Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-19


upon the intellectual, emotional and
moral nature of the child whom he is
to train.
Teachers Qualifications
First let me urge the great i'm
portance of the teachers entrance upon
his work in the spirit of true philan-
throphy. This it is which MANNERS
itself as genuine love for children that
virtue without which no teacher should
ever enter the school room. The true
teacher will always be animated in
some degree by the missionary spirit,
seeing in the developing bodies and
minds of his children the promise and
potency of lives of happiness and bless
ing on the one hand or misery and evil
on the other. No one should ever en-
ter upon the career of teacher who pro
poses to make salary and service exact
ly balance each other. The true teacher
can never be fully paid for his service,
the poor one is always over paid. There
is no place in the school room for sui
lenness and moroseness and much less
for that malignant spirit which
prompts some, who call themselves
teachers. to abuse the priceless charge
committed to their care. He who would
willingly wound the feelings of a child
by the use of ridicule, epithets or
blows is unfit not only to be called n
teacher but even to associate with
children. Shame on the man or wo-
man who can interpret the mischevlous
conduct of a little child as an insult!
We want our children to be so assured
of the magnamity and generosity of
their teachers as to make them always
candid and frank.
II wish to speak of an important
qualification of the teacher, that mys-
tn,-in yrGi r11 character
Without this qualification a teacher
can compass no valuable achievement
nor win no enduring success.
mo such anomaly exists in the uni
verse as a character without inf1u-
ence. And yet it is not noisy in its
operation. The world has always cared
more for what a man is than what he
says. He may say nothing at all and
yet exercise a masterful control over
all whom this vital element of his
spiritual nature touches.
Character Needed
Character in the school cannot be
successfully counterfeited, and the only
one who is deceived by the attempt is
he who makes it. Children may be cas-
lily cheated in some ways and long eX
perience is necessary to teach them
what is true and what is false. But
with surprising swiftness they learn the
real nature of the man or woman who
ventures to assume over them leader
ship and authority. Truth will out,
and he whose uncovered character will
not bear the test and scrutiny of such
analysis as only boys and girls can
give would best betake himself to some
retreat where he will be the victim of
less searching criticism and less SUI
preme contempt. In no place does in
CT, ifxy
selves more quickly than in the school
room.
IT have known teachers who have
wasted hours in quibbling over some
absurd catch problem in arithmetic,
which had no point or value, while fail
ing utterly to grasp the great under
lying principles of arithmetical SCIENCE;
and l have known others to spend
months in disputing, inch by inch, some
squirting construction in syntaX which
interested no one but themselves and
others of like mental contraction.
Teachers, like all Others whose work IS
professional in character, need con-
stantly to make fresh excursions into
some one of the many fields of study
always open to them.
Among men of affairs the opinion
is more or less generally held that
teachers are men and women of con-
lidcleu luedS WHOSE OpllllOlS upon Oln-
err subjects than that of which their
vocation directly associates them Is ell
titled to small Difference. However UNI
pleasant the truth we cannot but con-
fess in many cases the justice of the
impeachment. Continual association
with immature minds and habitual
dealing with subjects of study not re.
quiring utmost eXertion, unless re-
ceived by vigorous study along other
lines or a little jostlng with the busy
world, or both, tend speedily to beget
weakness and decay.
IF, then, teachers would compel
reversal of public opinion so far as it
reflects on the clearness of their judg
ment I'm practical affairs or the value
of their opinion upon the important is
sues, they must launch out, get into
the current of wider activities, let go
some things and catch firmer hold
on others. They must for some definite
time each day tear themselves away
from Fairgrounds and school rooms
and mingle with men and women whose
minds have been frightened by the
sharper rlvalries and attrltions of bust
ness or by the sterner enaction which
other professions impose. The school
master of the future will be neither