Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-02-06
Goneatio,1;,l Column.
The Teacher.

rows, it's successes and failures, is nov
numbered with the past, and the pas
with things that we're and now are not
If anyone can truthfully say, upol
careful investigation, that he is no bet
ter equipped mentally than he was ;
year ago, or that his conscience ha
become less sensitive, he is to be al
object of sympathy.
Growth is the order of nature. Eacf
year should find US better intelIectuall.
and morally. AS time goes on ont
should attain higher conceptions OF his
mission and duty on earth. A shor
time ago prominent minister wa:
heard to remark, "A school teacher
| who has been teaching school for ter
or fifteen years and does not teach a:
good a school now as he did when he
began should be dropped and no dis
| trict should employ him." We should
say amen. Thus it is that if we
would examine all our practice and
put it to a test, we should eliminate
many little annoyances which are the
bane of our lives.
Everything counts in the schoolroom.
Unless every available moment is used
to advantage there is wrong being
committed against the little ones who
are under our care. If every teacher
would bring his mind to bear on these
little matters and decide the utility OF
such and such practice during each
day, we would not hear so much CON-
plant about the lack of training ia our
teachers. Not an hour passes but
some fundamental law of teaching is
violated; the teacher loses his temper
and gives an exhibition of anger ap-
propriate only under conditions in
which one may be angry and sin not,
or he employs vicious methods of teach
ing. Our best educators tell US that a
vast amount of harm is done to the
plastic minds of the little learners
every year by unskillful teachers.
Few will be found SO conservative as
not to admit that such is the case.
The teacher who is successful from
the beginning is the exception and not
the rule. 1t is we'll for teacher to
associate a great deal with other teach
ers and visit all schools possible while
they are in session; there he will find
many things which will be to his ad-
vantage. We find some teachers who
know very little of the theory of good
teaching. yet unconsciously they have
some very good methods in much the
same way that a poet who has not
studied prosody may be able to write
very good poetry. Our teachers. to
give the best success must have train
ing and experience. / know teachers
who have been teaching eight or ten
years and attending institutes almost
every year, and to-day they are teach
ing just as they did the first school
taught. They will not give up their
old methods of teaching for any new
one. They are so prejudiced that they
will not give new method a fair trial.
The old teacher must get out of the
old ''ruts'' or the young teacher must
take his place. Let our watchword be
advance! advance!
Pedagogy is science that tends to-
wards the organization OF the impuis-
es into character; its application is
an art that produces results wholly de-
pendent upon the knowledge, skill and
tact of the teacher. How necessary
then is it that we should have these
qualifications.
The teacher has s'a hard row to hoe. ;"
He has all classes of character to deal
with, from the bright boy and girl
down to the dull ones; and from the
good boy and girl to the immoral and
vicious. He is successful teacher,
indeed, who can manage all these
classes of pupils and conduct them to-
wards higher sphere in life. Many
pupils are industrious and give the
teacher very little trouble in any way.
These reqire only small amount of
the teachers attention. They are
good in behavior and do not need the
teachers attention. They study we'll
and would rather work all week on a
lesson Or problem than to have the
teacher help them out of their difficult
ty. Such pupil as this will succeed
without much of the time of the teach
err. The dull and bad pupils are the
ones who should be the special object
of the teachers attention. Here is
where he has chance of showing his
skill as a governor of children. If he
can put them on the right road to moral
and intellectual manhood and woman
hood and keep them moving after he
gets them there, he has done good
act. not only for the boy or girl he has
started, but for the people in general.
Wake up these boys and girls. get
them Interested in some way; if one