The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1884-11-20
EDUCATIONAL.
Requisites for Practical Success as n
Teacher.

IcnCher.
The qualities which help n teacher
TO command good situation NAV be
conveniently grouped under three
heads, --power of discipline, q thor
ough education, and ability to work
we'll with other pooplo. Any principal
or committee seeking n toachcr, wish
es to find. ono combining all these
qualities; but thoy are rarely to be
found in any marked degree in the
Same person. A teacher who unites
two of them can usually depend on
having fair position with q fair SAL
ary. Accordingly, whoever intends to
make teaching n profession must con-
slider his own natural powers in these
directions, and decide what kind of
self-education is necessary for him.
In schools where the intellectual
standard is high, what is commonly
called the discipline is easy, for tho
pupils are occupied and interested in
their studies. Discipline is still of i'm
portanco, but it is of such n nature
that it may often DO best enforced by q
teacher of gcntlo mannors and culti-
waited mind. But this is not usually
the case in the lower schools, whore
the rough and unframed clements of
society arc to be tutored. OF course, a
teacher need not bo rough in dealing
with rough pupils. and there are oxcep-
tlonal persons who combine high in
tellectual attainments and refined
manners with quickness of perception,
and that overmastering firmness of will
which makes everything yield to its
authority. Generally speaking, how
oVer ono who has profound lovo of
books, such 81 love rs is needed to
make scholar in any high sense, by
this very fact is somewhat incapacitat-
cd Tor the successful management of q
hard school. In room where eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty, tho
mind is too much distracted to do any
work except on an exceedingly low
plane. Tho teacher who has tho
quickest eye, the sharpcst ear, tho
readiest decision,-the one whose fac
ultfes are always on tho alert, whose
wits arc always all about him, in the
very room, is tho ono who succeeds in
such place, and enjoys his success.
If, by any misfortune, q scholar finds
himself in such q place, he must mako
the best of it and cultivate tho quail
ties belonging to it, and ho may with
difficulty achieve success; but ho will
hardly enjoy his success, for it will be
bought at too great sacrifice of what
arc to him the essentials of life.
Yet such work is by no means to bo
undervalucd. In some respects it is
tho most important work which can be
done now in this country. To bring
the lawlcss elements in our COM
munity under the strict dominion of
law is so pressing n need that it seems
sometimes rs if our nations salvation
depended upon it. Happily, there is a
large class of our teachers who show
this special aptitude for governing.
Only, speaking in general terms, We
must say tho student is not tho disci-
plinaIian, nor is the disciplinarian the
student; so that q teacher, starting in
his profession, ought to consider which
of these two nature meant him to be,
and to follow faithfully, SO far rs ho
can, his true bent. Of course the one
who elects to bo disciplinarian is not
to be content with superficial class
work. He must know his lessons, and
know them thoroughly; but he must
not think himself fitted for position
demanding wide knowledge, or careful
reasoning, or critical judgment, or fine
! poetical discrimination. He must re.
! alize that his own proper work is noble
and indispensable, and he must not at
tempt to do another's.
On the other hand, the student is
not to be satisfied with lawlcsSncss or
inattention in his classes. He is not to
fix his eyes on the floor and tell his pu-
pills series of erudilc facts. If ho
cannot impart his knowledge in such n
way that his pupils actually receive it,
he has mistaken his vocation. He may
be n good writer, or annotator, or
translator, but not good teacher.
The teacher who is a student must
strive for the best possible discipline
among his pupils, but he must realize
that the kind of discipline which he
can enforce will be that which is al
most unconscious; and he must, if pos
sible, find a position in which tho
qualities of student arc needed.
And hero young teachers find q diff
Guilty. At graduation. very few per-
sons have enough special knowledge to
enable them to fill situations in tho
higher schools. Tho number of schools
in which discipline is tho first rcuui-
site is 50 much tho larger, that Young
woman who is secretly sure that her
truo power lies in tho direction of
scholarship rather than discipline, may
bo forced to begin in school where
scholarship counts for little. OF course
sho must then do hor best. But if sho
wishes over to do any satisfactory
work she nnsL look forward littlo ut
the same time. She will not have
much leisure for study, and it will be
vain to try to make of herself uni
Versal encyclopedia. But if she will
carefully decide tho limo of study for
which her ability is greatest, and
steadily pursue that, she will, in n few
years, find herself fitted by education
for tho place for which she is fitted by
nature.
Having decided whether ono is a
disciplinarian or student, and having
determined TO work in ones own
special line, unless tho fatcs arc more
adverse than they usually are, there is
still something of Importance to con-
slider If ono wishes to be practically
successful teacher. Can he work we'll
with othorsp With some principals,
fb ia ia fbn fret nnocfipr IN,