American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-08-16
educational department
Some Words to Female Teachers.
NUMBER III.

right, | hope they will acknowledge it.
But may be wrong. will attempt an
other solution, one on more general and
comprehensive principles, applicable alike
to all, male or female, who may fail be-
fore teaching,to make any reasonable pre-
paration, or while teaching, to exert them
selves credibly to fit themselves better
Ia it found in lack of appreciation of
the magnitude and responsibility of the
work
Vague and indefinite ideas are preva-
lent in regard to teaching. The Iighe st
ideal of a teacher in the minds of many
persons is one who goes to school regular
y at nine in the morning, hears scholars
say their lessons, fourishes the rattan with
some degree of dexterity, does a certain
amount Of scolding, dismsses at four in
the evening and thinks nothing more of
school or anything connected with it till
next morning. Few teachers indeed have
anything like just conception of the
immense power they are welding, either
for good or for evil.
The present generation will soon pass
away and the rising youth of our land
will fill the vacuum-will step into their
positions and will act nobly or ignobly
their part in the great theatre of the
world, according as they have taught, and
the influence brought to bear upon them
now. The spirit of the teacher wheth-
er noble, broad, magnanimous or other
wise, will be infused into the children,
and will continue to live with them when
the body of the teacher lies mouder-
ing in the clay" Not only so, but from
them it will be difGused through the veins
of society, scattering health or disease on
every side. The spirit of the thousands
of teachers, who, in former times, guided
the nations youth are present to-day
debating or suggesting to, or guiding the
minds of men and women in private or
public capacity The stream of influence
flowing from the vast body of teachers
this day will move on through succeed
ing generations, and where it will stop,
or the amount Of good or evil resulting
from it can never be fully known in this
world. Enough is known, however, to
make thoughtful mind hesitate before
entering the school room, not only to ask
the questin-am | qualified to teach ?
but the equally important question
what spirit am | Of? The eminently
passive relation of children in the school
room and the readiness with which they
receive impressions from the teacher
makes his position one of immense res
possibility Where arc the teachers that
fully realize it?
With the desire of improssing the
minds of persons,who contemplate teach
ing, as we'll as those engaged in it, with
some sense of this responsibility and the
consequent obligations they are under to
qualify themselves for teaching, | write.
While this is applicable to all without
regard to sex, intended it more express
ly, for female teachers, for the reason that
from the large accession to the ranks of
the teacher from their sex, the education
al Interests are, to a great extent, entrus-
ted to their hands. And for the further
reasons, that since their inducements to
engage in teaching are greater than those
Of males, there may be more danger of
incompetent female teachers pressing
their way into the school reom than. in.
competent male teachers.
If teaching becomes a profession with
in the next quarter of a century, in my
opinion. it will become so through the
agency of female teachers There is
work enough now for all the female teach
| Sio III 0hO NouhI1 VI pldtG Ulu8 OF
ten months in the year, if they we're we'll
qualifed-ftted for the work as they
ought to be. And what is to hinder
them
A female as well as male can, if she
will, have good education-as good as
she may desire, or as may be necessary
for any school. Both the State and the
county offer inducements through Nor
NAL Institutes, which no teacherdefcient
in normal culture or general knowledge
of branches to DC taught, ought to dis
regard. District Institutes afford another
and ever present opportunity for improve
ment. There seems to be a kind of SEN
timentality prevalent among some people,
which makes it improper for lady to
turn cut to an Institute, on a wet day,
or to travel several miles through the mud
to reach one. Such must be "weak in
the faith" or they would see in such acts
an exhibition of fidelity to the cause
| which has been Cspoused. HIGHLY eon.