Daily Honolulu press. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1886, 1886-01-04
The Teachers Individuality.

There is nothing SO taking as something 4
new, and the educational and other periodicals
OF the last few months have rung many changes
on the new, as compared with the old, claiming
for the former all that is worth knowing or
doing in school work.
No doubt there have been changes; we donot
need to go back TO the dark ages to point the
contrast our memories can easily recall the
weather beaten old school-house, unshaded and
unshelered by friendly trees, exposed to the
fiercest heat of summer and the hardest storms
Of winter; altogether such a building as no
scientific or intelligent farmer Of the present
day would use to shelter cattle OF sheep.
The inside was a perfect harmony with the
outside unpainted pine desks, popuarly be-
lieved TO have been made old, as no memory
of living resident could reach back to the time
when they were unmarked by ink or knife
hard, narrow benches, aifordng scant support
for growing lads, and so high that little legs
dangled painfully stove that ranged from
red heat TO a sullen smouldering that allowed
the frost to gather on the windows limited
allowance of blackboard, but of maps, globes
and other apparatus not even that, while the
variety Of textbooks suggested a second hand
book STALL
Two terms year, Of twelve weeks each,
and usually new teacher every term, was the
common arrangement; yet even under such
discouraging circumstances, there was work
done that told for good on the future lives OF
,,o;ie Man., an aornact anthusia ctic ctudent
not Of books only, but of boys and girls as
we'll, succeeded during those few weeks in
awakening an eager thirst for knowledge that
sent out into the world men and women who
sasV and thought and few who have in after
life done much to raise the standard of public
sentiment, and helped to refine and elevate
: surrounding lives, gained their first upward
l impetus from some early teacher.
lIf printed books were not
so abundant as later, the few possessed were
mastered, and perhaps the volume of nature
received more earnest, reverent attention than
is often given now.
!. The present tells different story; schsol
buildings are erected that are justly the pride
of the people; books of reference, maps,
globes and numberless other aids help to
broaden and make easier the paths Of
u learning, but do we dare claim that all the
l. reforms tend to reformation1 Are we sure
e that there is not SO much ''pouring i'm done,
n that there is little opportunity for the :" draw
ing out" which constitutes, the truest educa-
.ion1
In the earlier days some committee oi
e superintendent visited the school once term,
O and after alternately doing and listening
# through the recitations for half day. made 9
=, set speech, congratulating the pupils on the
'commendable progress" they had made; bu
7" are we sure that the many supervisors who
IS now ride their own particular hobbies into the
II schools every few days, are really any more
e helpful in the work of developing the pupils
/. into thinking, self-reliant men and women
When one school visitor insists that every
. word read or spelled shall be made clear tc
e the duest pupil; another, that none shall be
!, cies of mental and written arithmetic; another
a demands that every pupil shall sing
like nightingale another is sure that
no school is success where the pupils are
II not drilled in mechanical and artistic draw.
II ing; another would have every teacher live,
IS read and study solely with view to enlight-
a ening the pupils on every subject at all con
nected with any part of the world in which we
live and yet another would have. one corner
j of the school; room set apart as menagerie,
he rhitaran ctt,Iu raal If
It the different animals therein contained, 70he,1
# and Ao70 can a teacher find opportunity to b.
or do what nature and education have desgnedi
> Are teachers and pupils mere machines2 II
. to make them such is the aim of schools,
e better al once start an automaton factory,
S where images could be turned out that would
obey these would-be master minds, as puppets
yield to the hand which holds the strings.
We once knew a superintendent who in
; sisted that none of the teachers under his
:, the text books used in the schools, even if the
s books contained errors, because such teaching
q showed lack Of Difference to the committee
who placed the books in school. Wewere
u fairly acquainted with the members of said
S committee, excellent business men, every one,
o but with no experience in school management,
except in the financial department, while, as
a for the superintendent himself, neither teach.
/, ers nor pupils could have much respect for a
: man who had never learned to control his
temper, or clean his finger nails.
J Method in school, as in any other work, is
: needed to bring about the most and best
. results, but, until boys and girls cease to have
individual traits of mind and character,
. teachers will do well to remember that what
they are, as well as what they feaek, will in
huence their pupils, and that the bestol methods
though excellent SERVANTS, are merciess
f and tyrannical masters. ELLEN A. ARMS.