A TREATISE of Pedagogy for Young Teachers

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A TREATISE

ON

P E D A G O G Y

FOR YOUNG TEACHERS

BY EDWIN C. HEWETT, LL.D.

President Of The Illinois State Normal University

VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & CO.CINCINNATI. NEW YORK.

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COPYRIGHT

1884

BY VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & CO

Eclectic Press: VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & CO

PREFACE.-------------

THIS little book is a growth. Into thatgrowth, several elements have entered:among them are the author's experienceas a pupil, first in the country districtschools of New England; and hisexperience, for more than thirty years,as a teacher; together with the digestedresults of his reading and thinking oneducational themes. He has hereembodied the substance his instruction

to many successive classes in NormalSchools, and the substance of numerousaddresses before Teachers' Institutesand other educational meetings.No attempt has been made to amplify any of the topics treated; on thecontrary, a constant and persistent



effort has been made to condense to theutmost limit consistent with clearness.This is not a book of methods, althougha few methods will be found in it. Its aimis, rather, to present, in a brief and

compact form, such principles asunderlie and give form to all methods worthy of attention. As the title implies, the book as been written with special regard to the needsof young teachers, or of candidates forthe teacher's office. But the author doesnot expect that such young persons will be able to master the book by a cursory reading; he does, however, flatter

himself that young persons of goodability will be able to master the book thoroughly by careful and patient study.Psychology is made the basis of thetreatise; the author believes that in noother way can the subject be treated in arational or scientific manner. Nothing inthe present trend of educational thoughtis more marked than the growing desireto found all systems and methods of educational training on the principlesrevealed by a thorough inductive study of human nature.Complete "Schemes" have beenintroduced, because the author hasfound that they were very helpful to hisown students in their efforts to graspand retain these subjects in an orderly and methodical way. If they arefaithfully used, be believes that they may do the same good service for the readerthat they have done for this students inthe classroom.The author does not flatter himself thatevery reader will yield a ready assent toall his statements; but he has given hisopinions freely, as they have been



formed in the light of his own thinkingand experience. He bespeaks for them acandid consideration, and anacceptance, if, after careful thought, they shall seem reasonable.

Originality is by no means claimed forall that is here presented. The authorhas freely availed himself of any thingthat his judgment commended, wherever it might be found. Yet, he hasrarely expressed himself in the words of another.This little book is sent forth with thehope that it may be found of some valuein Normal Schools, Teachers' Classes,

and Teachers' Institutes, as well as inthe private reading of teachers, and, itmay be added, of parents, also. If it shallcontribute something to improve thetraining of the youth of our country, andto bring upon the stage of active life ageneration better fitted to enjoy itsprivileges and to discharge its duties worthily, the author will be fully repaidfor his labor.

EDWIN C. HEWETT.

NORMAL, JANUARY 18, 1884.ILLINOIS STATE NORMALUNIVERSITY,

PEDAGOGY.

----------------

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL STATEMENT.



Pedagogy.--This new word, Pedagogy, *means the science and art of teaching; but it means more than that. It meansthe taking of young children, and, by means of both skillful teaching and wise

training, leading them up to worthy manhood and womanhood.It has been said that the ability to do this work well requires knowledge of threedistinct kinds, or in three distinct fields;namely, a knowledge of the being who isto be taught and trained, a knowledge of those branches, by the study of whichhis mental growth is to be promoted,and a knowledge of the proper methods

by which the matter to be taught, andthe being to be taught, shall be broughtinto the most healthful and fruitfulrelations to each other.

Man: his Nature and Powers

.---It is, therefore, proper that we should begin our work by a consideration of thenature and powers of the being that we

propose to teach and train. Man iscuriously made up of mind and matter,so wonderfully blended that no one cantell exactly how they live and work together. Of the real nature of both mindand matter, we are profoundly ignorant.No one can tell what either is : we canstudy their phenomena only.Man has a body, and he has a mind; hehas, also powers that belong to the body,

and others that belong to the mind.Pedagogy must study the laws of development and action, relating to bothclasses of power.

POWER is the ability to do something .



For the sake of distinction, we may callthe powers that pertain to the body, asthose shown by the muscles, material powers; and we may call those powersthat pertain especially to the mind, as

the power to remember, the power tolove, etc., immaterial powers. To besure, the mind's powers do not show themselves wholly independent of the body. When we remember or love, weuse the brain; but we do not believe thatthe changes in the brain make memory or love, although the exercise of thesepowers is without doubt accompanied by changes in the brain. We do not

believe that "the brain secretes thoughtas the liver secretes bile." The truthseems to be that, in some way not fully understood, the mind uses the brain asits instrument.Our best philosophers teach us that themind itself is one indivisible thing: itdoes not possess organs, as the body does, nor it is a bundle of powers; but ithas many powers which it can exercisein various ways. When we love, it is theentire mind that loves, and not part of it,although it may work with more or lessforce in the act. The same is true when we remember, when we will, etc.Grand Divisions of Mental Power.---Thepowers of the mind, or the immaterialpowers of man, are very numerous; buthe may all be arranged in three classes.This is the teaching of almost all of themodern philosophers; but, formerly,philosophers divided these powers intotwo groups instead of three.The three groups of immaterial powers,or the powers of mind, are:1st, Those powers by which we know, orthe Intellect.



2nd, Those by which we feel, or theSensibility.3rd, The power by which we choose andexecute, or the Will.

In speaking of the immaterial powers of man and their phenomena, we areobliged to borrow most of our termsfrom the body and its phenomena. Thisis a somewhat unfortunate, as the termsthus borrowed are likely to bemisunderstood. The word feel, which wehave just used, is an example of such aterm. When one speaks of feelingsorrow, he means something very

different from that which he means when he speaks of feeling the table withhis finger. In the latter case, he meansan affection of the mind through thenerves of the body. This is perception, oran exercise of one of the knowingpowers. In the former case, he means anaffection of the mind independent of thenerves, as when he feels sorrow for theloss of a friend. This is an exercise of sensibility.

The action of the three grand classes of mental powers may be illustrated in thefollowing way: You take up a newspaperand read of the floods in the lowerMississippi valley. You are able tounderstand what the writer says -- tothink his thoughts after him -- and histhoughts awaken new thoughts of yourown. Thus, you see that you have thepower to know, to think, -- or, you haveIntellect. As you read of the sufferingsthe floods cause the people, you begin topity them and to desire to relieve theirsuffering. You thus see that you have thepower to feel, --or, you possess



Sensibility. You learn that others aresending money to aid these poor people;moved by your feelings, you determineto join in the contribution. Thus, you seethat you have the power to choose, to

determine, --or, you have Will.Thus, we have represented the threegrand classes of mental powers; nor isthere any mental faculty that can not beproperly grouped under one of thesethree classes. Moreover, these classes of mental powers always act in the orderhere given. It is inconceivable that weshould have feeling in regard to any matter till we know something about it,

or think we do. Nor do we ever put forthany activity of the will till we areprompted to it by the same feeling.

This is illustrated in the case of the"prodigal son." He "came to himself,"and thought; he felt, in respect to his wretched condition and the plenty at hisfather's house; he then resolved to ariseand go to his father.

A wise writer, or orator, or teacher, who wants to lead men up to a resolution,always observe this order. He strivesfirst to awaken thought, -- to makepeople know something about thematter in hand. He then seeks to arousetheir feelings in view of what they know and think. It is only after both theseresults are reached that he hopes to bring them to any resolution, or choice,or action, respecting the matter.

CHAPTER II.



THE INTELLECT.

THE group of knowing powers, or theIntellect, is subdivided into four groups,

viz.: the Presentative Powers, theRepresentative Powers, the ReflectivePowers, and the Intuitive Power.

The presentative powers give usknowledge of the outside world throughthe senses.The representative powers give usconcepts of absent objects.The reflective powers show us the

relations and connections of objects, orof their concepts.The intuitive power is the power bywhich we know certain fundamental things without being taught.

The word "object" must not be confinedto material things.

The Presentative Powers. -- ThePresentative Powers, often called thePerceptives, seem to get their name inthis way: The ancients used to divide theuniverse, for every man, into the Egoand the Non-ego; the Ego is the manhimself, and the Non-ego includeseverything except himself. Thepresentative powers, or the senses,present, as it were, the things of theNon-ego to the Ego, shut up, as heseems to be, somewhere in this bodily tenement,--they are a kind of "introductions committee."The senses are commonly said to be fivein number,--Feeling, or the sense of touch; Seeing, Hearing, Tasting, andSmelling. To these, some philosophers



add a sixth sense, which they call theSense of Resistance to the musculareffort.FEELING is the most general of all thesenses, as it extends over the whole

body, wherever the nerves are found.There is some propriety in saying thatthe others senses are modifications of feeling, because they all require specialnerves for their action. All these specialnerves are located in the head. Two of the sense, seeing and hearing, inaddition to the special nerves, alsorequire curiously constructed organs.

Most of the words used to designate thepowers of the mind may also signify theacts which the powers perform; thus,Feeling may mean the power to feel, orthe act of feeling. The same is true of Memory, Judgment, etc. Whenever weuse one of these words, we do well tothink carefully whether we mean by itthe power, or the act which that power isable to perform.

The sense of feeling make us acquainted with such objects only as are close to us.It also acts slowly, from the parts to the whole; this is illustrated by the actionsof a blind man as he studies objects thathe handles. We all act in a similar way when we grope in the dark.SEEING is very different; it shows usobjects that are near, or very distant,and it acts very rapidly; it gives usnotions of things as wholes at first, andafterward studies their parts. The specialnerves of sight are called the opticnerves. But sight can not act when lightis absent, nor when the rays areobstructed by opaque objects.



HEARING.--The medium through which we hear must always be present where life is possible, for it is the air we breathe; nor do intervening objects wholly prevent our hearing. No other

sense affects the emotions so quickly orso deeply as hearing; this is seen in theeffects of music, or of the tones of the voice. The auditory nerve is specialnerve of hearing.

The senses we have considered make usacquainted with the size, shape,position, resonance, etc., of bodies; inother words, with such qualities as have

relation to space.

TASTING AND SMELLING.--Buttasting and smelling, by means of thegustatory and olfactory nerves, enableus to learn much of the composition andcondition of bodies. We judge by thesesenses whether substance are fit to betaken into our organism or not. Hence,the special nerves for these senses arefound in the mouth and nose, thegateways to the stomach and lungs.SENSE OF RESISTANCE.--When youallow an object to merely touch yourhand, you simply feel it; but when youlet it rest upon your hand, and put forthmuscular effort to sustain it, your senseseems to give you something besidessimple feeling; you have a sense of something resisting your musculareffort. This is why philosophers say thatthere is a sixth sense; and they say thatno other sense makes us know so soonand so certainly that there are objectsoutside of our own organism.

Teachers can teach young children a



great many truths about the "fivesenses," but they would better say nothing about the sixth sense. Childrenshould understand that it is the mindthat acts through these nerves and

organs of the senses. The eye does notsee; but the mind sees by means of theeye.Because the sense of resistance tomuscular effort is not regarded by all asa separate sense, distinct from merefeeling, we have placed an interrogationmark after it in the scheme.

The Representative Powers.--The

representative powers give us conceptsof absent objects in two ways; viz., eitheras they are or were, or as they might be. When the concept is as the object was oris, the mental act is reproduction. If youknow that the thing reproduced is aconcept of some former mentalpossession, you recognize it, or know itagain. These two mental acts--reproduction and recognition--make upthe act of memory; hence,

EMORY is that representative powerwhich brings before the mind conceptsof absent objects as they are or were,and recognizes them.

Concepts of anything the mind has everpossessed, -- sights, sounds, tastes,thoughts, feelings, former concepts, etc.,may thus come before the mind and berecognized, for memory can bring beforeus all these things.

It is probable that a very large share of the concepts that are really reproductions are not recognized; they



may seem to us to be original; often wequestion when a thing "comes into themind," whether it is something that weremember, or is really a new thing. Notlong since, a certain eminent preacher

was accused of plagiarism. It seems to be clear that he had used in his sermon whole sentences just as they were to befound in a book, which he had admittedhe had read. His defense was that hismind had great tenacity in retaining words, and that these words were notrecognized when they were reproduced. Whatever the fact may have been, hisdefense was psychologically a plausible

one.

IMAGINATION is that representativeower which gives us concepts of

absent objects, not as they are or were,but as they might be.

Illustrations .--You turn your facetowards a church and notice carefully how it looks; you are now perceiving it by sight. You turn away, and before your"mind's eye" stands the same form asclearly as before: the representativepower has reproduced a concept of what was perceived. You know that you areconceiving of the building as it was, so you recognize the concept,--youremember the building. You now begin to play with this concept; you replace the brick with stone; yougive it extra towers; you elevate the spireto twice its present height, etc. You arenow conceiving of the absent object as itmight be. Imagination is at work.



CHAPTER III.

THE INTELLECT. -- Concluded.

The Reflective Power acts in several

ways; authors do not agree fully inrespect to their number. We may safely indicate five of these ways of acting, andperhaps the list will not be exhausted.The five of which we shall speak are:Comparing, Abstracting, Judging,Generalizing, and Reasoning .

By some authors, the Reflective Power iscalled the Understanding; by others, it is

called the Elaborative Faculty.Because writers on Psychology do notagree as to the exact number of forms in which the Reflective Power acts, we haveplaced the abbreviation Etc. After ourlist, in the Scheme.

COMPARING.--As the Reflective Powerdeals with the relations of things, or of the concepts of things, rather than withthe things themselves, it will be obviousthat much of its action must be in theform of comparison. It notes therelations of size, length, position,density, value, purpose, cause and effect,agreement, and a multitude of others.

Comparison is clearly involved inabstracting, judging, generalizing,reasoning, etc.; hence, some writersregard comparison as including all the various forms of the Reflecting Power.

ABSTRACTING.--It is seen that theprocess of abstraction is a very commonone, when we observe the large numberof abstract terms which are used even by



children and uncultivated people. Theprocess of abstraction has sometimes been illustrated in this way: you look atseveral objects having a common color,as a red ribbon, a red book, a red

necktie, etc. You note their color inconnection with the other qualities of those objects. You now perceive thecolor in the concrete. You turn away, orshut your eyes, and think of what youhave just seen; you now conceive thecolor in the concrete. Again, you dropout of thought all the other qualities of the several objects, but still think of thecolor in connection with each object;

you are now conceiving of the color inthe discrete. Once more, all thought of the objects disappears, and you think of the color only, apart from every objectand from all other qualities. You are now conceiving of redness in the abstract,--that is, drawn away from everythingelse. It is probable that some suchprocess as this is often gone through with by those who have not thought of the peculiar form of mental activity they are exercising.JUDGING.--In judging, the mind holds before itself two concepts, and decidesthat they agree or disagree; theseconcepts may be simple or very complex. You bring before your mind aconcept of the thing we call snow, and aconcept of the quality whiteness; youdecide that these agree, and you say,"Snow is white." You bring before yourmind a concept of the act called murder,and a concept of the quality rightness; you decide that they do not agree, and you say, "Murder is not right." Every

udgment, then, involves two concepts,and the decision respecting them.



PROPOSITION.--The expression of audgment is a proposition .

This definition is often expressed in a

false form by saying, "A proposition is audgment expressed." In objection to

this, we say a proposition is not audgment expressed or unexpressed; theudgment is the thing, the proposition is

the expression or symbol of the thing.Here, as everywhere, the teacher can notafford to confound a thing and itssymbol. As a judgment involves three things, so a

proposition must have three parts; these we call subject, attribute, and copula.The subject is the word or wordsdenoting the principle concept; theattribute is the word or words denotingthe related concept; and the copula isthe word or words expressing thedecision. Both copula and attribute may be expressed by a single word, as in theproposition, Water flows. In this relationof judgment and proposition is thefoundation of grammar.

GENERALIZING.--In generalizing, themind acts in a direction the reverse of that in abstracting; instead of takingseveral objects and drawing from them acommon quality, we take a quality andgroup together the objects that possessit. A large part of the work of the studentof natural science is of this kind. If wetake the quality of possessing a backbone, we may group together all theanimals that have this quality, and callthem vertebrates. Of course, an act of udgment must precede the putting of

every object into its class, or the



rejection of it from a class.

The common quality according to which we generalize may be obvious, but notimportant, as in the formation of the

group of animals called quadrupeds; insuch a case, we have merely a looseclassification. In true generalization, orscientific classification, we arrange theobjects with reference to someimportant or fundamental quality.Should a servant girl classify a library,probably she would do it very loosely,putting together books of the samecolor, or size, or condition; the owner

would classify by arranging the booksaccording to their contents,--puttingtogether those which treat of a commonsubject.

REASONING.--We can not enter very fully into the subject of Reasoning,--Logic is a science in itself. In a process of systematic reasoning, we compare tworelated propositions, and deduce a third which necessarily follows from thecomparison. The two given propositionsare called premises; the on derived iscalled the conclusion. To illustrate: 1st,Four pencils cost four times as much asone pencil; 2nd, One pencil costs threecents; hence, 3rd, Four pencils cost fourtimes three cents, or twelve cents. Herethe first premise states a general truth;the second premise states a contingenttruth, and the conclusion inevitably follows from the premises. The twopremises and the conclusion togethermake up a syllogism. A process of reasoning may make clear what isinvolved in the premises, but it cannever lead to the discovery of any thing





these three characteristics: 1st, They aretrue everywhere, and at all times; 2d,They can not be demonstrated; 3d, Thecontradictory of any one of them ismanifestly absurd. To illustrate, take the

axiom that a whole is equal to the sum of all its parts. This must be trueeverywhere, and it must be true at alltimes. We may illustrate it,--that is, wemay show it to be true in any given case; but we can not prove that it will always be true in every case. The contradictory, viz., that the whole is not equal to thesum of all its parts, is seen to be absurdat once by any one capable of

understanding the statement.IDEAS.--Philosophers do not agree as tothe number of fundamental ideas givenus by Intuition. We may safely say thatthere are seven of them, at least; viz., Being, Time, Space, Beauty, Cause, Right, and Personal Identity . Being .--By the intuitive idea of Being, we mean that all men naturally andalways believe in the existence of themselves and of other things. None but crazy men and some philosophersever think or talk as if there could be any doubt about this.Time .--The intuitive idea of Timemeans the necessary notion of time aspassing whenever we think of theoccurrence of events. We can not ridourselves of this idea; in thought we may empty time of every event, but we cannot think the time away. In respect todefinite amounts of time, we exerciseour judgment and experience; but theidea that there must be some amount of time is intuitive. Space .--The intuitive idea of Space is very similar. We judge the amounts of



space in any particular instance, but wecan not get rid of the idea that space is,and must be; we can empty it in thought, but we can not think it away, nor think of it as finite.

Beauty.--The intuitive idea of Beauty isthat there is, and must be, such a thingas beauty; or in other words, that somethings are beautiful and some are not.The child shows that he has this idea very early; "pretty" is one of his first words. The judgment decides as to the beauty of any particular thing, and thedecisions differ very widely.Cause .--We believe intuitively that

every effect must have a cause; the childshows that this idea is inherent by hisquestions "Why?" "What makes it?" etc. A cause that is not itself caused isinconceivable to him; is it not beyondthe conception of any one? Judgmentpronounces as to what the cause is, in aparticular case.

It is highly important that we do notconfound the occasion of a thing with itscause. The occasion of a thing allows itto be or to be done; the cause makes it to be or to be done. To illustrate: Theexpansive force of steam is the cause of motion in the locomotive; the opening of the valve, or throttle, is the occasion of the motion.

Right .--The idea that there is such athing as Right,--that some things areright, and others are wrong,--seems to be intuitive. "Is it right?" is a questionthat has a meaning to a very youngchild; parents and teachers would do better to ask it more frequently.Judgment decides whether a specific



thing is right or not. Personal Identity .--No sane person candivest himself of the idea that he ishimself,--the same personality that healways has been,--it is intuitive; he is

conscious that it is so, and that is theend of all question. Nor would thetestimony of a thousand strengthen hisconviction. We may say that a knowledge of thesefundamental, intuitive truths and ideasis innate, --that is, we are so constitutedat birth that, as soon as the occasionarises for this knowledge, we have it,and that without any instruction or

study. And we take it for granted thatevery one else has this knowledge thesame as we have; we pronounce one anidiot, or insane, if he is lacking in thisrespect. For, a recognition of theseproducts of Intuition constitutes what we call natural reason; and when oneloses this knowledge,--as, for instance, when one loses this knowledge,--as, forinstance, when one imagines himself theCzar of Russia,--we say that he has losthis reason. Reason, as we here use it,must not be confounded with the Powerof reasoning; some insane people canreason most logically, but they have losttheir reason, as they show in various ways.

