Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1906-10-29

Christ s nan0s. TleuF1cn ToeDel nlH-
self said. Al education not founded
on religion is unproductive." All,
s~cboolteacher, | think | can put my
finger upon the weak spot of your
s~choolteaching. You are spiritually a
blind man trying to lead the blind.
You want your scholars to be like
Christ, and yet you yourself have not
surrendered your own heart to the Saw
Jour. Will you do it now in order to
give the right kind OF an example to
your children?
The next way to make your scholars
true and noble is to appeal to their
best manhood and womanhood.
sneaking teacher will inevitably have
a sneaking and dishonest band of stu
dents. If a teacher will place his stu
dents upon their honor they will be
honorable young men and If
he watches them as a spy would try
to ferret out the actions of an enemy
he will find his scholars dishonest, and
there is no exception to the rule.
Thomas Arno1d's Plan.
This truth has been well demonstrate
ed by the history of the greatest teach
ers who ever lived. When Thomas
Arnold went to Rugby there were more
rules there than days in the year.. Ev-
cry teacher was expected to be a spy.
No teacher trusted a boy any more
than a warden in Sing Sing peniten-
tiary would trust a life convict outside
the penitentiary walls. All these rules
were written upon a board and nailed
up in Rugby chapel. No sooner did
Thomas Arnold take charge than he
cut down that board of rules and threw
it into the fire. He then had the boys
assemble before him, and he said:
Young gentlemen, l expect every one
of you to be an honorable young man.
This school hereafter is to be run on
the honor of it's pupils" By that
course Thomas Arnold turned a lot of
deceiving pupils into a band of honest
boys.
: The same fact was true in reference
to the life of Mary A. Livermore at
Duxbury. This is her testimony: ST
Informed my pupils on the opening day
that the school was to be self governed.
There were to be no punishments for
o~ffenses, nc rewards for we'll doing.
Each one must conform to the rules of
the school as a matter of honor or
,tfeave 1t. Every young man vas to be
"a gentleman. every one Of the young
girls a lady" Do you wonder when
Mary A. Livern,ore started her school
upon. such a basis as this that she had
young gentlemen and lung ladies for
her scholars? How was it, O teacher,
with your past life? If you. had a
teacher who never trusted you and
was trying to catch you in a dishonest
act, did you not cheat under his A.y
eyes? You did, and you knowS1 On
the other. hand, were not all the bows
and girls honest and true in dea2ing
with that teacher who used to leaye
the on the daysof examinations
and put the membeS of your class on
their honor? It always pays to appeal
to the. honor of your students. Treat
your class as honest boys and girls,
and they will be honest. Spy on their
tracks. and they will cheat you and
deceive you at every step. Thus the
two great means by which a teacher is
to mold his classes for Christ is, first,
to be a Christian himself, and, second,
to appeal to the Christian instincts of
the scholars by whom he is surrounded.
And now I come to one closing plea
for the teacher to give his heart to-
Christ. OF all professions in the world
where a person needs the grace of God
to- sustain him the pedagogical profes-
sion is the foremost. OF all classes Of
men and women toward whom the
world is most blatantly and cruelty I'M
grateful that class is to be found among
the teachers. "Do you know" said a
teacher to me the other day, s.thatsof
all intelligent workmen a teacher is
paid the least? A father pays more to
the carpenter who shingles. his house
than he does to the schoolteacher who
mOlds the brains and the character of
his child. He pays more to the work
man who puts in his plumbing or the
mason who rears his walls or to the
plasterer who mixes his lime for his
inside walls than he does to the school
teacher who is forming the life of his
child for time and for eternity" -"Yes,"
I said. 81 know it. Shame on the COM
munity which does it,"
But. Christian teachers, though your
pay is small, though the world may be
u%ngrateful for the good that you can
do, remember the greatest opportuni-
ties of life are yours. You are the
great protectors of society. 1t is you
who can prevent in the twentieth CEN
fury such an outbreak as the French
revolution Of the eighteenth century
You are the great ~conservators of So
cial order. Your work is infinite.
though the pay is meager. Christ was
never paid a dollar for the work he
did for mankind except to be present
ed with a. cross for a dying bed. But
Christ saved the world by his sacrifices.
You are not building for time, but for
eternity. You are molding boys and
girls for the future. And if you do
-. "