Semi-weekly independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1895-1897, 1895-12-14
Shall Teachers Teach


most perplexing problem in these
DAYS confr0nts teachers N our colleges
and higher institutions of learning.
Vita the growth OF the universities,
the advancement OF science. and the
minute subdivision Of Spccialties. has
arisen Il demand that the departments
IN eur colleges Shall be conducted, not
So much by men and women who can
teach as by those VINO have made repu-
tations by advanced work in their own
lines That this trend of affairs is in
many respects desirable. no one will
deny But SO much stress has been
laid upon this, and so much criticism
has been devoted 70 the man who IS
E'ncver heard OF outside his own class
room that it seems time to question
little whether the pendulum has not
swung too far. IL general, the policy
OF tie institutions and individuals at
tackled On this score has been merely
defensive Most OF our colleges are
poor ard on :his fact their line of de-
Tense has rested Their resources have
been inadequate 20 secure the service
of extraordinary men, or the men
whom they have secured have, for lack
OF assistance been compelled TO carry
so large AZ amount Of work in instruc-
ton that they could not find time to
make or further their own regulations,
or advance the knowledge of their spe
cialtieS.
Bat a purely defensive position is new
er satisfactory to an ambitious man.
nor does an active conscience find much
com fort in q state of simple moral sol
vency, with neither debts nor credits"
We may not be TO blame if we have
been shut off by poverty from the devel-
Opment of brains or character; but the
sense of failure is none the less haunt
ing one. And under this sense the eX-
actions of public opinion now compel
great number of scholarly, ambitious,
and Conscientious men and women to
labor.
But is the career Of teacher whose
whole life work goes into his classroom
necessarily failure? No man can give
necessarily without continually taking
in from some source. No man can teach
year after year without study. Yet no
mans knowledge grows less by impart-
ing it. What he does lose, what he
must be ever recuperating, is vitality.
doubt if any man every really taught
who could not say when the lesson was
over, Il perceive that virtue is gone out
of me-" And, as III the direction of any
form OF energy. one must give royalty.
ruthlessly, If he expects TO see any re-
suit Only about j. per cent of the coal
IN locomotive moves the train; the
other 50 per cent. is laviShed in over
coming friction. In some such measure
must energy be lavished in teaching,
and the chances are that few men have
vitality to combine the functions OF Il
leader and an original scholar. Yet the
result of teaching is not less real be-
cause it is intangible The greatest
teachers of mankind have not account
ed il loss. The real work of Arnold of
Rugby is not affected By the fact that
his Roman history IS not accounted an
authority. Perhaps no man ever did
more for human thought than Socrates;
yer lie left no writings. nor would it be
easy to find a single item of knowledge
which we owe directly To him. That Il
man has attained 4 great reputation in
his department, AMI has even advanced
the sum of human learning. is by no
means an evidence that he could fill the
chair of an instructor whose name is
unknown to any publication. Nor
should the latter count his own life
wasted because II las not done the
same kind o. 7,0ra. The Greek student
who has discovered the origin of the
'ka perfect" is scholar, and has a
scholars reward. But the office is no
less of ne man Who can make his
classes near
'like ocean on western beach
The surge and thunder of the Ody ssey."
Having. then, gifts differing accord
ing TO the grace that is given us. wheth-
er prophecy. let us prOphesy according
to the proportion of faith; on ministry.
let Us wait on our ministering; or he
that teacheth on teaching York
Independent.