River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-11-21

The history of Education shows that
there have been three well marked stag
es Of opinion with regard to fitness for
teaching.
In the earliest period when learning
was nonopolized by the few it was the
universal belief that all who were learn
ed could teach. Later, when education
had become much more general, it was
observed that while some scholars were
very successful as teachers, others equally
excellent in scholarship, were but infer
Tor instructors. As this could not be
wholly due to difference in natural abil-
ity, it was ascribed to different degrees of
skill; and so the question of method was
called into prominence; then followed a
comparison of methods and finally a
search for a standard by which their ex-
cellence could be gagged and tested.
Out of this grew science of teaching. If
we arrange these three conceptions of fit
ness for teaching, in the order of their
historical sequence, they will stand thus:
|. Scholarship, 2. Scholarship and meth
cd, 3. Scholarship, method and science.
While each of these succeeding stages of
of opinion is somewhat broader in its
scope than the preceding all agree in
giving scholarship the leading place; and
the best educators Of to-day are united in
the belief that true fitness for teaching so
far as it can be gained from instruction,
consists first of all of a broad and accurate
scholarship, then of a knowledge of the
best methods of doing the work of the
school and of the principles that underlie
these methods. The importance of a
thorough preparation for the work of
teaching is no longer matter of doubt.
Every teacher before he begins the work
of instruction should have some definite
idea of what constitutes an education, or
he may work to very little purpose. The
sculptor who would fashion from rude
and shapeless marble perfect life-like
statue must have before his minds eye
an ideal statue, a true and clear concep-
ton of that which his hand would shape;
thus every stroke of the chisel has its OBJ
ject and when the late unsightly marble,
as if by magic, stands forth complete and
almost seems to breathe and speak, it is
to the artist but the realization Of his own
conception. But if, on the contrary, the
hand which directs the chisel be aimless
and unskilled, unguided by clear and
perfect ideal, nothing comes of the strokes
but deformity. Addison says: "What a
sculptor is TO the block of marble, educa-
ton is to the human soul" The sculptor
is an admirable type of the true educator
while the unskilled workman aptly repre-
sents too many false teachers who without
study or forethought enter upon the deli
cate business of fashioning human souls.
The candidate for the Office of teacher
should look well TO bis motives. 1t is
easy to enter upon the duties of the teach
er without an earnest preparation and
lofty purpose but it is not so easy to undo
the mischief which single mistake may
produce in the mind of a child. The
teacher should go to his duty full of his
work. He should be impressed with its
overwhelming Importance, and feel that
a single mistake through it may not ruin
him may permanently injure his pupils.
He should come to this work only when
he has carefully studied its nature and
responsibilities, and after he has devoted
his best powers to a thorough preparation
of himself for its high duties. His eye
should be directed to the very best mod.
ell in the work and he should never be
satisfied with mere mediocrity. Excel
sior, the motto of the empire state, may
well be the motto of every teacher.