St. Tammany farmer., 1905-09-02
RI MARGARET E. sANGsTER.

pAASs lt- .l5f Z
RY MARGARET E. sANGsTER.
| Copyright, 1905. by Joseph B. BoWIes)
There will be one comfort" said
Dorothy to me, confidentially, as we
sat on the veranda last night after tea
Next year / won't have such a cross
teacher as I have had in the seventh
grade. Miss Louise in the sixth grade
was lovely. All the girls adored her
She could do anything with us she
liked, and we would work to please
her, and never disappoint her il we
could help it. But it has been very
different slice we came into Miss EN-
:ly's room. Not girl in the class can
bear her, except perhaps two or three
who are her I'ets. She is simply hor-
rid to the rest, and we shall ibid her
good-by with relief. / can't imagine
Why the board keeps teachers who are
SO cross aD1 disagreeable and who just
try to make girls unhappy and discon-
tented"
After this long speech, Dorothy gave
her golden hair little shake and
looked up at me with those laughing
brown eyes that would seem tc defy
crossness in anybody.
II wonder" said / musingly,
whether the fault is all with the
teacher Have not you girls been con-
trary and peTverse and hard to con-
troll? Did you, not go into that class
having made up your mind that you
would not have a good time there?
Has not poor Miss Emily a reputation
for crossness that has been handed
down or up from class to class, SO that
she has never had with any of you
what might be called a fair show? ?
Have you always eonscientiously tried
TO be as loyal to her as you were to
the teacher of whom you were fond ?"
Certainly not, said Dorothy, frank
ly. Nobody can be loyal to a teacher
whom everybody dislikes. We have
done our work, but we have not en-
joyed doing it, and /, for my part.
should not care if never met Miss
Emily again. I have heard, though
that there are two Miss Emilys. Gladys
and Winifred, the girls who are her
favorites, have never found any fault
with her In the class room, and they
say that she is charming out of school
Why must there be two persons in a
teacher? Why can she not be as nice
in one place as in another?"
The question you ask, though you do
not know it, my child, is as deep as the
sea and as old as the globe. There are
two persons in most Of us. With scme
people and in some places we show our
best selves, and with other people and
in other places we show our worst.
have no doubt that the feeling of irri-
tation in the atmosphere touches the
teacher rs well as the pupils in your
class room. Have you ever noticed
that when you very much like anyone,
or when you feel strongly repelled from
anyone, there is an answering feeling
of exactly the. same kind on the part
Of the other to you? Love answers
love. Aversion arouses distrust. "A
teacher Is in peculiarly difficult situ-
alton. She must preserve, good dis
cipline ia her class, and she must bring
it to a definite point in its work. #
the class cooperates all is easy. If the
class pulls the other way, all is hard.
In very truth, Dorothy. it is the class
that makes the teacher lovely or Urn
lovely in. her manner to the girls.
. q q j
There is something else would like
to remind you Of A teacher may have
great anxieties and trials in the back
ground of her life, and it may be that
she cannot always rise above them. It
was so with a teacher had when was
IA, which is just your beautiful age.
You do not begin to know what a de-.
lightful thing it is to be Ia and in the
very glow and sweetness Of the morn
Ing time.
In the school attended then there
were a number Of teachers. most Of
whom were more or less popular.
There was one whom, by common con-
sent, we treated with disdain. She did
not appeal to any of us. We did not like
the way she wore her hair. We made
fun OF her prlm dresses, which were
never in the fashion, and we dld not.
admire anything about her. She was
very near sighted and very nervous
Her eyes often looked red, as Il she had
been crying, and she had trick OF let
ting books and pencils fall, and OF get
ting ink spots on her papers. II she
feproved girl, she did It difhdently,
and we called 1t GROSSLY, but now
know that she suffered agonies of shy
ness and never got over being afraid
Of the girls When school days were