The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-04-16
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN.

The following communications from
successful teachers will be of interest
to thoughtful people as they concern
school management and discipline.
LARS EST CELARE ARTEM. "
The old Latin proverb is as true of
school discipline as anywhere. The
teacher who lays down rules, brandish-
es ferule, drags pupils over desks,
etc, is not the true disciplinarian
| Thank God, such teachers are fewer
than formerly, but l am sorry to say
that they are not all dead yet, at least
some of the old spirit yet remains and
there are citizens, too, among us,
who measure the capacity of teach
er's government by the amount of
brute force exercised. In a truly well
disciplined school, the pupils forget
they are being governed and learn to
govern themselves. The quiet noise
less machinery of school work, run
ming without friction, becomes the
natural order of things
In Nature, the silent forces are the
most powerful, and in all our work
for humanity in the school and out
| OF 1t, 1t is character and love that
moves and rules the human heart,
that inspires to earnest effort and
! faithful work.
THE SCHOOL TEACHER OR THE
SCHOOL KEEPER.
Let no one set out on any great
undertaking without first engaging in
prayer is an injunction that has
come down to us from ancient times
The man or woman who undertakes
to teach children or youth proposes
a serious employment. However, a
great number think it an unimportant
business requiring small talents and
to be followed only until something
more remunerative appears.
Frederick the Great set his manned
soldiers over the schools it was be-
fore the idea of pensioning soldiers
had taken root; but it indicates the
thought that turks in the minds of
many people, that almost anybody
can teach school.
| would change that word teach to
keep. The school keeper, not the
school teacher. Through a professor
OF pedagogy let us take peep into
the school room ruled by one of these
| keepers.
Some years ago while spending
few days in a village in Central
New York, l visited a school where l
found tall, thin, sharp visaged lady
of perhaps forty winters. There were
about thirty-five children, who in
spite of the warm sunshine of that
summers day were chilled into per-
feet automatons. There was not a
whisper, not bit of mischief, not
smile, not natural childish thing
in that awful presence during the
whole two hours that l forced myself
to stay. l wish | could put upon pa
per the impressions made upon me-
The teacher was perfect drill mas
ter, and the order was perfect-that is
if you mean by order the implicit
subordination of the will required in
the penitentiary, or that of trained
dogs in circus. The pupils rose in
their seats with perfect precision,
faced, marched, toed the line, recited
and then returned to their seats with
out the slightest show of interest but
with every evidence that they were
in utter subsection to the awful des-
potism that was over them-for all
despotism is not confined to Russia,
Turkey and China. Her methods of
intruction conformed to the general
type of her discipline Holding her
book before her she read the questions
and saw to it that the children gave
the exact answers of th5 book. There
was perfect rigidity i'll this respect
and 1t was painful to observe the
anxiety of the pupils to get the answer
right and the relief experienced when
the teacher did not say Next 1
could not help feeling that she was
better satisfied when she caught them
than when their answer passed mus
ter, that is agreed with the book.
This person was probably without
spark of love for her pupils, she was
ill-tempered and short in Judgment
yet because she knew her multiplied
ton and few other purely mechani-
cal things, was given authority to
teach. -
1t is great day when man or
woman has arrived at the discovery
that something more is needed. In
an address at the New York Normal
college DR.. Calkins said
''There is something more to be
done besides getting the proposed
knowledge into the mind that knowl-
edge must be appropriated in such a
way that the child becomes more rea-
sonable, just, obedient, mutually ac-
tive, and morally elevated This is
what the school keeper does not try
to do
A young lady on being asked if she
enjoyed school teaching, said, Eyes,
nights and Sundays. - To her school
teaching was a drudgery-she did not
love her work-she would have given
it up at moments notice if better
position had presented itself.
The teaching for money alone-the |
carieess indifference of so many school |
teachers has caused the profession in
many places to be looked upon as mere
secondary employment, suitable only
for those too lazy to ploW, too honest |