Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-02-18

SUPERINTENDENT oUsLEY of st. Paul,
at the teachers meeting last week, drop
ped the following bits of wisdom. which
may be of value, as we'll as interest, to
some of our teachers in this county:
School teaching is some
thing that cannot be done by rule, be-
cause no two child natures which the
teacher touches are susceptible to just the
same influences. And after all has been
said about methods it remains to be said
that the man is greater than the method.
a robust, spirited, well qualified man or
woman, stepped in enthusiasm for his
task, will klndle the nature, moral and
intellectual, of any school. His method
is simply his way of doing it. 1t was not
the "Socratic method" but Socrates, that
was the mighty power of Athens. The
true teaching requires the true artists
hand and spirit without which no meth
od'' amounts to anything.
The dispensation of justice and the ex
ercise of authority form wide and diff
ticult field. The teachers assize is held
200 days in the year and the culprits are
clamorous and often vengeful. There
must be an authority able to command
obedience which is real obedience, and
not mere submission from necessity.
What our children greatly need is to be
taught to acknowledge the right to com:
mand and the obligation to obey; and
full Of personal dignity.
The character of the school is q good
index Of the character of the teacher. He
IS the soul Of the whole apparatus of
means, the one part not to be disposed
with His success will be as his know
ledge, virtue and intelligence. What you
arc, more than what you know, deter
mines the quality of your teaching. If
the school is disorderly, rough and IT.
revcrent. ind0lent, stagDant and tricky,
the teacher of the school will hardly be
found to be revcrcnt, refined. vivacious
and faithful person.
Do you insist upon good manners. an
elegant carriage and smiling demcanor
when your own ways are brusque, your
walk slip-shod and your expression Of
countenancc funereal1 Do you make
your demand for silvcry tones in reading
in sepulchral voice? Do you insist up
on simplicity and appropriateness in
dress when your own attire is indicative
OF fussiness and your fingers laden with
rings? If you do you are sure to be dis
appointed. But possess yourself of these
qualities which you wish to impart and
you are on the winning side
The professor then spoke of the Difficult
ties that lie in the path of the devoted
teacher-the constant strain, day after
day. upon the physical and mental re-
sources, and the ignorant and captious
criticisms to which she is often subjected.
If he were seeking for the heroes and
heroines Of earth, he would look first in
the school room.
Dealing with professional character, he
mentioned five virtues to bc cultivated,
namely-simplicity, freshness. tact, en-
thusiasm, and sympathy. Of the second,
he said. that there were teachers who
came before their pupils day after day
with the same old facts, not even turned
over or dressed. There we're others who
brought all their personal trials and
troubles along with them-things which
the children were not to blame for and
couldn't help and didn't care particularly
about-and who stood and surveyed the
days work ahead much as the man eyes
the pile Of knotty wood he had taken a
contract to saw. OF the need of tact, he
remark ed that in every school there were
horn leaders. just as there were others
who were seemingly foreordained from
the foundation of the world to draw the
sled up hill-there really was fatality in
these matters-and it was the part Of tact
to win over the leader, and through them,
the whole school.