Resident Editors' Department.

TEACHING CHILDREN TO LIE.

CHILDREN are often taught to lie. Very many of them readily accept such teaching. They are apt pupils. Fathers and mothers and teachers teach them to deceive, to be false, to lie. Children take to lying almost as readily as a duck to a green puddle. Moral and religious training alone can make them truthful. Without this training they are certain to grow up into habits of untruthfulness. Liars of every grade, from the gentle equivocator to the deliberate, malicious falsifier are found in almost every school. They need to be watched, taught, reformed. By many good and wise teachers, truthfulness in all its purity and nobleness is faithfully inculcated, and conscientiously exemplified. By many, less good and wise, falsehood is taught by precept and example. This bad teaching is given in various ways.

1. Children are taught to lie by a teacher who gives them false reasons for his acts. He has an object to accomplish, which he would conceal from his pupils; he therefore presents an untrue reason, or unreal motive, instead of the true or real one. For example. At the public examination of a certain school the teacher of one class said in a low tone to the poor scholar at the foot, "You need n't recite to-day. We shan't have time to hear you." The boy instantly replied, "Is that the true reason, sir ?” The teacher had lied to the boy, and the boy knew it. What effect that

one lesson may have had, time will tell. Children are quick to detect departures from truth on the part of the teacher. They are equally quick to say, "If our teacher does such things, it is right for us to do them." If a teacher is detected in a single instance of falsehood, his moral power over his pupils is weakened-perhaps destroyed.

2. Children are taught to lie, when they are trained to seem to know more than they do know. This is a too common mode of giving this kind of instruction. Public examinations of schools, if real examinations, are highly useful; but if, as is frequently the case, they are shams and humbugs, they are exceedingly pernicious.

When, preparatory to an examination, one part of a book is assigned to one scholar and another part to another, and afterwards they are made glibly to recite their several parts in such a manner as to say in substance to the public, "This is a fair specimen of our knowledge of the whole book,"

the examination is a downright lie. The children have learned a dreadful lesson.

We once heard at an examination a brilliant exercise in mental arithmetic. We afterwards said to a girl who had distinguished herself in the exercise, "Did you know that you were to recite the particular examples which you performed?" "I did," was the answer. The class had been deliberately taught to deceive the public.

One of our former teachers, wishing a class in spelling to appear well, drilled the class upon six words on each page of the spelling-book. At the close of the term we seemed to the assembled audience to know every word in the book. The teacher and the pupils knew how great a falsehood had been told.

Many a brilliant examination, that has elicited admiration and applause, has been nothing but a deliberate sham an outrageous swindle. In a moral point of view, the man who thus deceives the public is as blameworthy as the man who obtains money from his neighbor by false pretences aye, even more so; for the man who swindles for the sake of money injures but one person, perhaps, pecuniarily, and no one but himself, morally; whereas the teacher who strives to gain applause dishonestly, does so at the cost of the moral character of every one of his pupils. 26 If it is fair

to cheat in school, it is fair to cheat elsewhere!" So say quick-judging boys and girls.

3. Children are taught practical lying by a teacher who pretends to be doing what he is not doing. For the sake of detecting scholars in wrong acts, the teacher sometimes makes a pretence of being profoundly inattentive to what is going on in the school-room, while every child possessing a particle of brains knows that the teacher is eagerly watching for any violation of rules.

We remember a teacher who used to spend a large part of his time in seemingly profound study. With his book before him and his eyes shaded by his hands, he said by his actions "Boys, I am studying. I shall not see you, if you do play." But the boys soon learned that when the master thus told them he was not looking, he was looking very sharply between his fingers. They soon learned to say, "That is a game we can play as well as you;" and they played it. The lesson in acting falsehoods was quickly learned.

4. The making of promises that are not fulfilled, and the uttering of threats that are not executed, tend to make children think lightly of untruthfulness. The sacredness of one's word cannot be too carefully guarded.

These are but a few of the ways in which children in school are taught to speak and act falsehoods. Believing that teachers have much to do with

the moral character of their pupils, exerting an influence upon them which can never cease, we hold it to be the duty of every teacher to be open, aboveboard, true, in all his dealings with his young charge, and to utterly abhor all shams and false pretences. If a man cannot sustain himself in school without lying and swindling, thus teaching his pupils to lie and swindle, let him abandon school-keeping, or die, or do something else equally useful to the public.

INCIDENT.

To the Editor of the Massachusetts Teacher:

DEAR SIR,- A little incident occurred in a town not very remote from Boston, of so pleasing a character, that as it may be a precedent for others to be guided by, I give it you.

A young teacher of but little practical experience, noticed from a window in her school-room a couple of pugilistic characters in the yard, pulling each other's hair, scratching each other's faces, and tearing each other's clothes, pugnis et calcibus. She immediately rushed out, seized the fighters, and at arm's-length bore them into the school-room, where, placing them on the platform, before the whole school, she not only obliged them to shake hands, but kiss each other. The affair was so ludicrous that the pugilists became reconciled and smiled serenely. Can you, Mr. Editor, state a better corrective ?

Respectfully,

A SUBSCRIBER.

[If young Heenan and Sayers who figure in the communication above, had become reconciled, so as actually to feel kindly towards each other, the shaking of hands and the kissing were very proper, and the scene described was a pleasant one. But if, while shaking hands, the juvenile pugilists felt like shaking fists; and if, while impressing smacks on the lips, they were moved to inflict whacks over the head, then we should say that the mode of discipline adopted was unwise.

