New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-12-31
4 VETERAN TEACHER.

The death is announced at Cleveland or MISS
Almcda Booth, who for 30 years has been a
teacher in Northern Ohio and who was for
long time the Lady Principal of Hiram Col
lege There is something peculiarly honorable
in such a career; it can hardly bring the endur-
ing fame or even the material reward which
most toilcrs seek for, but it is extremely Ia
bOriOus as well as responsible. If we consider
how many pupils have been under the guidance
of this lady at tho critical period OF Their lives,
how many characters she has been nStru-
mental in forming and rounding, into how
many homes she has sent good mothers, ana
into how many schools good teachers, how
many lives she has made successful by guard
ing their early culture, how much intellectual
progress her training has made possible of
how many hundreds she has been, if we may
say so, the real mother, we shall then begin
TO comprehend the nobility of her vocation,
SO many teach only for time-men
until they can prepare themselves for
something else, women until they can marry
that instance. of lifelong devotion to school
keeping, though by no means rare. are not so
common as they should be. For after all.
teaching is business to grow into, nor can 1t
be well done unless it is loved by the door.
Adopted merely for the sake Of stipend de-
graded to "a mechanical routine, made Only an
affair of textbooks and formal Rotations,
never getting beyond drill of classes, the
term time all too long and the vacation AL
too short, the monotony varied only by
quarIels with committeeman and controversies
with fault finding parents, teaching under such
pitiful conditions and limitations may well
wear out the nerves and dwarf the character
and turn the schoolkceper not only into a
machine but into machine constantly dis
ordered The distcmpcr of discomfort IL con-
tagious. and reaches from the desk of the
principal to the desk of the pupils, until
what should really be n delightful occupation
both for the teacher and The taught becomes Il
WEAKNESS to all the soul which either has left.
Then it is that corporal punishment becomes
almost a blessing for it renders matters a
little liyelicr both for the logger and the
logged.
1t is evident that the subject of education
has very fast hold of the American mind; but
we are all better assured of its Importance
than of tho methods by which it should be
conducted. In the discussions to which the
religious question has given rise, we are sur
prised that 40 little should be said of the
teachers position and that apparently so little
is left to the teachers discretion. 1t seems to
be supposed that all we need is a modicum OF
| LEGISLATION. Children are to be trained by act
of Congress, and preceptOrs are to do no more
and no less than they are told to do by author
| ity. IL is well to take heed, before another
word is added to those already uttered, lest
we reduce teachers to a lower mechanical
/ AZ. tInt Ii.b Of Al .ltr
occupy Once for all let it be understood
that teaching is not like street-paying or
house building, or other matter of contract /;
that teachers are not hired just to give lessons
| in geography and grammar according to
systems approved by those who hire them
that teaching, if it be real is "A contact of
mind with mind and heart with heart or, to
use DR.. Webster's explanation, that it is "send-
" ing, passing, communicating, leading, draw
| ing
Clearly if moro teachers We're what they
should be, and the confidence of the public in
them what it should be- half our difficulties
would at once vanish. The clever and accom-
pished head of well established private
school does as he pleases; he reads the Bible
to his scholars or he omits the reading, as he
thinks fit; he varies the routine of his estab-
ishment according to circumstances or to
the special need Of individuals; lie
keeps no Procrustean bed for stretching
or shortening Gods image. Being free
to act, and in no danger of dismissal by a
Board, he imparts knowledge in a large and
liberal way, and does not fear to try occasional
experiments. The teachers of public
schools should also have something of this
honorable liberty. Oversight we well enough
understand that they require; strict response
bility is what wo would constantly hold them
to; swift discharge be theirs should they
prove incompetent or untaitlful in any