It is of the very greatest importance for the child’s character, that there should be complete co-operation between home and school. Consider the difference between home and school discipline; I may say that the home government is personal—there is not strict system and unvarying law. A girl comes down late to breakfast; or she is in the drawing-room when she should be in the study. She chooses friends and books that the mother disapproves, and there is irritation: the mother expostulates, the child is provoked. In the school on the other hand there is inexorable law, the consequence of neglect must be borne, there is no scolding, no entreaty. It will be an advantage to the home to have a little more rule, and to the school to have children brought up with some of the freedom which must be theirs one day.

The child who sees the mother yield up her own power to law, bearing inconvenience, denying herself pleasure, and what is harder still, denying it to her child, will learn to respect duty, and impose laws on herself.

Besides this, there are ways by which fuller co-operation may be brought about. All professions find the advantage of meeting together to discuss their special problems. There is the Teachers’ Guild on the one hand, and a Parents’ Educational Union on the other. I have tried in vain to bring these together here. The guild is too professional for the parent; it does seem, however, as if the newly-established Child Study Society might unite both. A fair number have joined the child study evenings and given valuable help. In the Pedagogical Seminary for July, 1897, which is a mine of valuable suggestions for parents and teachers, there is an interesting account of the way in which the school and the home have worked together in solving educational problems.

The movement initiated by the able president of Clarke University, U.S.A., for founding a science of education upon systematised observation is a most important one; it will help to build up a true philosophy upon facts, and so save us from the aimless talk of mere theorisers who want to square circles, or to discover the philosopher’s stone.

A good library, accessible to parents and teachers, which should contain books and periodicals not written exclusively for the profession, would be a great help. A niche in the general school library might perhaps be reserved for parents.

I have found much advantage from throwing open such lectures as I give in our large hall to parents and Heads of Houses. Many come to a scripture lesson given to Division I. collectively, and to literature lessons; some have joined our Plato or Browning readings, and occasionally have been present at lectures given in the training department. It is quite usual for mothers to accompany their daughters to the “Cours” in Paris. Of course parents could not attend schools ad libitum, but it need not be quite a terra incognita.

The head mistress in many schools sets apart certain hours for seeing parents; could it not be arranged that each class teacher should have some free time for seeing parents of her pupils, especially at the beginning of a new year? There is much to be said against evening visiting, and ordinary social meetings would be useless for the purpose of discussing difficulties. It is a great matter to substitute candid discussion for fault-finding to third parties; we shall not always agree, but we shall learn to respect one another’s opinions, to understand one another’s difficulties, and to work more effectually with one another in the difficult, sacred task committed to us. So far from finding parents generally anxious to interfere, I have difficulty in persuading them that I earnestly desire they should tell me of anything that needs attention.

The essential thing is that there should be co-operation and a sort of concordat between the school and the home. Certain rules agreed on:—

1. There must be a room for study and certain hours fixed for home work, which must not be altered without grave reason.

2. Late parties, bazaars, theatricals, etc., etc., must generally be allowed only in the vacation.