Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1868-11-26
NO AZ

1t is stereotyped inquiry of those
in search Of teachers: "Ias he good
government ?" 1t will mostly be found
that, those who govern Ill, are but me-
dunn teachers in other respects. l
know that in the management of rude
children you are .orely tried, and that
| sometimes it seems to almost exhaust
catalogue of virtues equal to "Jona-
thans love, the patience of Job, the
wisdom of Solomon and the prudence
Of Augustus" yet, in all cases, you will
gain much by using measures as gen
tie and reasonable as the case will pos
sibly admit, cultlvating the acquain-
tance Of parents and guardians, and
using all the generous arts in your pow
er to secure their assistance. When
all this is done,-acting on the princi-
pie, govern as little as possible, you
will not, # you gorrn yourselves, have
much difficulty. l cannot suggest any
thing better to you, on this point, than
yoa will find in the following quotation:
'It speaks we'll for the feeling which
prevailed in the Doctors school, that a
simple promise, on the part of the boys,
| should have been deemed sufficient
But 1t was one Of the Doctors pecu-
liarlties, to treat his boys with a conf
dence, which never seemed to admit
the possibility of their abusing it,
Nothing is a greater assistant in the
management Of your pupils than abun-
dance of interesting, cheerful work.
Contrive to keep them constantly en-
ployed with studies SO arranged as to
have the air of amusement about them.
| You have heard the anecdote of the
Yankee boy set to pick up stones in .
field, who contrived to get his work
done to his hand, by planning sport for
his playmates in throwing the stones
at mark which he had set up for that
purpose, in a corner where he wished
pile them. This anedote only re-
peats what has already been said, viz,
give the work the appearance of amuse-
ment. Let it be part of your busi-
ness, during the coming winter, to put
an end to the inquiry "has he good
government ?''-at least so far as you
are concerned. Ii, Unfortunately, you
are under the necessity of using the rod
to enforce obedience to your just com
mands, always manage to send after
one, but do not anticipate trouble by
keeping the means of punishment laid
up drying in the school-room. We
have not yet reached the time when
corporeal punlshments have entirely
departed but we have reached the time
when every teacher is not
s'Fierce wielder of the birch and rule
rely on your ordinarily good judg-
ment IN common affairs, and believe
that you will bring this with you into
the school room; that you will treat
your pupils with generous confidence;
that you will go before them, encour-
aging them to follow, and not go be
hind to drive. If you begin with this
determination, | am sure that do not
set my estimate too high, when l say
that we will make the coming, a more
successful winter for the schools of
Tama, than any of its predecessors.
l can not refrain from reminding you,
that you are required to use more in
.enuityin conducting our schools prop
erly and successfully, than would be
demanded, if we were better supplied
with school apparatus Il five had maps
g obes, charts, mathematical blocks,
writing cards and all the modern appl-
ances for elucidatiag school subjects
less demand would be made upon your
own ingenuity. Bnt In the absence Of
these, you must strive to supply the
place with something simple and cheap,
for you caano. help asre ing that a
child aequires a real knowledge of
things mainly through its own obser-
va,ion. BY your assistance, the boys
will whittle ont with their omnipotent
jack-knives, cube, square, reetangle, I
parallelogr.m, prism, triangle, cylinder, /
cone and pyramid, with their frustrum..
that will do infinitely more service in
explanation of many rules and defini-
tions in arithmetic, than a whole week
of hard study and endless talk. They
will do it and think it capital sport. If
you have no writing charts, keep the
letters Of the alphabet, both large and
small, standing on the blackboard; also
the figures and marks used in writing,
for the little pupils to copy. Ifyou
have occasion, in explaining the mean
ing of traetioa-one-half e. g.,-to tell
your class that when an apple is di-
vidcl into two equal parts one part is
called one-halt," have your apple At
hand, cut it before their eyes; explain
all the. parts of numbers in the same
way, Supply yourself with as many