Review

.--Let us look, for a moment, at the fourgrand forms of intellectual power, as wehave studied them.The Presentative Powers gatherknowledge for us.The Representative Powers treasure theknowledge we have gained.



The Reflective Power examines thisknowledge, and discovers its import andits value and use.The Intuitive Power gives us aknowledge of the regulative truths and

ideas that must be regarded in our work.Or, if we compare knowledge to grain,the presentative powers are the reaper;the representative powers are thegranary; the reflective power is the mill,and the intuitive power provides for thecorrect performance of the work. Grainis of no value till it is gathered andstored; nor can it be of any use until it isground; but let us remember that every

thing which shall appear in the finalproduct must have gone into the"hopper." The mill creates nothing.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SENSIBILITY, WILL, ETC.

The Sensibility

.---We have studied briefly the differentforms of intellectual power; we will now turn our attention to the Sensibility. Weshall not attempt an exhaustive analysisof this power, but we will mention only afew of its forms that are most concernedin the work of the educator. We will

speak of the Appetites and Desires, Loves, Hates, Admiration, and Reverence. Appetites and Desires.--When we speak of the Appetites, we usually mean suchdesires as have reference to the body,like the desire for sleep, food, etc. We



use the term Desires in distinction from Appetites, to signify such desires as donot pertain especially to bodily wants, asthe desire for praise, for excellence, etc.LOVES.--We put the word Love in the

plural, meaning to include not only whatmay strictly be called love, as love of friends, country, etc., but also whatmight be more properly called a liking,as a fondness for fine dress, for certainarticles of food, etc.HATES.--The word Hate is put in theplural for a similar reason. We mean by it not only hate properly so called, as ahate for evil things, but also all the

different aversions and dislikes, as well. ADMIRATION.--The word Admiration was formerly nearly synonymous with wonder. It retains something of thesame meaning still, but there is added to wonder a sense of approbation as well. We admire that which seems to us wonderful and pleasing at the sametime.REVERENCE.--By Reverence, we meana profound respect for what is great orgood, or both. When it becomes intense, we call it Veneration.Conscience.---There is another very important power or faculty of the mind which we would class with thesensibilities, or emotions, or feelings,although it is by no means so placed by all writers. We refer to the Conscience, which we believe is primarily andproperly a feeling; but many, holdingthat conscience includes a judgment of what is right or wrong, as well as afeeling in respect to what is right or wrong, are inclined to class it among theknowing faculties, or, perhaps, rather toput it in a class by itself. We would



define Conscience as follows:

CONSCIENCE is the feeling that rompts us to do what we believe is

right, and to avoid what we believe is

wrong, and that commends us when weobey it, and condemns us when wedisobey it.

It is judgment that determines whetherany particular thing is right or wrong. Inrespect to their judgments as to what isright and what is wrong, men differ widely; their conclusions are sometimesdiametrically opposed to each other. Yet,

regarding the right or wrong of many things, as murder, cruelty, oppression,kindness, truth, honesty, etc., theudgments of men are nearly

harmonious.

But, if our definition of conscience iscorrect, then we may say that conscienceis the same in all men, and in all ages; itsaction is always uniform. It is said thatthe Hindoo mother conscientiously throws her babe into the Ganges, whilethe Christian mother conscientiously preserves and cherishes her offspring;and, hence, we are told that conscienceacts very differently in different cases.Now, it seems clear that conscience isthe same, and acts in the same way, in both women; each does what she believes to be right. Owing to adifference in education, probably, theirudgments lead to different conclusions;

but in their consciences, they agreecompletely. We have said that our definition of conscience would not be accepted at all; but we believe it to be correct. If it were



accepted, and the proper distinction between judgment and conscience werealways kept in mind, many of the vexatious disputes concerningconscience would be settled, or, at least,

the discussion would be simplified.

The Will.---The action of the Will takesonly one form, but it involves twoelements, as appears in the followingdefinition :

There is not action of the Will when weexecute without any choice; nor does

choice constitute an act of the Willunless some effort is put forth inconsequence of our choice. A merechoice, with no attempt at execution, is a wish. The moral quality of actionsresides in the choices which lead tothem; nor can we avoid theresponsibility of choice. If, between any two courses of action, we choose not tofollow either, we have exercised thepower of choice in the act of notchoosing.

THE WILL is the Power by which wechoose and execute.

There is no action of the Will when weexecute without any choice; nor doeschoice constitute an act of the Willunless some effort is put forth inconsequence of our choice. A merechoice, with no attempt at execution, is a wish. The moral quality of actionsresides in the choices which lead tothem; nor can we avoid theresponsibility of choice. If, between any



two courses of actions, we choose not tofollow either, we have exercised thepower of choice in the act of notchoosing.

Other Powers

.---We have already defined a Power asthe ability to do something; but somephilosophers make a distinction between a mental Power and a mentalFaculty.

A FACULTY is a power under thecontrol of the Will, having a specific

work of its own to do .

According to this definition, we mustclass Seeing, Memory, Judgment, Love,etc., as mental faculties. But the mindhas three very important powers that donot answer to the definition of faculties;these are, Consciousness, Attention, andConception.

The powers of Consciousness, Attention,and Conception never act separately from each other, nor from some one ormore of the mind's faculties. Thesepowers are not co-ordinate with theother mental powers, but are connected with them all. Hence, in the Scheme onpage 14, [scheme II] their names are written across, opposite a brace thatincludes the powers of all the three

Grand Divisions.

CONSCIOUSNESS is the power themind has to know its own actions and states, and know them as belonging tothe Ego .



This is not a faculty; it is not under thecontrol of the Will, nor does it performany specific act of itself--it givescognizance of the acts performed by thefaculties.

Whether there can be any mental actionof which we are not conscious, is aquestion that has been much discussed.It seems very clear that there can be noproper activity of the mind if we are notconscious of that activity; not to know that one sees, is not to see. No doubt,however, there is a great deal of brainactivity of which we are not conscious.

When we perform any habitual act, as walking, we know that every muscularmovement is prompted by an action of the brain, directly or indirectly; but,having once put the "machine inmotion," we have not consciousness of the further action of the brain; themovements seem to be purely automatic. There is brain activity, nodoubt, but we believe that it does notinvolve any mental activity, properly speaking. What we have called brain activity, asdistinct from mental activity, is called"unconscious cerebration" by many writers.Some writers speak of "unconsciousknowledge." Such an expression seemsto be contradictory in terms. Yet muchof our knowledge, doubtless, has not been consciously formulated; a child ora savage knows that a part can not equalthe whole, and still he may not be able tostate his knowledge to another,--perhaps his mind has never conceivedsuch a statement.



ATTENTION is the power the mind hasto bring all its force to bear on onething .

Important as this power is, it produces

no result alone, and of itself. Hence, it isnot to be considered a faculty, althoughit is under the control of the Will.

When we say that Attention is under thecontrol of the Will, we do not mean thatit never acts except in obedience to amandate of the Will, but simply that the Will can cause it to act. The same is trueof other voluntary powers; we often

remember without willing to do so, butMemory can be moved by the Will.If it be asked how the mind turns itsforce to one thing in an act of theattention, the answer seems to be that itis done by not allowing the mental forceto move toward any thing else. Illustration .--The mental current may be compared to a stream of water--itflows constantly. In revery and absenceof attention, it is like that stream flowingdown the mountain side, and spreading,unrestricted, over the meadows; it may be pleasant enough, but it does not work. When one wishes to put thestream to work, he puts a dam across it,and allows no place of escape, except atthe point where he puts his wheel. So weput the mind to work by confining themental force to one point of escape. If we can do this completely, the attentionis perfect,-- no force is lost; if not, thepower in part escapes like lost waterthrough a leaky dam.The question is discussed, whether wecan perform any mental act withoutsome degree of attention. As in the same



question respecting consciousness, theanswer is clearly in the negative. Thereason is essentially the same; it isinconceivable that there can beconsciousness of that to which no

attention is given.It is also asked whether the mind canattend to more than one thing at a time;much has been written on this question.It seems clear that we can attend toseveral things; but, is such a case, theattention is not perfect, of course.

CONCEPTION.--It is not easy to frame a

short and satisfactory definition forConception, although there is a littledifficulty in mentioning the particularthings that it does. It is the power by which we see with the "mind's eye"things not present; by which we perceivethe abstract relations of things; by which we get clear notions through discourseor thinking; by which we understand why and how things may be, etc. When a teacher, after explaining aproblem in algebra, asks the pupil if he"sees it," he means to ask if it is clear tohis conception; of course, he means toask if it is clear to his conception; of course, he has no reference to the act of sight. Perhaps the best short statementfor Conception, is to say that it is the

ower by which we see with the "mindseye." When we conceive of a thing fully, we see all its limitations; we "take it in;" we comprehend it. But we oftenapprehend things that we can notcomprehend; just as one may seesomething of a mountain when much of it is hidden in clouds.



We must not limit the possibility of things by our power to comprehendthem. Many possible things areinconceivable; for instance, the matterof this earth must have been created out

of nothing, or it must always haveexisted in some form without any beginning; both these things are utterly inconceivable, and yet not only is one of them possible things are perfectly conceivable, as the passage of a flyingship to the moon.

Conception is largely under the controlof the Will, but it accompanies all the

other mental powers, and produces nospecific work of its own; hence, it is nota faculty.

There is a special use of the Conceptivepower in forming abstract, generalconcepts; for instance, when the ideas of surface limited by three lines, arecombined, we have the abstract, generalconcept signified by the word triangle.This combination is made by Conceptionacting with the Reflective Power; such ause of the Conceptive Power my becalled Logical Conception.

Use of the Powers

.---Having made this brief survey of themental powers and faculties, we may ask: Are some of these good and some

bad? Are some to be cherished andcultivated, and some to be crushed out?The truth is, that all were given for agood use, and all may be abused; it isust as wrong to love evil as to hate good.

Even veneration may work the greatestevil, as in the idolater. All these powers



are good in one sense, is they are welladapted to their purpose; just as a knifeis good, if it is made of good steel. Butmoral goodness can not be predicated of the powers any more than it can of the

knife; the good knife may be used tocarve a roast or to kill a man, -- themoral quality lies in the use.So all these powers may be used forgood or for bad purposes, and it should be the business of education to make allthese powers efficient, and also to leadto their right use in all cases, and toprevent their wrong use.

CHAPTER V.

WHAT IS EDUCATION?

WHAT is education? If this question were put to each person who proposes toteach school, the answers would be very different. Probably it would appear thatmany of the candidates for the teacher'sposition had never seriously thought of the question,--had never clearly set before their own minds the nature of the work they were about to undertake.

Learning not Education

.---Doubtless, many would show that, intheir thought, education is simply the

acquiring of knowledge,--the laying upof a store of facts, in the memory; they would make learning and educationsynonymous terms. Probably this is thecommon opinion of a majority of ourpeople. But is should be clearly understood that learning is not



education. Without doubt, they areclosely related; learning is an aid toeducation; on one can become truly educated without becoming more or lesslearned. But the two words do not mean

the same thing. Learning is apossession; but education is a part of one's self; it gives one the mastery of himself,--it trains and develops hispowers, and gives him control overthem.

Many men are learned, but noteducated; that is, they have an extensiveknowledge of the facts of science, or

literature, or history; but they havenever learned how to use them is such a way as to make them a source of powerto themselves. On the other hand, many men may be said to be well educated, who are not very learned. They have nogreat stores of knowledge, but they havemade such use of the knowledge they have obtained that their powers have been strengthened and developed, andthey have come to be masters of themselves. The stock of knowledge thatthey may have acquired in school orcollege, or they may have acquired inschool or college, or they may haveacquired most of it on the farm, or in thefactory, or shop; or, as in the case of Lincoln, by poring over a few books by the light of a pine knot in the kitchen.

Definitions.--- " Education is thedevelopment of the faculties, or germsof power, in man, and the training of them into harmonious action inobedience to the laws of reason and morality ."



An eminent teacher has briefly definededucation as cultured growth .If we examine the word itself in respectto its radical meaning, we get essentially the same thought; the root of the word,

duc , is from a Latin verb meaning tolead , and the prefix e is from thepreposition ex , meaning out .

EDUCATION is a leading out ordeveloping of the powers whose germsthe child possesses at his birth .

All these definitions are in substantialharmony; and they show that education

really means much more than simply storing the mind with facts. The gettingof knowledge is an important part of school work; but it is not all, nor is it themost important. The development of power in all right directions is the main business of the school, and all theknowledge obtained should be gainedand used in such a way as to helpforward this growth of power.Some writers on education are inclinedto speak of certain studies as usefulchiefly in giving information, whileothers have their chief value in thetraining they give,--they are a kind of mental gymnastics. The last class of studies they sometimes call formingstudies; and the first, informing studies.This distinction does not, however, seemto be a very wise one; all proper studiesgive useful information, and all studiescan be so pursued as to aid in thedevelopment of mental power. And,however valuable the knowledge gained,the growth of power should be the chief aim of all our school work.



Relation of Teacher and Pupil.---Now, what can the teacher do in the work of atrue education? The work of the realeducator is quite like that of the skillfulgardener or nurseryman. He prepares

the soil, he puts the seed in the properplace, he watches the growing shoot, hestirs the earth about it, he removes weeds and insects that would injure it,etc. In this way, the result is somethingquite different from what it would have been without the gardener, --the resultis a "cultivated growth." The plant hasdone the growing; the gardener hascontributed the culture. So with the

person who is educated,--the result willdepend chiefly on the putting forth of his own power. Strictly speaking, onecan not give another an education; hemay contribute the culture, but thegrowth must always come from within, by the pupil's own effort. It seems thatthere are only four things possible for ateacher to do in this process, viz.:He may arouse, incite, and encouragehis pupil.He may set before him the right kindand amount of work to do.He may guide him to do the work in theright way.He may make the circumstancesfavorable by saving him from theannoyance of others, etc. What more can he do?

Given Powers Only

.---Nor is it in the power of the educatorto change the nature of the child. Every child that is sound and sane is born withthe germs of all the powers common tohuman beings, but these germs have



very different degrees of strength indifferent persons. Hence, it follows thatno processes of education can make allto be alike; nor can any one become very strong by a process of education in any

direction, if, by his native endowment,he is weak in that direction.

If Newton had been educated for anartist, even under the best teachers, and Angelo had been educated for amathematician, under teachers equally good, it is not at all probable that theseeminent men would have changedplaces; most likely neither would have

achieved distinction.

A SPECIAL EDUCATION has for itspurpose the acquiring of some art, ortrade, or profession. In such aneducation, it would be foolish to spendone's effort in cultivating weakerpowers; excellent endowments in any direction indicate that in that directionlies the road to the greatest power andusefulness. Hence, the folly of choosinga career for a young man before he is oldenough to have shown his individualpeculiarities,--to have determined his"bent." A GENERAL EDUCATION has for itspurpose to make of the given child the best possible specimen of a man or woman. This should be the educationattempted in all our common schoolsand colleges. As the man or womanshould be symmetrical as possible in allthat pertains to a manly or womanly character, it follows that, in such aneducation, weakness in any directioncalls for special effort to develop thechild in that particular,--a course quite



the opposite of that to be taken in aspecial education.Nor should the work of specialeducation be undertaken till that of ageneral education is fairly done. The

man is more than the artist, or doctor,or mechanic. It is a pity that so many of our American youth are so impatient toundertake their life-work that they havenot patience to lay a broad generalfoundation before they attempt to buildtheir special structure. The result is weakness and narrowness to the end of their career.

Education Requires Time

.---Our age is marked by mechanicalinvention; by the steam engine, thetelegraph, the labor-saving machine,etc., we are able to do many things muchmore rapidly than we once could. Many seem disposed to think that somethingmay be contrived by which the work of education may be shortened in a

corresponding degree. In fact, if we may udge by the astonishing professions and

promises of some very younginstitutions, we might conclude that the"short cut" to an education has beenfound, --or, at least, that it is expected tomake people believe that it has beenfound.

Why is it not reasonable to expect that

the work of education can be thusshortened, seeing that we have achievedsuch wonderful results in other things?The answer is easy. All these wonderfulinventions result in mechanical effects.Education is growth. If one wishes hislot enclosed by a fence, he can have it



done in a few hours by employing workmen enough; but if he chooses tohave a living hedge around it, he must wait. When some method is found by which a fine sugar-maple, three feet in

diameter, can be produced in sixmonths, then it will be time enough tolisten to these very smart people whopromise a finished education is the sametime.

Principles and Methods

.---We have taken a brief survey of themost important powers of man. We have

seen what Education really is, and whatit ought to do for these powers.Let us now make some suggestions inrespect to the work of training oreducating these powers.BEST METHODS.--It is not our purposeto give any set of best methods for doingthis work. Such a task would be utterly impossible, for the simple reason thatone must be largely governed by

circumstances in the devising oradopting of methods. It will follow, from what is said above, that a method whichmay be good for one set of pupils, may be worthless for another set; or, amethod good for pupils in somecircumstances, may not be good for thesame pupils in different circumstances.Hence, the truth of a remark once made by a shrewd teacher: "Best methods!

there are no best methods!"It is wise to study methods, not forservile imitation, but for suggestion. It isfrequently wise to adapt methods, butrarely or never to adopt them. It is true,however, that all good methods restupon sound principles; these never



change, but the methods founded uponthem may vary indefinitely. It will notfollow from this that every method is agood one which recognizes a correctprinciple. It is one of the soundest

principles of pedagogy that no teachercan proceed profitably with his work tillhe has the attention of his class. But he would hardly be a wise teacher who would attempt to gain that attention by firing a pistol, or by standing on hishead, although he would gain theattention in either case without doubt.FOUR GRAND PRINCIPLES.---Beforemaking any direct suggestions as to

training the powers, let us state fourfundamental truths of pedagogy.

Any power under the control of the will may be cultivated ortrained .

The powers are trained in oneway, and in one way only; viz, by WISE USE. This law of work isthe one unchangeable law of

progress everywhere . The wisest training will be

directed to those powers that areconspicuously active at the time .

An indispensable prerequisite toany profitable training is careful attention to the matter in hand .

Further words in respect to the thirdprinciple may be necessary. We have

said that every sane and sound child is born with a germ of every power that iscommon to man. But these germs do notdevelop at the same time, as every one atall familiar with child-life must know.

And one who is not familiar with child-



life has no business to attempt to teachchildren,--of all the text-books onpedagogy, the most valuable is a baby ora young child. He who neglects theloving study of this "living epistle" will

never become very wise in a knowledgeof the correct teaching and training of children, no matter what else he may study.

Right Order in Education.---Now, one who studies children, even a little, willsoon observe that at first thePresentative powers seem to be activealmost alone, so far as the intellect is

concerned; seeing, hearing, feeling, andtasting are the child's occupations.Memory and Imagination soon follow, while Reasoning and Reflection are longdelayed. This fact clearly shows whatshould be the field of effort in theteaching and training of young children;it should include---Training in sense-perception, Proper expression by words , and

anual activity .Instead of following such a course with young children as the above statement would indicate, how often thecommands are, "Sit still," "Don't talk,""Study your book!" And in studying the book,--that dry, conventional, artificialthing,--the effort is not made to help thechild to see correctly what is in the book,and to learn from it such things as hispresent state of development wouldallow him to grasp and appreciate, butto crowd his memory with such words ascan have no meaning till he has learnedto use his powers of reflection,abstraction, and reasoning.



Thus, the powers already active areneglected, that a vain, stupefying,deadening effort may be made in anappeal to powers that will remaincomparatively dormant for years. Not

seldom is he required to learn and togive logical forms of reasoning, as in"mental" arithmetic, while his mind is wholly in the perceptive and imaginativestages. It is as though the gardener,having beans and potatoes planted in hisgarden at the same time, should go outand hoe around where his potatoes willappear by-and-by, but neglect to pay any attention to his beans already above

ground and in great danger of beingchoked by the weeds.

CHAPTER VI.

TRAINING THE POWERS.

Training the Senses

.---In the light of what has been said, theusefulness and the philosophic characterof the "Kindergarten" will be very apparent. But, it would seem that theapparatus and the methods of thekindergarten are not available for theordinary district school at present; and,perhaps, they will not be for a long timeto come. The question is, Can the

teacher of the ordinary district school, with only the ordinary appliances to befound there, do any thing to train youngchildren in accordance with these truthsand principles? We answer, "Yes, muchevery way."



