Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-02-08
The Teacher and the Institute.

The Teacher and the Institute.
"A Paper by Prof. c. L. Ebaugh. Read at
the Arcadia Valley Teachers Association
on Jan. 9th, 1888.
Every man is a debtor to his profess
sion. Every man should willingly
| contribute the results of his experience
to those who labor with him and sue
ceed him. No one has moral right to
leave the world without taking care to
assure to posterity the net results of a
life devoted to special pursuit. In
dividual experience contributes to the
common stock. Teachers have been
slow to render such a service to their
professional brethren. The profession
does not enjoy profusion of such leg
acies. Again, each one owes it to him
self and his employer to put nothing
but his best into all work. We are
judged by what we do, not by what
we can do. Granting this, and the
fact that all are responsible not only
for the harm they do, but for the good
they do, it is best to be wise as posi-
bic, each about his own business.
Teachers should feel a common in
terest and fraternal sympathy with
each other in everything that pertains
to their work, and should cooperate in
all efforts for the advancement of pop
ular educa ton. 1t behooves the teach
er, therefore, to take every advantage
<>fo To ri TO hi
mind, to elevate himself above the
common standard of his profession,
that as he grows in years he may like
wise grow in knowledge. To accom-
plish this grand object, one of the
essential means is q thoroughly organ
lied system of teachers institutes, pen
trating every county, reaching with its
benign influence every teacher, and so
far as possible, rousing the sChote peo-
pie to a deeper sense of their obliga-
tions and duties to the cause of educa-
ton and the proper training of their
children for the realities of life.
The institute has for its objects, inn
provement in scholar rship, elevation of
public sentiment, and social and pro-
fessional intercourse. The chief object
is to arouse professional spirit and
promote professional skill in the as
sembled teachers. 1t is Indispensable
that something be done at the institute
to inspire higher ideal of scholarship
and create a longing for greater pro-
ficiency in the branches to be taught.
Example is contagious. The esprit de
corps of a body of teachers once awak-
ened, they will be stimulated by it to
labor earnestly for a higher grade of
scholarship and the attainment of
whatever may be necessary to a thor
ough and careful preparation for their
work. The specific aim is the i'm
provement of the teacher in every
thing that pertains to the discharge of
his professional duties, whether with
in the school-room or outside of it. 1t
should especially labor to inspire him
with clearer and more elevated con-
ception Of the nature and objects of ed
ucation, and to acquaint him with
those principles and methods of teach
ing and management which lie at the
basis of all real success in his import
ant work.
Another advantage which the insti-
tute presents to the teachers, is the OPP
portunity for professional and social !
intercourse. 1t enables them to form
agreeable acquaintance, to compare
views, and to give each other the ben
eft of their individual experience in
schoolwork.
The utility of the institute has been
taught us by experience, the best of
teachers. They are not merely Ca
pricious invention, tangled notion,
but rather the outgrowth of the neces-
sites of the progressive education of
the times.
By means of the teachers institute,
temporary and 'peripatetic" agency |
capable of universal application, much |
may be done for the diffusion of pro-
fessiOnal knowledge among the thous- /
ands of inexperienced persons who are
annually employed i'll the common
schools. Wherever they have been
established and efficiently conducted,
they have done much to improve the