Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1885-09-11
Oar Schools.

Mr.. EDIToR:-The past and present con-
dtton of our schools, their many deficiencies
and prospective needs, demand more general
and thoughtful consideration than they are
likely to receive, unless something be done to
bring them more fully to notice. With the
view to excite interest, elicit discussion, and
stimulate action, it is proposed to write series
of articles uponteachers, discipline, instruction,
xt-books, methods, excellencies and defects
of the school, involving incidentally the duties
of superintendents, teachers, parents and schol-
ars These articles will emboeiy the views and
opinions of the writer only, for which no one
else will be responsible. If in themselves they
shall contain nothing of especial value, there
shall amply compensate for your space and my
labor. A thorough and critical analysis of the
subjects would extend these articles beyond
the proper limits of newspaper space, SO there
but merely suggestive. First: Teachers, if
| there is any calling where large natural endow-
ments are specially desirable, it is that OF the
teacher He will find full exercise for all the
strength and depth and breadth of soul he can
bring to bear upon his work. He is doing
the work not merely for the term the life,
but for eternity. To his hand is intrusted the
molding, directing developing of the plastic
minds under his care. Upon him rests the re-
sponsibility of stamping upon the receptive
mind of the child an impress that will be indel-
ible and may shape forever a human destiny.
From the cold dead marble the sculptor shapes
by the power of his genius an image that may
seem poem, picture or prayer, at his will
it becomes goddess satyr an angel or a
fiend. But it is lifeless still. His glowing soul
cannot transfuse its energy into the marble.
He can appeal to the aesthetic sense through
the perfection of form, but he cannot touch
life's hidden springs, for there is no lie. The
teacher is the sculptor Of the human soul.
Each element of the child's nature, physical,
mental and moral and spiritual shall by the
hand Of the faithful teacher be nodded nearer
the symmetry by which the divine mind created
It. 1t is no field for bunglers, mistakes are too
costly. The sculptor spoils his image, he can
take new block of marble and redeem his
error. When the teacher spoils his work a
human soul is destroyed or distorted, he can
not redeem his error. The material is too costly
to be committed to careless hands. The
teacher needs large mental powers, SO that he
can grasp with master hand the truths he is
| to impart, and that he may have great percep-
ton, sound judgment, and wise foresight in the
methods of instruction and discipline. He
| needs a strong moral sense to give him accu-
rate perceptions of duty and hold him steadily
in its performance, to give him a due sense OF
responsibility, and especially to fit him prop
erly to inculcate those moral truths that are as
much his duty to teach as the intellectual
studies of the school, and to sustain him in do
ing that which he knows to be right, though to
do it he may have to stand alone He needs
deep spiritual inspirations to give him faith in
the ultimate success Of his work, though he
sees no present results, so that he can feel that
the present toll and care and WEAKNESS, shall
bear fruit that shall bless the world when hi:
hands have been folded in rest, and that shall
enable him to draw from the Infinite Sourc,
strength that is greater than his own. W.
Oakland Sept 9Th