law as well as good sense, and the verdict of the jury was right. The charge was all good, and part of it is worth repeating. The judge said: “Without the power and authority to compel by all reasonable means and methods order and obedience the millions of dollars spent in this country for the care and management of our schools—the great bulwark of our country—are as good as wasted. The law in cases like this not only presumes that the teacher is innocent as charged, but the law also presumes that in this punishment she lias done her duty in the enforcement of obedienfce and order in her school. * * • Do you think or believe that a fine wrongfully or erroneously assessed in this case will aid the teachers ,in this school in their attempt ~to enforce good order nnd obedience, or would it have a tendency to cause others to rebel and disobey and prosecute, when the teacher endeavored to compel obedience? The welfare and best interests of all school children in this country in the future, the good of the common schools, law nnd order, cnch and nil demand that you make no mistake in this case.”

The court emphasized the importance of sustaining teachers in fheir efforts to maintain discipline, and deprecated interference by parents to prevent a reasonable exercise of authority. It pointed out the fact that under the laws of the State “teachers have the same rights and authority to pnnisb children *inde£... their charge, in a reasonable manner for all misconduct,-that the parent of the child has, alad the law will not interfere unless the punishment inflicted is cruel and unreasonable.” —Indianapolis Journal. One of the most elaborate edutpUional systems in the country is that of the Young Men’s Christian Association, which embraces the following lines, jrf study: Association libraries, reading rooms, practical talks, educational lectures, study clubs and evening institutes. The system embraces class work of the public schools and the lecture and library work of technical schools. New York teachers’ college has bought four lots for $50,000. which are to be used as a garden, with green houres and flower beds, and it will lie au outdoor laboratory for nature study. '•