The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1900-03-23
The Model School Is What
by MARY ROBINSON.

The general opinion mall commune
ties.is, that to have model school
you must have model teacher. This
is largely true, but 1t always takes
more than the model school teacher
to make the model school. Model
schools, like many other things in this
life, arcto be had under different cir
cumstances in different places. A
teacheEmay teach model school in
he pnce and in another work entire
~ different to make the school just
what he feels it should be.
Schools, as we have them to-day are
modelled very much after the neigh
borhood in which they are located and
the model teacher must have dispose
ton to adapt himself to the things
peculiar to that neighborhood or he
will soon cease to be themodel teacher.
BY adapting himself to the things
peculiarto the neighborhood, we mean,
that the teacher requires sufficient
tact to meet successfully all the little
hinderances that might lay in the way
of his school progress. One may tell
YOU about this little thing, another
that one doesn't like this, another
that in former schools. If the teacher
can succeed in pacifying all parties
with no hurt to himself: if he can
iudiciousy make the parent feel that
he and his children are the all import
ant factors (eyen though he apply the
same rule to every family in the COM
munity lfneed be- if that teacher has
all otherqualiticattons for good school
foundations, he is sure OF 4 model
school many community in which he
may be thrown. But many of us lack
the tact that masters the situation in
any nejphborhood. Most of us like to
he thrown in the very best neighbor-
hoods: there we feel sure Of the most
successful schools.
The model teacher must have some
degree of tact as well as talent. He
must have sufficient education. Power
to impart knowledge to others. Power
to control self. Power tocontrol 9th
ers. He must have some knowledge Of
11Nfllan nature. A person who knows
his own faults. for teachers, at best,
are not without faults. To sum itup
he must be a wide-awake, energetic,
enthusiastic. conscientious teacher.
With this teacher we come to the
school. Who is there to greet the
teacher Children from. perhaps,
twenty or more homes in the COM
munity, probably forty different DIS
nositions to learn and to know how to
control, forty little fellows no two of
them with the same ideas. Has the
teacher task or not Twenty homes
in the community, the parents in each
home to be pleased, for the children
of each parent are of the greatest i'm
nortapce IN him. Then the teacher
feels the need of this tact Of which we
were just speaking. To make the
school justwhat would bedesired, we
wovSSuggest that the teacher have
tty Sugh system by which his school
utsS regulated. A regular hour for
beginning. A certain amount Of tfme
to be devoted to each separate recita-
tion. Letas much time aspossible be
given to the recitation and let the
child feel free and easy 10 express him
self and toask any question that may
suggest itself in the lesson. Draw
him out and be sure that he thinks.
one OF the greatest points in the
school work is having the child to
Stink. Make each recitation as
thorough as your time will admit. I'm
press upon the child's mind the i'm
portance of study and also that you
always expect the very best recitations