Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-08-14
Exceptions That Merely Prove The Rule.


NOR school ever held on the continent.
Most of lis are teachcis We are. as Il
class. the most birotcd and narrow
minded of any class that | know.
We are inclined to think this a harsh
Judgment. While it is doubtless true.
that teaching mas a tendency to make
people who are not strong enough I"
rc:-ist il. opinionatcd and dogmatic, it
is equally true that it requires degree
of culture patience and SClf-controi,
which insures a more than average
grade of citizenship in people devoted
to this calling. Some of the noblest
and most unselfish characters it has
been our good fortune to know have
been enlisted as teachers in the
grand work of our common schools.
1t seems to us that few callinss offer
such wide opportunities for the ac
comp!ishmcnt of good as that of the
teacher. Indeed it would he difficult
to meas sure the permanent benefits that
earnest. magnetic personality. engaged
in the responsible task of moulding
the plastic material of youth into
forms of strength and beauty. The
influences that radiate from good
teacher reach out to the coming
generations. Why. then should man
J,ic n
himself and his co-workers as the
most bigoted and narrow minded
class that he knows? Possibly it may
be because he does not really know any
other class. 1t is a fact that there is a
tendency among many to imagine that
Il large majority of the really small
and bigotcd people in the world are
engaged in their own particular calling.
for the reason probably that those they
know most Intimately in the relations
best suited to GOODNESS and accuracy
of judgment, are the ones who come
within the radius of their own particu
lar field of activity. Prof Russell is n
chiefly with teachers. Most of the
narrow and bigotod people he has been
in position to meet have, naturally,
been teachers. therefore he jumps at
the very fallacious and erroneous con-
clusion that teachers as class are
''biSoted and narrow minded. There
are people who answer to this deScrip-
ton in every calling, but they are the
exception rather than the rule. 1t
would be as unjust in any case t" use
these exceptions to characterize a
class. as it would be to say that college
boys as class are wild and disspated.
merely because a few noisy fellows
may be found in any Of the higher
educational institutions. who properly
merit such characterization. People
familiar with the real conditions know
that the great ma iority of the students
in our colleges and universities. are
upright and temperate young men, who
go there with a serious purpose and
who are earnest ana industrious in it's
pursuit. Sometimes. too, colleges
suffer from the hasty and Russell
like Judgments of people who fail to
discriminate between the innocent
ebullitipns of youthful eXuberanc"
noisy. perhaps but harmless-and
total depravity. There are SOM"
exceedingly narrow minded people
in the teachers profession, and
our observation has been that
the larger portion of them are rafting
around in various colleges and univcr-
&iticS-althoUGh. fortunately. it is not
often that any institution has more
than one of them at the same time
These are men who are wise III their
own "onCcits. Having instructed the
rising generation for a time in some
specially they come gradually to be-
lieve that they know it all and that
they are not only competent to in
"truct the youth under them. in some
special branch, but are fully qualified
to give mankind in general pointers on
all SUBJECTS. Such men carry the
didactic manner into all the relations
of life They are dogmatic and in
tolerant. Naturally. perhaps. men of
this class feel that they could carry on
the affairs of government with vastly
more wisdom and success. than the ex-
perienced and practical statesmen
charged with its responsibilities They
love to snap, and snarl. and criticise
1t is supreme satisfaction for them
To show how much better things might
have been done. if only they had been
permitted to order them.
For long time these men-none of
Wnom were producers in the economic
sense of the term-were telling our
great captains of industry, who
were engaged in the mighty
task of building up the pro-
ductive enterprises Of this country t.
their present commanding altitude