The Sight

.--- There is no end to the ways in whicha thoughtful teacher in such a schoolmay help to train the sight of the pupil;

but we can only suggest.OUT-OF-DOORS.--Different kinds of vegetation are all about him. Train himto observe the different forms of leaves,grasses, and flowers. He will respondheartily and gladly to such an effort. Youhave but to hint that you wantspecimens, and they will be forthcomingin perplexing abundance. Is there any reason why children in the country

should be ignorant of the different formsof foliage about them? Surely, they willtake delight in noting the characteristicforms of the leaves of the maple, theoak, the elm, the apple, etc. Would notthis be as useful, aside from the trainingof sense, as a good deal of what they arerequired to learn? Why not have themlearn to note the forms of the differentgrasses, and the humbler plants, as well

as the leaves of the grains and garden vegetables?In connection with this study of theforms of foliage, many a weary hour may be beguiled in attempts to copy or toreproduce some of the forms on theirslates. And, the, what endless lessons in colors,their names, their combinations, etc., asshown in the flowers, or in bright

colored yarns or bits of calico, or insamples that any teacher can make withthe aniline dyes! And what a field fortraining children's eyes in observing theshapes and sizes and colors of theanimal world all about them! Will they perform the dull, necessary drudgery of



bookstudy less earnestly or efficiently for a few minutes spent in waking up themind by some such exercise in seeing,and endeavoring to describe what they see by word or by pencil?

It is a custom in the famous Quincy schools to allow the pupils ten minuteseach morning in telling what they observed on the way to school. Here,sight and language both are cultivated;and it should be remembered thattraining in the art of expression must bekept up through the whole of the schoolcourse.

The little pupil on his way to school,earnest to see something of interest todescribe to a sympathetic teacher, will be a very different object fromShakespeare's "whining school-boy, withhis satchel and shining morning face,creeping like a snail unwillingly toschool."

IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM.--We havemade some suggestions about trainingthe sight to see things outside of theschool-room. Let us now suggest someexercises for training the same sense indealing with things in the school-room.Pictures. -- Here, especially with quite young children, much may be done withpictures. And, happily, most of the text- books for little children are now filled with beautiful and instructive pictures.Put before the class a picture of a farm- yard scene, for instance. Let each onepoint out the distinct objects that hesees in the picture. Get him to think about them, and to express his thoughts.Do not put words into his mouth, butencourage his own expression, however





before the class, then take it away andsee who can pronounce the wholesentence.Of course, these suggestions might beextended indefinitely; but the teacher

who understands the true principles of his art, can multiply them indefinitely;and he will do so, when once his mindhas awakened to their importance. Theresult aimed at is to make the sightquick, accurate, and comprehensive. A SUGGESTED EXERCISE.-- Beforeleaving the subject of sight, we want tosuggest another kind of exercise, which,if properly conducted, will give a three-

fold result,--it will train the child's eye, it will give him useful information, and it will improve his language and increasehis vocabulary.Holding a book before the class, ask,"What have I?" This, to gain attention.Now, tell the children that you will holdit in two ways, and you want them tonotice the two ways and to tell you aboutthem. Hold the book horizontal, and letall notice the position, then hold itinclined, and let them observe. Ask how it was held the first time. The secondtime. You will get a variety of answers; but, probably, some one will say, "Thefirst time it didn't tip, --the next time ittipped." Accept these answers for thepresent, and let the pupils hold books inthe two ways. See that they do itaccurately. Next tell them that you willgive them a long word to tell how the book was the first time. Give the word"horizontal," --let it be carefully pronounced, and spelled bothphonetically and by letter. Again, holdthe book in the first way, and get thechildren to say, "The book is horizontal."



Hold it the second way, and let themsay, the book is not horizontal." Changethis last statement, and substitute, "the book is inclined," or, "The book isoblique." Let the children point out

horizontal surfaces and lines in the sameroom, taking care to have the same thingmentioned but once. Make horizontaland inclined lines on the board, andhave them described. Let the pupils dothe same. Let the pupils tell you of things they have seen outside theschool-room that are horizontal. Here ismatter enough suggested for severallessons; do not hurry; introduce much

variety; give the pupils a good deal todo; do not let any lesson exceed tenminutes.Take the word vertical, and treat it in asimilar way; then the word parallel. Now give little exercises, such as, "Make threeparallel, horizontal lines on the board;"three "parallel vertical lines," etc. Insiston having the work well done; lead thepupils to take pride in doing it well; letthem describe their work in propersentences.The same general process may befollowed in teaching a large number of geometric terms or forms, as angles of different kinds; triangles of differentkinds; parallelogram, rectangle, square,sphere, cube, etc.These are only suggestions,--the field is boundless.Hearing.--Methods somewhat similarmay be used for training the sense of Hearing, at school. Children might beallowed to report the sounds they hear,as well as the sights they see, on the way to school. Is it not as important that they should be able to recognize the calls and



the songs of different birds, or the chirpof different insects, as it is to know thelength of the Congo River, or thenumber of slain at the Battle of BunkerHill?

Of course, successful hearing, as well assuccessful sight, depends primarily uponcloseness of attention. But many teachers train their pupils not to attendto what they ought to hear. They do this by announcing lessons and issuingcommands and requests over and overagain, or by repeating questions inrecitation, or by meaningless repetitionsof answers given, as well as in many

other ways.

Let the pupil once become thoroughly impressed that his teacher says nothing without a meaning,--that a clearstatement once made will not berepeated, but that the school will be heldresponsible for hearing and observing it,and much will be done to quicken thissense.

As drawing should be called in to aid intraining sight, so music should be usedin training hearing. In this way, childrenmay be taught to distinguish and todescribe the pitch of tones, their varyinglength, and the different degrees of force, in connection with their littlesongs. Nor is the usefulness of suchdistinctions confined to singing, by any means. Correct pitch, and change of pitch at will, have as much to do withcorrect speaking or reading as withsinging. The lifeless, monotonousreading of the dull, ill-taught pupil isoften due to the fact either that his earhas not been trained to the distinctions



of pitch and of power, or his organs havenot been trained to produce thosedistinctions.In connection with the training of theear and the vocal organs, will come a

study of inflections and slides of the voice, on which expression so largely depends.In all his school work, the pupil should be trained to love and to make clear,pure tones. On this point, Dr. LowellMason used to insist with greatearnestness in his lectures beforeteachers' institutes. All harshness of tone, screaming, and coarse, nasal

utterance should be banished from theexercises of the school-room,--notencouraged, as they so often are, by theunwise teacher, whose constantadmonition is, "Speak up loud." Butsuch a teacher not only leads his pupilsastray by his precepts; he generally doesit by his example as well, in the loud,harsh, unnatural tones which he uses inthe school-room. The teacher's voiceshould be perfectly natural, smooth, andclear, but not loud nor high-pitched.

We will omit any discussion respectingthe training of the other senses,although we believe somethinginteresting and useful is possible here.

CHAPTER VII.

TRAINING.---Continued.

Representative Powers

.---The Representative Powers, in the



form of Memory and Imagination,awaken in the child almost as soon asthe Perceptives. The child a few monthsold knows his mother's face from that of any other woman, which, of course, can

be possible only as he remembers. In the years of childhood, from infancy to theage of twelve or fourteen, Memory is thecharacteristic faculty. It not only receives readily at this age, but it retains with astonishing tenacity. Let any one inadvanced life compare the readiness with which he can recall what wascommitted to memory at this age withthe difficulty he has in recalling what he

has recently committed. This is theperiod, then, for "storing the mind."Memory is the faculty to be especially trained and exercised at this age.In order to train the Memory, the childmust be made responsible for its use. Hemust be held to remember what he istold in the way of command or direction;to remember it exactly, and to observe itaccordingly. He must be held toremember the instruction given to himin oral form, as well as that gained fromthe book. So tenacious is Memory at thisperiod that it easily seizes and retainsmere words, although they make noappeal to the understanding. Here is theroot of the most glaring evil in ourschool work, especially with careless andill-trained teachers. Mere words arecaught and repeated by the pupils; andthey are glibly recited, giving anappearance of knowledge where noneexists. Of course, this evil should beavoided, but the opposite extreme of requiring nothing to be committed inexact form is still worse.Special exercises to train the memory



are valuable; for instance, read a short,pithy sentence, and require the exactrepetition of it, tell an interesting story,and have it reproduced exactly, the nextday, etc. There is no need to give the

child trash to commit, simply to train hismemory. That power may be exercisedon things worthy in themselves as wellas in storing up nonsense. There is muchin the child's lessons that should becommitted exactly, such as definitions,tables, etc.

Many modern teachers are so impressed with the evil of committing simply the

words of the text-book-- "merememorizing"--that they have gone to theother extreme. Hence, in many schools,otherwise good, the Memory isneglected to such an extent that thepupils can not give what they know inexact language, nor have they power tofix exactly what they strive to remember.

Because of the facility with which mere words are retained at this time, it is notunphilosophical to require the pupil tocommit to memory some useful things which he does not fully understand. Therecent movement in favor of memorizing literary "gems" is worthy of all commendation. Nor need they befully understood at present. Who cannot recall something of this kind,dropped into his memory in hischildhood, that afterwards became themost profitable subject of rumination?

It is a curious fact that certain defectssometimes become objects of personal vanity, such as a pale skin, defectiveeyesight requiring spectacles, etc. It is



thought by silly young people to befashionable, and an evidence of "high-tone," to have these defects. On thisground we account for the readiness with which many people declare that

they are deficient in the power of memory. Certain it is that no onepossesses a really good mind if hismemory is very defective. Whenstudents have come to the authorpleading complacently this defect as areason for failing to retain their lessons,he has sometimes effectually cut off arepetition of the excuse by fully accepting it, suggesting perhaps that he

had long suspected that their minds were not quite sound!

Imagination

.-- During the early years of a child's life,no power is more active thatImagination. As Dr. Rosenkranz says:"The child turns his perceptions intoconceptions, and plays with them." He

bestrides a stick, and it becomes aprancing horse; he ties together three orfour chairs, and they are a train of cars.The little girl collects a few broken bitsof crockery, and they are a China tea-set;she ties up a bundle of rags, and it is a baby. Two or three children cometogether, and they must "play bear," or"play horse," or "play school," etc. In thechild's vocabulary, "play" means to

exercise the Imagination.Now, shall we, like some unwise parentsand teachers, reprove children for thesethings, and exhort them to be sensible? We may be sure that nature makes nomistake in this, any more than in otherexhibitions of child-life.



By entering into, and sympathizing with,the child's ideal life, the teacher orparent may do much, not only for thechild's amusement, but he also may make this a valuable means of

instruction and training; besides, in this way, he may learn more of the child'sinner nature than in almost any other,and do much to establish those bonds of feeling between the child and himself,--so necessary to his highest success as thechild's guide and instructor.

That prince of writers for children, andfor instructors of children, Dr. Jacob

Abbott, in his admirable work, "GentleMeasures in the Management of the Young," has an excellent chapter on theImagination, which every mother andteacher ought carefully to study. Onpages 108 and 114 of the same book will be found very interesting illustrations of the way in which the same faculty may be used in the moral and practicaltraining of children.

Education has for its aim to lead thechild up to true freedom,-- to a free andright use of his own self-determination, --to such a wise use of his will as shallcontrol circumstances to his ownadvantage. In the early use of hisimagination is found a most importanttraining in this respect. Here, he is atliberty to arrange and apply things hechooses, untrammeled by the conditionsof stern reality. This freedom of willconstitutes the principle charm of such"play." Here, doubtless, we find anexplanation for curious facts whichevery careful observer of children musthave noticed.



If a little girl has several dolls,--a fineChina one, an ordinarily good one, and apoor, dirty, mutilated "rag baby,"--she will probably prize the last most highly

of all. The reason is, that she can do whatever she pleases with this one. If a boy has a present of a jumping-jack anda ball, he will at first be much moreinterested in the funny toy. But soon hisinterest in the jumping-jack will die out, while the ball will grow more preciousevery day.

But the highest use of Imagination, for

child or man, is found in the fact that italone gives an ideal of excellence in whatone is to do or to be; without such anideal, progress is hardly conceivable.The Reflective Powers.--We will spendlittle time in speaking of the ReflectivePowers, Reasoning, etc.; not becausethese are not important, but becauseearly youth is no time to attempt anextensive training in these powers. To besure, even a little child has sometendency and ability to draw inferences,to study the relations of cause and effect,and such efforts may be encouraged anddirected to a limited extent. But acommon mistake is to endeavor to trainthe reflective power before its time, andto neglect other powers that are in astage of development which calls for theteacher's best efforts.The Sensibility.--Passing to the trainingof the Sensibility, we say that theteacher's success or failure in the most valuable part of his work will be largely determined by his power or weakness inthis field. It is through the Sensibility that motives to action are furnished, and



character is formed. Even the highestintellectual success is impossible, unlessthe Emotions are enlisted in behalf of the work attempted. No child is likely tomake much progress in a study which he

thoroughly dislikes, especially if hedislike his teacher at the same time.Even the mature man finds his intellect will work with redoubled power andsuccess when the glow of emotionaccompanies its action.LOVE.--The child's love for good things,for his fellows, and for his teacher, must be carefully trained and strengthened.Here is a worthy field for the power of

the teacher with the wisest head andnoblest heart. But it is no place forpretense or sham; all work here must begenuine. If you wish to awaken thechild's love for yourself, expect it only inreturn for genuine love for him. Stagesmiles and honeyed words, with noheart back of them, will no serve. It iseasier to deceive a grown person than achild in this respect. In the old poem,the child says:"I do not love thee, Doctor Fell;The reason why I cannot tell."No doubt, there was a good reason which the child felt, although she couldnot tell it. And we suspect that anequally good reason generally exists forthe child's personal likes and dislikes.But, perhaps, some teacher is ready tosay, "Well, it is of no use; I never didlove children, and I can not,--at least, Ican not love uninteresting anddisagreeable children." Then, we say, you ought to do one of two things: eitherset about acquiring this power at once,or forever forego any attempt to teachchildren. One of the surest ways to



develop a love for any person or thing isto make that person or thing the objectof your special care, interest, and effort.If persistence in such a course will not beget a love for its object, we think the

case is hopeless.HATE.--But the child's capacity to hateor dislike needs special attention, as wellas its opposite. We remember with whatearnestness and effect an old associateof ours used to say to his pupils: "Boys,hate mean things." That they have not been trained to hate mean things is thetrouble of to-day with too many of our boys, and girls as well. But the child

should be carefully shown that thehatred of mean things must not beallowed to pass over into a hatred of thepersons who do them. We fear it willoften be found that many who declaimloudly against wrong, after all feel more bitter toward those who do the wrongthan they do towards the wrong done.The child should be taught that hatredtowards persons is never right. APPETITES AND DESIRES.--Little everneeds to be done to strengthen theappetites and desires of the child. But nopart of his education needs more earnestcare than that by which he gains thepower to regulate them. And here theskillful teacher can do much, in waysthat love and tact will indicate, to trainthe pupil so that his appetites anddesires and desires may be used tominister to his well-being and to hisinnocent gratification, instead of leadinghim down to the level of the brute, or below it. ADMIRATION.--The child's power of admiration, and his tendency to admire,demand careful attention. Owing to the



activity of imagination in children, thepersons that seem to them admirableare esteemed to be perfect. Children are born hero-worshippers. And the thingsthat they admire are likely to be thought

"altogether lovely." There is apsychological reason why, in the vocabulary of young persons, "splendid"and "horrid" exhaust the list of descriptive adjectives so often. Now, because admiration always contains theelement of approval, it is easy to see thatone's character is likely to be indicated by the persons and things he admires;not only is his present character

indicated in this way, but his futurecharacter is largely determined as well.In the admiration that boys conceive forthe characters depicted in the robbersand Indian killers of the wretched"dime" literature of the day, lies thechief danger of the poisonous stuff. Andthe young girl's admiration of the vain, vapid character of the heroine in thetrashy novel she reads, is likely to work lasting injury to her, for the samereason. There is little danger threateningthe character of any young person whoseadmiration is thoroughly fixed on suchthings only as are "pure, honest, lovely,and of good report."REVERENCE.--There is special need inthis country, and in this age, that theReverence of children should be trained.In the abounding life and freedom of this new country, we seem to forget, to agreat extent, that there is any thing to betreated with reverence and respect. Andit is a serious question whether thistendency is not on the increase. Much of the flippant nonsense in our newspapersthat passes for wit would lose all its



point if the irreverence were taken out of it. And the children and youth are notslow to imitate the example of theirelders. The "old man," or the "governor,"is the boy's frequent appellation for his

father, nor does the "old woman" signify the mother much less frequently.Similar disrespectful terms are ready toapply to men and women who, by age, orcharacter, or position, should be treated with special respect.The reverent attitude of mind or speech,toward God or man, seems to be very unpopular just now. This fact does notaugur well for the future, and the best

efforts of our schools should be turnedto its correction.

We remember when our teacher, in theold country school in New England, usedto teach us to meet her with a respectful"good morning," and to leave her with agentle "good night." She also taught usto stand by the road-side and lift ourhats when we met travelers. It ispossible we might return to some old-fashioned ways with profit. It is oftensaid that we must put into our schools whatever we desire to have in thethinking and in the behavior of ourpeople. Is this not true? And if this is so,must we not look to our schools to traintheir pupils in reverence and respect if we would see less of the roughness, vulgarity, and rowdyism that now disgrace us as a people, and makethoughtful men fear for the future?



CHAPTER VIII.

TRAINING.---Concluded .

WE will close our discussion of the

training of the child's powers by sayingsomething about the training of theConscience, the Will, and the powers of Attention and Conception. Let thereader first turn back to Chapter IV, andstudy carefully the definitions of thesepowers.The Conscience.--Conscience makes usfeel that we ought to do what we think isright, and to let alone what we think is

wrong. How shall this feeling becultivated and made stronger? In thesame way as every other power iscultivated and strengthened,-- by use.Every time that the voice of conscienceis heard and heeded, it gains strength tospeak with more clearness the next time.Every time it is disregarded, it is shornof some of its power; this may becontinued until conscience will sleepquietly while one does things that wouldonce have caused the keenest anguish.Thus, conscience becomes "seared as with a hot iron." It withers and decayslike an unused muscle. And yet,sometimes, after a long slumber, it wakes up with a fearful power, andstings like a scorpion---this is remorse.Let the parent and teacher makefrequent appeals to the child'sconscience,--press upon him the wordought in all the fullness of its meaning.If there is any doubt as to whether oneought, or ought not, to do a certainthing, the only safe way is to giveconscience "the benefit of the doubt." Nochild is too young for such an appeal, for



conscience begins its work almost assoon as the earliest perceptive powers."Is it right?" "Then ought you to do it?"These are questions that the youngest will appreciate, and it is sad that such

questions so often give place to mereappeals to expediency, or self-interest,or pride. In view of this fact, it is notstrange that so few grown persons areable to stand boldly for what they believe to be right, even if they have tostand alone. How can the moral fiber beotherwise than flabby if it has never been strengthened?

There has been much discussion of thequestion, whether it is always right tofollow conscience. The case seems to bea very plain one. We can not conceivethat one could be justified in violatinghis conscience,--in doing what he believes to be wrong. And yet it must begranted that, owing to a wrongudgment, conscience may prompt to an

act wrong it itself. Where, then, is theresponsibility? Can one be blamed fordoing such an act? Surely, he can not be blamed for following his conscience; butif his wrong judgment is due to any faultof his, then he is to be blamed forthinking that wrong is right.

Moral Training.--If morality is any thingmore than refined self-interest, then thecultivation of conscience must lie at the basis of all right moral training. Thepsychological elements of morality arefour in number, viz.: the intuitive idea,that there is such a thing as right; theudgment, which determines whether

any particular thing is right; conscience,that moves us towards the right; and the



will, that chooses or refuses the right. Alltrue moral training must have regard toall these; it must recognize theunderlying idea; it must train theudgment; it must appeal to conscience;

and it must lead the will to the properchoice.That such moral training should receivemuch attention is school can not bequestion; character is more thanintellectual power or acquisition. Thatsuch training is too much neglected islamentably true. But, perhaps, it is not very easy to tell how such trainingshould be given. We may say, negatively,

that merely reading books on morals,even the Bible itself, will not give it; nor will the teaching of a religious creed,even the soundest; nor will a discussionof moral questions, nor long lectures onmorals, nor any amount of namby-pamby, goodish exhortation. It must begenuine training as the term has already been defined. Generally, such training will not follow any set lessons in morals.It must be brought about by puttingconscience into all that is done; and theteacher who would succeed in doing this with his pupils must be a living example before their eyes.

