Los Angeles daily herald., 1873-11-27
gos Aneeles Aerala,
EDUCATIONAL.
To Teachers Without Experience and Without
III - - 4 TRAINING. go q

There are about 100000 teachers of
public schools In the United States.
Of these about one-fourth retire from
active service every year leaving
their places to be supplied by others.
If all the Normal schools (real and
nominaD In the country were filled to
their utmost capacity, and one-fourth
of their students graduatede every year,
there would be an annuals lsupplyof3,OW
trained teachers. Let us suppose that
nature is as prolific as art, and that
5000 other teachers, with the stamp OF
native genius ON their brow, though
with no diploma Of the schools III
their hands, make their annual debut.
After making these allowances we
have an annual influx into the
schools of 44,OO0a teachers, neither
"born' nor "made'-chiefiy young
persons without experience and with
out special adaptation, whom necessi-
ty, or friends, or fate, has transformed
into school masters and school mis-
tresses for the nonce.
The great educational problem of the
age, is how shall this great army of
raw recruits be converted into disc. |.
plined and steady soldiers. Our hy-
pothesis has reduced the problem to its
lowest dimensions. We, have made
the largest possible deductions for
teachers of experience" so-called,
for trained teachers 'tO the manor
born" and yet we see that there must
be very large residuum, whose quail
fications for their work must be devel-
Oped after they have entered into office,
IL they are developed at all. 1t is to
this large class, and especially to that
large fraction Of it, who are honest,
conscientious, Industrious and desirous
of improvement, that We purpose to
offer few words of advice. ia a2liaa
l. Practice alone will not make a
better teacher. Ha man starts wrong,
the farther he goes the worse. So a
teacher who has been on the wrong
track for twenty years, Is worse
teacher than he was when he COM
menced. Errors which were at first
doubtful propositions, are now self
evident truths. His professional vices
are elevated into cardinal virtues.
The Ethiopian can not change his
skin nor the leopard his spots. There
fore this paper is not written for expe-
rienced teachers. Practice, by itself,
enables us to do easily that which We
do very often; but not, necessarily, to
do it better. The man of eight and
forty does not write better hand than
the boy of eighteen; but the sense OF
effort has passed away. A woman at
forty is not necessarily a better teacher
than she was at twenty, but she does
her work, such as it is, with less labor.
Notwithstanding the changes which
normal schools. teachers institutes,
and educational journals have inau-
gurated and advocated, the traditions
of the last century are still the COM
mon law Of the individual. That
which has failed in thegeneral system
will fail in the particular instance.
Practice or experience alone will never
convert the wrong into right, although
1t may help to obscure our perceptions
regarding them.
2. The first and indispensable con-
dition Of improvement is conviction
on the part Of the teacher that i'm
provement is desirable and attainable.
One OF the earliest symptoms of spirit
ual decay is self-righteousness; One
of the surest signs of intellectual de-
noralization is pride of knowledge.
The most heavenly minded men are
the most humble; the most learned
men are the most modest. The great
est teachers are always searching after
better way. "Not as though I had
already attained, either were already
perfect" is their motto. "Our school
SYSTEM" says the mayor of one our
great cities. "does not seem capable of
Improvement" Most probably the
mayor was right, though not in the
fiattering sense in which he desired
his words to be understood. The
young teacher, however, is not very
likely to give way to vain-glory. If
he is not utterly devoid of common
sense, the every day work of the
school-room will, at least, take the
conceit out of him. The danger lies
rather on the other extreme, that,
finding his best efforts comparatively
fruitles, he may become discouraged
and take refuge in Journalism, resting
satisfied with a perfunctory discharge
of the routine duties Of his office.
This is the sleep that ends in DEATH