River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-01-02
Our Duties in Teaching Morals and
manners.
PRIs. A.E sHAuB, HUDSON, WIS.


schools, in certain elementary branch es
of study, it neither requires morals and
manners to be taught, nor calls attention
to them as being at all worthy of the
teachers notice, except only III cases OF
glaring immortality. Hence it is possible
that person may be legally qualified to
teach who has neither good character
nor accomplished manners. Therefore
success or failure in the history of a
school so often depends on the choice of
the school officers between applicants
varying in manner as much as accom-
plished Normans and Saxon Swine, and
| in character are as diverse as Garfield
| and his assassin. A teacher may be dis
missed in one county for the grossest
violations of statute and social laws, and
be criminal in the county Jail, yet, on
| his release, he can go to some distant
| locality in our state, where his history is
not known, and secure a license TO
teach without giving evidence of good
character. Unless the employing officers
are determined to secure a teacher of
| reputable character, and insist upon it,,
our laws give no guaranty that its Ii
censed force of experts are not frequently
immoral and vulgar. Still it is the duty
of every person always to live moral
life. This is the fundamental law of
duty,-every man owes every n an per-
| feet life Just as no molecule of all the
matter in the universe is excluded from
the law of gravity, 30 no human being
can be exempted from this law of mutual
obligation. Every false and wicked life,
each base and Maynard act, unsettles the
moral equipoise and brings detrilnent to
society in general. And so no statute
law, wise or otherwise, can in any sense
affect the duty of teachers to possess an
approved character and to bear them
selves seemly.
The conflict with ignorance is always
on. Every person is to some extent
teacher. The ignorant servant and docile
child in their turn impart knowledge and
suggest thought. Our helpless condition
when we come to life, and pusilanimous
efforts all through our career make it
necessary that we should impart to 9th
ers all that has become part of our own
experience. Hence it is necessary that
the person who chooses TO teach school,
and assumes to do more teaching than
people who follow other pursuits, should
feel his obligation to teach all the fullness
and depth of character and the perfect
art of good department. History records
faithfully the fact that successes have as
often fallen to great actors as to great
thinkers. The Duke of Marlborough
wrote bad English and spelt it worse"
Yet his charming manners changed enc
mics to friends. At the head of great
tie his address was so exquisitely fas-
sh.ating as to allay luminosity, disarm
supicion and beguile the subtlest diplo-
| macy. His winning tongue controlled
| the powerful alliance to preserve the lib
critics of Europe, restrained the fiery
Charles of Sweden and baffied the wary
Louis of France. Though noted for no
other faculty he became great actor III
| the councils of nations, and amassed
great wealth. Thank you, my dear,
please call again" has made many man
both famous and rich. Chesterfield said
that the art of pleasing, is the art OF
rising, or making figure and fortune
in the world. In writing to his son, he
said, "All your Greek can never advance
you from secretary to envoy, or from en-
voy to ambassador; but your address,
your air, your manner, if good, may"
| Our Hawthorne was wont 20 say, GOD
may forgive sins, but awkwardness has
no forgiveness in heaven or earth"
The minor thoughts and acts, though
trifling they seem, constitute the i'm
portant trend of life. Let us not forget
the power of trihes. The spilling of some
water ON lady's gown hurled wing
ministry of England from power. When
the Danes secretly advanced upon the
Scots, one of their soldiers stepped on a
thistle and uttered sharp cry which
brought out the Scottish troops. The
thistle saved Scotland. Politeness is dill
gence in little things. The principles
and practice OF good school influence
the state. Thorough teaching OF man
ners and morals is conducive to mental
discipline and to practical utility. Sue
cess is no tritle.
''Great is truth and it will prevail.
"What is TRUTH" Can it be taught from
arithmetic, geography and history? lie
who seeks it there will find it. But he,
only, who knows truth can discover it.
Geography gives us an account OF this
world which is essential to our general
culture. Shall we make it teach thai II
is right to export intoxlcants to Africa,
that tobacco growing is profitable? His
tory is truly lamp - our feet; and yet
it records all the evil in the mind of man.
Grammar may DE SO taught that pupils
will be careful about what not to say, and
what to clotlIe in satanics circumlocution
and pleonastic mystihcation. 1t is moi
enough that the teacher be a truth-seekel
and profess sincerity in his search. Truth
must be found, truth must be applied
diligence in seeking, JOY IN finding and
skill in applying the truth, which was
first Gods, then his, and now theirs, vii
waken a school into moral lite.
After all, we must not forget how much
is due to action. The danger is not thai
we shall fail to perceive truth or glut oul
desires to obtain it. Mental impetus anC
habit may lead Va ON IN its pursuit unit
we are its most ardent devotees. AnC
vet it may not be our truth. Conscience
can not outrun knowledge and it Otter
lags far behind. If the conscience is sen
sitive to truth the individual will not fal
for want of energy in imparting it. Here
again we clash with Inconsistency. Per
sons who class themselves with christians
, some, even, w..J teach a class in Sunday
school and profess an interest quite sane
titled to human veal, teach so-calleC
Goddess school. If there is any ground
for calling our schools goddess, it II
through no fault of our books, but is due
to the folly of such teachers who fear Of
forget to inculcate the simplest rudiment'
Of saorsl;ty. Coleridge says, 'If you are
not thinking man, to what purpose ar,
you a man at alp" Feltham, ''Negligene,
is the rust of the soul that corrodes
through all her best resolves Georg'