The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-02-13
educational.
Address Gu communications for this column
4o TO the Editor of the IEdmcGtio9s- X"
0t. KenOsh0, Wisconsin. ~ 2
THE TECHER'S NOBILITY.

The honor ascribed to an individual OF
class of individuals in society. should arise
from two causes the good accomplished,
and the difficulties to be overcome in accom-
plishing that good Upon those who through
mere chance make great discoveries without
labor, or who perform wonderful feats, which
may be in themselves positively injurious,
there Is often an undue amount of praise be-
slowed Thousands will praise the man
whom chance has made rich. or will rush to
the rivers bank to see some fool expose his
life on tight rope, while tens of thousands
will applaud the general whom circum-
stances has made successful, @
But not go with tie educator: he dearly
earns us honors; he has great difficulties to
surmount and achieves great good. The
teacher evidently constitutes an organic ele.
ment in the social structure, for without
teachers the world would soon sink into a
state Of barbarlsm. Of all creatures man
possesses the least natural knowledge or in
stinct, and infinitely the greatest by cultiva-
ton. Without culture he remains a mere
animal, though he may become "a little
lower than the angels" The teacher, then,
occupies position marked out by the Crea-
tor, and one which is of vital Importance.
1t is to the social body what the eye is to the
physical body. A nation without instruc-
tors will quickly sink into degradation and
degeneracy.
ri n ffnr 10 he
directs the mind in a certain channel of
thought, and " as the twig is bent the tree is
inclined" Train up child in the way he
should go, and when he is old he will not de-
part from it," says the sacred writer, and
facts abundantly substantiate the truth Of
this assertion. To know the child is to know
the man; to guide the child is to guide the
man. From youth flows the aspirations and
impulses, tue hopes and expectations o! old
age
The teacher is the husbandman who soWs
the seed from which is to spring an abund-
ant harvest. He ia sculptor, who works
upon q material that will never perish.
While he labors to bring into operation all
those faculties with which the minds of his
pupils are endowed, and inspired by his own
enthusiasm their young hearts with love of
learning, and desire to know the truth of
science, and to become acquainted with the
beauties Of literature. he aWakes to action
the energies of q human soul.
If we compare the different con ditions un-
der which the parent and teacher (the two
great educators of the world) labor, we
shall be further convinced of the teachers
nobility. The parent receives the child fresh
from the hand of God pure, spotless, limo.
cent. His is the plastic clay which as readily
receives impressions of truth and purity az of
falsehood and sin. The teacher has not only
to SOW the seeds of virtue, but also to uproot
the weeds of vice, and fit and prepare the
soil for the reception o. the good seed, The
work which lies before the teacher is to Sc
cure the steady and triumphant march of the
human intellect IN its acquisition Of truth.
The mind thlrstiDg for knowledge quickly
receives the given portion and the teacher
moulds and fashions the pupil according to
his own ideas.
Butin the mere cultivation of the intellect
does not lie the teachers greatest nobility.
The progress is not intellectual merely. The
moral nature must be trained and taught
If we desire our pupils to become men and
women of real worth, their moral characters
must be laid in fortitude aud strength. The
teacher Is to polish and beautify the spiritual
and moral, as well as teach the intellectual
part of mans threefold nature; he is to
build noble structure of beauty, truth and
goodness. D,