Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1886-07-16
GooD w4GEsFoR GOOD TEACHERS


ence between mere drill sergeant and
his captain, who is expected to be not
only an officer but humane and gal
liant gentleman, is not more WIDE than
the difference between those who are
endowed with the rare and delicate
powers of true teacher and those who
teach as mechanically aud monoton-
ously as they turn a grinlstone or
weed an onion bed. The difference
III the teacher that moulds and inspires
the young minds that come under his
influence and teacher that is mere
mechanic is the difference between
cyclopedic appetite and culture
and sound intellectual digestion.
There are many mechanics but few in
ventors; many soldiers but few generals
many clergyman, but few preachers;
many schoolmastels but few teachers.
No man or woman can look back at
school days without confessing that to
the inspiring influence Of the teachers,
who we're born to teach in distinction
from those who assumed to keep school
they owe their largest product Of man.
hood OF womanhood. The scholar at
school will grow in spiritual and in
tellectual fibre, if his teacher has
breadth of brain, height of soul and
warmth of heart. If the schoolmaster
is irreproachable mediocrity and I'M
ruffied dullness, working for school wa
ges until he can dip into something
more lucrative, then he is not teacher
any more than shyster is a lawyer, a
quack doctor, or clerical demagogue
is a preacher.
The low estimation placed upon a
teachers services as shown by the
smallness of their wages is not credi-
table to popular intelligence. In coun
try towns it IS generally expected
that teacher will be content with
about thesame wages you pay not a
skilled workman, but CROUCH" car
penter. This sentiment could not be
current the country over if the impor-
tance of true teachers work was ap
preciated. If his only capacity for
usefulness was to laboriously teach the
boys to read, write and cipher, the
teacher might, with some show of de
cency, be rated as the lowest class Of
all mechanics, but his coincident work
is the noblest and most farreaching for
the moral veal or woe of mankind in
the whole range Of human callings.
From the vantage ground of close per
sonal contact with his pupils, teacher
who is rich in manhood, Of quick and
delicate mental tact and moral appre
hension, has it in his power to make
them men and women that represent
loyalty to conscience, at once truthful
manly and humane in their inware
and outward life. A mere pedagogue
may not be worth any more to the
world than copying clerk or a hod
carrier, but teacher who has so much
Of manly moral atmosphere about him
that the best impulses of his pupils
harden under this efiuence into sound
sweet character, is worth more thou.
sand times to the world than the most
nimble salesman or the handiest work
man that plumbs house or frames a
door. The spirit of DR.. Arnold, not
his scholarship, made him great teach
er. Scholarship like his was not I'M
common among educated Englishmen,
but spirit, fine enough and powerful
enough to shape the souls of others, SC
that his pupils grew into men under
his gaze, was his glory, and in greater
or less degree every good teacher needs
the spirit of Doctor Arnold more than
very profound scholarship in order te
do good work.
Books are we'll enough, but charac.
ter must be based on something better
than books to bear any wholesome
fruit from its brilliant flower. The
function of the teacher must be ele.
waited, not degraded in public opinion,
and the education that tells in moral
results is not contained in tho mere
learning or culture Of the teacher,
whether he be parent, schoolmaster OF
preacher; it lies in the living character
of the teacher, not in his culture. II
the teacher is a man of moral earnest
ness in purpose, and sweet, sincere hu-
manity in his daily walk and talk,
something of his immortal fire will &C
out of him into his pupils, to vivify
and energize them morally with the
stimulating glow of pure and ingen
uous enthusiasm for whatsoever things
are lovely, honest, honorable and ol
good report in this world. Coed wa
ges for good teachers pays splendid
dividend to the public on the invest
ment; the teachers wanted are not mer
who pick up teaching hastily, using it
as kind of horse-block, from which
they can mount law, medicine or the
pulpit; they are rot young womer
who dabble with school while wait
ing for matrimony. Low wages means