Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-02-17


faith, hope and love is the title to i'm
mortality. The measure of greatness is
influence and influence is gagged by
moral excellence. There is no calling
in all the long list of professions,
where a person has so good an op-
portunity to exert helpful and uplift-
ing influence as that of the teacher
who touches those cot only of her i'm
mediate circle but reaches out to in
estimable boundaries. A real teacher
does not strive to cram the mind with
book knowledge but rather to point
the way to higher and nobler life.
Such has been the life work of Miss
Mary Plat, who next month will lay
down her work after some forty odd
years of continuous service in the pub
lie schools of Rock Island. At a re-
cent meeting of the board Of education
Of the city schools the resignation of
Miss Plat as principal of the Lincoln
school was read and accepted and will
take effect March s.
Miss Plat entered the old No. 4
school house which stood in the center
of the plot of ground at Seventh ave-
nue. between Twenty-f1rst and Twenty
second streets, now occupied by the
Lincoln and high schools, in 1874 as
teacher of the seventh, eighth and
ninth grades. Previous to that time
she had taught other grades, but her
real work dates from that year. For
two years previous to the building OF
the present Lincoln school which was
erected in 1898, Miss Platt held the
position of principal of the old No.
school and with the occupancy of the
new building the following year she
assumed the position as head of the
! school with Il teachers under her. She
had done direct teaching until within
| the last seven or eight years when
her duties have been confined to ad-
visory work and the supervision Of
teachers and building. She has been
valuable councillor to the teachers
in this work, ever ready with aid and
sympathy and advice out of her abund-
ant store of experience.
During the many years she has labor
ed as a teacher she has faithfully and
conscientiously tried to instill into the
young lives placed in her care the love
of the good. Her object has ever been
not to cram book knowledge into the
young mind but to implant there the
seed of a noble character. She has
taught her young friends the love OF
Qn00
books, the love to think and reason
the love of good language, the love
of the good and beautiful as the high
est aims in life. She has tried tc
show them how to govern themselves
, according to the highest ideal of right
above everything else, and to make OF
their lives a success. She has point
ed out to them the ways and means Of
attaining to the positions of greatest
service and usefulness. Scholarship
and character are the thoughts of the
school, and placed about the rooms al
ways in sight of the children are the
ords attention, concentration o
thought, obedience, thoroughness
thoughtfulness, duty, truth, honesty
integrity, honor. courage, kindness
purity, courtesy, quietness, gentleness
manners and manner. Each child II
taught the VOW of the knight "TC
be chaste in thought, word and deed
To defend the weak. To protect thu
weak. To honor womankind."
During the AZ years of her seryicc Al
teacher fully half a hundred teachers
, have been under her leadership. .
those who have taught under her thu
Misses Huesing, Freed, freistat ant
, Egan were her pupils in the lowe
grades. 1t is hard to estimate til
number of children who have com
> under her influence A large perce1
tage of the children who have gone Z
q school in Rock Island have come i
: contact with her and several thousan
have been directly under her as scho
ars. Men and women in every walk o
life have been her pupils and wit
} one accord testify to the splendid il
e fuence her teaching had upon thei
t lives.
[ Her store of experiences is large
!, and a source of great satisfaction I
!. her is the appreciation expressed b
e those who have been her pupils. Me
and women whom she has taught z
or 80 years ago, and who have grow
out of her remembrance, have reco'
aized her in distant cities, stopped he
9 en- the street and expressed their gra
It itude for her interest in their beha
IT when youngsters in the grade schools
i Recently while visiting in Chicago
8 was necessary for her to pass throug
!. enc of the less frequented portion
Y while on her way TO another sectio
OF the city. She noticed a strange
folloy her few steps and then he a