Moral lessons may be drawn incidentally from the lessons in reading or history;sometimes, a story may be told, or any case supposed, for which a moral lessonmay be taught effectively. Gow's "GoodMorals and Gentle Manners" is a book that may be of much service to theteacher in such work.

Let specific lessons be given, notaccording to the programme, but as



occasion for them arises. Has theteacher discovered that his boys play marbles for "keeps?" Here is a call forsuch a lesson. Let him take the winner,at some quiet and convenient time, and

ply him with questions something likethe following, after the manner of oldSocrates: Whose are those fine marbles? Whose were they? Did John careanything for them? What did you givehim for them? What made you play withhim for them? Was not the reason because you wanted to get what Johnowned and cared for, without giving himanything of value for it? Is this the

reason why gamblers play their games?Is it the thing that makes men steal?That makes them cheat? That makesthem commit murder sometimes? How much dishonesty would there be in the world if no one ever had such a wish asthis? Then, can this be right? We think such an appeal, if skillfully andkindly made, could hardly fail toconvince the judgment and to move theconscience. In a similar way, otherprinciples of morality should be treated,as occasion calls for the treatment.

The Will

.--A man with a weak will is a pitiableobject. It is the will that gives one hismoving force; that makes him a powerrather than a mere helpless thing. One

who lacks will power is like a log floatingat the mercy of the current; while one with a strong will is like a steamboat,that can not only stem the current, butcan make headway against it. There isno danger that one will have too much will, if only it is joined with right



motives and sound judgment. The manof strong will is not necessarily willful inthe bad use of the word. A man of strong will need not be mulish.There has been much discussion of the

question whether a child's "will should be broken?" The answer turns wholly upon what is meant by "breaking" the will. If by this is meant simply that thechild must be taught to bend his will torightful authority, then it is one of thefirst lessons to be learned; it is an act of the greatest kindness to the child to break his will in this sense. But if, by breaking the will, we mean to destroy its

power, or to diminish it, then it is aheinous crime to do it. Fir, one with his will broken, in this sense, is like a watch with the mainspring broken. Instead of this, special effort should be made tostrengthen the child's will power. Use allreasonable means to lead him to ceasesaying "I can't," and to cultivate thehabit of saying "I can" and "I will." Of course, he should be taught to judgerightly as to whether a thing ought to bedone before he says, "I will do it." Evenkindly ridicule or gentle sarcasm may beused with good effect here, andsometimes resort may well be had tosomething a little more vigorous.

We remember when a certain teachersent a young woman to the blackboard,and she, after a feeble effort, whimperedout, "I don't think I can do it." "Youcan," thundered the teacher, with astamp of his foot. She hastily snatched atear from the corner of each eye, and didthe work. We believe that discipline wasa "means of grace" to that young woman.



But, in addition to direct efforts tostrengthen the child's will, we want tosay very earnestly that neither parentsnor teacher should thwart his will,

except with good reason. Many a willhas been weakened, if not wholly destroyed, because his teacher or parent,thoughtlessly or wantonly, has trampledon his wishes and desires and purposesuntil sullenness or despair has resulted.

Attention

must accompany every successful

mental effort. There are two ways in which the man may be led to giveattention: one is by attracting it, so thathe attends without effort; the other, by inducing him to attend through sheerforce of his will power. The attention of the child can be gained in the first way only. It can be attracted and held for ashort time only; but this will is notstrong enough to enable him to attend

against his inclination, nor after he has become weary. And yet he must attend,if he is to do any thing to any purpose.Nor can his attention be secured by frequent calls for attention, nor even by authority. It must be attracted at first,and its object must be changedfrequently. It is a gradual process, by which he gets the power to command hisattention, and this power must be

gained by a judicious course of training.To secure this training, let the teacher becareful to make no statement to thechild, make no explanation, lay notcommand, etc., until he knows in hisown mind, with perfect clearness, whathe means to say; then let him say it



slowly, clearly, in a few words, and say it but once. Then let him insist rigidly that what is thus given shall be rememberedand observed.Let the teacher form the habit of never

speaking to his school, his class, or to asingle pupil, until he has completeattention, and let him stop speaking theinstant attention wanders. In this way,every thing that is done is school will bean exercise in training the attention; but, occasionally, special exercises forthis purpose alone may be introduced.Let the teacher recite a sentence, to berepeated exactly; let him give directions

for certain movements to be made, andthen require an exact performance, etc.By such processes, and others that athoughtful and ingenious teacher willdiscover, the child is trained until hisattention will obey his will promptly,fully, and successfully. When this isdone, he is on the high road to theattainment of both knowledge andpower.Conception.--A bright mind is one whose Conceptive Power is clear andstrong. Dullness results from lack of thispower. "Parrot" recitations are of words without the accompanying conceptions.Mechanical reading is calling over words, in this way, from a book.Mechanical, meaningless mathematical work is the blind following of rules whilethe conceptive power is asleep. Much of our school work, we are sorry to say, isperformed in such a way as to put thispower to sleep; and the more we work with tongue, or pen, or hand whileconception sleeps, the more soundly it will sleep while we thus work. This is theprocess by which many little children,



who entered school bright, keen, andinquisitive, are made dull and stupidafter going a few months. We believecomparatively few teachers understandthe relative importance of this power, or

how to arouse and train it. A really "lively" school exercise of any kind is not to be measured by the noisemade, nor by the amount of manualactivity, but by the fullness andclearness of the conceptive power used.No reading by older or younger pupils will be correct, --except, perhaps, withthe correctness of mechanicalimitation,--until conception gives life to

the words spoken. No geography lessonis worth any thing that does not fill themind with correct and lively pictures. Nomathematical work is any thing but amechanical "grind" till the pupil "sees"the relation of the parts with his "mind'seye."Imagination, as we have already definedthe term, is the exercise of theconceptive power in one of its forms;hence, the pedagogic value of a judicioususe of the imagination. But theconceptive power has its part to play inunderstanding and reasoning, as well asin memory and imagination. All ourschool work, from the lowest grade tothe highest, should recognize this fact,and the true use of the power of conception should be observed in every school exercise.

We have been able to give only a few hints in regard to the training of thepowers, but the thoughtful teacher willreadily see that this training in his great work--it alone treats the mind like aliving organism; while a mere acquiring



of knowledge, a storing of the memory,treats it like a dead receptacle.

-----------------------------------1. Physical

KINDS OF EDUCATION, ............2. Intellectual3. Moral.4. Spiritual?

Kinds of Education.--We have now completed what we have to say directly about training the mental powers. Wehave also tried to show what education

really is. We often speak of differentkinds of education. Education is dividedinto kinds or sorts, according to twodifferent ideas. If we consider it inrelation to its end, or purpose, we havetwo sorts; viz., General and Special.These were defined and explained inChapter V. If we consider the differentpowers to be educated, we havePhysical, Intellectual, Moral, and

perhaps Spiritual education.Of course, physical education has to do with the powers of the body; its aim is toproduce health, strength, and dexterity.Intellectual education has to do withthose powers by which we know; itspurpose is to give skill and certainty inacquiring facts, in remembering them,and in discovering their true significanceand relation.

Moral education has to do with thetraining of those powers by which wecome to know the right, to love it, and tochoose and follow it. We have already discussed this at some length.Spiritual education, if there be such asdistinct from moral education, means



the growth and cultivation of the divinelife begun in the human soul by therenewing effect of a Divine Power: it is what the minister calls "growth ingrace."

In all these forms of education, thegeneral method is the same; viz., By thewise use of the powers involved, toinduce desired habits .PHYSICAL EDUCATION.-- Intellectualeducation is, without doubt, the mainpurpose of our schools, but it should not be the only purpose, as many seem tosuppose. Both physical and moraleducation should receive careful

attention in all our schools. The pupilshould be taught to sue his body rightly in sitting, standing, walking, etc. The body is the mind's instrument andservant; through it alone can the mind be acted upon from without, and at thesame time it is the only medium through which the mind can manifest itself. Forthis reason, it is very important that the body should be so trained that it may serve the mind efficiently and faithfully;hence, the importance of physicalculture. But it is well to rememberalways that physical strength anddexterity are to be sought as means to anend,--not as an end in themselves. Whenphysical training is made an end initself, as in the case of the professionalathlete, prize-fighter, etc., it not only is a very unworthy end, but it seems todefeat its own purpose. Very few prize-fighters, gymnasts, or oarsmen retain vigorous health till old age; in truth, few of the reach old age.

Education certain



.-- Before turning to another subject, we wish to say that an education of somekind is inevitable--we must be educated."Education is cultured growth,"--if thechild lives, his powers will grow, and

their growth will be modified by theinfluences that surround him. Hence,there is no escape from education but by death or insanity. So, the choice is not between a good education and noeducation, but between a goodeducation and a bad one. If the child'sgrowing powers are not trained as they should be at home, at school, at church,etc., they will be sure to be trained as

they should not be, elsewhere. Not allour schools are in school-houses, underteachers licensed by the superintendentsand paid by public funds. There areschools in the streets, on dry goods boxes, in saloons, and in worse places.They are well supplied with teachers;they have no vacations; and they sendtheir graduates out by swarms. Some of these graduates tax the state much moreheavily to pay for courts, and prisons,and poor houses than they would tohave provided them with the bestpossible education at the public expense.

Any thoughtful person who walks thecrowded streets, in the more degradedportions of our large cities, must havesome very important questions thrustupon him. As he observes the swarmingmultitudes of little children, unclean andunkempt, too young to attend the publicschools, he must ask himself if it wouldnot be cheaper to care for theseunfortunates while they are childrenthan to attempt to restrain and punishthem when they are fully developed into



the hardened criminals that so many of them are sure to become. Would it notcost less money to make the attempt toform them rightly than it will to reformthem, or to punish them when they have

received the education that all theirpresent surroundings tend to give them? Acting on this thought, one of the wisestschemes of modern private philanthropy is the establishment of kindergartens forthese neglected waifs. But would it not be wise economy for the public to bearthe expense of kindergartens for thispurpose from the public funds? Thisquestion demands public attention and

discussion. We have no doubt about thetrue answer.

The resources of a state are not confinedto its mineral wealth, its fertile soil, itsnavigable waters, etc. The mental andmoral power of its rising generationoutweighs them all; if educated anddirected rightly, it will do more toadvance the state in every kind of prosperity, material wealth included.But, if badly educated, it is not simply somuch power and wealth lost, but it becomes a negative quantity,--a powerfor evil and waste. If this is true, it ishard to see why the state is not bound tospend all necessary sums for any and allappliances which shall tend to educatethe powers of its youth rightly; quite asmuch, to say the least, as it is bound tofoster mining, agriculture, commerce,and other things that tend directly todevelop its material resources.

Here is the strongest argument for highschools and colleges which shall offerthe fullest education of all, at the public



cost. Among the lowly and the poor is to be found, in the germ, some of the bestdirective ability in the state. The statecan not afford to lose this ability simply because private purses can not provide

the means for its development. Therichest products of any state, estimatedeven on a pecuniary basis alone, are its best men and women. It is time that wehad done with that narrow view whichsees it public education only the meansof fitting the young for some imaginary "sphere," or the mere preparing of thefuture citizen to cast his ballot with outdanger to the commonwealth.

CHAPTER IX.

THE TEACHER.

THE most important factor in any school, or system of education, is theteacher who directs its daily operations.If he be able, well-trained, and efficient,good results may be confidently expected, even though much be wanting.But, if the teacher be seriously deficient,nothing can supply the lack. Peopleseem to forget this truth sometimes, andto think that if the buildings be grandand good, if the apparatus be abundant,if the system be the best, the result may be satisfactory, let the teacher be whathe may. A moment's reflection ought toshow the unwisdom of any such



expectation.

His motives

.--Let us, then, consider some of the

things belonging to a good teacher. And we will begin by asking, What are propermotives to prompt him to take up this work? We will mention three: a desire todo good, a love for the work, and money. A DESIRE TO DO GOOD.--One who hasno desire to do good, who cares not whether he does any thing to the benefitof the world, is not likely to be worthmuch in any calling; certainly he is not

fit to teach the young. One who doesfaithfully any work that the world needsdoes good and deserves honor. But thereare few occupations in which one can domore to bless his fellows than in wisely developing and training the powers of the rising generation. And if one believeshimself able to do such work successfully, the wish to serve the worldis this way is a noble motive to prompt

him to undertake the work.LOVE FOR THE WORK.--One will doany work better if he loves to do it; butthere are some kinds of coarse, physicallabor, like digging ditches, etc., that wesuppose one might do well even if hedisliked them. This is not true of thehigher kinds of work, and certainly it isnot true of teaching. We do not mean, of course, that a teacher must love every

thing connected with his work. All work has drudgery, and teaching is noexception. But the teacher should havesuch a genuine love for his work as a whole that it will enable him to bear thedrudgery, and to do it faithfully, without being enslaved by it.



PAY.--We shall find people who areready to declare that the two motivesnamed are enough, and that it isdegrading to let the thought of money have any weight. On the other hand, we

shall find those who sneer at thesemotives, and avow boldly that they carenothing for ideals or sentiment,--they are practical, and money is the only motive that should have any weight.Now, the truth is with neither extreme. We should cherish our ideals, if they arenoble; in no other way can we avoidfalling into sordidness. But there aregood and honorable reasons why a

teacher may regard his pecuniary compensation as a proper motive, andinsist that it shall be reasonable inamount. First .--The teacher has wants which hecan not honestly supply, as a generalthing, unless he receive money for his work. Few can afford to work fornothing, even if so disposed. Second .--Justice requires that he shouldreceive pay for his work: the world is soconstituted that those who give ought toreceive.Third .--People do not prize highly that which costs them nothing. Even our bountiful Creator has arranged it so thathis gifts mostly come in response to ourefforts. If the farmer expect a crop, hemust toil for it. If the student desireknowledge and culture, he must putforth his efforts, or his desires are futile.Sunlight, air, and in some places, waterare about the only gifts bestowed uponus without some sort of expenditure onour part. And it is better so; it is moretruly charitable to help the pauper tohelp himself than it is to bestow a gift



upon him. It is neither just, benevolent,nor wise to give good things to thosewho can pay for them but will not .Hence, the good teacher is right when hedemands that the community which

receives his services shall pay for them afair compensation. If there is acommunity needing his services which istoo poor pay for them, and he is able toteach without pay, he may be justified in working for nothing, or for anunreasonably small sum, but nototherwise. However, if he has agreed to work for small pay, or for nothing, heought then to do his best: the smallness

of his pay is not good excuse for poor work.HOW ESTIMATED?--It is no easy matter to estimate the money value of agood teacher's services. Some one hassaid that the world's work may bedivided into two kinds: viz., job-work and professional work. The first is work that has to do with material things only;its value is easily computed; and as its benefit can be exactly measured inmoney, so can its compensation. Butprofessional work has to do with thingsthat can not be measured in money. Who can tell the value of the physician'sservices when he saves the life of afriend, or of a minister's if he lead oneup to a higher moral and religious planeof life, or of the artist's when hecultivates and gratifies our aestheticnature? If such work be good, money can not measure it; if it be poor, it is worthless, or worse. The work of thetrue teacher must be classed asprofessional work. No one can tell justhow many dollars a month will be anequivalent for it. How, then, shall we



determine how much money such ateacher should receive? AMOUNT.--We answer, he shouldreceive enough to serve three purposes; viz., First, to provide for the wants of

himself and his family, if he has one,--and he ought to have one in due time;Second, to provide means of improvement by books, travel, etc.;Third, to enable him to lay by areasonable sum for sickness and old age.It seems clear that a good teacher'sservices should command so much; and,if we may speak for the fraternity of teachers, we should say, This is enough.

We would not have teaching become soremunerative that people would rushinto the business merely because itmight be an easy way to get rich. Wethink, however, the danger in thisdirection is not very serious at present.PENSIONS.--In some Europeancountries, they obviate the necessity of the third requirement we havementioned by giving pensions tosuperannuated teachers; and the samething has been proposed in some of ourStates. We disapprove of such a thingmost heartily. In the first place, it is notust: one of two things is true; either the

teacher has earned his pension or he hasnot. If he has earned it, he should havehad it all the time; if he has not earnedit, he should never have it. But the mostserious objection is that such a coursetake the teacher out of the conditions of ordinary men. Nothing can be worse forhim. One of the worst tendencies of hisprofession is to withdraw himself fromthe pursuits and responsibilities of menin general. Nothing should be done toincrease that tendency. Let his



circumstances be made as nearly likethose of other men as possible, and thenlet him meet all of a man'sresponsibilities. If he meet withmisfortune, let him receive gifts just as

any one else would do; but give him afair compensation; and then, if hesquander it, let him suffer, as others do.

Preparation

.--One of the most disheartening thingsconnected with our public schools is thelack of fitness on the part of theteachers. A large proportion of them--

perhaps a majority--have made lesspreparation for their delicate anddifficult work than they would havemade for the most ordinary trade. Andthis state of things exists because thecommunity permit it to exist. Men willnot take a piece of old harness, to bemended, to any one who has not learnedthe harness-maker's trade, nor order apair of shoes made except by a skilled

workman. Yet, these same men will sendtheir children to be taught by somegreen boy or girl who has never spentone half-hour in special preparation forthe work. This is a mystery that can beexplained only by supposing that suchpeople do not realize the fact thatpreparation for teaching needs to bemade and can be made.

Teachers sometimes judge parents very unjustly. We have heard it said thatparents must love their calves betterthan they love their children, for they will visit their calves every day, but they will not go to the school where theirchildren are taught during a whole term.



This is fallacious; the parent does notregard it so needful to visit the school asit is to care for his calves. Nor does hesee how necessary it is for the teacher to be prepared for his work, else he would

insist upon it. It may be safely assumedthat almost all parents--even theignorant and vicious--desire the bestthings for their children, but often they do not know what the best things are.

Of course, we are now speaking of thepreparation for the teacher's work, which should be made before takingcharge of a school. It often happens that,

if one has some native gift for teaching,he may enter upon his work without any preparation; and yet, at the end of a few terms spent in the school-room, he may be found a skilled workman. Probably hemight acquire the kill of a blacksmith ina similar way; but the waste of iron andcoal that would attend his apprenticeefforts would be a sufficient barrier inthat case. What a pity that the waste of achild's powers and time can not beestimated as easily as the waste of minerals! Every one has heard of thereply of the celebrated French oculist, when some one complimented his skillin operating on the eye: "Yes," said he, "Imay have some skill now, but I spoiled ahateful of eyes in learning."

Normal schools are intended specially for the preparing of teachers for their business; and this should be their solepurpose,--academic work, as such, isforeign to their true aim. There can beno question, other things being equal,that any one will make a better teacher by attending even a tolerably good



Normal school. Still, it does not follow that such a school is the only place where the preparation can be made.Multitudes of excellent teachers havenever attended a Normal school. Nor

can the best Normal school make a first-rate teacher out of every one who entersit. But what we assert, most earnestly and confidently, is that, somewhere andsomehow, by thought, reading,instruction, observation, or allcombined, the teacher should berequired to make reasonablepreparation for his work before he ispermitted to enter upon it.

