Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-06-28
MINING JOURNAL,
FROSTBURG, MD, JUNE %, 1890.
Bottom Rail Not on Top.

keyser Tribune and the JOURNAL is
the Tribune sees the devil of british
ness in the teachers the JOURNAL
only in some pupils-not few com
pared with the mass.
The Tribune, being welded to its in
sane fad, it would appear needless to
continue the controversy. Still 1t asks
two questions, which we want to an
swer:
1, What does the JOURNAL mean when it as
serts that there can be no equality in any
sense between teacher and pupil?'
The JOURNAL means just what it
says.
.. Does it mean that the teacher is morally,
Intellectually and physically the superior of
the pupil?
Exactly.
But the Tribune answers for itself:
If he is not intellectually so he is not fit to
teach being larger and more developed he is
supposed to be physically so, but no reason
can exist that he is morally his superior.
Why do we have schools if the UNI
taught are as good as the teachers
Why do we saddle upon the public
"blind leaders of the blind ~ If it be
prerequisite that teacher should
know more than he attempts to teach,
why should he not in all other respects
be superior even to himself, much
more to his pupils
"No reason can exist that he is
morally his superior ~ Why /? Does
the pupils level fix the status of the
school If the lattterare all swearers,
or If they are all lousy, does either habit
or state establish the moral condition
OF the tea eher9 "By their works We
shall know them'-is that the new
Scriptural criterion by which we are
to fix the virtue of teachers-the
works of their untamed, and by pa
rental protection, untameable pupils
The proposition of perfect moral
equality between teacher and pupils
becomes more unique when we con
slider that such equality does not and
cannot exist between the pupils them
selves. Different antecedents, dis
positions and styles of home training
all tend to diversities in moral as in
mental and physical stature. Even
in the same family under the same
conditions of training and control,
these dlsagreements occur. SO that,
III this field of comparison, as in
all others, perfect uniformity does not
exist. Morals, like faces, may re-
semble, but of two one is always more
admirable, or less comedy than the
other.
The Tribune, with the same disregard
for intelligent statement, continues
If we draw our conclusions from logical
reasoning we submit that in ninety mine
cases out OF one hundred the teacher is not
morally the equal of the pupil; we say this
without fear of contradiction from the fact
mot the environment of the teacher is such
that opportunities occur day by day to de-
velop all the latent viciousness of his nature
This does not apply to the pupil, because it
has home Influences, home teaching, binding
and controlling all its moral nature.
What opportunities are these ?
What occasions them? Anything in
the schoolroom The head devil be-
ing the peer of the meanest imp under
his I.,bot - 10 IL
him "develop all the latent vicious
ness of his nature and to make the
vices of his little power of darkness
shine like virtues, as baleful stars, re-
Elected, twinkle with beneficent lustre
in the depths of the sea! What in
fiuence or condition brings about a
result so dissimilar in two moral guam
titles OF the same equation? What
one thing is it that makes of one a
minister of darkness-of the other an
angel of light
We assure the Tribune that this is
not "begging the question''-that is, if
it knows what it means when it uses
that very available term. Our in
quiries are based solely upon its own
propositions, practically two of them,
we believe. Mere badinage will not
do, nor will the grief of bowling
Dervlsh over the degeneracy of his an.
cestors answer why it is the illiterate
plgmy is the goody-goody peer of the
educated, certificated Lucifer who
rules with forbidden wand, from a
throne without power, over a realm
whose subjects are all kings, and
whose monarch is sovereign without
single emblem of royalty or prerog-
ative of kingship.
Inadvertcnt Friendship.
On its face it is foolish to blame the