The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1865-11-02
Il NUMBER 3.
Educational Department.


LAH communications intended for this column
should te addressed to the Educational Editor
Of The AHeghdnian.
PRIMARY TEACnERS.-A mature mind
eager to obtain knowledge for its own sake,
or comprehending the necessity of obtain
ing it in order that certain ends may DC
reached, needs a teacher to direct, explain
ard open to view things hidden from the
eye OF the learners. An industrious stu
dent, 1t Is true, may master his text with
out assistance, but in 50 doing will often
rctrace his steps, weary his eye, and rack
his brain in seeking to unfold some hidden
point that few words from one who had
previously threaded The mystic mazes ot
the page would strip of all ambiguity.
doubt, or mystery. But while a teacher
is thus useful and necessary for the lear
Der whose mind is in its mature stages,
yet tho business of that teacher relates
more to the text than the pupil, more to
conveying an idea as words from the Inns
can and words on paper can not convey it,
than to waking up ideas perhaps for the
hrst tlmo or to presenting knowledge in
such way and shape as will be under
stood and enjoyed by the mind Just in the
first stages of development
A child will learn, and learn more and
with greater rapidity, than one of mature
years, though what it learns may be the
very knowledge of which it should be 10
norant. In youth we are all eyes and
ears. Thought begins to assert its right
20 reign after eyes have looked and ears
have listened until things have lost their
novelty. The eye must see or ear hear
before the mind has subject for meGita-
ton. Hence those who first take charge
OF youth are like the gardener who cares
Tor the sapIings of an orchard, upon whose
wisdom and skill in training depend the
future symmetry and goodness of the tree.
Yet IN common acceptation, almost any
body Is tit to teach a primary school. So
much indeed is the truth to the contrary.
that onl y comparatively few persons are
1T to teach such school. All the quail
fcations requisite for a teacher are needed
10 higher degree by one who has charge
OF children learning to read than by one
having a school of higher grade. A
teacher of such school has not only to
explain difficulties, remove doubts, and
open mysteries TO a greater extent than
with advanced pupils, but has in fact for
purposes of explanation to become, as it
were, child, to think as child in order
to speak as child
Yet what is our usual practice in rela-
ton to such teachers? Almost anYbcdy
is chosen. The pay is put down to the
lowest notch. a badge of disgrace is
placed on every one who has charge of
such school. These things ought not
to be. The very best teachers should be
obtained for the primary schools, teachers
of known skill aud success. Their Iabors
arc as severe as those of any ether, all
things considered, and their pay should be
the same. A teacher on entering such
school should be made to feel that as much
responsibility and honor are connected
with it as with school of higher grade.
BY the present practice, a successful
teacher avoids all primary schools, and
those who do have charge of them are apt
to be devoid ot all ambition, feeling as
they do that anybody is fit to teach pri-
mary school.