Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1873-08-28

D Ms Irlenus may never doubt his In
} tegrlty: and he must be peculiarly
5 alive to the condition of the school
to its needs, to its individual deserts
} to the necessities of parents, to The
character of appliancies,- so that no
) question of aesthetics, of diet, of per,
sonal habit, of homo influence, o.
special, religious or other surround.
ings shall weaken the estimate made
OF the pupils needs and capabilities
And since the teachers influence il
guaged by his ability to use forces
justly. so ought he to ally himself
J with good men in his community in
all laudable undertakings, az COL
laborator, not as dictator nor as an
: arbitrary leader, but as one whose
counseis are esteemed and whose
opinions with others shall be practi.
caily endorsed.
Our state has painful instances of
the SOUL whitening attempt of teach
ers to be examples of what comes
from the mind alone, teachers whose
honor, whose veracity, whose chasti-
~ in word and deed, and whose in>
tegrity are never mentioned because
they have no existence: yet whose
literary culture is sparkling and
whose temporary influence is won
derful
He who in any capacity was
against persons, will remain a mar
row, short sighted bigot. and be can
never rise above an average weak
ness,
This fact makes the politician,
whereas war waged in favor of ideas
or against them. makes the states
man. So the teacher who enters
upon warfare against persons in his
citadel or in his community, prose-
cutting the same under the
name Of school management. will
succeed in organizing strife and in
extenguishing one of the chief sour
ces of strength in his business. He
will soon resort to deceit in word
and deed, necessarily, for they can
for time sustain him but the day
of disaster will soon come. Thus
the liar on an apparently small scale
differs not in degree, but in liability
to detection, from the liar of motor
iety. Both expend sufficient energy
in the effort to enforce one lie, to
have carried conviction of truth TO
dozens Cropping blindly in the dark
ness" He alone who loves his work
is an honest laborer, and, disguise it
as we will, he who deliberately pur-
sues an avocation, a pleasure, or q
prOtracted diversion in connection
with teaching, does not deserve sue
cess, because he distracts his own
energy and mentally starves his pu-
pills. Of course it is not intended to
preclude rational diversion, or the
prosecution of any other interest
that does not dispute the sway Of
the engrossing thought of school,
But it does mean TO exclude every
thing that can demand time which
could proftably be devoted to school
interests. A teacher Of fifty years
experience said, "you will easily see
that you never learned anything
thoroughly till you LoUed it," This
remark is surprisingly true upon
analysis, we never master the intri
cacles Of any subject till our special
attention is called to it by love for
its truths. Then, in order that the
youth of to-day may not only take
up the work of progress where their
predecessors il, but may be
able to push it with an uniformly
accelerated speed and an intensified
utility, the teacher must be Of q
character fully up to the foremost
progressionist of the times, and must
eliminate more and moro of the false
and useless, as we'll as know more
aud more Of the good, the true and
the beautiful.
Various influences lead us early to
bend from faithful performance of
duty. Carelessness, Indifference, de.
sire TO crafty unnecessary habits or
unholy passions, vanity and general
selfishness, all warp the mental vi
sion, and to struggle against them is
the aim Of our aesthetics, thus open
ing broader and more varied fields;
and happy is he who so expands his
mental powers as to include even in
casual views, the rights. privileges
and excellences of others. He en-
joys freedom from care that will
see him WELD vigorous, broad and
beneficient influence whereas he
who expends his energy in con-
slant effort to conceal, temporarily
repair, and extennate his own volun-
tary imperfections, diminisbes his
energy for benevolent purposes, by
this amount. plus the inability thus
created to properly perform duty.
We take great pains to convince pu-
pills of the injury resulting from their
occasional school absence, never for
getting to say emphatically "y0u,"
but do we often revert to the fact
that if the child's influence is thus
great and his own scholarship is
thereby impaired, that ours is inn
measurably greater in this similar
process of impsiring our stock in
trade of ability to do good, by per-
m ting and fostering those practices
which subsequently demand our en-
ergies to check, to ally and mulIify.
We perpetuato bad habits in these
respects by means of an imposition
on the good sense of our pupils, as
we'll as upon our better judgement
for who does not see that he who to-
day complains of his pupils dizziness,
and endeavors to foist some inaccur-
acy or inability off on them because
too indolent to make himself correct.
believing they will forget II even as
they do the text lesson,) will find
himself fast losing the respect OF
others, even if he can preserve his
self respect; for, is there not one
bright mind, or more, in every class
that learns every text assigned, and
is lust as sure to learn every moral