Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1877-12-20
A WORD 'rO TEACHERS.

Necessarily. tie teachers of Montana are
net of the first class with. perhaps. few
eXceptions). us Montana is still i'll its inf.ln-
icy, and attention has been but recently di-
trectetl to the education OF the young. l
will venture to say that but very few OF the
teachers Of Montana have attended normal
schools. and many Of them are wholly in
experienced in the science of teaching. and
for each school in the Territory you will
find Il different method of teaching. n
teacher may take charge OF a school. and.
| although the teacher who preceded linn
may have been equally as good teacher
in his way. it VIII take month of the
short term OF three Or foi.r months, to GET
the school in rood running order. on ac-
count of their widely different methods OF
school government ana of tcl:.:iiig tie
different branches. Willie this state o.!
things exist. we cannot expect tie best re-
suits IN Our sceools. Now the question
arises How are these evils to be remedied
Before an importan: military movement. Il
council OF war is held by the officers in
command of an army. and the best plan OF
action. in its Judgment. is decided upon.
and each officer is assigned his duty. Dur
ing political campaigns, clubs are organic
ed by the different political parties f0relec-
tioneering purposes. for each party wei!
knows that if il fails to elect its ticket. tie
Government can no longer exist. Farm
ers organize Oranges. partly for the pur-
pose of instruetinr each other in the cult
y,tjon of their land. the rearin" Of stock.
etc.
We teachers have battle to fight, ami
our opponent is one OF the worst enemies
of mankind - lgnorancc-and a definite
pl3n of action is Just as necessary to Sue
cess as it is in Il military campaign. we
have a candidate to elect. Oar candidate
ia Education. We have field to cult
ya.e. Our field is the minds OF the young,
which is to produce the statesmen. phlloso-
ni,ers. etc. OF the future. How important
It is. then. that we should thoroughly pre-
Da,, ourselves for oar work. In the Mon
taoa school Laws there are provisions for
tlc hoi.iino. OF re. .'lcrs' Institutes. which
if tfiev are ta,,en a'i'>nt%ge OF by ou'
County Superintendent (lni prcsum
tncy WHY. and !..e tt:,sac!s Of Gaitdii
county are earnest workers, VII to = @rc.:i
extent do away With the evils above
enumerated. and convert the comparatively
raw material which constitutes our corps
of teachers into ii"st-:lasS teachers.
machinst wishes to improve ma
chine. he will not form one from model
of his own invention, but Will 90 to a
machine ans! select from it that part which
is far s,,perior to the same port i'll any 9TH
or machine Of the same Kind. lie VIII
then 90 to another and select the best part.
and so on un,n he will perhaps select from
a dozen or more different machines, each
time selecting only the bes; part. lie VIII
the,, combine al those best parts into one
machine. and thus construct one when Is
fir superior to any which has preceded ii.
II is lust So vita te.;e'icrs VINO can al
tend Teachers Institutes. At the lnsti-
tate some teacher will give superior
method of school government. another !;
SUPERIOR method OF teaching grammar, an
o.t.pr of arithmetic. etc. all through lie
catalogue OF branches taught. All tl'
earnest teachprs VII iln'neditity apply IN
their school, the b,st methods given. ana
thus all tie schools OF those WHO attend
the Institute ~:lI be Immediately benefited.
and it Will haze a tendency 10 Introduce IN
TO ali tie schools uniform methods. 1t Is
to be HOPED th;it the time is not tar distant
when Gali5tin county may have tie advan-
iagc of Il Teachers institute.
j. \. LOVELY.