WHAT PREPARATION?--There arethree distinct fields in which preparationshould be made. First .--The candidate for the teacher'soffice should become well acquainted with the nature of children. He shouldunderstand their physical nature, itlaws, needs, and possibilities. He shouldunderstand the laws of mind, both in itsaction and in its growth. He shouldunderstand the springs and movementsof the human being which result in agood moral character or its opposite. Inshort, he should become versed in aknowledge of what we call "humannature" in it broadest sense. But, besidesa general knowledge of human nature,he needs to be specially acquainted withthat complicated and mysterious thingin its plastic, formative, and growingstages, for it is the material on which heis to work. What would be said for thetailor ignorant of the nature andqualities of cloth? or of the nursery-manknowing nothing of the nature of plantsor the mysteries of plant-life? We



require even of a sewing girl that sheshould know something of the structureand operation of the machine she uses. Second. --He should be well acquainted with the branches of knowledge that he

is to teach. And here we must note thatthe teacher's knowledge of subjectsought to be of a special kind,--it mustextend to underlying principles. Onemay know how to read very well, andstill be ignorant of the principles on which good reading depends. One may be able to make all the computationsnecessary in the counting room, andhave a "plentiful lack" of knowledge of

the principles of arithmetic,--so similarremarks may be made about all thestudies of the school; all need to beacquired by the teacher in a way quitedifferent from that which is necessary simply for practical use. We assert that ateacher's knowledge should be of aspecial quality, whether its quantity bemore or less; but, of course, in quantity it should much exceed what he is likely to be called upon to impart.Third. --He should be prepared both inthe principles and the methods of imparting knowledge, and in theprinciples and methods of governingand managing children no less.Unchanging and unchangeableprinciples underlie all correct teachingand management. These principles can be investigated and acquired; and aknowledge of them, when arrangedsystematically, constitutes the science of instruction. All good methods rest uponand are shaped by these principles.Methods, or rather modes, may vary indefinitely, while the underlyingprinciples are the same. But the teacher



should make a careful study of methods,that he may avoid bad ones, and that hemay be ready to adapt or to devise goodones for the several cases that will arisein his experience.

It will be seen at once that, while thecandidate for teaching should be wellprepared in these three distinct fields,the ordinary examinations for license toteach have regard only to the second,and in that even they are often very farfrom searching. It is not so easy to testthe candidate's knowledge in the othertwo; but some tests could be applied,

and they would be applied if thecommunity demanded it. The truth is,however, that instead of making such ademand, the community are more likely to find fault if the examiner is rigid andexacting in the one third that he doesattempt.

Progress

.--But the teacher's preparation mustnot stop with getting ready for hisschool; it should continue until the lastday that he comes before pupils as theirteacher.DAILY.--We assert, as anunquestionable truth, that he shouldmake a daily preparation for every classthat he is to teach. No matter how familiar the subject, he should bring it

before his mind in order that he may befresh upon it, that he may have itsinherent difficulties clearly in mind, andthat he may adapt his teaching of it to bepersonal peculiarities of the particularJohns and Susans that compose hispresent class. Furthermore, he should



not be content always to present thesubject in the same way, nor to confinehimself to the same plan of removingdifficulties. He should seek new andattractive ways of presenting the most

familiar subjects, and this for his ownsake no less than for his pupils'. In noother way can he keep out of "ruts," orkeep up his own interest in what he isdoing, and thus avoid that humdrummonotony which is a special bane of theteacher's work.FOR HIGHER RANK. --Once more, besides his daily preparation for hisclass-work, he should make daily

preparation for higher professionalrank. It may be so in many other things, but certainly in the teacher's work thereis no standing still, --not to go forward isto go back.

Some years ago, Mr. P., of Massachusetts, told this story of hisexperience as an examiner of teachers.One day, after examining a candidate, hetold him that he must refuse him acertificate. "Well," said the man, "I think that is strange; I taught school five yearsago in this very town, and you, Mr. P.,gave me my license. I think it is a pity if Idon't know as much as I did five yearsago." Said Mr. P., "I think you do know as much as you did then, but no more,and that is a sufficient reason forrefusing you a license." Was not Mr. P.Right?

This preparation for higher professionalrank should be of a three-fold nature: First .--The teacher should constantly push forward in the subjects he is calledupon to teach. Who can gather in all



knowledge on such familiar subjects asGeography and History, to say nothingof the higher walks of Literature,Science, and Mathematics? Second .--He should select some

department of knowledge notparticularly connected with his school-room work, and become a faithful andconstant student in that direction. Lethim consult his own taste in this matter;the range of subjects is unlimited,--Philosophy, Literature, Art, History,Natural Science, Theology, etc., all openinviting doors to those whose tastes leadthe way. It is important that the teacher

study in the way proposed, not simply to broaden his knowledge, to keep hismanhood from being smothered in theschoolmaster, but because he can not inany other way keep himself in the trueattitude of a learner. And one who is notin the attitude of a learner is unfit tolead others into that attitude, or to directtheir work should they chance to befound in such an attitude.Third.-- He ought to keep up constantprofessional work by readingprofessional literature, books andperiodicals, and by attending and takingpart in professional meetings. Theliterature of Pedagogics is very considerable and very respectable; and itis growing every day, both in quantity and character. And yet how many teachers are there who never read a book on teaching? Perhaps they do not with to do so; we fear some would prefera dime novel. And how many take noteachers' periodical? Still, those very persons are perhaps the most clamorousto be counted members of a"profession!" What should we say of a



physician who reads no books, and took no periodical treating of medicine? What should we say of a lawyer who didnot know any thing of Blackstone? Butare not some members of the teachers'

"profession" perfectly ignorant of any knowledge of Pestalozzi?

Complaint is often made that society does not give teachers the rank and theconsideration to which their officeshould entitle them. No doubt this istrue of some communities and of someteachers; but, when one observes thelack of culture, of earnestness, and of

true professional spirit so common to alarge number of those who teach, hecannot avoid the conclusion that, on theaverage, teachers are appreciated ashighly as they deserve."The fault . . . is not in our stars,But in ourselves, that we areunderlings."

Further, the teacher should not only read professionally, but he should writeprofessionally for teachers' periodicalsor the common newspaper. The editor of almost any paper will be glad to open hiscolumns to well written articles oneducation. We have more than hintedthat the community need instruction oneducational themes; who should instructthem, if not the teacher? And thereadiest medium for the instruction of the community is the newspaper.Nor can he afford to absent himself fromthe gatherings of his fellow-teachers,--inthe Institute, or the County, State, orNational Association. He needs to dothis that he may gain the quickeningthat comes from social intercourse with



those engaged in like pursuits, as well asto become acquainted with the generaldrift of educational discussion.But here, of course, we shall be met by the school-keeper, who says, "It costs

money to buy books and periodicals, totravel to distant places, and to pay hotel bills. My salary is small; I can not affordit." Deluded pedagogue, you can not"afford" not to do it! Money invested inthis way will pay you better in money than if loaned on bond and mortgage. You look longingly at the places filled by your fellow teachers who get goodsalaries. Let us all tell you that we are

pointing out one of the surest roads tothose very places. We have known agreat many young teachers who haverisen from your position to such places,and we think every one spent money outof his meager salary in the very ways weare commending, although he could not"afford" it. But it brought returns at anexcellent rate of interest. As well mightthe carpenter say, "I must exhaust my strength with this dull, old, worthlessplane; I can not "afford" to pay money for a better one;" or the farmer say, "Ican not 'afford' to pay money for seedcorn."

It is true, however, that in some country districts a studious teacher loses, at leasttemporarily, the confidence of thepeople. They are possessed with thenotion that the teacher's business issimply to impart information, and that if he be prepared for his work he musthave acquired all the information heneeds to impart. Hence, any effort of hisin the way of study appears to them to be an exhibition of weakness. Such



foolish notions will disappear as peoplecome to have more correct views of the work of teaching.

We have urged that the teacher should

always be an active student in order thathe may be, and continue to be, a usefuland efficient teacher. This is by nomeans al, however. In no other way canhe save himself from becoming auiceless "pedagogue," such as our great

novelists have sometimes ridiculed.Furthermore, it is very apparent thatintellectual activity tends to prolong life. A very large number of the world's best

thinkers have retained their full powersto a very advanced age, and there isgood reason to believe that theiradvanced age was largely due to theirintellectual activity. Hence, it is for theteacher's highest personal interest neverto relax his efforts as an earnest student.

CHAPTER X.

THE TEACHER.--Continued .

THE old proverb, "As is the teacher, sois the school," is generally true. Theschool is what the teacher makes is,--itis largely a reflection of himself. If he isprompt, accurate, and thorough,--or if he is slovenly, turbulent, or untruthful,--the school will probably take on thesame character, to a great degree. Forgood or evil, the teacher is reproducinghimself in his pupils. And, as many of his pupils will become teachers in due



time, his influence is constantly widening. The author well remembersthat in his first school he scarcely undertook any thing in the way of teaching or discipline without imagining

how a former teacher of his would do were he is his place,--the image of thatman was constantly before his mind.It is of the greatest importance that theteacher should be worthy of imitation inall respects. But the faults of a teacher who is generally good and strong arelikely to do more harm than the faults of a weaker teacher, for he makes a deeperimpression on his pupils; and, in their

efforts to imitate him, they are quite aslikely to seize on his weak point forcopying as his strong ones. Perhaps they are more likely to do so,--for crudeminds seem inclined to believe that they are like some great man when they havecaught one of his tricks or mannerisms.I think some young men may havefancied that they were like HoraceGreeley because of their poorhandwriting.Of course, it follows that the teacher'sresponsibility is very great. He shouldrealize this fact, and it should make himthoughtful, faithful, and diligent. But heshould not allow it to weigh him down.He should do his best, and then leave it;it is of no use to worry about results. Inone of her last addresses to her pupils,Mary Lyon uttered the famous saying,"There is only one thing in the universethat I fear,--either that I shall not know my duty, or shall not have the strengthto do it." There is nothing else that any one ever ought to fear.



Aptitude

.--The old Latin proverb says, " Poetanascitur non fit, "--the poet is born, notmade. To a certain extent, the same

thing is true of teachers. Probably any one of ordinary capacity will be able toteach respectably by due preparationand diligence; but no one will be likely to reach a high place in the ranks of teachers if he has not some special giftfor teaching. And native ability forteaching is not the same thing as nativeability in general. Some persons mosthighly endowed with ability for

scholarship succeed very poorly asteachers; on the other hand, someexcellent teachers whose general ability is not marked.

Every teacher in a Normal school willdiscover that his brightest pupils are notsure to make the best teachers. What isthe true course for one who finds, onattempting to teach, that he has gifts in

that direction? Sometimes persons seemto think that because the are thus giftedthey may trust wholly to their gifts, anddispense with careful preparation. Thetrue course is just the opposite of this:gifts specially adapted to any work indicate the propriety of specialpreparation for that work,--a principlelaid down in out discussion of specialeducation.

Health

,--The mind can act, or be acted upon,only through the body. Hence, theimportance of a healthy body to a mind- worker. The notion that feeble, sickly



people, who can not stand the strain of physical labor, are proper persons toteach school is very unreasonable. Somepersons know, from trying both, that itis much easier to plow than to teach

school when one has the headache.Besides, there are few occupations morefilled with petty annoyances thanteaching; the teacher can hardly meetthem properly if he is in ill-health.Further, the weakness and irritability attending illness are likely to cause himto provoke new annoyances, where goodhealth would have enabled him toovercome such as naturally arise. Of all

men, the teacher needs a clear head anda cheerful heart; and these are hardly possible to one who has a diseased body.HOW TO PRESERVE HEALTH. --If theteacher's health is reasonably good, how is he to keep it so? We will venture tooffer a few common-sense suggestions,not as a physician, but as a person whohas learned something from observationand experience; and the suggestions weoffer to the teacher are quite asimportant for the pupil. We will firstmention two of the ways "How not to doit." First.-- Do not expect to keep yourhealth by a constant thinking about it.Do not keep up a continual study to seeif you can not detect some symptoms of disease in yourself. Believe yourself well,if you are not obliged to believeotherwise. Give thought enough to thesubject to take reasonable care of yourself, but no more. Second.-- Put far off the notion that youcan abuse your body, and then make itas good as it was before by takingmedicine. Not a few people destroy their



health by frequent dosing. You may haveheard of the epitaph:

"I was well, and wished to be better,Took physic, and here I am."

We fear it would be appropriate formore tombstones than have ever borneit. Medicine is doubtless necessary attimes, but only as a dire alternative. Nordo we believe medicine will ever makeone "as good as new."GOOD AIR.--We need not stop to provethat good air is absolutely essential togood health. We should spend a

reasonable amount of time in the openair; and we need pure air in our work-rooms, and especially in our sleeping-rooms. Few of our school-rooms haveany proper provision for securing goodair; and the air become vitiated sogradually that we are very likely not toknow that we are suffering from it if wedo not oblige ourselves to stop and think about it. But what shall we do about it?To drop window from the top willprobably let a flood of cold air fall onsome one's head; to raise a window fromthe bottom is no better. Windows may easily be fitted with a close-fitting boardto be put in front of the opening, so thatthe current will strike no one. But, ingeneral, the best thing that can be doneis an ordinary, unventilated school-room, is to take time, as often as need be, put the school in motion, and thenopen the windows on both sides,completely changing the whole body of air.EQUILIBRIUM OF BODILY TEMPERATURE.--In a healthy body, ingood conditions, there is a certain



equilibrium or balancing of temperature between its different parts which can not be disturbed without danger to health.One of the chief dangers from badmodes of ventilation is in the drafts,--

and a draft is dangerous because it islikely to disturb the equilibrium of body temperature by cooling a part of the body. The same danger follows the wetting of the feet, or sitting with part of the clothing dampened. Heavy mufflers worn about the throat are dangerous forthe same reason; they heat the throatunduly, and when they are removed arapid cooling of the parts is likely to

follow,--and the equilibrium isdisturbed. The extremities are the partsmost exposed to danger, as they arefarthest from the center of life and heat.The legs and feet should be wellprotected,--especially the soles.

There is much wisdom in the oldproverb, "Keep the feet warm, and thehead cool.." The author was once riding with Dr. Calvin Cutter over the bleak hills of New Hampshire, facing a coldNovember wind. The Doctor wasprovided with a heavy shawl; but,instead of wrapping it about hisshoulders, he wrapped it around his legsand feet.

CLEANLINESS.-- Our bodies are wasting all the time; particles of matterare dying, and new ones are taking theirplace. When we cease to die in this way, we are certain to die altogether. Thedead, worn-out particles must beremoved, and nature has provided fortheir removal in three ways: a great partpasses off through the lungs, a part



through the bowels, and a large partthrough the pores of the skin. If any oneof these avenues of escape is stopped,the others must be overloaded, ordisease will follow,--probably both will

result. The exhalations throught thepores contain watery vapor; when thispasses away, the dead matter remains,closing the pores.

A chill will do the same thing; hence, Dr.Cutter says, "If you were to varnish aman all over, he would seem to die of acold." For the reason given above, whenthe pores are clogged, diseases of the

lungs or the bowels are likely to follow.Probably, much of the SummerComplaint" is due to chills, or dirt on theskin, when the innocent water-melonsor other fruits bear the blame. Thedanger from sitting in a room "just alittle too cold" arises from the closing of the pores.

When the pores are closed by exhalations, the skin should be put in working condition again by bathing, orfriction, or both. No definite rules can begiven as to how often this should bedone, whether cold water or warm watershould be used, etc. It should be doneoften enough to keep the skin clean. If,after using cold water, the skin can beput into a healthy glow by friction, thena cold bath is god; but the bath shouldnever leave a chill.EXERCISE.--No one can be healthy without a due amount of muscularexercise. Care in this regard is especially necessary to the teacher, because his work furnishes but little exercise. Youngpeople leaving active pursuits for the



school-room, whether teachers orstudents, are likely to lose health if they are not very careful in the matter of exercise. But no fixed rules can prescribeust the best kind or amount of exercise;

the needs vary with the individual. Walking, riding, playing vigorous games,etc., are all good forms of exercise. But,in general, it is best that the exercisehave a purpose in itself apart from thefact that it is to preserve health. This isthe advantage of a game, or a walk forthe study of botany or geology, over thedull "constitutional."

Dr. Edward Hitchcock, of AmherstCollege, was in a state of health so feeblethat his friends had nearly given him upto die; but just then he becameinterested in geological studies. He took long walks to find specimens; and theresult was that he not only regained hishealth, but became one of the foremostgeologists of his time.

Most of the common forms of exercisecall into action only a part of themuscles; well devised gymnasticsexercise all,--hence, their advantage.The "health-lift" is highly commended.FOOD.--In respect to food, one man's wants can not be made the guide foranother, either as to kind or amount.There is truth in the proverb, "Oneman's meat is another man's poison."The structure of our teeth indicates thatit is intended that man should eat bothanimal and vegetable food. But therelative amounts of each will vary withdifferent persons and with differentcircumstances. As a general rule, it issafe to eat whatever is commonly



regarded as eatable, unless one findsthat it does not agree with him; in thatcase, he should let it alone, whatever itmay be, or however much appetite may crave it. There is scarcely any thing

about which more nonsense has been written than about food. A good generalrule is, "Eat good food, well-cooked, andenough of it."Take your food regularly, --two or threetimes a day, as best agrees with you, --eat when the time comes, and at noother time; take nothing between meals.Eat slowly, --many Americans seem topride themselves on the brevity of the

time in which they can cram their mealsinto their stomachs.--they "glory in theirshame." No ordinary meal shouldoccupy less than twenty minutes,--perhaps half-hour is better. Social mealsare better than solitary. Pleasant, lively conversation should take the mind off the act of eating,-- our meals should besomething more than mere feedingtimes. No violent exercise of mind or body should immediately precede orfollow a meal.SLEEP.--In respect to sleep, also, oneman's needs can not be made themeasure for another. Each shouldascertain for himself how much sleep heneeds,--and then he should take it.Probably very few persons need lessthan seven hours, --more require eightor nine. There is a very foolish notionthat time spent in sleep is lost; thestudent often takes pride in the numberof hours that he saves from sleep. Theseare hours that he borrows at a ruinousrate of interest. No time is ever lost thatis spent in needed sleep. Sleep repairsthe wasted energies of the body,



especially of the nervous system; and, if we fail to get enough sleep, bankruptcy of power is inevitable, sooner or later.Brain-workers probably need more sleepthan manual laborers; but they are not

as likely to feel their need. If one persistin robbing himself of sleep, he is likely tofind, after a time, that he can not sleep.Doubtless, this hastened the death of Horace Greeley. It is quite probable thatHugh Miller's insanity was due to thesame cause. Whether to sleep the first part of thenight or the last is a question each may settle for himself, but let him take care

not to cut the night at both ends. As ineating, so in sleeping, regularity is of thegreatest importance. Natureaccommodates herself to our ways, butshe will not be trifled with. If we have aregular time to sleep, we shall generally feel sleepy when that time comes.Health and bodily vigor are gifts thatdepend largely upon ourselves. Somepeople think sickness and bodily weakness criminal; and, doubtless, they are so in many cases.

CHAPTER XI.

THE TEACHER. -- Concluded .

What are Habits?--

The word habit comes from the Latinhabere, to have; it means any custom, orpractice, or act which by repetition



becomes to us like "second nature." That which is habitual to us we do withoutthought, or effort, or special intention,-- very much in the same way that we breathe. Habits are the practices or

customs that we have ; or, if we think of their power over us, it will not be far wrong to say that they have us . It has been said that "man is a bundle of habits;" at any rate, a man's truecharacter in all respects is indicated by his habits; nor would it be wrong to say that his habits make him what he is.Dr. Rosenkranz has well said that we arenot thoroughly educated in any thing till

it has taken on the form of habit; inother words, habit is the form which alltrue education takes. This may beillustrated in a great many ways: one isnot thoroughly educated in themultiplication table if he has to stop andthink how many are eight times seven;he is not educated to write while hemust think carefully how he ought toform his letters; he is not educated inmorality while he debates the question whether he shall do right.The great value of habit is that it enablesus to do easily what ought to be done,and to do it rapidly and accurately, without any special thought or effort.Habits, if they are bad, are full of danger, as they lead us to do many things which our judgment or ourconscience disapproves. The bad habitof the drunkard carried him onward inhis downward course, in spite of hisudgment, his conscience, and his feeble

will.Bodily Habits.--A good test for all habitspertaining to the body is furnished by the question, "Are they becoming?" By



this test, all vulgar habits, such asspitting, picking the nose, awkwardnessof gait, etc., will be condemned.DRESS.--It is significant that dress isoften called habit; and the test just given

for a habit of the body applies here withmuch force. Dress is intended to servethree purposes; viz., Decency, comfort,and adornment. Any dress that is not both decent and comfortable is not becoming, no matter how costly orstylish it may be. It is not necessary thatdress should be very expensive in orderto be becoming; nor can teachers,generally, afford very expensive dress.

