The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-28

shyster Is lawyer, than quack Ii . doctor,
or clerical demagogue is preacher. 1t
is great pity that 50 many teachers are
either boys, who use the vocation as
horse block from whence to mount
profession, or girls, who will not
teach an hour after marriage, and have
never thought of teaching seriously as
life work.
The low estimation placed upon teach
er's services, as shown by the smallness OF
their wages, is not creditabie to popular
intelligence. If his only capacity for use
fitness was to Iaboriously teach the boys
to read. write and cipher, the teacher
might be rated as worth only the wages,
not of skilled workman, but of a trough"
carpenter, but from the vantage ground Of
closer and more constant personal contact
with his pupils than even that enjoyed by
the parent, the teacher who is rich in
manhood, of quick and delicate mental
tact and moral apprehension, has it in his
power 70 make them men and women that
represent loyalty to conscience, at once
truthful, manly and humane in their in
ward and outward life. 4 mere pedagogue
may not be worth any more to the world
than a copying clerk, but teacher who
has so much of manly moral atmosphere
about him that the best impulses of his
pupils harden under this effiuence into
sound, sweet character, is worth a thou
sand times more to the world than the
most nimble salesman or the handiest
workman that plumbs house or frames
door. The spirit of DR.. Arnold, not
bis scholarship, made him great
teacher. Scholarship ike his was not ur-
common among university men, but
spirit fine enough and powerful enough to
shape the souls of others, so that his
pupils grew into men under his gaze was
his glory, and every good teacher needs
the spirit of DR.. Arnold more than any
profound scholarship in order to do good
work. Books are well enough, but charac-
ter must be based on something better
than books to bear any wholesome fruit
from its brilliant flower, and the strength
and sweetness of the teachers personal
character is what makes him blessed
formative influence to his pupils. The
teacher that turns out the most genuine
men and women from his school is the
best teacher: scholars are common enough,
but scholarship bottomed on sound and
sweet character that stands for conscience
and conquest is what the world always
wants.
Such teachers as We have suggested are
only possible where the function of
teacher is elevated, not degraded, in pub
lie opinion; and the teacher is paid for his
services upon scale that would justify
his making the training of youth life
work. Wherever teachers are paid decent
salaries, as they are in the larger cities and
towns of the United States, you will find
fine men and women among them, who
have taken up teaching as a noble and hui
name and incidentally useful career, since
its purpose is to multiply true men and
women throughout the land. Wherever a
teacher of true metal is found he becomes
at once blessed formative influence; his
pupils show superior elevation of mind
and character; his boys are not
boisterous, boastful fools or dissolute
knaves, and his girls are neither pedantic
prudes nor vulgar peacocks. There are
several schools in this country that be-
came famous for the number of superior
men and women that came out of them,
who always gave the spirit of the school
full credit for their success. The school
age is the impossible season; the teacher
is blessed formative influence if he has
any soul and genuine manly stuff in him;
but q coarse, vulgar, boorish man, or a
rude, silly, vulgar woman, is a public
calamity in the teachers chair, for young
minds under such circumstances either do
not grow at all or grow with the sickly
luxuriance and noxious effluence of poi
sonous shrubs in primitive swamp.