Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-24
Failures IN School Teaching
For the aranl ooaaly nGaALD.


definitions. for the noun failure less, and IN tins
article. will confne the thoughts to the
second viz Omission, non performance APP
plyinc to ONLY one OF the many classes de-
pending upon the public for its patronage aud
support
The world is full of swindlers, default
ers, ''first class frauds" who cheat with de-
beIatc artilicc, who fail to account tor what
may be entrusted to their care, who inlafe the
rights and interests Of others. We find them
exposed by deteetors and by Investigating
committees and their deeds Of fragrant wrong
brought by the press before the public receiv-
ing from it the stigma deserved, but not to of
fcials. to professionals or those who siu in high
places would | refer-but to a more honorable
class who fail often through ignorance to rem
der an equivalent for what they receive from
public funds or public patronage.
In morals the motive gives character 20 the
act so to the failures of some there must not be
attached too much blame unless blame. worthy
nor should defects be noted unless remedy is
also provided.
| refer to the common school teacher and
should their eve chance to fall on this article
70 each such | would ESPECIALLY say my SYM
pathies are with you, for during twentv of the
best years of my life was teacher II the
school room lost my health but not my love
for the work, and now greatly enjoy stopping
a half hoas in the school rooms that often
pass in my travels over Grant County, and i'll
this way have marked the success, and some
times noticed the failures of teachers. The
school law OF Wisconsin provides that any
person aged sixteen answering correctly so
per cent of the questions proposed by the
county Superintendent, shall be entitled to a
certificate. Indeed they cannot teach without
it nor can they all with it,
NJ. I OF lad
of lectures in Kaickerboclscr Hall, New York,
given by Prof. Fowler, the great Phrenologist,
and among other remarks which then thought
absurd, remember this ''No persons should
ever present themselves to a school Commits
tee for employment till they have consulted
some skillful phrenologist and thereby ascer-
tanned whether they can teach a school" More
persons fail in the school room for lack OF
tact than of talent
The experience and observation of the last
twenty five years has convinced me that Prof
Fowler was more sensible than in my youth
fancied him. Not that | would supplant our
county superintendent and place instead some
noted Phrenologst whose advertisements
might thus read
TEACHERS EXAMINATION.
Examination for applicants for positions as teachers
will be held as foliows-givDg time and place-by
manipulating the head of each can ascertain with
wonderful accuracy, whether or not the applicant has
the requisites for successful teacher OF orr commoN
schools
fear there might be more disappointments
than now occur form the semi yearly visits OF
the county Superintendent.
That. there are failures with our present sys~
TEN none viii deny and perhaps the chief
cause is Incompetence. Incompetency not
only OH the part of the employee but the pub
lie including parents and employees who often
have no correct idea Of the nature, difficulties
and Importance Of the duties which the teacher
discharges and consequently they are lily
prepared to Judge of the ability Of the teacher
to discharge them.
An architect will at once distinguish be-
tween a skllful mechanic and that of a cobbler,
and to be able to criticisc an artist one must
have some knowledge Of art. So to Judge of
the requisites for good teacher, one must
know something of a teachers work And
methinks the public are otter responsible for
failure to select and elect competent persons
for their school board. Incompetency on the
part of the teachers includes not only lack of
knowledge but lack of ability to impart 1T to
| their pupil
1t matters little to one desiring loan that
the safe is full of gold, if the banker has no
| key to unlock it, nor to the thirsty traveller
| to find a refreshing spring if he cannot reach
| its cool water
Incompeteney to instruct is not the only
| cause of failure. Incompetency to govern, to
| control, in short to discipline school is the
| chief cause, and here comes in the phrenolo-
gcal development or dump of order
| system is as essential in a school room as in
counting room, but it requires native tai
ent to establish and both wit and talent to
| preserve it. A schoo! without order is like
| ship without rudder. Its captain may have
| experience, its crew well disciplined and
| odedient its pilot understand navigation but
| if 1t have no rudder it can never be guided
| into port. So with a teacher to use the
| Dutchman's language, "She may know much
| books, but she have no ORDER" and so she viii
fail" There is a school house in Grant county
which | have often passed and it seems, no
matter the hour by my watch, it was always
recess With discipline comes frmness, not
harshness, but a female teacher must make up
in will power, and nervous energy what she
lacks in physical strength. Last week
visited village school always considered hard
to manage, but that lady teacher by her will
power, kept under her control fifty pupils,
though she told me at first they were almost
unmanageablc.
Pardon the DEPRESSION and allow me to speak
of the matter of spelling so much nege cted
Mt the present In that school it is taught
and when | say taught don't mean every
Wednesday, D. m. or semi monthly but twice
every dav, is there an exercise either oral or
written far every pupil. This spring examin-
nation CHANGED to see the standing of an in
dividual who failed to obtain a certificate, and
while noticed 10 in arithmetic, J 0 in gram
mar also saw photography 2. That individ~
ual was either deficient in the chronological
development called form-not readily detect
ing an error from the appearance of the word
or the instructor has been sadly neglected in
The matter OF teaching pupils the necessity OF
correct photography. There was surely
failure somewhere This spelling has
"switcbed the train Of my thought off the
track. but perhaps at some future time will
return and give some of the remedies for what
seems to me failuren common school teachers.