The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-18

| should we blindly accept what other people say without waiting to see for ourselves where the truth of the mat ter lies? Poor Miss B. has a hard road to travel, if the girls do not trust her before they have given her the slightest trial. I, for one, shall do my work in the best way I can, and I shall try to love Miss B. and to make her love me-"
 Susan gave her head a toss. T pre- dict, Penelope, that you will be fa- vorite." she said. scornfully.
 Not at all. but I have a conscience. and am going to give my teacher the benefit of chance. wish you would join me. Perhaps if you and I take the lead. some of the others will follow. and Miss B. for once. may have the pleasure of teaching a class who are not determined to misunderstood her intentions and who are not doing what they can to make her work hard.
 I believe in making my teachers end
 easy, If can Mother was a teacher | before her marriage, and she has told me a good deal about the seamy side
 of teachers life
 Penelope had in her girlIsh wisdom caught the thread of a clew that had | tangled itself and led far back into the years during which the unpopular teacher had occupied her chair. Miss B. was exceptionally well equipped. q student painstaking and profound, the
 graduate of one college and the sue work in another, she lacked the mag netism which in itself makes some wo- men adorable and adored In truth, she was more and more afraid of the girls she taught; her native difndence and shyness made her seem stiff and stern; she end&nsted herself as difhdent people often do in a chain-armor of
 reserve. She recoflsd from the un- spoken criticism of the girls who sat before her and though she honestly tried she was seldom able to make them feel that she cared for them person ally.
 They supposed that in her view they
 were so many pegs in row or pawns on chessboard, and they resented the impersonality of her. near sighted gaze. Girls are sometimes very heartless, and instead of feeling pitiful when occa- sionally they saw culver of pain cross Miss B.'s countenance, such a token of sensitiveness on her part only
 made them dislike her the more. In her endeavor to be just and to exact the
 best work of which the class was ca
 pablo, she often went too far and mark
 ed too severely any failure. If right relations are not existent between teacher and scholars 1t is very difflcult for either to accomplish much. Often
 it would be for the benefit of all con cerned were the teacher to be trans planted to a new environment where 1 she could begin unhamperd by unfriend- ly traditions.
 If teacher in the dept..s of her l own soul is aware that she is no dis ciplinarian. she probably. makes efforts
 in the direction where she is weak. and Al N-.. ra-., A.-k l..
 tween her class and herself. The re- sistance may not be open. but 1t is all ways ready to break out like a smoul dering fire. Nothing on earth Is harder to vanQuiSh than a prejudice, and the less reasonable 1t be the more stubborn 1t probably Is in maintaining its ground
 wish I could persuade girls to imi- tate Penelope and be fair to the un popular teacher in whose interest am holding a brief. She may not be happy and at ease in her home life. In the background there may be an ailing father or mother whose welfare is d matter of deep anxiety to her and whose care robs her of sleep. For instance, l know a teacher rather unpopular in the classroom, who for several years lost half of her nights rest in sitting up with and ministering to an invalid r.. her place. and in consequence she brought with her to school an atmoss- phere of fatigue which made itself felt without her knowledge. IrritabiIity Is often born of weariness
 Girls are by the way of worshiping teachers because of little externals that have not very much to do with the teachers efficiency. A teacher who has lovely eyes and beautiful hair, and the suspicion of a dimple when she smiles, or who wears pretty things and IS very attractive as to waists and stocks has a great advantage over her plaincr associate, who Is indifferent to dress
 On the whole. l sympathize with girls in admiring the teacher who Is inva-
 riable immaculate and tidy. and who
 has about her the bright atractiveness
 of perfect 4ealth and the beauty that is typical of womanly goodness. It is
 our duty whether we are girls in our
 teens or women beyond them always
 to look as charming and to behave as amisble we can, When the unpopu-
 lar teacher forgets this fact or ignores it. when she is willfully eccentric or Ia anaaa into naannar{su1R that ara avyIr