Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1872-08-06
EDUCATI0N--NO. 2.
TEACHERS.

Ii, as intimated in the former num-
Der the Geography of a country photo
graphs itself upon the unfolding mind,
the models of thought, forms of truth
and type of character, with which il
lives i'll daily contact, assume a Won
| derful Importance in determining
character. Like 6cgets its like, is law
| from which there is no escape. 1t is
this that dignifies the position of the
Teacher and at the same time invests
it with fearful responsibility Amid
ali the objects and infiuenees,tilat come
i'll daily, daguerreotyping themselves
upon s0la-ptdtcS, the Teachers posi-
ton is focal. Whether asleep or
awake, whether with eye flashing
thought, voice ringing the battle cry
and the finger pointing farup the hilh
OF the personificati9n of mental imbe-
cility he is incorporated i'm the grand
formation. II on metallic plates the
picture be spoiled, it NAV be erased
and the surface prepared for Il new i'm
preston, but these sOul-platcs admit
of no such process. Let parents look
well to the character of those to whom
they intrust their children. If Shoe
makers spoil our calf-skins, or TailOrs
our cassimers we are ruined and ire
concilably outraged and yet we some
times commit the education of our
children to worse than bunglers, and
bride ourselves with cheap tuition not
to complain. Teachers are as rare as
poets. Scholarship, in which many
are sadly deficient, though indispensa-
bic, is far from being all that is requi-
site in q teacher. If this were all,
then bfg Encyclopaedia might teach
as well. When a magnet is brought
near piece of iron, the iron without
being III immediate contact with the
magnet, itself becomes a magnet. In
this case there is no transfer of mag
netism. The magErt by its own in
herent power walked up and rendered
actually potential, what was dormant
in the iron. A teacher ought to be
able to do as much or else be driven
from the school room. Simple COM
municatiOn of scholarship degrades
the Teacher to cold Lexicon, and
boys head to a goods box. A man
who has become scholar by absorp-
ton is unfit to teach. \ cow, by her
digestive organs can take clover and
make out of it hair, hOof and beef dis
tinctively her Own-distinctive from
the hair, hOOf and beef of every other
COW. A horse out of the same mate
rial can do as much for himself. The
mind has power above this rs far as
a man is above cOw-2s the mind is
above the king of an OK, and
yet many teachers, so called, content
themselves with gathering clover and
dealing out clover, and really have ca
pacity to do nothing more and like
produces like. That is the live man
who can take material, though it be
common property, and after moulding
it in his own Uranium and subjecting
it to the committing power of mental
digestion, throw it from his brain
bearing all the idiosyncrasies of a sim
gle mind. He is the only man that
can teach others to do the same. Blu:
in this case rs III the former article, !
the argument. from effect to cause is !
equally conclusive. You have only to-
compare students with teachers every
where. Then let the day be speedilp |
ushered in when tcaclIinG in every de-
partment SHALL be recognized as Il dis |
tinct profession, and let the income be |
such as will command live men and
sustain life, and not such as will drive |
them into other pursuits or deaden |
them if they remain. As long as the /
salary in primary school differs but |
little from that of clerk i'm r. Il. /
office, in vain may we expect to COM
mand even scholarship in the school
room. More anon. VACATION.