But the teacher's dress should be neat, well-fitting, and neither too much nortoo little conformed to the prevalentmode. In style of dress, the teacher may well follow the old couplet:"Be not the first by whom the new istried,Nor yet the last to cast the old aside."The material should be good, although itneed not be very costly; but, in general, very cheap material is not really economical; a coat that costs thirty dollars, if it is worth it, is likely to becheaper in the end than one that is worth but fifteen dollars, as it will wearmuch longer, and will retain its goodlooks till it is worn out. One may beconsidered well-dressed when hisappearance is pleasing to good taste;and yet it is difficult, after leaving him,to specify the kind or cut of thegarments he wore. Adornment is one proper purpose of dress; hence, a reasonable amount of ornament is well, especially in a lady'sdress, if only it be modest, genuine, andin good taste. Sham is despicable



anywhere, but nowhere more despicablethan in ornament, because nowhere elseis there so little excuse for it. Nor can we believe on is thoroughly sound morally, who will consent to wear sham jewelry

or other sham ornaments. This may be arash assertion; for, when we rememberhow many thousands of dollars' worth of ewelry are made in this country, of

which you have "your choice for adollar,"--but will be cheated to theamount of ninety cents, at least, if youtake it,--we must suppose that we arepronouncing judgment on a great many people. But we will say deliberately that

we would not employ a person to teachchildren if we knew that such a person wore sham jewelry or other shamornaments, knowing them to be such.POSITION.--The teacher should be very careful not to suffer himself to assumeuncouth or awkward positions,--such astipping his chair on two legs, thrustinghis hands into his pockets, standing in astooping attitude or with his legstwisted, or sitting on desks and tables,etc. Nor should he suffer his pupils toform such habits. An erect position instanding or sitting, with shoulders wellthrown back, is not only more becoming, but it more healthful, as well.MOVEMENT.--All movements in theschool-room should be rapid, quiet, andgraceful. In the attempt to move quietly,all awkward attitudes, such as walkingon tip-toe, walking with hands clasped behind, etc., should be carefully shunned. If teacher or pupil be notactually deformed, nothing but care,effort, and perseverance is necessary toform correct habits both of position andmovement. If the teacher find that his



pupils have bad habits in these respects,he should set about correcting them; of course, this is not the main purpose of the school, but it is too important to beneglected.

Boys and girls in country schools arelikely to be unreasonably sensitive onthe points just mentioned. The writer well remembers that, in such a school, which he attended when he was a boy,the boys nearly rebelled because a new teacher peremptorily forbade them to wear their hats in the school-room at thenoon intermission. They were not bad

boys, nor were they fools; they weresimply raw fellows who never had beentaught any better. Had the teacher been wise enough, he might haveaccomplished his purpose withoutdisturbing any of their prejudices orawaking any opposition.

Intellectual Habits

.--We shall make no attempt to considerall mental habits, but will only speak of four that are of special significance tothe teacher.CONCENTRATION.--No one everaccomplishes much intellectually, unlesshe can command his mental forces, and bring them to a focus on the matter inhand. This the good teacher must beable to do, even in the midst of

distractions. But it is, perhaps, quite asnecessary that the teacher have thepower of rapidly withdrawing his mentalforces from the thing in hand, andquickly centering them on somethingelse; without this power, he will often bethe victim of absent-mindedness. He



alone who has control of his faculties in both directions is prepared to use hispowers to the best advantage.

It is said of the great Napoleon, that he

could sit down in his tent, with thesound of the cannon in his ears, spreadout his maps, and plan the movementsfor the next day as coolly as though he were in the midst of perfect solitude;then, we his work was done, he couldfold his maps, stretch himself on hiscamp bed, and be asleep in fourminutes. The teacher should aim atacquiring the same kind of power, so far

as he can do it.

ACCURACY.--Mental work is worthlittle in any case,--usually it is worthnothing,--if it is not accurate. Theteacher ought to be in love withaccuracy, and he ought to inspire thatlove in his pupil. "About right" is wrong;and wrong and right are opposed to eachother. Let the teacher train himself, andtrain his pupils, to exactness in though,exactness in speech or any other kind of expression, and exactness in operation. Washington's accuracy in his work as a young surveyor is often mentioned. Without it, would he ever have becomethe exact, methodical, successful manthat he was?RAPIDITY.--When the mind can work accurately in any field, then it becomes othe highest importance to cultivate thepower of working rapidly. This is a valuable habit, not only because more work can be done in a given time, butthe mind is likely to do better work when it is aroused, -- when it worksunder pressure. "Keep cool" may be



good advice sometimes; but sometimesit is better to warm up,--to get all in aglow. It is well for the teacher to trainhimself to work as rapidly as possible in whatever private study he undertakes, as

well as in conducting the exercises of theschool. In hearing classes, he should notsuffer himself to waste time in callingroll, in finding his place in the book, andin "getting ready" in general. Therecitation should begin at once, under a"full head of steam," and should be keptup in that way till it closes. The greaterthe pressure, in respect to time, broughtto bear on the class, the better, so long

as it does not result in confusion. Of course, such vigorous work should befollowed by seasons of sufficient rest.THOROUGHNESS.--The word thoroughis the same as the through. To bethorough in a thing, then, is to gothrough it completely, encountering andmastering every difficulty.Thoroughness never is accomplished by dabbling simply with the surface of things; it must go deep down, and become master of principles. It is notnecessary to know all that can be knownabout a subject in order to be thoroughin it; but it is necessary to know the motimportant things about it, to know themin an accurate and orderly manner, andto know completely all that we pretendto know.

Moral Habits

.--Here, again, we shall make no attemptto exhaust the list, but will call attentionto four habits that are of specialsignificance to the teacher.TRUTHFULNESS.--There can be no



right moral character unless it havetruthfulness for its basis; hence, thepropriety of placing this as the first of moral habits. We hope that there are few teachers who are in the habit of lying

openly and intentionally, but somethingmore than this is necessary to acharacter that is really truthful. Thereare many ways of being untruthful besides lying outright. The teacher whomake hasty threats or rash promises,and then fails to keep them, isuntruthful. So is he who pretends to agreat love for his pupils which he doesnot feel; or he who pretends to know all

about a subject of which is he isignorant. And what shall we say of the teacher who has set exercises prepared todisplay when visitors happen in? Or of the one who "fixes up" his exercises forexamination? Such a man may read allthe moral lessons on lying to his school,including the story of Ananias andSapphira; but what does he teach themabout the subject, except that it is a goodthing to lie when any thing is likely to begained by it? And what shall we say o thepupil who borrows work of his neighborand palms it off as his own? Or whocheats in his lessons in other ways? And what can the teacher, guilty of dishonestpractices, do with a pupil whom hecatches at these tricks? Such tricks of teacher and pupils have in them theessence of thievery as well as falsehood,for they are attempts to get somethingfor nothing by dishonest means.

When the true sense of "honor" prevailsin our schools, instead of the miserablefalse code now so common, the pupils



will feel it to be their duty, quite as muchas their teacher's, to expose all such wretched practices, and to assist in bringing the offender to justice. What would be the moral status of any

community where every man should feel bound "in honor" to shield a criminalfrom the pursuit of the civil officers,instead of assisting them to bring him toustice?

KINDNESS.--It is the teacher's duty toform the habit of kindness in thought, inlook, and in speech. This is a moral habit when it is formed and persisted in

because it is right, for,

MORALITY is a due regard for the right and a shunning of the wrong.

CHEERFULNESS.-- Much the samething may be said about the habit of cheerfulness; it is a moral habit when itis followed because it is right. To be kindand cheerful when one is in glowinghealth and all goes well, simply becauseone feels like it, is right no doubt; butthere is no morality in that any morethan there is in the cat's lapping milk.But for one to force himself to be kindand cheerful habitually, whencircumstances and his feelings promptotherwise,--to do this because it isright,--is moral action of a high quality.JUSTICE.--A careful habit of justice isessential to the teacher's success. Thepupils, although ill-dressed--and evenill-behaved--have rights that no teachercan justly ignore. And the know it, too;they are quick to feel an injustice, andthe memory of it will remain for years. Itis not easy for the teacher to do exact



ustice by his pupils; he must be sheriff,lawyer, jury, judge, and executioner allin one, and that, too, in a press of othermatters. It requires a right purpose, andunbiased judgment, a clear head, and

much deliberation. But he shouldundertake nothing in the way of tryingand punishing offenses unless he is willing to take the time and the pains to become acquainted with all the facts, to weigh them carefully, and to do exact

ustice to the full extent of his ability. Itis a fortunate thing for a teacher whenhis pupils come to feel that, whatevermay happen, they are sure to get justice

at his hands. True justice towards pupils will have a sacred regard for theirfeelings, and will not subject them toharsh, undeserved sarcasm, and ridiculeany sooner than to any other form of ill-treatment.

CHAPTER XII.

THE SCHOOL.

The House

.---Usually, the teacher has nothing to

say about the situation of the school-house. But he should have intelligent views on this subject, as well as on allother connected with his business. Otherthings being equal, of course the bestplace to put the school-house is in thecenter of the district; but if the center is



in marshy ground, or is otherwiseunpleasant or unhealthy, or it if is not soaccessible as some other place, then theschool-house should be placedelsewhere. In a city, the school should

not be situated on a noisy or dusty street, nor in the immediate vicinity of great manufactories or railroad depots,nor near saloons or other disreputableplaces.SURROUNDINGS.---In the country, atleast, the school grounds should beliberal in extent. A half acre is littleenough; an acre is better. Probably the best shape for the ground is that of a

rectangle about twice as long as it is wide. The ground should be surrounded by a substantial fence, to protect it fromstray animals, and to determine thepupils' bounds. The house should be set well back from the street; the ground infront should be devoted to ornament,and the ground in the rear should bedivided into two parts by a high andclose fence extending from the house tothe boundary of the lot. These divisionsmay be used as play-grounds for the boys and girls respectively. A few treesfor shade should be planted around theplay-ground, but there should not be somany as to interfere with free sports.The ground in front of the house shouldnot be used as a play ground, but should be kept in grass, and well adorned withtrees, flower-beds, etc. An intelligentand skillful teacher can do muchtowards ornamenting and caring for thisfront yard. He can get assistance fromthe pupils in planting trees, flowers, etc.,thus teaching them something aboutplant-life, awakening in them a pride intheir surroundings, and so cultivating



their aesthetic nature,--a part of education that seldom receives theattention it deserves. The yards should be well supplied with good plank or brick walks; brick are perhaps cheaper,

but plank walks dry sooner and are notso troublesome in icy times.THE STRUCTURE.--In building aschool-house, it costs but little more tohave some regard to due proportion andmodest ornament than it does to build astructure that looks like a barn or astable. The child will remember his oldschool-house as long as he lives. Is it worth while that the remembrance

should be that of a building that ischeerful and tasteful? In building theschool-house, care should be taken thatthe light shall not enter in front of thepupils, but from the sides of the room,and perhaps from the rear. There should be enough windows to give sufficientlight; but, in some cases, there are morethan are needed, giving too great a glareof light in bright summer days, andadmitting too much cold air in the winter. It is well to have the windowsprotected by strong board-shutters, thatmay be closed at night and in vacation.In this way, the house may be protectedfrom tramps and other intruders.It would be well if all our school-houses were built with some due provision for ventilation; it is not difficult, if care betaken when the house is building. Letthe walls, floors, and windows be madeas tight as possible, and then provide for bringing fresh air into the house. Warmthe air thoroughly by passing it over aproperly constructed heater, and thenpass it into the schoolroom. But, inorder to make the air circulate, it is just



as necessary that provision be made forthe foul air to pass out, as for the pureair to get in. The place of escape should be made near the bottom of the room,and the foul air should pass off into the

chimney, or into a separate flueprovided for the purpose.FURNITURE.--Usually the desks, etc.,are purchased without consulting theteacher; but he ought to be able to show the people that it is much better tosupply convenient, well-made, and well-finished desks, instead of the coarsedesks that a common carpenter canmake of ordinary lumber. The cost is but

little greater, for those who manufactureschool furniture as a business selecttheir lumber, dry it thoroughly, and domost of the work by machinery. Hence,they can make it durable, tasteful, and ata moderate cost. Such furniture in itself teaches the pupils useful lessons; besides, it does not offer the sametemptations to rude boys that rough,uncouth furniture does. Few boys willtry their jack-knives on well-made,handsomely finished desks. APPARATUS.--As a part of thefurniture, we would class books forreference, globes, maps, and otherapparatus. It often happens that itdepends almost wholly on the teacherhow much of such furnishings thereshall be, and of what kind. If there is alack of this respect, a teacher who isreally is earnest will attend to thematter. Generally, he may get what heneeds by making proper representationsto the school authorities. If he can notdo it in this way, he or his pupils may raise money by circulating asubscription paper; or some



entertainment may be given by theschool, to which a small fee may becharged. A very acceptableentertainment may be prepared with butlittle, if any, interruption of the regular

school work. In fact, the exercises may consist largely of readings,compositions, and other exercises which belong to the regular work. It is betterthat the teacher should not contribute very freely of his own money for theseobjects; remember that people prize thethings they pay for.CONDITION OF THE HOUSE.--Theteacher should see that the house all the

premises are in good condition when hetakes care of them. If repairs are needed,he should stipulate with his directors tohave them made, when he makes his bargain with them; it may be well to putthis stipulation into the writtencontract,--for there ought always to be a written contract. He should see, also,that the house is clean when he takes it,and then he should see that it is kept so.To this end, scrapers and mats should beprovided, and should be used. As oftenas may be necessary, the house should be cleansed. The old-fashioned way of having teacher and pupils gather onSaturday and clean the house is not a bad one. It furnishes a good deal of fun,and at the same time gives the pupils asense of responsibility in the matter.If the house is clean, well warmed, and well ventilated, it is likely to becomfortable; but the windows should besupplied with some kind of shades toregulate the amount of light. If there areno interior blinds, very good shades can be made of cloth or of stout paper. Theroom should be made cheerful by



pictures, mottoes, busts, and otherornaments,--even simple wreaths of leaves are better than nothing. If theteacher own articles that will ornamentthe room, he may use them for this

purpose for a time. But it is better thathe should get the pupils to help himobtain them, in some way, so that theschool may own them. The sense of ownership on the part of the pupilsassists in the education which they willget from these things, whose influence issure to be a lasting one.Organization.--What is it to organizeany thing? In the Greek language is the

word ergon,--spelled with Romanletters--which signifies a work. The rootletters of this word are rg or rgn , andthese letters express the original idea.The same letters are found in the wordsorgan , urge , energy , thaumaturgy ,and many others,--all these wordsexpress in some form the idea of work.To organize any thing is to put it in acondition to do some specific work. Why is the word appropriately applied to themusical instrument so called rather thanto a violin or a cornet? Why is it properto call the hand or the eye an organ of the body? What may be organized? Any thing which by organization is prepared toperform a work. Hence, a legislative body, a town-meeting, any publicassembly, an army, or a school, needs to be organized before it can enter upon itsproper work. To organize includesarrangement, but it means somethingmore; for example, the books of a library may be arranged, but a library can not be organized.



To organize a school is so to adjust itsarts and forces that it may do theroper work of a school.

It should not be forgotten that the work

of a school is two fold; viz., theacquisition of knowledge and thedeveloping and disciplining of powers.FIRST DAY'S WORK.--An old proverbsays, "Well begun is half done." There isa great deal of truth in this, especially ina school. On the first day, the pupils of aschool are more than usually wideawake and observant. The teacher may fancy that he is taking their measure;

but he may be sure that they are takinghis, quite as certainly and quite asaccurately. The impression from this day will remain through the term. If thatimpression is a good one, it is notcertain that the term's work willsucceed; but, in that case, if the teacherfail, he will fail in spite of a decidedadvantage. On the other hand, if the firstday's work is poor, future success will beuphill work.PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE.--It isimportant that the teacher should go tohis first day's work furnished with all theknowledge he can possibly haveconcerning the house, theneighborhood, the pupils and theirprevious progress. He may gain thisknowledge by visiting the district,inspecting the school-house, conversing with the former teacher, the directors,and others, and by examining therecords of the pupils' progress andstanding, if any have been kept. It oughtto be required of every teacher that heshould keep, and leave in permanentform, such records of his school as



would give his successor fairly completeinformation concerning all the pupils.

In seeking knowledge concerning hisfuture school, the teacher should not

allow himself to be biased by neighborhood quarrels and jealousies;nor should be impress his patrons withthe notion that he is over-anxious toobtain their views on schools andeducation. He ought not to lead them tothink that he is as pliable as the good-natured teacher who was willing to teachthat the earth is round or flat, just as hispatrons should choose.

DEFINITE PLANS.--It is of greatimportance that the teacher enter theschool-house, on the first morning, witha complete and definite plan of the work he proposes to do that day, and of theorder in which the several steps are to betaken. Few things will so deeply impresshis pupils with the idea that he is amaster of his business.PROMPTNESS.--The teacher should beon time every day; but it is especially important that he should be very prompton the first day. If he intends to be at thehouse fifteen minutes before school-time on other days, let him be there half an hour before time on this morning.The pupils are usually present early onthe first day, and the mere presence of the teacher may prevent theorganization of mischievous schemes; besides, the furniture will need to be putin order, etc. He should greet his pupilscordially, but not show himself toanxious to become familiar. He shouldhave his eyes wide open withoutseeming to be specially observant. If he



detect some pupil whose look or mannerseems to forebode trouble, it may be well to ask such a pupil pleasantly toassist in some of the work of preparation.

Signals .--At the exact moment, thesignal for order should be given. If thehouse is furnished with a large bell, a warning signal may be given about tenminutes before the time to begin, to befollowed by another, slighter signal atthe exact time to begin. It is not well togive signals by pounding on the house with a ruler, nor in other uncouth ways;this is not putting things to their

appropriate use. Bells have been used assignals for ages,--this is their chief purpose.The slightest signal is the best, provided it is sufficient. A single, sharp tap of the bell means more than a prolongedringing,--it says, "Come now;" but thelong ringing says, "Come, after a while."

A visitor once passed an hour in one of those schools that seem to move likeclock-work without any effort on thepart of anybody;--no school ever really moves in that way, however. The visitor was especially impressed with theprompt and exact manner in which theclasses arose and passed to recitation,--there seemed to be no signal. After thesession, she asked a little girl belongingto one of the classes how the pupilsknew when to rise and pass. "Why," saidshe, "did you not see the master movehis thumb?"

ASSIGNING WORK.--As soon as theschool is in order, work should begin.Two minutes or less is time enough for



the teacher's inaugural,--a few words of greeting, a hope for diligence, goodconduct, and success, heartily spoken, --this is enough. If devotional exercisesare to be had on other mornings in the

term, they should be begun now. Assoon as they are over, some work,carefully arranged beforehand, should be given immediately to each pupil,except perhaps the very youngest.Examples may be put on the board forthose who have been through the"ground rules" of arithmetic, another setfor those more advanced, a spellinglesson for the younger ones, some exact

task for the classes in geography, etc;--let each pupil feel that a responsibility isput upon him. It makes little difference what the work is, only it must be useful,reasonable, and definite . Fix an exacttime at which the results will be calledfor, and do not neglect it when the timecomes.TAKING NAMES.--As soon as all are at work, the teacher may proceed to takethe names; this should be done with theleast demonstration possible. If any pupils are working at the board, let them write their names beside their work; givethe older pupils slips of paper on whichto write their names; pass to the others,and take their names in a whisper or in alow tone of voice. Be sure to spell al thenames correctly. It is very essential thatthe teacher learn to put the names andtheir owners together as soon aspossible. A pupil is impressed very differently when his teacher calls himpromptly by name, from what he will beif the teacher designates him as the boy on the back seat, the boy with the rednecktie, etc. He feels that, in the



teacher's mind, he has passed out of thelimbo indicated by "boy" into the field of true personality. Besides, as the pupilsare so familiar with their own names,they feel that it is an indication of

weakness for a grown man,--a teacher,--to be ignorant of what is so easy to them. Learning Names. --To assist in learningthe names, it will be well for the teacherto be supplied with a plan or map of theschool-room; then, as soon as heascertains a pupil's name, let him writeit in the proper place on his plan; of course, the pupils will have beeninformed that they are to retain their

present seats until they are changed by the teacher's order or permission.Having the plan before him, with all thenames in their proper places, a carefulglance from time to time at the nameand face which belong together will soonassociate them. He is a weak teacher inthis respect who can not learn to calleach pupil, in a school of forty, promptly by name at the close of the third half-day.TEMPORARY CLASSIFICATION.--It isnot wise to attempt to classify completely at first. Adopt the classes of the previous term, put new pupils wherethey seem to belong, taking care not toclass them too high; let the pupilsdistinctly understand that this is all forthe present, and that any changes will bemade as soon as you think best to makethem. Having thus arranged the classes,assign each a regular lesson. In theafternoon of the first day, put atemporary programme on the board;and, by the second day, the schoolshould be working in regular order.



