The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-22

Your five CT ten years of teaching will be subject to the careful scrutiny of progressive public sentiment. If under supervision you will, it is hoped, be measured by the highest standard. If you find that you cannot successfully meet the tests you should quickly in-
 quire why and if necessary turn to an- other calling.
 In teaching there are many degrees and the highest degree is much the ea- siest. College and high school teachers meet those who want to learn. but the younger the children the harder the work of the teacher. To guide these earlier stages of school life your sym
 pathies must be keen and your minds must be fresh. Generation after gene ration will come and go, and to each child of the long line each subject is new; you are to cope with these curious and active intellects and your minds
 must ever be alert. No methods, no schemes of education will bring success unless you have a cordial and true well come for each succeeding relay and make their thoughts and interests yours. Every new mind must be inter- ested afresh-the curiosity aroused and new method of approach to feelings devised. This means improvement and new ways and thoughts for yourselves for unless you know things you cannot put them into shape for others. Some
 teachers learn one thing and go on re- beating it for years, but this is death and destruction to scholars. Teachers must know what they teach and know it so clearly that any fair and honest child question can be answered in the
 language and in the mode of thinking of the child who asks it.
 You start with accents of hope and
 triumph on your lips and this is well.
 You must retain these notes if you are
 to enter upon the satisfaction of real
 achievement. Your future need never
 be aloof from your present thoughts
 and aspira tions; 1t need not be different from what it has been and is-the
 training you have here received may operate with greater energy, your pres
 ent activities be carried on with nobler intention. It will be the fruit of gradu- al and increasing care for the children and a recognition that success means
 change for the better in the sum total of the lives of every member of your schools.
 Much of the result of your teaching
 will be beyond the power of human re- cognition-no examination. no words can reveal it; it is a secret between the child and yourself. If you teach any to really think for themselves they never can put the process into words and thankfully tell you what a life you have opened. If you give by example and teaching new impulses and higher an1- bitions, these will go on through the whole of life. It may not count much in school, but 1t will dominate charac- ter and make noble and useful men and women.
 Getting on" can be set before the young and hopeful child not merely as rising to high position or large fortune. though 1t may be and often does mean just this; but rather getting to that work which we can do best and which calls to the best kind of life. The truest and best prizes of life are not salaries or material advantages; but in- fiuence, opportunities of usefulness,
 honorable public activity. power to be
 of service to others and especially to add to the happiness of those we love. Fortunately these prizes are not compe- titive; no one winning them prevents another from gaining them. They are accessible to every child whether he gains distinction as scholar or not, or whether he is great in the world or not.