Connecticut western news., 1910-04-07
TEACHING AND LEARNING
JOHN RoDEMEYER
 In Hartford Sunday Post.

At teachers institute held in the town of Chatham, N. Y, last week. at which there were 120. teachers present, Conductor Sherman Williams made some statements and criticisms that rather startled the younger generation of in struotors. In making comparisons be- tween pressnt-day methods and those in vogue years ago, he said that he had come to the conclusion that teaching, on the average, was not as good as it was 40 years ago. He noted the improved conditions in buildings and equipment, but thought the art of teaching had not improved.
 Leaving aside the comparisons MT. Williams makes between present and former efficiency and results, there are many suggestions in his talk worthy of study and adoption by teachers of any generation, and we reprint herewith a few of the points he made in his address. He said: |.
 "We assign lessons and hear recitations but that isn't teaching. We use the word teaching lightly and loosely. Telling pupil something is not teach ing; telling is but factor. If telling is teaching photograph could do as well. A pupil cannot be said to have been taught unless he learns and a pupil to be taught successfully must be. anxious to learn; child never learns unless he wants to. There are some teachers who may be considered not we'll educated or qualified 80 far as scholarship is con- cerned, who make better teachers than many who hold higher credentials. This IS simply because they have the natural ability to inspire pupil to desire to know, hence their success. A pupil may repeat words. yet know nothing about them or their meaning. A little girl heard her father remark that the woods were very beautiful and after repeating the remark herself said: Papa, where are the woods, are they over there be- yond the trees?'
 Many teachers talk too fast: deliber- ation is demanded to make good teachers as well as using words that pupils may understand. We often act as though the only thing ill this world is knowledge, but knowledge is only means to an end and never an end in itself. Learning to read Is good, but 1t is only good when something is read that is good; when something is read that ought to be read. One is well trained when he has learned to do the things he ought to do and to leave undoue the things he ought not to do.
 "A teacher must be tremendously ill earnest to teach effectively. The fatal lack is the lack of earnestness and en- thusiasm. A teacher may be only mod erately skilled, but if she be intensely enthusiastic attains wonderful results. If you find you cannot teach then don't try to teach. I cannot sing, yet 1 do not wish to be blamed for it and no one has right to blame me for it. but if should join a church choir and attempt to sing then l should be subject to much blame. Ones very life teaches and character is a powerful element in suc- oessful teaching. One must teach him. self many things before he can teach another person."
 To the above might be added the ad- vice of another noted educator, Prof. S.. T. Frost, who was principal of the Amenia Academy and other well-known schools. Addressing his senior class one day, he said You may learn all that the text books have to teach, but you will never be well educated unless you read, read, read l"