CHAPTER XIII.

THE SCHOOL.---Continued .

Classifying

.--Let us new consider more fully the

question of classifying a school. Thereare those who consider classification asan unmixed evil, and hold that, in the best schools, there will be no classes.They say that all instruction should bedirected to the individual needs of thepupils. Perhaps it would be a sufficientanswer to such a theory, to say that it is wholly impracticable in our publicschools; the number that must be taught

by a single teacher is so great that thepupils must be put in classes in orderthat the work may be done at all. Butthis is not all that can be said; there areother advantage besides a saving of time, as we shall hope to show. But, inorder to understand more fully thesaving of time , let us consider themeaning of three words: tell , teach , andtrain .

TELL, TEACH, and TRAIN have asimilarity in sound; they resemble oneanother in meaning, also. But it is very important that they be not used assynonymous. Let us examine theirdifferent meanings. To tell a thing issimply to relate it, to say over words that



are fitted to convey a certain meaning, without any special care as to whetherthe hearer really gets that meaning fromthem or not. To teach a thing, we mustnot only put it before the learner, but we

must see to it that every step isthoroughly understood; this includestelling, and something more. Teachinginvolves the labor of two parties.Training includes all that teaching does; besides, it requires of the one who istrained that he put into practice that which he has been told and taught. Andno work of education is of much valuethat does not take the form of training;

for all education worth the name resultsin a habit, and habit is formed by training.To illustrate, suppose a youth enters theshop of a blacksmith in order to learnthe art of shoeing the horses. Perhapshis master might tell him all about themaking and setting of a horse-shoe inhalf an hour; but he would not be taughthow to shoe a horse in that way.Suppose, instead, the master should tellhim only a small part of the matter, andthen require the apprentice to recite thenext day what he had been told, and toanswer test questions to show that hefully comprehended it all. If this werecontinued a few days, the youth mightacquire all the knowledge necessary toshoe a horse; and, if he were a fluenttalker, he might impart this knowledgemore clearly and more glibly that hismaster. But can he shoe a horse? Of course not; no one thinks of mastering atrade in this way.On the contrary, when a boy enters theshop, his master will tell him how to dosome simple part of the work, and then



set him up to doing it. When he can dothis part well, he is put to doing anotherpart. In this way, by a little telling andteaching, followed by much practice, themaster trains him until he can make and

set a horse-shoe as easily as he can walk.It has become a habit.In a similar way, all the effective work of the school-room takes the form of training; or, at least, leads to it. Thepupil must be shown how the letters arecombined into the correct spelling of words, and then he must write themuntil the letters flow from his pen almost without thought. His processes in

arithmetic, if he really master thesubject, become almost automatic.Training in the use of good English, bothspoken and written, should be kept upuntil a slip will give him a shock, assomething unnatural. Similar thingsmay be said about ever study of theschool; when they are properly managed, they all involve more or less of telling, teaching and training on the partof the teacher. But training is the mostimportant of the three,--it should be thegreat business of the school.

Nor is this fact any less important in amoral education than in an intellectualone. Very significant are the words of the wise man: "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." No doubt many a disconsolate parent, as he weeps over a wayward child who has "set at naught allhis counsels and would none of hisreproofs," is inclined to doubt the truthof Solomon's language. But, probably, if he would think the matter over carefully,he would find that he has only given his



son "counsels," teachings as to the rightof way, but has never "trained him up"in the right way at all.

SAVES TIME.--In all the processes of

telling, teaching and training,classification saves time, but not in thesame proportion. In telling, the gain isdirectly proportioned to the size of theclass; one can tell a thing to as many ascan hear him, in the same time it wouldtake to tell it to one. If he is careful toteach what he tells, the saving is not sogreat, but it is still considerable. Intraining, perhaps the saving is less;

nevertheless, one can train twenty in aclass in much less time than it wouldtake to train them singly.ENTHUSIASM FROM NUMBERS.--Thehelp that students derive from eachother is no small gain. If there is theearnestness and freedom of thought andexpression that ought to prevail in aclass, each contributes something to thecommon stock, and not seldom a pupil will suggest something that would haveescaped the notice of the teacher.Besides, a good thing said by one of theclass is very likely to impress itself onthe other members more than it would if the same thing had been said by theteacher.Of course, there is a kind of mutual helpthat is very hurtful; when a few of theclass do all of the work, all of thethinking, and the others merely borrow from them, an evil exists for which the wise teacher will strenuously exerthimself to find a remedy.HABIT OF WORKING TOGETHER.--No man in this world can do very greatthings alone,--all great enterprises are



carried forward by many combining and working together. But when men work together, they are obliged to regard eachother's wants and peculiarities, to adaptthemselves to each other, to give up

some things that they might retain if they were working alone. Since this isthe case, it would seem that class-work is more practical than solitary work.The only apparent drawback to class- work is the danger that individualpeculiarities and needs will be neglected,and this may be very serious. But the wise teacher, aware that such a dangerexists, will be very careful to reduce the

harm coming from it to a minimum.SIZE OF CLASSES.--Whateveradvantages may be claimed for any classification would seem to weigh infavor of large classes; the limit will bereached with the number whom theteacher can make hear him. But thedisadvantage will weigh in favor of smallclasses, and the limit is one person. Thelarge class saves more time, developsmore enthusiasm, etc., while the smallclass give more opportunity to regardindividual needs and peculiarities. It is believed that for older pupils thirty in aclass are quite enough; twenty is a betternumber; ten are too few. For littlechildren, fifteen make a large class; tenare about right; five are too few.BASES OF CLASSIFICATION.--If ateacher should put his blue-eyedchildren in one class, and the black eyesin another; or if he should put all of acertain height or weight together, every one would see the absurdity of theperformance. It is scarcely less absurd toput a boy into a certain class because of his age, or family, or the wealth or



position of his father, than to put himthere because of the color of his eyes.Perhaps, however, it is proper to put a backward pupil who is somewhatmature into a class a little higher than

his acquirements would indicate, because it is fair to suppose that he may work somewhat harder than the pupilsof the same standing who are lessmature.In many country schools, the classes aregreatly multiplied because of thediversity of text-books; this is a cause of loud and bitter complaint on the part of many teachers. Probably it is better that

the text-books should be uniform; but itis very foolish to put pupils who are of the same grade, or nearly the same, intodifferent classes merely because their books are not alike. There is no possibleexcuse for this in any but a class inreading. Can not a class get a lesson oncompound fraction from two or threedifferent authors? Can they not managea lesson on the geography of Ohio, usingdifferent text-books? In fact, a skillfulteacher can turn this diversity toadvantage.TRUE BASES.--The true bases of classification are two in number; viz.,present acquirements and generalability. Of these two, the latter is of moreimportance, although the former is moreeasily ascertained; and very often itseems to be the only thing regarded.General ability includes natural aptness,maturity of mind, good habits of study,health, etc.,--a simple examination doesnot readily disclose all these elements.MODE OF CLASSIFICATION.--In orderto classify a new school, the teachermust do one of two things; viz., adopt a



rough and temporary classification atfirst, and then correct it as fast aspossible, or keep his whole school in astate of chaos till he can ascertain thecorrect place of every pupil. We

recommended the former course in thelast chapter. As soon as the temporary classification is adopted, and the schoolset to work, the teacher should begin tostudy carefully to see what pupils are inthe right classes, and what ones ought to be changed. To this end, every recitationis an examination. Probably, most will be found to be in the proper classes;then, for a few lessons, let attention be

given almost exclusively to those whosestanding is doubtful, and let them bechanged as fast as the proper changescan be determined. It is important thatall should be in their permanent placesas soon as possible, in order that they may enter on the real work of the term,and that all may be supplied with theproper textbooks. If there are no morethan forty pupils in the school, a sharpand earnest teacher ought to have all intheir places by the end of the fifth day,or the seventh at farthest.

The Programme.

--No work anywhere is likely to be welldone if it is not carefully planned, --wellmapped out. Certainly, a goodprogramme is one of the prime

necessities of a good school. Of course,the teacher may have such a programmein his own mind; this is well as far as itgoes, but it is better for him and for theschool to have it carefully written outand posted in some conspicuous place, where all can see it. If the blackboard is



scanty, the programme may be writtenneatly on strong manila paper. In aschool of small children, the programmeshould show the exact time for studyingeach subject, as well as the time to recite

it. ADVANTAGES.--There are two decidedadvantages in having a well-preparedprogramme, and there seems to be noobjection to it. A programme is a savingof time to teacher and pupils. Without itthe teacher will have to stop andconsider what to do next; he will becalled upon also to answer many questions as to the time when certain

classes will recite, etc. The pupils will waste time in asking such questions, orin querying what they had better donext.The programme lays a responsibility onteacher and pupil. No teacher shouldever ask if a class is ready with thelesson; let them fell that when the timecomes they are responsible for thelesson. A sense of responsibility is the beginning of every movement towards ahigher plane. The programme is a very important educational force. By it thepupil also forms the habit of performinghis duties regularly, promptly, andaccording to plan. Such a habit is agrand preparation for the emergenciesof life,--it is worth more than theacquisition of a science or a language.CONSTRUCTION OF THEPROGRAMME.--a few general hints onmaking a programme may be given; butfull instructions are impossible unlessone could know all the circumstancesand conditions. The time should be wisely distributed, according to thenumber of classes, their size, the age and



advancement of the pupils, the nature of the study, etc. Young pupils should haveshort lessons, and have them often; thenminutes is long enough for the littlechildren. For older pupils and more

difficult subjects, more time should beallowed; but little can be done with anadvanced class in Grammar or Arithmetic in less than half and hour. Itis better for such classes to recite onalternate days than to recite every day, if they can not have a time of reasonablelength otherwise.The first recitation in each half-day should be one from the older pupils,

prepared out of school hours, or onefrom the little children who make nopreparation. Younger pupils should havetheir lessons so arranged as to allow atime to study each lesson just beforereciting it. No study like writing ordrawing should immediately follow aplay time. A few minutes formovements, answering questions, etc.,should be allowed at regular hours. It isoften well to arrange the lessons so as todismiss the younger children an hourearlier than the rest; it is a relief to thechildren, to the teacher, and to the olderpupils as well.HOW CLOSELY FOLLOW THEPROGRAMME?--There is little dangerof following the programme too closely;the danger is all on the other side. Eachexercise should begin and end at theexact time noted. If the teacher is likely to become so interested in his work as tooverrun his time, he should appointsome pupil to give the signal; and whenthe signal is given, he ought to obey itpromptly. A programme-clock willprevent all danger, if it is properly used.



If the teacher should chance to finish hislesson before the allotted time expires,he may give the class something extra inthe way of information; if, however, hehas nothing that is worth giving, he

should dismiss the class.Grading.--There is no essentialdifference between graded schools and well classified schools; the differentgrades are but classes put into the handsof different teachers. A system of gradedschools should always have an able and well-qualified superintendent at itshead. Of course, such a person ought tocommand a good salary, but he can use

teachers of less experience under hisdirection and supervision; and, in that way, better work may be done, and atless cost than would be necessary of only those teachers were employed who could be trusted to do their work withoutsupervision. No one ought to attemptthe supervision of a system of gradedschools without giving the subject very careful thought and study. The annualreports of the schools in cities like St.Louis, Boston, Cincinnati, and Chicago will possess much interest for asuperintendent.The great danger in graded schools isthat the grades will be made tooinflexible, and thus the individual will besacrificed to the system. A wisesuperintendent will devise ways toprevent this, and to allow each studentto progress as fast as he is able, and nofaster.



CHAPTER XIV.

MANAGEMENT.

It is hardly proper to discuss the relative value of good management in schools, ascompared with instruction and training.In a certain sense the management issubsidiary, of course; but it is certainthat no school can be well instructed if itis not well managed. As for the training,a large and very valuable part of it

results directly from good management.The necessity of thoughtful attention tothe matter becomes apparent when weremember how many teachers wellqualified to instruct fail because they arenot able to manage. Probably the largerpart of the failures are due to this cause.

Voice

.--A good, well-managed voice on thepart of the teacher is one of the mosteffective aids in managing a school. Sucha voice is not loud; but it is clear,distinct, pitched on a low key, andgenerally it speaks with the fallinginflection. When such a voice speaks,there is always a quality in it thatindicates deliberate thought, purpose,and determination; in short, such a

voice says that a man or woman standsbehind it. Not all people are equally endowed with good voices; but any realman or woman whose vocal organs arenot seriously defective may acquire agood voice.



Eye.--

The teacher's eye may be another mosteffective instrument of management. A teacher who knows how may answer a

question, give a command, grant arequest, or quell a rising disturbance by a glance of the eye. An eye that can dothis is wakeful, alert, expressive, andresolute,--like the effective voice, it must be recognized as having an effectivepersonality behind it. If a teacher whocan use his eye is this way suspects thatmischief is going on in a distant part of the room, he does not rush to the scene

of the disturbance, nor shout to theoffender; but, keeping his eye steadily fixed in that quarter, he waits till he cancatch the offender's eye, and then settlesthe whole trouble by a look. Very likely,no other pupil knows any thing of whatis going on, and the quiet of the school isnot disturbed in the least.

Government

.--A large part of school managementconsists in government, but by nomeans all of it.

GOVERNMENT is the exercise of authority.

It is causing the will of the governedparty to yield to the will of the governor.

It must be clearly seen that one does notgovern by hiring, coaxing, wheedling, orexhorting. Some of these things may be very proper to do at times; but let no onedeceive himself with the notion that heis governing when he does them.REASON FOR IT.--But here the



question of the ground of governmentmust be met. What right has one inauthority to ask,--to compel, if need be--other wills to yield to his? A great many partial answers may be given, which are

correct as far as they go: but they may all be included in this:

One in authority has a right to governor the good of the governed only.

No human government,--in school,family, church, or state,--has any rightto exist for a moment upon any otherground. Is it not probable, also, that this

is the reason for Divine government?Men have not always looked atgovernment in this way, as we haveabundant proof from history; nor do all who rule to-day observe the principle,even if they recognize it in theory.

Government, everywhere and always,should rest on clear intelligence, and noton the feeling of the one whoadministers it. The fickle nature of agovernment by feeling is oftenillustrated by the popular clamor for thedeath of a criminal when some crime of great atrocity has shocked a community,followed by the same persons, perhaps,signing a petition for the pardon of thecriminal when he has been legally convicted of the very crime that somoved them before,--but after theirfeelings have had time to change. In thiscase, feeling, in both its exhibitions,strives to effect wrong purposes.

PERSONAL FEELING.--A justrecognition of these principles will notallow personal feeling of any kind to



control in matters of government. Theteacher should ask, and honestly answer, a single question in respect toany exercise of his authority that heproposes; that question is, Will this be

for the good of my pupils? This willapply to all requirements, rules,regulations, refusals, permissions,reproofs, and even punishments; not, Will this thing give me ease, or power, orpopularity, but, Will it benefit my pupils,one or all?To be sure, good government in school will benefit the teacher in many ways, but his benefit is no just ground for any

act of authority. The world is soconstituted that well doing usually benefits more than one party; likemercy, "it is twice bless'd." Many of therichest blessings of life and experiencecome to us incidentally , and will comein no other way. Seek happiness directly,and you will miss it; go forward in the way of duty, and it will seek you.If the teacher manages and governssolely for the good of his pupils, they will be sure to discover the fact, although hemay say nothing of his motives in thecase,--as the wise teacher probably willnot. When the teacher rules in this way,and his pupils come to know and feel thefact, the antagonism that sometimesexists between teacher and pupils, as between two hostile parties, is notlonger possible to any intelligent, rightmeaning pupil. He will feel that there isthe same single aim proper for teacherand pupils; viz., the best good of thepupils. When antagonism betweenteacher and pupils disappears, there isharmony in place of discord, peaceinstead of war, and efficiency in place of



wasted effort.

Punishment

.--The principle we have been

considering has a very importantrelation to the subject of punishment.Punishment, or the possibility of punishment, is essential to the very ideaof government. A requirement thatimplies no penalty may be a request oran exhortation; it is not a law. There can be no law without some penalty tofollow its infraction. A government that will never hurt is a government in name

only, not in reality.

" PUNISHMENT is pain inflicted on anoffender, by competent authority, eitherto reform him or to deter others, or forboth purposes."

That which causes no pain or loss cannot be punishment,--nor is it possible topunish any one but an offender, however

much pain we may cause him to feel.Nor can any one not in authority punish,however much deserved pain he may visit on an offender. Nor does properauthority punish when it inflictsdeserved pain on an offender, unless it be done with the right purpose. If it werenecessary, all these essentials to the trueidea of punishment might be fully illustrated from school-life. In the state,

there is another proper purpose of punishment; viz., the vindication of ustice; but in school, it is enough to

regard the two we have mentioned, andgenerally we should lose sight of neitherof these.IMPROPER.--Often we find forms of so-



called punishment in school that are base, cruel, and wholly unworthy thename. Among such, are all degrading or brutal punishment,--such as shutting inthe dark, pulling hair, pinching the

cheeks, indiscriminate hitting andswitching, and all forms of torture, someof which, like "holding a nail in thefloor," were often resorted to in the old-time school. In this list should be put allangry and vengeful punishments, and allunreasonable sarcasm and ridicule.None of these abominations, and othersthat might be mentioned, are worthy of a decent teacher. Among proper

punishments we may name loss of rank,forfeiture of privileges, imposition of tasks, reprimand, private and public,etc,; but any punishment, the mostproper in form, becomes improper if administered in a wrong spirit by theteacher.

Some writers, notably Herbert Spencer,declare that all punishment should insome way be related to the offense inkind or in sequence; for instance, if onecomes late to school, punish him by making him stay after school as many minutes as he was tardy. No doubt it is well to observe such adaptation when itcan well be done; but, in many cases, itseems hardly possible.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.--When thepain inflicted by punishment falls uponthe body, that punishment is corporalpunishment, no matter what specificform it takes. Is such punishmentproper? Why not? There is nogovernment without law,--there is nolaw without possible punishment ; there



is no punishment without pain of somekind,--hence, there is no possibility of government without the possibility of some pain to follow it. Can there be any pain but pain of body or pain of mind?

Why is the body so peculiarly sacred thatit must feel no pain in punishment? It isnot strange that people are sensitiverespecting corporal punishment, for ithas been terribly abused; but we are wholly unable to see why it is not aperfectly proper mode of punishment, inthe school or in the family, when it isdeserved, when it is given in a propermeasure and in a proper way. Dr.

Rosenkranz says: "The view which seesin the rod the panacea for all theteacher's embarrassments, iscensurable; but equally undesirable isthe false sentimentality which assumesthat the dignity of humanity is affected by a blow given to a child."In reality, it will be found that any validarguments against corporal punishmentare valid against all punishment. Topunish is to inflict pain,--an operationform which every right-feeling personshrinks,--but an operation which shouldnever be abolished until the offensescease which make punishment proper.Often, in schools where corporalpunishment is not allowed, something worse is resorted to. Proper punishmentis not cruelty, even though it make the body sting,--taking far-reachingconsequences into account, it may be the bitterest cruelty to withhold it. Norshould corporal punishment be the lastform of punishment. Expulsion may properly come later. If a rude, turbulent boy can be kept in school and judiciously whipped into decent behavior, will any



one say that it is not better for him, andfor all concerned, than it would be toturn him into the street?Caution.-- But corporal punishmentshould never be given without

deliberation and careful thought,followed by a clear conviction that it isthe best form of punishment for thespecial case in hand. It should never beinflicted hastily, never in anger, andnever in such a way as to lead the culpritor any witness to suppose that it is notpainful to the one who gives it, as well asto the one who receives it. Nor should it be made a small affair,--let not the body

of the child be assailed for any but aserious cause, and then let the infliction be such that there will be no wish tohave it repeated. If, with the samepupils, a teacher finds an increasingnecessity for corporal punishment, hemay be perfectly certain that there issomething the matter with himself; if hecan not cure the evil, he should seek another field or kind of labor. It neednot be said that punishment, evensevere corporal punishment, is perfectly consistent with the deepest love of theteacher for his pupil; in fact, love may prompt the infliction of punishment, asit may prompt any thing else that thepupil needs for his guidance anddirection. We have now considered some of thegeneral questions of government; in ournext chapter, we will point out some of the specific things necessary to theteacher in order that he may govern well.



