Visiting the School by Anna Johnson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 4, 1909

Visiting the School

By Anna Johnson

A Talk to Parents

Much has been said in regard to the teacher’s duty of visiting the parents and children at their homes, and becoming acquainted with the home life and environments of the child; but I have been thinking about another duty—that of the parents’ visiting the school, and learning of the child’s life there.

Did you ever stop to think how much time each day your child is actually out of your sight? But you say, “I send my child to church-school, and I know we have a good teacher. I never fear about my child while he is in school.” That is all very well; but your duty does not cease there.

One parent (a member of the school board) said to me, when I asked him to visit the school, “O, I shall never have time for that. I have all confidence in you as a teacher.” Yes, that is true enough; but, parents, how are you going to sympathize and co-operate with your teacher if you never see what he is doing in the schoolroom? You may have an idea of it, from the reports your children bring you, and from what you learn by meeting the teacher at church on the Sabbath; but that is not enough.

I have urged this matter upon the patrons of my school, until I have succeeded in getting most of them sufficiently interested to visit the school half a day at a time. It just inspires me to have them come, and I only wish they could stay the whole day. It encourages the children also.

Perhaps you wonder why Mary’s standing in reading is not so high as you think it ought to be, and why Johnny’s department is not so good, when you tell him each morning to “be a good boy, and mind the teacher.”

Let me tell you what to do. Go to school with Mary and Johnny some day, and you will be there in time to see how orderly they take their seats when school calls, and how they get their books out and go to work. Then apply good thought and judgment; study the methods the teacher uses in teaching different pupils, and in presenting different subjects; and I am sure, when your visit is over, you will declare, “Well, I never knew that school is so different now from what it was when I went to school.” You have really been in school and learned some things yourself, and are glad you took the time that day to visit the school.

Therefore, parents, visit the school, and you will better appreciate the privilege you have of obtaining a Christian education for your children.

ANNA JOHNSON.