River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-05-01
The Teacher Us. Talent

Mr.. Editor Essays and discussions
being solicited from all parts of the
county, with your permission. space
being allowed, we will comment on
the foregoing scheme somewhat brief
ly.
The teacher,-What is he! tutor,
pedagogue or machine! We regret
that in too many instances in our
common schools the last term is most
applicable.
The Badger State, with her four
Normal Schools to fit and prepare
teachers, allows the employment of
too many lasseS of sixteen or seven
teen summers, and lads of seventeen
or eighteen years, to supervise and
instruct her children; and in not
few cases with all their pedantlc
learning are they mere machines. We
would deem it wise enactment, II at
the next legislature of Wisconsin,
law be passed prohibiting the licens-
inc of all minors as teachers, morals
and scholarship, to the contrary, not
withstanding. In foreign country,
under the Prusslan school system, or
other countries of Europe What per
cent. of tie applicants of Pierce Coun-
ty, or even Wisconsin, could obtain
certificates.
There the minimum age of an appll-
cant is fixed by law, at nineteen, If
we are informed correctly.
The average textbook is also fitted
for a machine, with questions-ditto
answered, and the vague idea that the
pupil must learn the same Uerbdtlnl.
with no expansion and rarely consult
ing the Lexicon is still practiced IN a
gOodly number of schools.
1t often occurs in recitation that
the intuitive tutor by a query, can inn
press a fact upon the mind of pupil
that will last lifetime, or enlarge
upon some topic, making lasting I'M
preston.
Again, the teacher may be model
of perfection as to scholarship, and
having no talent for the vocation fdu.
As portrayal, inspect the school
record that inaugrates term with
thirty or thirty five pupils, and likely
/ closes with five to ten pupils.
Further;-pecuniar profit enlists
many in the vocation of teaching re-
CARELESS of adaptability.
Pupils look to the teacher as matron
or parent, and how many of the young
ladies' of sixteen or young men OF
seventeen or eighteen years, possess
inherent qualifications for ntdtron or
| preceptor in the school-room!
so consistency, thou art a jewel!
Where is the consistency in placing a
person in the school-roOm as tutor
who is drawing public money as a pu-
pils
We do not hesitate to say; but that
a few more years in many instances
may develop talents adapted for the
scliool-room; but give us manhood or
womanhood first, not the seho0l-bo
| or schoolgirl as teacher.
We conclude,-our experience as
teacher in the Badger State embraces
lapse of fourteen years. during
that time we have spent forty months
a preceptor in the common schools
after passing our minority.
And observation has depicted rare
results of good to the district, where
the young inexperienced teacher has
been employed.
By visiting few schools in this To-
cality, the past winter-in observation
the foregoing thoughts have been
nshered forth. and we submit for Pc
rusal to those interested.
Shall we hear remedy discussed in
the future!
with courtesy to all, we remain,
Yours Truly,
T. A. TERRY.
plum City, Wis, Mich. 5lst, 1884.