Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-09-10
ABOUT THE TEACHER.
How He Shouli Teach His Scholars I'm
Order to Make Them Learn

How He Shouli Teach His Scholars I'm
Order to Make Them Learn.
Teaching must be sensuous. Abstract teach
Ing, Ike abstract poetry, is for the cultured
few. The early tards sang not of abstrac-
TONS but of realities; not of beauty, but of
beautiful things; not of love, but OF lovers;
not Of herosm, but Of heroes. Their poetry
was indeed, according to Aristotles dictum,
imitation, direct reproduction of such out
ward sights and s,unds as might best excite
the emotions
All really popt lar poetry contains abun.
dance Of imagery and is rich with records
and suggestions of the objective world. In
the same way IL Is now truisn in education
to say that all gooi teaching should appeal,
at least in the earl er stages, to the senses aud
That the intellect, N its mastery of the alb
stract, should work upon "A firm basis of the
concrete. Thus tie history which Young
child may fifty lea N consists of poetic. and.
perhaps, mythic stories of great and pict,lr-
esque personages and events; Alfred for the
time at least, must have his cakes, and Ca
mute his chair by the sea shore.
The child's ethi al ideas are imhihed nv
means of little studies in human nature.
supplied by fables, fairy stories aud childish
narratives Ii is vain To talk to him of
beauty, or TO 'ay down rules of criticism, but
he may he shown beautiful things and
taught To admire them, and when they are
no longer present he may be reminded of
them and told Of other things which resem-
bie them. He does not understand the
term marine denndation," but he will no
. tice the contour of n sea worn cliff and won.
der about the heap of debris at its base. In
duction and theory will come later on, and
these will be sound and useful in proportion
as the preliminary teaching has been success
tul in cultivating his observation and his
constructive imagination
Accordingly the teacher who is to train
observers must himself observe, and that
sympathetically and patiently, all such phe-
nomena as are likely to interest the young
human beings to wi ose intellectual life he is
the appointed minister. He must take an af.
fectionate child like interest In nature-in
her transformations, her curiosities and her
analogies. In reaoinG some of the vivid
word pictures of Tennyson, one often mar
vels as much at the wealth of patient, minute
observations and intimate knowledge of the
external look of things which they reveal as
at the exquisite setting of polished phrase
IL Is not too much to say that this same
power of insight should belong to the teacher
that he should he constantly enriching his in
tellectual stores by this same process of faith
ful observation, thai, like the poet he should
be ever gathering in the harvest of IA quiet
eye"
Teaching must also be impassioned Pro
fessor Sully points put that some degree of
pleasurable eNcitem mt is necessary to the
assimilation of any kind of knowledge. In
other words, there must be interest, and in.
terest is form of emotion. If child feels
no interest in subjrct. all the labors of the
teacher to make tbs mind absorb it are in
vain. Now, emotion is largely IA matter of
contagion, a great part OF our emotional life
being derived from sympathy with others.
A phlegmatic, International teacher obtains
only perfunctory work; whatever intellec-
tual glow his pupils might possibly exhibit is
quenched and dead med by his unsympa-
thetic manner, where as a really good teacher
will inspire an enthu iitsm for every subject
which he teaches. IN those subjects which
distinctly human in their tendencies.
which have relation to conduct aud to life
such as literature ar history, frigidity is
fatal
The child Is defra Ided of his hirthright;
the teachers stolidity or indifference pre-
vents him from beco ming conscious of the
human spirit that is ia him, and he is i'm dan
ger of growing up a narrow, selfish being
with straitened symps .thies and AN atrophied
moral sense.
We must not fall in5o the other extreme,
and influence the chili's mind with our own
red hot theories about religion or politics, for
this is to take an undt advantage of his i'm.
pressionability and ou- own relation to him
But fortunately there IS scant danger of ex-
pending too much ent lusiasn in creating q
love for the beautiful, the true and the good
On any matter which nay help to make the
growing boy responsible moral being,
factor for good in his generation if there be
any virtue, if there b, any praise-we may
speak to him with a clear conscience, not
with crude, unchastened vehemence indeed,
but with wise, kindly enthusiasm, letting him
see that we care for Il ese things and would
have him care for them too.-Cor. Teacher