Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-09-08
= Of t1IG N'QCCtUIOI.
Teachers and Teaching-No. l.

TOF the spectator.
Teachers and Teaching No. l.
Mr.. EDITOR There is an association Of
gentlemen who have for their object the best
interests Of Education in our State. 1t is their
aim to elevate the teaching of youth in every
department., to the dignity of profession. -
Should they be successful, then none will be
encouraged to teach except those professionally
prepared, and have thereby chosen teaching as
the business of life Should they succeed
their efforts must be seconded by the public,
and it is needful that pubic sentiment be ap-
pealed to, through the press. I desire to bear
some humble part IN securing the hearty CO.
operation OF the community at large, in this
object, and will esteem it high privilege to be
allowed the use OF your columns for this pur-
pose. The educational training of youth re-
quires the skill and experience of one profess
sionally prepared. because there is but one time
to be educated. In education child has but
one opportunity for mental training, for he can
be child but once. consequently success is
everything to him. and a mistake may be most
Injurious, 1t not .ruinous to him for time as
we'll as eternity, The public acts very wisely
when they do not regard with favor a person
who proposes to discourse upon our moral and
religious duties, unless he be qualified by wears
of special preparation. Neither is the public
willing, and wisely SO, to receive medicinal rem
edes, from any one, unless he has Testimonials
to show that he is specially prepared by care
ful examination Of the body in health and in
disease, and has practical knowledge of the
effects produced upon the system by. medicinal
agents, # We are incorrectly taught in regard
to our moral and religious duties, our souls are
imperilcd, and in sickness if mistakes are made,
our lives are endangered, hence the require
ment of accurate professional preparation.
Education in the best sense of the word, en-
braces variety of very important particulars
any one Of which is essential to the we'll being
of the child, 1t is part of education to train
the body in its most tender years, according to
the laws of health, so that it should be strong
knowledge, to educate it to comprehend all the
relations OF society, to bring out all its powers
into full and harmonious action; to educate
the moral nature in which tho very sentiment
of duty resides, that it may be fitted for an
honorable and worthy fulflment of the public
and private Offices Of life Now is it reason
able to suppose that to do all this-and what
intelligent parent is willing to be satisfied with
less-that it will require no study-no special
professional preparation? Notwithstanding the
public generally have been wisely upon their
guard in.regard to morals, medicine and law,
yet we fear there has been rather much indif
ference with reference to education, whereby
the interests Of education have been liable to
couraged by this indifference, have entered the
Teachers profession without much idea of the
responsibilities assumed or of the end to be Sc
cured by their labors-s separate and apart from
their receiving at the end of the session their
pay in dollars and cents. A recent writer,
though writing in sarcastic vein, yet comes
very near speaking the words of truth and So
berness, when he says-.'Every stripping who
has passed four years within the walls of Col
lege !; every dissatisfied clerk, who has not abil-
ity enough to manage the trihing concerns of
common retail shop; every young farmer who
obtains in the Winter short vacation fronlthe
tolls of Summer-in brief every young person
who is conscious of his imbecility in other bus
iness, esteems himself fully competent to train
the ignorance and weakness of infancy into all
the virtue and power and wisdom of maturer
years-to form creature, the frailest and
ioeblest that Heaven has made, into the intel
Ggent and fearless sovereign of the whole ami
mated creation, the interpreter and adorer, and
almost the repl esentative of Divinity"
With an Indifferent public sentiment and
Teachers unprofessionally prepared, vague and
inadequate ideas as to what constitutes an edu-
cation must prevail greatly to the injury Of the
youth. Too frequently educating child, has
been considered simply the process, of carry
ing it through a certain number of studies
more or less. Hence, in large number of the
primary Schools in which the masses of the
people are personally interested, the physical
and moral have been sacrificed to the intellcc
tual
Many of, our Editors and public enlarge upon
the necessity of Intelligence to restore and per-
petuate our free institutions, scarcely seeming
to be aware that intelligence without moral
principle to direct and regulate it, was the most
potent engine through which evil men have
well nigh accomplished our overthrow Is it a
blessing that B. B. Butler, Charles Sumner,
and Thaddeus Stevens were persons OF high
intellectual ,training?es Any person of discern
ment can perceive that an educated man with
out virtue is but the more capable OF doing
evil, and knowledge misdirected becomes a bane
to be deprecated instead of desirable good.
/, It does seem TO noe, that our people, out OF
due regard to their own personal good, should
see to it, that the Teachers they encourage by
their patronage. should be persons full of their
work, and deeply impressed with sense of its
overwhelming responsibilities. Persons who
consoientiously feel that any mistakes made on
their part though they may not speedily ruin
their pupils, yet may permanently lnjure them.
Ignorance Of duty is no excuse for Teachers,
but is sin, because they have assumed to fill
place where ignorance itself is sin of atrocious
guilt, for the assumption Of the place implies
a pretension to the requisite skill Blessed re-
suits would follow were Parents and Guardians
impressed with the Importance of securing the
services of those who come to the work OF
Teachers, only when they have carefully pom
dered its nature and its responsibilities, and af
ter they have devoted their best powers to a
thorough preparation of themselves tor it's sol
emn duties. In our next we may dwell more
fully upon the spirit and qualifications of true
Teacher. la4g 55..t ia Sig aresT = .9I4lL
"Oh let not then unskillful hands attempt
To play the harp whose tones whose living
-i tones - @i-'- -iHA - e. .s- Il.
Are left forever in the things. Better far
That heavens ightnings blast his very soul,
And sink it back to chaos lowest depths,
Than knowingly, by word or deed, he send
A blight upon the trusting mind of youth
% .J1.N-..1- III L-i2l w. T. P,
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