Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1906-12-05
HON lie AND SCHOOL.
Continued from page 6.)

| development of the subject with which
she is engaged, and still another may have
in mind temporary popularity with her
pupils.
But let me say to you that the teacher
whose influence will go down to the end
OF life and zen on into eternity is the
one who sees the man or woman in the
little boy or girl before her, and whose
every act is to create noble manhood
and womanhood, the one who has the
keen soul instinct which discerns the un-
DERIVING qualities which make for up
rightness, the one who has the patience to
search out and develop the dormant fac
ulties of the dull child and the good sense
to start in proper channels The genius of
the bright one.
In such a teacher as this community
may well rejoice, and well may it seek to
retain such a one to the end thar when
the boys and girls are men and women
the. ma know what it meant to them to
have had a teacher to whom inward
growth was more than ninety-five per-
cent. ranks or the encomiums of parent or
school board.
We would do well as parents end as
teachers to remember that education is a
drawing out and development of the fac
ulties of mind and character. VIVA
would ask, is the value Of all the number
problems ever devised if the boy does not
learn with them the lessons of persever
ance and application? What value has
the discipline of the school unless it leads
to self control and mastery? Wherein is
the prime value of all the facts of history
save in the knowledge that out of them
are to be gathered lessons of persona and
national application? Take the simple
matter of reading. 1 say that unless de-
sire for wholesome, uplifting, enlighten-
ing reading comes with the instruction,
then it were as we'll that the child be not
taught to read at all. I know not how it
may be with others; they may like to
Sc and hear the precocious child who
glibly recites facts outside his compre-
hension and wit.l saucy tilt of head shows
off his infant precocity. But l like that
boy who though he plods yet reaches day
attained before and reaches it with a
vision full and a comprehension complete.
! like the boy who knows how to treat his
elders with respect and Difference, who
faces you with manly bearing and truth
full eye, who reasons things for himself,
who uses his brain for the purpose for
which it was given him.
And, too, do not we who are teachers
need to realize that it is not our first bust
ness to develop race of money getters? A
great curse of our age is that it measures
success in the grossest times, if the man
but stand prominently in the public eye,
il he presides over interests large in point
of numbers, if his bank account be big,
these are the tests of success we see most
often used. But in the vision of an in
finite eye and in the decision of an in
finite judgment may there not be other
successes than these?
And the images of success we place be-
fore youth-shall they not witness that
the man who plays well his part in any
walk of life howsoever humble or howso-
ever exalted has achieved the kind of sue
cess that counts?
And to this end let all the work of edu-
cation lead; that the generations which
shall come may have wider horizon of
knowledge, nobler conception of truth
and higher standard of action than
those that have gone before and thus it
will be if those who have the welfare of
the young in charge will appreciate the
largeness of their opportunity. 1t is
within our power as parents and as teach
ers to avert the danger of materialism
that threatens us and to set high the aim
of life for those who are entering upon it..
In closing want to ask your attention
to these three kinds of school: the first is
the old time school and it has well nigh
vanished from the face of the earth. 1t
was a rough old building and it stood up
gaunt and bare on the hilltop. Its sloping
floor echoed to the football of a generation
long since gathered to the fathers, its
home made desks were carved with in
itials and imagery wrought by boyish
hands, it had few books and a meagre
equipment, it was open two terms in
year, one when the little scholars COM
manded attention, the other when the big
boys and girls spared from their chores
drank at learning's fount. In this old
school were developed many homely vir-
tues and characteristics which the world
cannot we'll do without. Those hardy
boys and girls who walked to school and
who were not transported by the town
1y,,a hot col those
teachers who were supplied only with
their own brains and willow switch for
equipment administered kind of train