Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-08-10

Examiners that il does not require any
great amount of scholarship to obtain a
certificate. Shall we then blame our
County Examiners? By no means.
They know that enough teachers must be
licensed to supply our schools, and if they
give certificates only to a sufficient num-
ber of those whom they deem most
worthy, they can do no more. They can
only assist in cIeatinga demand. They
cannot supply it. believe our Exami-
ners, difficult as as is the task, requiring
the most skillful management, are stri-
wing constantly to elevate the standard.
This requires time and patience, but
above all, it requires the hearty coop
Grafton of three parties:-1st, the Exam
iners, in making the tests fail. but search
ing, SO as to exclude impostors; I'd, the
people, in influencing Boards of Educa :
tion to employ only teachers of known
ability; Sd, the teachers themselves, in
being willing to work for the cultivation
of correct public opinion, and by COM
ing up to the required standard to sup
ply this newly created demand, thus
driving from the field quacks, expert
menters and makeshiftS, who are con-
stantly ready to enter and occupy.
THIRD-Wfn you cheerfully perform
the work required after you have enter
ed the field? Remember, there can be
no resting by the waysids. Constantly,
earnestly, persistently, must you labor.
Many begin teaching with the idea that
they will have little else to do, except to
sit and hear the children say their les
sons; and so they will have nice time
of it, certainly more easy than chopping
cord wood, or scrubbing floors. There
are too many directors who are willing
to employ just such teachers, because
they can be had SIS or $40 per month
cheaper than good ones. Such directors
are willing to entrust the training and
instruction of their children to man or
woman, nay, even to boy or girl, whom
they would not think of employing to
take care of their horses, cows or pOul-
try, even though in the latter case the
work be done under their very eyes,
while in the former, seldom, If ever.
May the day soon come, when such IN
fiuences shall be banished far distant
from our public school system! The la
Zy Young man who can think OF no easi-
er way of earning his money for cigars,
neckties and parties. than by teaching a
term now and then, in some district
school; the village Miss, who would ap-
propriate the the name Teacher as a
means of enabling her to purchase more
finery than her fathers allowance will
permit; the Young law, or medical stu
dent who has no greater love for teach
ing than to use it for winter or two as
means of replenishing his slender, but
still shrinking purse, may succeed In
the school-room; but success under such
circumstances, and with such ambitions,
seems to me scarcely less than a miracle
FOURTH, and most mportant-Will
YOU have an earnest and heartfelt love
for your work? Some one who has not
yet become teacher, replies: "How can
| love that which have not tried?"
answer, Does not the law student who
is diligent in his preparation for his
chosen life-work, love his profession be-
fore he has been admitted to the bar
Does he not find, in what are to others
dry textbooks. something to interest, to
fascinate him? Does he nos delight in
the beauty, the symmetry, the logic of
law? Does he not take pleasure in an
ticipating the time, when he shall stand
before juries and sway them at his
wilI2 If he has no snch feelings, am
billions and desires. let him quit his law-
books at once. and go to breaking stone
on the road, mining ceal from the earth,
or polling fat on some out of the way
river. In short, let him find some work
that is not too far above him. But the
young teacher says: at does not require
three years special preparation, besides
attending technical school in order to
become teacher, as it does to become a
lawyer" Ahl / am glad you see that
point. Nothing, l repeat 1t, nothing so
belittles the profession as the ease with
which its ranks are entered. The first
essential then, to q real love for the
work Is thorough preparation for it.
The lawyer who attains success to-day,
is not the one who merely reads law in
some some country Office long enough to
be admitted, and then hangs out his
shingle. Rather it is he who, besides
reading law, attends hrst-class law
school, and studies in scientific man
ner the noble profession he desires to
ell sar. The teacher must de likewise.
lessuming then, that the teachers
present this evening are those who have
made a special, a technical preparation
for their life-work-I know that some
have done so, and have demonstrated
the fact by successful experience
presuming that those who expect
to become teachers are willing to
spend time and money, more than all
are willing to labor with patience and
perseverance in preparing themselves
for their chosen profession, that they
have ambition to rise above third rate or
mediecrity, and desire to take prominent
positions, let US, before confirming you,
apply few more tests; let US take q
more specific view of the difficulties you
must encounter, of the qualifications you
must possess, and of the labor you must
perform. Are you willing to enter a
profession in which you will not receive
more than half what equal ability and
labor will command in law or medicine
Do you enter it for life, and not as the
would-be lawyer, physician, artist or
minister enters it, merely as means OF
paving present expenses, while the heart
is in another and different work? Is
your love for it sufficient to make you
willing to deny yourself many pleasures
and luxuries which in other professions
you might consistently enjoy, but which
in this one are absolutely incompatible
with your success? Pleasures that you
cannot enjoy, and at the same time give
to your pupils that vital force which you
must give in order to secure to them
the high success to which they will be
entitled. Pleasures that you must fore
go, if you would place before them an
example which they should follow. Lux
uries that you must deny yourself. If
you would do your share toward placing
the profession you would espcase, on the
firm and enduring foundation upon
which it rightly belongs.
Supposing that you have made spe-
cial preparation for your work, have laid
a good foundation for yourself in the
common branches of an English educa-
tion, and have perhaps erected thereon
such asuperstructure as our high schools,
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