The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-01-26
said one to me of former teacher.


a teacher. are the leverage the public
schools must use for the uplift Of the
future.
4 Children, like older people, love
variety of methods and duties and ex-
ercises. 1t is a mistake to follow day
after day the same devices, dead rou-
tine, kinds of work. A new spirit,
new interest, and zeal in study are
aroused by fresh knowledge and prep
aration by the teacher, by new topics,
Illustrations, objects, books of refer
ence, and earnestness. There is little
profit and slow growth Of mental life
unless spirit and interest are found in
school duties 1t is fatal to let the
work and spirit sink into net. Pu
pills should feel that the school room
is to be a newS-roOm tomorrow, that
they are to enter new regions OF thO't,
Investigate new continents Of truth
and knowledge. All should feel that
school is place for thinking. judg-
ing, inferring, discriminating. Chill
dren enjoy these much more than
examining with llfeless material which
they do not understand. Schools are
TO iii boys and girls for the busy world,
for the varied activities, multitudin-
Gus duties and relations of life, for
friendship, society, business, domestic
relations, for moral choices. They
need more food for thought and senti-
ment, more training in thinking and
speaking wisely, kindly, honestly, if
they have less of the wordy husks
that some schools give continually;
they need more hygiene of their body
and moral nature, more discrimina-
tiOn in topics of books, life and them
selves, even if they can answer fewer
rote questions as to the bones, verbals,
figures, capes, definitions, and rules.
The children are crying from the Bit
terness Of their hearts, Welcome
the New Education Let every child
in school this year get view Of the
promised school land of the next de-
cade. 1t flows with milk and honey
of living mental and moral life in
stead of dead verbiage.
5. Pupils should have set before
them and be led and reused to their
work by the highest motives, the best
incentives. How to enlist their senSi-
bilities, guide their will so to train
their mental and moral faculties, and
make them self-governing human be-
ings, is question to which teachers
should give much study. The artifi-
cial incentives. such as privileges,
prizes and praise, may have their
place, but their worth is very little in
developing right character.
The direct natural incentives which
should be set before children in the
home and school, teachers and all
young people. are such as the follow
ing:
l. The desire for excellence in their
work and standing in tn 'sses,
and moral attachments above al uLi:-
er things.
2. The desire for the approval and
esteem of good, intelligent people who
take pride in the worthy young peo-
pie of the city.
3. The desire to use, and use with
skill, the faculties of our being, and
to attain the power that results from
their training.
4 The desire for the beauty, use,
and charms of knowledge and its en-
iOyments
5. The desire for success in study
and life, for advancement, and future
reward.
6. The feeling that we are made for
development and culture, and only
thus can we fulfill the plans of our
Creator concerning each of US.
I. A sense of duty, A love of work
and service. The ought that rules in
our breast. Conscience says what is
right, and that we ought to do it. If
children are managed wisely in the
home and school duty, love and ought
have wizard power over them.
s. Higher ideals Of work, worth and
knowledge, should be placed before
US all, as well as before children.
Ideals have ever, and ever will have,
a mightier force in developing man
hood and womanhood than threats,
punishment, laws, government, facts,
and ideas. Our studies have a rich,
intrinsic charm, and teaching is re-
gal power in guiding and developing
childle en-, but the above are eight laud-
able motives to bring to bear upon
children in their education. If our
schools are to make an improvement
upon the excellent work of the first
half of the year, it must be in the
lines suggested in this article.
O.. E. KENAsTON,
Jan'y 10th, 1894. Sup't
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