The scene presented when the young lady "rushed out, seized the fighters, and at arm's-length bore them into the school-room," must have brought smiles to the faces of beholders. As we now imagine the scene, we confess to a slight contraction of the facial muscles, and gently raise a doubt in regard to the perfect propriety of the teacher's vi et armis mode of proceeding.

1o be candid, we hardly think the course pursued a safe "precedent for others to be guided by." In case the boys had been disposed forcibly to

resist the teacher's muscular discipline, or had, on her rapid approach, made a more rapid retreat, she would have exposed herself to the ridicule of the boys and her school. We once saw a female teacher rush from the schoolhouse in order to put a truant boy into the school-house. The boy fled. The teacher pursued him at double-quick through a potato field, around a pigpen, up a steep hill, until the boy by sudden changes of base and skilful flank movements gained a decided triumph. The lady returned to the capital of her realm with her hair dishevelled, and garments rent. Her losses were heavy, including her combs, her shoes, and her temper. The grand result of her brief but energetic campaign was this: the boy was not put in, but the teacher was exceedingly "put out."

What we should deem a "better corrective" in the case mentioned by our correspondent would depend upon the general character of the boys concerned. If this were their first engagement of the kind on the school premises, we should have called them in, and after their anger had cooled, should have kindly talked over the matter with them, presenting such motives and advice as the circumstances needed. If afterwards they were disposed to join hands in reconciliation, very well. But we should not have "obliged" them make demonstrations of good feelings which were not entertained.

If the boys had previously been guilty of fighting, we should, in addition to acting on their consciences to the best of our ability, have deprived them of privileges allowed to other scholars, and if they still had repeated their misconduct we should have inflicted thorough physical punishment, or if we had not strength to do that, we should have discharged the young reprobates from school and have referred the case to the school-committee.

But moral influences may be safely relied upon to correct and prevent quarrelsomeness among children. We have rarely known such influences, patiently and discreetly used, to fail.-RES. ED.]

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A NEW VIEW OF THE PRESENT WAR. "O dear!" exclaimed the other day a bright girl, who had just entered the High-School and had to commit two pages of ancient history a day, "I pity the generations of scholars who are to come after me." Why? asked we. "Because they will have to remember so many more names of officers and places, dates of battles and numbers of killed, wounded, and missing."

DOCTOR DIET, Doctor Activity, and Dr. Merryman cure more diseases than all the rest of the Faculty.

RETURN OF AN ARCTIC EXPLORER.

THE barque George Henry, Capt. Buddington, arrived at New London, Conn., early on the morning of the 13th inst., having on board Mr. C. F. Hall, the Arctic explorer, whose history of his expedition is very interesting. We find the following statement in the correspondence of the New York Herald:

"He arrived in the Arctic regions late in 1860, and, as the seas were so free from ice, he was very anxious to immediately proceed with his mission; but, notwithstanding the bright aspect of affairs, he wisely took the counsel of the Esquimaux, who would not consent to make up a boat party for the purpose of prosecuting the work.

"The intervening time was occupied in learning the Innuit or Esquimaux language from the natives, who, by their contact with the whalemen, he was enabled soon to understand and be understood. In the matters of clothing and food Mr. Hall adopted the Innuit style, and was dressed in skins and fed upon raw meats, with a due share of blubber.

"During the long and weary winter months Mr. Hall was not idle, for with his boat he settled the fact that Frobisher's Strait was only a deep indentation or bay. On the 21st of August, 1861, he stood on the high land at the northern shore, and saw the whole sweep of land around the bay. On the 27th of September, 1861, the frail boat upon which he so much depended, was totally lost. Fortunately at the time two English whalers were in a bay - latitude 62 degrees 52 minutes, longitude 65 degrees 5 minutes west-and Captain Parker, who commanded one of them, promised Mr. Hall a boat, which he was to leave at a designated place for his use. By some means the Englishman did not leave the boat, and Mr. Hall says he thinks the ships were blown out of the bay; and yet he is anxious to hear the true history of the case. The cause of humanity demands an explanation also.

"Mr. Hall returned to the George Henry, and learned that the schooner Rescue, or 'Amaret,' a tender to the barque, had been lost in the gale of the 27th September. In reference to Frobisher's discoveries, it appears that the ancient navigator and explorer entered this bay, and, finding that his progress was impeded by fixed ice, supposed that it must be an open strait frozen over, and the British government has never since pushed its further exploration. The lay of the land is very different from the lines laid down upon the charts now in use. This fact is and has been known by the whalemen who frequent its locality; but they supposed it to be a strait. But no official change has been made by any government.

"Mr. Hall has a very large and carefully prepared chart of this bay, and will in due time publish it to the world; but at the present time he deems it proper to withhold its features.

"In 1861 his explorations were renewed with energy. He had become acclimated, and was fully alive to the amount of work which was before him. A whaleboat was now procured from the George Henry, and with a crew of six Innuits, male and female, he started on his northern journey. The natives take their families with them when on these expeditions, and the women pull an oar with the men. Dogs are also of the company, and several native boats are taken for the purpose of hunting and fishing with. Thus provided with personnel and materiel