Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1885-09-25
Teachers. No. 3.

i he teacher. should have love for his work.
1t IS very poor reason for engaging as
teacher, that the young man needs money to
carry him along auoiher year in college, and
the best chance he can see to earn ii is tot teach
school FOR term; or that the young lady finds
a necessity 10 earn living, and thinks teaching
more genteel than housework or mill work.
The result is often-yes, observation-disclosures
to the school and not creditable to the teacher.
If the teacher has no higher inct ntive to work
than the dollars it brings him, he can have no
reasonable hope for aught but failure. He
should teach because he loves 10 teach, because
it is a pleasure to him to exercise his endow
ments and requirements in rousing the dor
mant energies Of his pupils, quickening their
perceptions, TO watch the unfolding and deyel-
oping in human soul Of power it was before
unconscious Of. He must do this often despite
the ignorance, vicious tendencies, and low in
telligence of the pupil. Perhaps one days
labor SO painfully accomplished, will be sadly
marred or wholly destroyed ere the next by
the evil influences Of parents or associates at
home. 1t may be that the sins of the fathers,
visited upon the children, have entailed
disease that makes life a burden and continued
mental effort impossible to the child, and the
teacher IS expected to steach' it when there
is not mind enough in its cankered body to
respond intclIigently TO the teachers questions
and suggestions. And it may lie that the
bright, precocous child, whose promise Of
genious SO interests the teacher in its welfare
is surrounded at hcme by intempercnce and
licentiousness, SO that lahor determinedly as
he will, the teacher EEds that vice is gaining
ground upon the childs character faster than
he can eradicate it, and so the teacher always
finds that he has need of patience that is as
near infinite as human attributes can be. If
the teacher is hasiy, illtempercd and violent,
the school roem is no place for him.
1t has been assumed, as matter of course,
that the teacher has sufficient knowledge Of
the studies pursued in the schools to tach
Them properly. II, in addition, he has wide
range If knowledge, SO much the better; but
scholarship alone never made good teacher.
A certain amount of scholarship is necessary
and the more the better, especially whatever
is necessary to teach the school should be
thorough, teacher whose elementary edu-
cation is not thorough is not worth much and
no amount of advanced learning will make
up for the lack. AS rule, however, the best
scholars are net the best teachers. Indeed
their failure as teachers Of the ordinary school is
l I Al Nc
habit Of intense and long continued application
of the mind to one thing, necessary for success
ful scholarship, units for teaching where ver-
satility and perception OF great many things
in a very short time are essential to success.
There are few more pitiful things than the
brilliant scholar, whose professor in college
has recommended for teacher par excellence,
because he stands first in his class, and whose
life has been correct enough TO make it a fit
.bject for model Sunday school book,
making failure Of the first serious work of
his life in the attempt to teach common
school, He never dreams of failure when he
is such scholar, ard so exemplary. With
, all his learning, how can he fail? But the big
BOYS do not appreciate his scholarly accom-
piishments ror respect his authority. His
. sensitive soul revolts at the idea of corporal
punishment He trusts to the honor of the
! scholars to maintain order, al d the order they
do maintain is disorder. While he is solving
an example at the blackboard and giving his
whole attention 10 it, the sagaciols small boy
sees his opportunity and executes some piece
Of dievi,try with brilliant success. Failing to
maintain proper discipline, he loses the respect
OF his pupils, the parents do not like him be-
cause his gentlemanly ways are more refined
than their uncouth ones, and they call him
stuck up, he don't get the good will of The
scholars, and the poor teacher soon learns that
while by years of toll he has acquired great
stores of knowledge, the possession Of all kinds
! OF sense but common sense doesn't fit him &c
teach a common school. There is no danger
Of too much learning, but the possession Of the
4 learning of Erasmus or Lord Bacon, cannot
compensate for the lack Of common sense, and
for practical use in instructing common school
thorough knowledge of the spelling book and
mental arithmetic is worth more than all the
learning of Harvard or Yale would be witkou
! it.
!, Do you say that the paragon teacher here
! outlined is found only in Utopia. Admitted
But if in practical life we never go beyond GU
4 ideals, we cannot aim too high. These fnit.
. wings of ours must strive to soar as best the,
= may, if, as we are told, we are one day t.
5 reach the Infinite. w.