The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-08-24
JUST TEACHERS.

At his time. when quite generally
teachers are becoming conscious of
place and function in the new
democratic social scheme, we are be-
ginning to see many of the old facts
of history in a new light. If teacher"
had been always a term of IN and
distinction. 10 many famous per
sons would now be known rather as
teachers than as writers or warriors
or rulers!
What is a teacher? One who inten-
~tionaIly imparts knowledge in sue
a manner as to be Ineligible to those
who know less. One who goes about
TO train and to inform the minds OF
others. A mere talker is not a teach
err. A mere writer or singer is not a
teacher. The essence of teaching is
the purpose to help others by arous-
ing their own activities. Preaching
Is not teaching unless it passes be-
yond expounding and exhorting into
enlightening the mind with facts and
arousing the viii to stronger action.
Therefore, the best preachers are al
ways at heart teachers.
AS teaching gradually ONE into
public esteem as a learned profess
ION. two things are happening. We
are discovering more and more that
certain famous men of the past were
mainly teachers. and only in part
statesmen. poets, philosophers. n
soldiers. And in the present z men
who are prominently before the pub
lie are more and more willing to be
known as teachers. These are good
signs. They are full of promise. not
only for those of us who are but
teachers in the social background.
| Just teachers. Out for the race whose
progress in culture is almost entire
ly dependent upon good teaching.
Some critic would like to correct that
| last phrase? Good teaching can. and
does, menu heredity and enable the
youth to modify his environment.
Old Homer, greatest and oldest
| name in all literature was a eacher.
Incidentally. he was a poet and sing
er. but poetry M singing and the
Tyre were TO him only the instruments
Of his teachings of heroism and Of
patriotism and SQund personal and
social morals. All over Greece and
the island roundabouts the old man
went teaching his fellows the virtues
of life. Yes. he made his living ami
won his Immortality by teaching. Had
he not been a teacher in those days
when writing was unknown, Homer
| would have been forgotten as We're
all other bards of his time.
And what was Shakespeare all Of
his life but a teacher of actors and a
teacher of auditors? To this day all
scholars sit at his feet as pupils. His
was the teachers disposition. II will
tell YOU" he Seem TO say. Just how
this thing came TO pass. so that you
may understand 1t clearly and profit
by it," His is no grand and distant
manner, but the perfectly sympathet-
ic amer of the true teacher. And
Dante? Well. Dante publicly declared
that his purpose was to teach moral
ity and patriotism and a new and bet
ter social order.
Paul was always the teacher He
went about from Jerusalem and Da-
maScus to Athens and Rome and
back again teaching groups of disci-
pies.
There was George Washington, who
wrote more words that have come
down to posterity than n other A
merican. Those were wonderful let
tiers of his that taught the colonials
the simplest lessons of self-respect.
of discretion. OF the nation that was
coming TO be. Yes. Washington wrote
nor 9 than Jefferson. even. or
Roosevelt. We think of him as a sill
ent man, but only because he never
said anything foolish: that's all. He
was a great political teacher. Like
the really prepared teacher. he felt
that he knew more n understood
more clearly than other persons. He
did not say this. He merely present
ed the facts and his opinions with ex-
ceeding -thoroughness and patience.
OF course Abraham Lincoln was a
teacher, not less han one of the best
in his goodly company of the worlds
choicest souls. And he was taught by
maxins. by Illustrations. by stories
and parallels. by his OWL personal ex-
ample.
Then there was Napoleon. the drill
master of soldiers. the teacher Of law
yers. who put Europe upon a new bas-
a. un urn m hnrvh &oo~H.- - -.