The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1930-10-02
GOOD TEACHERS
MUST POSSESS
TWO ABILITIES

| President Hadley used to tell one
at Yale that a good teacher must
have two abilities: ID the ability
to impart information; (2) the a.
bility to evoke power. The first of
these is relatively easy. If through
mere age and experience one
knows something and has fair
command of a language, he can
pass on that information to an
other who doesn't know it. This
first ability most teachers have
as well as most folks outside the
teaching profession.
But it is the possession of the
second ability, DR.. Hadley insist
ed, that marks the really helpful
parent and the great teacher. The
ability to cal forth the best in a
child or in college student; the
ability to draw out powers, per-
haps long latent, that had been
waiting for expression and that
reveal to the student his highest
self, the powers of which he is
capable ability marks the
great teachers, whether in kinder
garten or college.
Some few teachers may have
been born with a considerable en-
dowment of. this second ability,
that this is an ability which grows
with practice, that this is feature
of their work yes, of themselves
which can be improved through
observation and study.
President Sheldon E. Davis of
the Dillon Normal wrote a most
useful book which it was the writ
ers privilege to review for an ed
ucational magazine few years
ago: "Self-Improvement: A Study
of Criticism for Teachers The
very title suggests the hopeful at
titude of the author as well as the
helpful method he recommends.
Teachers can improve themselves.
Happy is the high school princi-
pal or the college dean who finds
on his faculty some younger mem
Der bent on improvement and some
older ones who have already mas
tered the art of evoking power
from their students!
A great college president of the
last generation used to say that he
felt he had earned his salary any
year in which he secured for his
college four or five really good
teachers. He regarded the selec-
ton of teachers his highest res
possibility, and well he might for
the teacher is often in a position to
make or break the whole future
course of young man or woman.
And this is the feature Of col
lege life to which many men and
women in positions of high auth
GRITTY in America look back with
gratitude. In college they enjoyed
an intimate personal relationship
with two or three teachers on the
faculty. To these teachers they
went with their personal problems;
from these teachers they derived
that guidance which they know
now has counted for so much all
their lives.
In his classic essay on "The
American Scholar" Emerson des-
cribed the essential characteristics
of higher educational institu-
ton in terms that should be fire.
quently recalled in this generation
Of increasing endowment. Col
leges. have their Indispensable
office...,to teach elements. But
they can only serve us when they
aim not to drill, but to create;
when they gather from far every
rdy Of various GENIUS to their
hospitable halls, and, by the con-
secrated fires, set the hearts of
their youth on flames. Forget
this, and our American colleges
will recede in their public impor-
lance, whilst they grow richer ev-
cry year."
Writing on the "Status of AM |
erican College Professors" John L. |
Stevenson emphasized the fact |
that: "The college is not here to
cultivate public taste in architec-
ture or even to restore the Gree
ian games; primarily, it's purpose
is to train men for life's struggle |
Without thoroughly effic-
lent staff of instructors, the col
lege is farce, no matter how
magnificent it's plant may be or
how numerous it's students"
The teacher occupies the piv-
otal position in the American col
lege. A college is no stronger than
it's teachers. A student is getting
less than his right if he does not
receive from some of his college
teachers inspiration to make the
most of himself for service to his