Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-02-02

question and answer, nor dropped to the
floor in excessive modesty. All the pow.
er of seeing that you have is needed for
looking earnestly, lovingly, without in
terruption, into the faces and eyes of
your pupils.
But Tor the observance Of this rule,
another IL indispensable. You must
learn to teach without book. Perhaps
you cannot do this absolutely. But the
nearer you can approach to it the better.
Thorough preparation, of course, is the
secret of this power. Some teachers
.hink they have prepared lesson when
they have gone over it once and studied
out all the answers. There could be no
greater mistake; this is only the first step
in the preparation. You might g well
think that you have learned the Multi
plication Table, and are prepared to
teach 1t, when you have gone over it
once and seen by actual count that the
figures are al right, and you know when
to put your finger on them when re
quired. You are prepared to teach q
lesson when you have all the facts and
ideas In it 1t your tongues end; SO that
you can go through them all, in proper
order, without once referring TO the
book. Any preparation short Of this
will not do, if you want to command at
tention. Once prepare lesson in this
way, and it will give you such feedom in
the art Of teaching, and you will expert
ence such pleasure in it, that You will
never want to relapse into the old indo-
lent habit
We give below short list of little
mistakes which are sometimes made by
teachers. We are not quite sure as to
the classification, for some OF these are
rather large mistakes. Indeed, any mis-
take having direct influence upon the
education of q child must be called a
large mistake. However. many Of them
affect the teacher more nearly than the
pupil:
Calling paragraph of prose verse.
INSTRUMENTATION of common words,
as nothing. therefore, divisor, numerato1
and denominator.
Recording pupils names, and keeping
the General Register with pencil. The
register is the official record of the
school and as such must be written with
ink.
Using the abbreviation for ditto and
the commercial tick mark, in recording
names, thus:
John Brown, George Smith,
VIM. do. Mary
We are sorry to say that this mistake
is common, SO common that there are
few school records in the county which
have not been thus mutilated. We can
not think our teachers ignorant of tho
proper use of authorizations, or wanting
in good tastc,-in fact, we can only &C
count 70. this blunder on the score O
laziness.
And here is another little mistake
which, though less frequent, still deserves
mention: Inviting all the beaux and boy
and girls who visit the school to record
their names and remarks" in the visit
ors' record. These remarks are not al
ways complimentary to the teacher, o.
crcditable to the authors The following
which were copied from Registers nov
in use in the county, are specimens
the remarks referred: IA bully schoo
and gay school marm," Il like this schoo
very much; think it is gay" "A goo'
school and doing well think the younl
. ladys has improved very much especial
, ly in spesin."
. But here is a much graver mistake, be
3 cause it not only subverts all good gov
eminent, but costs the teacher tn
respect Of his pupils and destroys hi
moral influence over them. We mean
attempting to govern school by scold
, ing and threatening; scolding for petit.
annoyances and threatening, on the Occa
sion of each offcnsc deserving punish
ment, that If the ofensc is repeated, tn
offender shall surely be punished. Thi
mistake furnishes tempting text for
sermon on government, but We have NJ
space for comment. We cannot, how
! ever, refrain from saying that the teaohe
who has not the physical courage to in
fict deserved punishment, should at lcas
have the moral courage to tell the truth