Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1874-04-23
For the Gallipolis Journal.
schools and Teaching.

schools and Teaching.
Notwithstanding our country evin-
ces great interest in the Cause of
Educstion, and liberal a~ppropria-
tons are annually made for its sup
port, yet we believe it must be con-
fessed that the business of education
is not abreast Of the requirements of
the age. Indeed We believe it is too
true that very many of our schools,
especially in the country. are not any
more thorough or practical than the
majority of schools were twenty
years ago Our State is well sup
piled with school-houses, schools,
and other accessories, but there is
convincing evidence that each recur-
ring season hundreds of persons
step into those school houses and
assume the duties Of educating
children who are untitled fer the
situatian. Thus we build the outer
walls OF education. but neglect the
inner forces; perfect plans, but neg
lect teachers. There is 8 cogent
truth embodied in the familiar
maxim: cas- is the teacher, SO is the
school," Not as is the school-house,
nor the school furniture, nor the
plan of instruction, series of text.
books or systems of rules; nor yet
as the teachers muscular power, age,
dress, amount of Information. expe
renee, or the number of educational
meetings he may attend. it is not
as any Of these things particularly,
but it is, as those silent, intangible,
and UNCONSCIOUS, it may be. but pc.
tent and strangely formative iuAu-
ences that emsnate from his inner
self, which make up the force oil
teaching--the spirit of instruction
Now since the school is as toe
teacher, any movement designed to
improve the school, must be largely
directed to develop, strengthen, and
discipline these forces in him. In
other words, a more general, pro-
fessional and thorough training for
the teachers of the common schools
is the most argent educational need.
How to secure this training most
successfully, is the great educational
problem of the day.
By training. we mean simply such
a preparation of himself by the
teacher, as will ena BILE him to use
himself most effectively in the ser
vice of his pupils. We say service.
and service implies "doing for"
A teacher is paid for his service, and
in proportion as he does not and can
not use himself in the service of his
pupils, he does not meet the case.
Now this preparation of himself in
cludes among other things, the sequi-
sition of q certain amount of knowl
edge of the subjects studied in the
schools, but it is not SO much the
omOunt of such information as the
kind, and that he so know what he
knows, that he can use it skillfnlly in
the service of the pupil. And to
use it most skillfully for this purpose.
he must know something Of the ma
ture of the pupils mind, and also of
his own.
Now, in order that there may he a
supply of such trained and profes
sionsl teachers, there must be a suf-
icient number of schools throughout
the State in which the more funda
mental and obvious principles that un-
derlie the practice of teaching, the
deyelopmentof theyouthful mind and
character, and the acquisition of spe-
ciic knowledge a be studied, and
in which those who propose to teach
our schools must study these things
and train themselves-yes train
themselves TO serve and to do-not
to command, to impose, to threaten
or to scold, but to serve and do for
u children. They must wrestle
with the great principle that forms
the basis of all their work until they
master it in the length and breadth
of its ramiied application, the prin-
ciple that it is not so much the guam
tity of knowledge as 1t is the manner
of its acquisition. "The mind of
the child should be led to so take
hold of knowledge that the very act
of getting it should enrich the mind
as much as the possession of the
knowledge itself"