Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1861-11-27
30(QaATQ9l4Aa
Edited by A. sxIrH, County superintendent
For the Educational Column.
Very Practical Suggestions to Teachers.


Very Practical Suggestions to Teachers.
l. Haze good order-It is impossible
to have really good school without good or
der. 1t is mistake to suppose that the
sole object of school is to give children
knowledge of Arithmetic, Grammar and
so on; it is equally important that scholars
should form correct habits of conduct, and
such habits are acquired only in a well-or-
dered school. Instant, unquestioning,
cheerful obedience; diligent, thorough, in
teliigent study; thoughtful, sympathetic
regard for one another's happiness; strict,
conscientious loyalty to truth; all these
habits teachers should seek to form in
scholars, and the first requisite of success
is good order, such order as arises from a
clear understanding Of what good order
consists in and of the incalculable benefits
to be secured by it.
This requires the suppression or strict
regulation Of whispering-that plague of
schOols-thc careful classification of schol-
ars, the systematic arrangement of all
school exercises, the furnishing of some
kind of employment to every scholar All
these challenge the attention of teachers
conscientiously ambitious of success.
:. One thing at a time. Very few per
sons possess such comprehensive minds
that they can direct or perform more excr
cises than one at the same time Those
mea who have accomplished the mcst for
science and literature, or in business, have
concentrated all their energies upon single
objects in succession, and have thus wrought
their seeming miracles Teachers should
not only have a time for everything, but
should keep that time uninterrupted
While hearing a recitation of any kind,
they should permit no questions or disturb
ing movements from scholars unconnected
with the recitation Their undivided at
tention should be given to the exercise, to
render it as useful and interesting as it can
be made. This is necessary both for the
best result of the recitation, and for that
order which is essential to all success
This, also, is point that claims the notice
Of teachers, as it is direct criticism upon
the practice of not few.
B. Be rigid!y thorough. Teachers are
powerfully tempted to neglect many com-
paratively unimportant points, through dis
like of the labor which they involve and a
feeling that, after all, sighting is not
very bad. But it should be constantly re-
membered that only by thorough, careful,
persistent drilling can the foundation of
good scholarship, of excellent intellectual
discipline, be we'll laid 1t is not the accu-
mutation of facts, but the clear compre-
hension of principles, that teachers should
labor to secure for their pupils. 1t is not
fueney or verbal accuracy in recitation,
but firm grasp of the essential ideas, that
scholars should be taught to seek.
| doubt if one third of advanced pupils
in Arithmetic can write readily and cor
rectly all kinds of numbers. integral and
decimal if they can give satisfactory ex-
plaaatiOn of the common arithmetical signs,
and can solve and analyze examples in Re-
duction, Fractions and Percentage ia
precise, business-like manner. The same
may be said of Reading; few scholars can
explain and illustrate the significance of
all the marks that occur in reading books
or in newspapers; few can readily define,
and exemplity the meaning of infections,
emphasis and enunciation.
To put it in one word, teachers cannot
be too thorough.
4 Be ezpeditious. Not few teachers
seem to labor under the delusioR that slow
ness ia synonymous gith accuracy, and dis
patch is the same as super6ciality. Itmay
not be invariably true that dull school is
a poor school, and lively school is good
school, but it is SO nearly true that every
teacher should studiously seek to have
lively, that is, an active, prompt, outspoken
school. liz most country schools there are
SO many exercises that teachers need to
employ all dispatch, but never forgetting
to be critically Thorough. Work to good