The record-union., 1897-09-12
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY Memo

Copyrighted by Dave & Tabor)
To Teachers and Professional People:
That faint little tap on your desk for
attention" at the first session this term.
will TO some of you, sound as ominous
as the tolling of a death knell 1t will
conjure UP the pleasures of the weeks
of rest, and then they will all vanish
under a lurid cloud out of whose gray
body will peep visions of children who
insist on being stupid when the Super
tntendent appears, or who are triumph
antly mischievOus when your back is
turned and strangely angelic when you
wheel round to detect them. Really,
there is little wonder if your heart
sinks within you, as you remember
that to keep up the standard of the
school you will need to be alert, not
once a week, but every hour of every
day. / can quite understand a feeling
akin to nausea when the familiar backs
of the old familiar books tell you that
this year. as last, you will have to go
over the self-same simple lessons to q
new set of simple listeners. Then, if
you are woman, a little feeling of
angry protest will arise; for you know
full well that the average man of your
town, however free he feels to point
out your defects, would prefer a week
of the hardest toll to one day of at
tempting the control of twenty of your
sprites, and if you are a male teacher,
criticised for your severe discipline,
you need no telling that no mother
out of a captious ten would be able to
govern such a heaped together family
except by free and indiscriminate slap
pings
Altogether you feel a little gloomy as
the duties begin to burden your shoul-
ders again.
But do not undo the good of your va
cation by fretting and fuming. To a
certain extent the laborious character
of your work is recompensed. in that
your rest time is longer and your hours
of labor shorter than is vOuchsafed to
the general run of workers. Take
courage from that, and stand up to
duty in your chosen sphere as bravely
as your favOrite historic character
stood up to his. But as for yearning
for full appreciatiOn-sWeep the temp
tation behind you, else you will be un-
happy continually. No good work is
ever fully appreciated. This you prob
ably believe in theory, but your diff
Guilty comes in adapting the theory to
a fact, and that fact your own ca
reer 1t is painful to discover that
you are the living counterpart of the
man who fell among thieves-peOple OF
your community pass you by without
bestoWing any more than thought
on you, and it is left to me, a distant
and Impoverished Samaritan. to pour
in the oil and the wine upon your
troubled spirit.
We expect children to place them
selves where their heads can be pat
ted but we'll balanced men and women
never do this. I will even dare to Sug-
gest that if a half of your good efforts
were fully praised, your head would
be turned, and your heart, too, away
from the very things that first brought
you applause. Not a tithe of all the
good work of life is done where men
may place garlands of esteem upon it;
if it were so, how would our bridges or
our houses weather a single storm.
Out of sight work counts in the great
balance sheet of the Almighty; if you
are tempted to doubt it, say it over and
over agaln until you reacn the point
of glorying in the doing of a duty
though no witnesses be near. The
faith you demand of the scholar, who
is urged by you to believe that though
his well-done task is wiped from the
blackboard, it yet remains part of his
mental gain-that faith must be yours,
impelling you to a royal giving up of
yourself to your work, though every
shred and particle of effect seem to
utterly disappear.