The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-25

physician he teaches how to live right
physically, how to develop every function
and organ of the body and save strength
by forethought and by prevention of the
causes of diseases.
Like the good lawyer he teaches how
to live right civilly. But he deals with the
formative period of citizenship and his
work is constructive and corrective rather
than retributive and retaliative.
Like the brethren of the cloth the good
teacher appeals to the higher and better
moral and spiritual sides of the child's
nature. But he does this by close personal
contact in precept and example, not mere
! ly an hour at most a few hours each
week, but for six hours of six days of
| the week of eight months of the year.
Therefore the teacher, in loco PARENTS,
| standing in the shoes of the minister,
dressed in the coat of the physician and
wearing the doublet of the lawyer, COM
bnes the work of all. and that at the
period of adolescence which sees the crisis
| of every life.
And while enjoying this distinction and
defending the status of our profession we
should not forget the colossal RESPONSE
| bility of our unusual and highly volted,
! as we'll as somewhat vauted, position.
THE teacher is preparing the child for
| life, for all life, for abundant life. What
Alabama needs is not more men to make
men. On the other hand not the pauper-
izing of the rich but the enriching of the
/ pauper
1.-The teacher is the true apostle of de-
| mocracy 1t is the teacher who builds the
road from the humblest hearthstone to
the highest moral, material and intel
lectual throne 1t is the teacher that
strikes the rock of national liberty and
| forth These defenders may be. soldiers,
statesmen or financiers. but all alike are
made possible by waving over their lives
| the magical wand of the toiling teacher.
Only two of our honored presidents were
| teachers but all were made president by
their teachers.
May we not forget that Alabama owes
as much to its teachers as to it's states
| men. as much to A. r. Meek as to w
l.. Yancey, as much to many of its living
| educators as to its many living states
men.
Standing on Pixies peak asked my
self why Is this more noted than its Eel
lows? There is the same barrenness. the
same ruggedness. the same degree of in
accessibility. Its diminutive blue bells
| that cling with such tenacious gladness
to it's upper heights are no bluer. iti
| dwarfed buttercups of no brighter vel
! low than those of 1000 mountains that
may be seen from it's summit. But not
content with mediocrity 1t raises It's CO.
lossal head higher than any other. The
| tonnage Of It's brown mass of granite Is
greater than any other. There 1t stands
as Ossa piled upon Pehon. In magn1n-
cent splendor. lifting its immense form
| high above the snow line about the shift
ing Geece-lined clouds of summer or the
| lowering storms Of winter. Higher than
his neighbor he catches the first ray OF
the rising sun and feels its last lingering
glance.
so should stand the teacher, in purity
and purpose, head and shoulders ABOVE
the community in which he teaches. but
broad enough to include all In soulful
sympathy, able and willing to carry bur
dens like forests upon his back, and un'
fold the possession of thoughts and deed'
as pure and bright as the blue bells anc
buttercups. With dignity approaching