The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-02
GETTING ON WITH BOYS AND GIRLS
Admirable Suggestions for the
Teachers Treatment.
Hannah Whitson in the Journal of
Education.


Hannah Whitson in the Journal Of
Education
In the last days of June, after the
last averages have been counted, our
next duty is to rest and gain hope and
strength and power for the coming
year. What we do in vacation will
partly determine our skill in getting
on with boys and girls in September.
At the top of some old mountain, one
feels the right proportion of things.
THE steadfastneSs of the hills, the
grace of the tiny fern, the beauty of
the harebell may not contain much
pedagogy, but they are good for tired
nerves and weary brain.
Sometimes we get ON badly with boys
and girls, particularly boys, because
we have poor digestion and racked
nerves. growing boy of 16 is sucn
strong, vigorous object he needs
strong and skilful hands to guide him.
He needs a teacher through whose
veins the blood courses swiftly, who
eats three times day, and walks
several miles a day in all sorts of
weather. A teacher who can, as Mat
thew Arnold says, "see life steadily
and see life whole" A teacher OF
courage and sanity, hope and charity.
Our problem of getting on with boys
and girls is a vastly complex one. The
quantity and quality, the environ
ment and heredity are so diversified.
1t demands "a master among those
that know"
Mr.. Froude, the charming English
historian, says Mature is not parti-
san but out of her ample treasure
house she produces children of infinite
variety, of which she is equally the
mother and disowns none of them; and
when, as in Shakespeare, Nature is
represented truly, the impressions left
upon the mind do not adjust them
selves to any philosophical adjust
ment." Only the teacher knows the
difficulty of philosophical adjustment!
Among her boys and girls is Wal
lace, the son of an entomologist, as
unimaginative as the players in "A
Midsummer Nights Dream shirks all
work, and has a mind like a sponge.
Arthur has golden hair and eyes like
the sky, and dreams and dreams; abb
hors mathematics and loves history
and botany. Like the knights of
Pericles
Honor he loves:
For he who hates honor hates the
gods above.
Cicero, Jr., makes athletics his major
and society his minor and elects moth
ing else. He enjoys history to the ex-
tent of having definite ideas upon half
a dozen historic characters whom he
worships. What astonishes you is the
kind of heroes he worships, men of
learning, self-control and moral cour-
age. John Quincy Adams, Jonathan
Edwards and William Lloyd Garrison.
he tells you, were never side tracked
| by the applause of the crowd. They
stood for what was right. Cicero, Jr.,
will never be a student, will never re-
gard life other than as joke. but he
has sort of integrity. manliness of
character and business ability. He
will be good citizen, but in the pro-
| cess of making young Cicero is as
| unmanageable as Judiths bent pin.
Bob" is "the terror of the town"
He knows that you have heard of his
reputation, and he feels compelled to
live up to it. He feels 1.-THE hand of
| the world is against him, and his hand
is against the whole world" Mothers
tell their children not to play with
Bob" You take extra interest IN
him and invite him to your home one
night of each week and read to him
Church's STORY Of the Odyssey 'Tom
Browns School Days" and Treasure
Island" You ask him his favorite au-
thor. He promptly replies, EFT lies be-
tween Homer and Oliver Optic" But
they are very different" you venture
to comment. Bob" has reason for the
Yes, little different, but both are
interesting, and both know what boys
like" You look into "Bob's' face and
wonder if there is not a good side to
him. You remember through his veins
surges the blood of Welsh, italian,
German and English. His Welsh con-
tribution makes him resent every tri-
fling injustice. His hot Italian blood
makes him excitable; his German
IafI
alton of proportion of things, as we'll
as a stubbornness veXing to his teach
ers, while his English ancestry taught
him not only how to fight, but also
give him that other inheritance of the
early Britons, 1.-THE free-necked man."
Ethel is little English woman born
in Jarrow, and like her her centuries
old townsman, the venerable Bede,
is devoted to learning and righteous
ness. and is genuinely in earnest. Jane
is hysterical and as vacillating as
mercury. Gretchen is gentle and true.
Blessing she is. God made her So
She is a Norwegian with blue eyes as
full of trust and peace as a blue he
patica in the spring. These are a few
of the girls and boys with whom we
must get on from days to day.
Ethel has taught us the value Of
highgrade scholarship. Adelaide and
Arthur show us how beautiful a thing
poetry may be. Jane teaches the glory
of self control. Cicero, Jr., has taught US
a boy may lack scholarship, but possess
some cardinal virtue, as for instance,
good humor. Bob" has taught us
to avoid shams of all sort, that justice
and mercy and courtesy are peaceable
fruits of righteousness in the school
room. There may come a moment
when we must decide between "Bob's"
salvation and our popularity. Then we
failure. Let us not, like Javert in Les
Miserables," wait until we are ready
to commit suicide before we learn the
truth-there are moments when jus
tice fails and mercy is greater.
Getting in with boys and girls Is after
all personal matter. The method may
vary with the individual, but we cannot
afford to forget
The best service a teacher can render
the goth century child is reverence for
holy things and obedience to law and
authority.
Truth and Justice are more eternal
than popularity.
The individuality Of the child" NAV
be synonym for selfishness and
anarchy A boy will respect you when
you teach him how to grow into a
manly. law-abiding self-respecting citi-
zen. The old-fashioned "homely vir-
tues are always worth while
Courtesy at all times must be observed
by the teacher. Snobbishness Is i'll
bred and ignorant Boys and girls
know this. They also know, "A man
is a man for a that"