CHAPTER XV.

MANAGEMENT.--Concluded.

HE MUST BE MASTER.--In order thatthe teacher may govern his school well,he must be master. His will must be law in his own domain; and there must beno doubt about it, either in his ownmind or in the minds of his pupils. But,

while this is true, there need be nounnecessary exhibition of authority;least of all, should there be any boastingor braggadocio on the part of theteacher. All such exhibitions indicate alack of confidence, if any thing, andpupils are likely to put such aconstruction upon them. Besides, a boast from the teacher appears to hispupils like daring them to transgress,

and a challenge is a great temptation to boys of spirit. In nature, the strongestforces are always quiet forces; --forinstance, gravitation or the power of thesun's rays. The same thing is true amongmen: the men who are obeyed mostimplicitly are quiet men. Settled,unquestioned authority can afford to becalm and quiet,--and calm and quiet arenecessary to the most successful settling

of questions of authority.HE SHOULD GOVERN AS LITTLE ASMAY BE.-- While there should be noquestion of the teacher's right and powerto govern, he should never exercise hispower without good reason for it;nothing should ever be done simply to



show that he has authority. Goodgovernment is a blessing to humanity; but the less show of government the better always, provided its purpose beaccomplished. The philosophy of the last

statement is very simple: we have seenthat government should be not an end initself, --it is the means to an end; viz.,the good of the governed. It will always be true that, if any end be secured, theless expenditure of means the better. ABOUT MAKING RULES.--Growing outof the principle just given, are somepractical suggestions about making rulesin school. The old-fashioned school-

master appeared before his school witha long and elaborate set of rules,carefully drawn up; these rules seemedto be intended to command explicitly every thing that should not be done.They were often read to the school, andnot seldom they were printed or written,and posted up in some conspicuousplace. In a school so managed, the sumof every offense consists in "breaking arule." Now, a teacher has a perfect rightto proceed in this way; and certainly itis, and should be, a grave offense in any school to "break a rule" laid down by authority. But there is a more excellent way. There are a least five graveobjections to a long code of rules in aschool. First.--Make your list as long as youwill, you can not all cases that mayarise. But, if you have made a long list,and have taught pupils that the breakingof a rule is the substance of each offense,then they will infer, --and logically, too, --that whatever they do, they havecommitted no offense if they have broken no rule.



Second.--The enunciation of the rulewill sometimes suggest the thingorbidden, to the child's mind. An old

story is told of a careful mother who wasabout to leave her large family of

children for a little time. Having a peck of beans in the house, it occurred to herover-careful should that her childrenmight be tempted to put them in theirnoses during her absence. So, it is saidthat she left them with the followingemphatic words, enforced by anominous shake of her finger: "Now,children, while I am gone, don't you goand put any of those beans in your

noses. Do you hear?" According thestory, she found all their noses full of beans on her return. Whatever may bethe truth of this story, there is no doubtthat forbidding a thing may oftensuggest the doing of it.Third.--Human nature craves what isorbidden. The old story of the

disobedience of our first mother is inperfect accord with the tendencies of herdescendants as we know them to-day. Fourth.--Pupils will violate the spirit of a rule, while they keep its letter. If whispering is forbidden, writing on theslate may follow; if all writing isforbidden, too, perhaps the deaf anddumb alphabet is used, etc. It wouldseem that, if the teacher's system of government is the one that we arecriticizing, he must make his indictmentcover the specific case, or no penalty ought to follow. In this respect,government in the school should differfrom government in the state. Fifth.--Every rule ties the teacher'shands. If he has made a law, he is boundto see it enforced; if he has threatened a



fixed penalty for an offense, he is not atliberty to vary it. All this is in the way of his dealing freely with eachmisdemeanor as the circumstances orthe peculiarities of the case may

demand.TWO KINDS.--Shall the teacher makeno rules? We shall be able to answer thisquestion better if we notice that offensesin school may be broadly divided intotwo grand classes: First, there are things which are offenses in school becausethey are wrong in themselves,--they areoffenses anywhere; of this class arelying, cruelty, obscenity, etc. Against

such offenses the teacher need have norule, except the general one. "Donothing wrong,--do what is right."

The writer was once called to takecharge of a school where hispredecessor, it seemed, had governed inthe way here condemned. Often, when a boy was called to account for some bad behavior, he would put in the plea, "I didnot know it was against the rule." Theanswer was, "It is not against the rule; agreat many wicked things are notagainst our rules,--we have no ruleagainst murder. But did you know it was wrong?" As this question was put, with alook square in the offender's eye, heoften frankly confessed his wrong-doing.

Second, There are very grave schooloffenses that are not wrong inthemselves, but are made offenses by circumstances. Such are whispering, walking around the school-room, etc. Against such offenses, rules mustsometimes be made; but the teachershould make as few as may be, and



never make one till it is needed.

Illustration. --Many years ago, the writer took charge of a large grammar-school in an eastern city. Young trees,

five or six inches in diameter, weregrowing next to the curbstone of oursidewalks. He had been in his positionfor some months before the boysmolested those trees, so far as wasknown, nor had it occurred to him thatthey would do so. But, boys have a way of doing things by "fits,"--they play marbles, fly kites, etc., as the fit takesthem. Nor are they very unlike older

people in this respect. One of these fitstook the boys one day while the teacher was gone to dinner; and, on his return,he found all those young shade-trees asfull of boys as though boys had beentheir appropriate crop. Now, in general,it is a very proper thing for a boy toclimb a tree. But climbing small shadetrees in the city is a special case; theteacher concluded an emergency wasupon him, and something must be done. As soon as the school had come to order,he passed through several rooms andlaid down the rule that there must be nomore climbing of the trees; and as the boys had learned that a law meant whatit said, that was the end of the trouble.

THE TEACHER MUST BE TRUTHFUL AND JUST.---We have spoken of truthfulness and justice as moralqualities; we now say that they areessential to good government. When thepupil clearly understands that theteacher's word, in the form of a promiseor a threat, has been passed only aftercareful consideration, and that it will be



made good at all hazards, a long step has been taken in good government. And thesame is true when the pupil has come toknow that his teacher will take all painsto avoid doing him an injustice, even

though he may have occasion to treathim severely.HE SHOULD BE DELIBERATE ANDFIRM.--We have said that the teachershould not pass his word till he asconsidered the matter carefully. Thus, ateacher of good judgment will rarely have need to take a back step,--a back step is a sad thing for a governing party.If, however, he finds that, with all his

care, he has made a mistake, the only manly way, the only safe way, is toacknowledge his error and take the back step. But if he has to do this often, hisgovernment will surely suffer.Teasing.-- When it is understood thatthe teacher's word, once deliberately spoken, is final, much has been done,not only to make his government strong, but to make it easy to himself. A parentor teacher who is annoyed by the"teasing" of a child has only himself to blame for it. If the child makes arequest, and it is refused hastily andthoughtlessly, he is very likely to preferit again pretty soon, perhaps over andover. Suppose the answer, pettishly given by-and-by, should be, "Yes, yes; Isuppose I shall have no peace till I let you do it." That child has learned alesson in teasing that will return totorment his ruler more than once. Norshould wheedling and coaxing beencouraged, any more than teasing.The teacher may save himself many mistakes and annoyances, if he will plan beforehand for perplexities and



emergencies that are likely to arise. Heshould defer a decision respecting any thing unexpected that arises, if it can bedone; if a decision must be made atonce, he can only use his best judgment,

and run the risk of a mistake.THE TEACHER SHOULD SEEK TO AVOID ISSUES WITH PUPILS ANDPARENTS.--A matter has reached an"issue" when two parties have been brought into direct opposition to eachother, and one or the other must yield.It will sometimes happen that an issuecan not be avoided reasonably orhonorably; in such a case, the teacher

should take care that he has right on hisside, and then meet the issue squarely,determined to win. But heedless,headstrong teachers quite often provokeissues in which they are sure to be beaten; or, if they win, the victory is toocostly.

THE TEACHER SHOULD GOVERNHIMSELF

-This includes nearly all that has beensaid, or that need to be said, in respectto the essentials of a teacher'sgovernment. No one is fit to governothers till he can govern himself,--nor isthere any other victory of government sohard to win. The proverb says, "He thatis slow to anger is better than themightily, and he that ruleth his spirit

than he that taketh a city." Probably the word "better" is used in the sense of stronger, as we sometimes hear it usedin common talk, -- and, in this sense, theproverb is true. History tells of many men who were able to take cities, but were unable to rule their own spirits,--



Alexander is a notable example. Of course, it is to be understood that onehas a spirit to rule if it is to requirestrength to rule it. Washington is anillustrious example of a man who gained

great power over others because he firstgained power over his own spirit, andthere is abundant evidence that hisspirit was one that it required power tocontrol.It must not be supposed that self-controlmeans an icy, impassive demeanor, norslow and measured speech, on alloccasions; self-control is not necessarily self-repression. True self-control implies

the power to rouse and electrify, as wellas the power to calm or to awe. And thispower is peculiar to no age or sex; it isoften lacking in the stalwart, beardedman; and it is often present in theslender girl not yet out of her "teens." Itis largely a gift of nature; but, like all of nature's gifts, it may be improved withcultivation.TWELVE PRINCIPLES.--We will closethis chapter with a concise statement of a few principles of good management: First.-- No school can be well taught if itis not well managed. Second.-- Never make any thingpertaining to management an end initself.Third.-- No work is ever likely to be welldone it is not well planned. Fourth.-- A teacher's example weighsmore than his words. Fifth.-- Make no law, grant or refuse norequest, give no reproof, till you havethought about the matter. Sixth.-- When you have once taken yourposition, stick to it. Seventh.-- If, however, you see that you



have made a mistake, confess and rectify your mistake like a man. Eighth.-- One who is kept busy aboutright things has no time for mischief.

inth.-- Be more anxious to prevent

wrong-doing than to punish it.Tenth.-- Often make a friend of a wayward pupil by getting him to do youa service. Eleventh.-- Seek always the good of yourpupils; let good to yourself be incidental.Twelfth.-- NEVER PUNISH IN ANGER.

CHAPTER XVI.

LESSONS.

LESSONS constitute the peculiar andspecial work of the school; hence, weshould give attention to this subject.

What do we mean by lessons? How should they be assigned? How learned?How recited? These are some of thequestions to be considered.

Recitations.

--The noun "recitation" comes from the verb to recite . This is derived from theLatin citare , to say, to call, or to

summon, joined with the prefix re ,meaning again. Literally, then, arecitation consists in saying over whathas been learned, as a poem, a passageof Scripture, or a lesson. This is the ideaexpressed by the child when he asks hisfellow, "Can you say your lesson?" Now,



the school exercises which we callrecitations ought to include much morethan is expressed by the literal meaningof the verb, to recite. It is somewhatunfortunate that we have no more

comprehensive word than the termrecitation, to apply to our schoolexercises. But, as this is the term used by common consent, let us inquire whatspecial exercises a so-called recitationmay properly include.TESTING.--We mean, by testing, theascertaining of the pupil's knowledge of the lesson assigned for that particularhour; this should be the first and most

important part of the recitation. Thelesson has been carefully assigned atsome previous time, to be learned froma book or from some other availablesource. Now, the questions are: Has thepupil tried faithfully to do his work? Hashe succeeded? In what degree, or in what respect, has he failed? Hisacquisition of the lesson should have been two-fold,--that is, he should havemastered the thought of the lesson, andhe should be prepared to state thatthought in appropriate language. Hemay have failed in either of theseparticulars. Skillful questioning may show that the thought of the lesson hasfound a lodgment in his mind with a fairdegree of accuracy and fullness, but thathe is utterly unable, without aid, to givethat thought any appropriate dress inlanguage. Or he may have committed tomemory excellent language from the book, and be utterly ignorant as to itsmeaning. In either case, there is a callfor inquiry and action on the part of theteacher. If the failure is from no fault of the pupil, he needs help. If it is a result



of his own indolence or inattention, heneeds help of another kind.In no case should the matter be passedover carelessly, nor should a movement be made towards any thing else till the

evil is corrected. If the pupil has beenunfaithful, reproof or punishmentshould follow; if a large part of the classhave been unfaithful, no attempt atprogress in any other direction should be made; but after reproof orpunishment the lesson should beassigned again, probably with someaddition, and the class should bedismissed. For this reason, the test

should come early in the recitation;generally, the first thing, that it may beknown whether any thing else is to beattempted. If the testing is fairly satisfactory, then other exercises shouldfollow or accompany it.INSTRUCTION.-- Hearing lessonsrecited is by no means all of theteacher's business; he should teach,instruct, give additional information,either by explaining what the pupil hasalready studied, or by giving new andadditional matter from independentsources. And he should go before his class, every day, fully prepared to give instruction inone or both of these ways. How muchlight he may throw upon the abstractstatements of the text-book, by skillfulillustrations drawn from every-day lifein which all are so intensely interested!How the showing of pictures of men, of buildings, of landscapes, may give a vividness to the lesson in reading orhistory or geography! In short, there isno end to what the teacher can do, by imparting additional information, to



give clearness and fullness of thought, toawaken interest, to stimulate memory,and to excite a strong desire to know yetmore upon the subject in hand. But, inorder that these desirable results may

follow, the teacher must traverse widefields for his material, must carefully siftan prepare it, must present it in a skillful way, and must be sure to call for it again.

The very name text -book suggests theuse that should be made of it. It should be a book of texts,--short, clearstatements of facts or principles. It is the

teacher's business to make these textscomprehended by the pupils, and tomake them the basis, or the nucleus, of amuch larger stock of information thanany text-book can properly furnish.

REVIEWING.--Generally, a recitation isincomplete that does not includeconsiderable reviewing. Reviewing istesting; but it is testing in respect toformer lessons; while testing, as we haveappropriated the word, is confined tothe lesson of the day. Constantrepetition, which is review, is necessary in order to fix a thing firmly in thememory. But, further, a matter broughtup in review may take on new meaning,from the fact that it may be seen in new relations because of increasedknowledge.It should be understood that a review of the last lesson is always in order; also,that when any thing in the presentlesson is met that relates to somethinglearned in any former lesson, a review of the former lesson in regard to the pointin question is to be expected. Pupils with



whom a teacher constantly deals in this way will form the habit of looking back,as they prepare their lessons, to join theknowledge they are now gaining with what has gone before. Besides the

incidental reviewing here indicated, of course room remains for frequentthorough reviews. There is little dangerthat there will be too much reviewing.DRILLING.--We borrow this term fromthe soldier's practice; he goes throughdaily evolutions, not because he does notknow the movements, but in order tomake them automatic. The pupil shoulddo similar work for a similar purpose.

The object of a review is to ascertain if knowledge previously gained has beenretained; the object of a drill is to makeknowledge that is retained habitual, --togive it an automatic or mechanical form.In every study, some things need to beput in this form, -- elementary sounds,slides, and inflections in reading;definitions, tables, and formulas inmathematics; dates in history; rules ingrammar, etc. ASSIGNING NEXT LESSON.--At sometime during the hour of recitation,ample time should be taken for theassigning of the next lesson, which, weshall show, is not a matter that cansafely be treated so hurriedly andcarelessly as many seem to suppose.Generally, the best time to do this is atthe close of the lesson; but, if for any reason, it is likely to be treatedslightingly if deferred till that time, itmay well claim a place immediately aftertesting.There is no absolute necessity that all of these five things, which, it is claimed, belong legitimately to what is called



recitation, should come in every one.Drilling may oftenest be omitted; buttesting and assigning the next lesson,rarely or never. Nor is their order very essential, except to the extent already

indicated. A skillful teacher will often contrive tohave several of these exercises going onat the same time. When he is instructingor assigning a lesson, he needs theattention of all his class; but, by the helpof the blackboard or writing tablet, hemay have some pupils reviewing, somedrilling, and some undergoing thetesting process, at the same time.

Assigning Lessons.

--You may observe a careless teachersitting in some lounging or easy attitude when the time for closing the recitationarrives; glancing hurriedly forward inhis textbook, he says: "Well, you may take six pages next time;--no, perhapsfive is enough,--class is dismissed." Such

actions and words betray woful [sic]ignorance of his business or inexcusablelaziness. The fixing of the next lesson isa matter too important to be tossed off in that way.LENGTH.--It is very important that thelesson should not be unreasonably long;evil is sure to follow, but all pupils willnot be injured in the same way. There isone evil, however, that is almost certain

to follow when lessons of improperlength are given repeatedly,--that is, theformation of bad habits of studying. Thepupils in almost any class of moderatenumber may be roughly divided intothree groups: 1st, Those who are brightand industrious; 2d, Those who are



plodding, faithful, and ordinary inability; 3d, Those who are stupid, lazy,or tricky.If too long a lesson is set before the firstgroup, they will learn it, if such a thing

be possible, but mind or body, or both, will scarcely escape injury. The secondgroup will plod away and do their best; but the result will be mere surface-work,or a nebulous understanding of thematter. Continued efforts of this sort will result in the formation of the worstpossible mental habits for the student.The third group, discouraged ordisgusted, will probably seek some

dishonest way of seeming to have donethe work, or they will flatly give up withlittle or no effort, consoling themselves with the saying, "One might as well diefor an old sheep as a lamb." This is thepet proverb of that class of people.If the lesson is too short, each of thesegroups will receive special injury. Thefirst will do the work required, but thespare time remaining will be atemptation to evil. The second,--generally by far the most numerous,-- will probably accomplish the task, but will take twice the necessary time, thusaggravating their natural habit of slowness. The third, judging that thetask is easy, will probably procrastinateuntil too little time remains even for aneasy task; here their pet proverb comesinto play again, and they will be likely todo nothing.Hence, the length of the lesson should be just right,--but it is no easy matter todetermine what is just right. We havedivided our class into three groups, butreally no two pupils have exactly thesame ability to master a lesson. So, in



determining the length of the lesson, theteacher must make an average of theability of his class; it is well, then, toassign the lesson for those who are alittle above this average. In the writer's

experience, he has found thatmoderately difficult lessons are betterlearned, in general, than very easy ones.DEFINITENESS.--Exactly what will berequired in the lesson should be made soplain that no pupil can say, "I did notknow what was wanted" withoutincriminating himself. In every lessonassigned from a book, some things aremore important than others; these

demand special attention, and they should be very clearly designated. Theteacher may desire to have rule,principle, formula, or felicitousstatement reproduced verbatim; heshould indicate such passages, and letthe pupils know clearly what he wants.He should tell what parts he wishesmastered only in a general way, withoutany attempt at precision. He may deemsome statements unimportant orerroneous; then he should let the pupilsknow that these may be omitted. Hemay desire to have something added to what the book gives, either from his owninstructions or from some book of reference; then he should tell the pupilsexactly what he wants and where it may be found.THE TEACHER'S PROBLEM.--We shallprobably agree that the teacher'sproblem is assigning a lesson correctly isnot a very easy one. Let us see whatelements enter into it. First, He mustconsider the inherent difficulties of thesubject-matter; and, in weighing itsdifficulties, he must look from the



learner's standpoint, not his own. Lethim recall the lesson, not as it appears tohim now, but as it appeared at the firstencounter. It is true that the moredifficult, having once been mastered,

afterwards appear easier than other lessdifficult things with which we never hadso severe a battle. Second, He must weigh the ability of the class,considering each individually, and thenmaking an average. Third, He must takeinto account the time allowed the pupilsfor preparation, and the time allowedthe class for recitation. Last, Variouscircumstances ought to modify the

length of the lesson; not the same task should be set in warm, debilitating weather, as in weather that is clear and bracing, nor in a time of general ill-health as in a time when health is good.The time in the term, the pressure of home duties and other matters, may well modify the teacher's demands onhis pupils. A problem of so much importance anddifficulty can not be well solved in theodd moments at school, nor amid thedistractions of the school-room. Theteacher should make it a matter of careful study in the quiet and solitude of his own room. He should give it ampletime, and give all its elements due weight and attention; and he should goto his school prepared to assign eachlesson properly. If he shall findsomething that he had not expected,--for instance, that the lesson for the day is not well learned,--he may modify thelesson he intended to give.



CHAPTER XVII.

LESSONS.--Concluded.

Hearing Lessons.

--Having assigned a reasonable lesson, which the clearness and precision that we have indicated, the teacher shouldsee to it that the lesson is properly

recited when the time for recitationcomes.PROMPTNESS.--The class should becalled at the exact moment indicated by the programme. When they areassembled, no time should be lost incalling the roll, in adjusting books, ininquiries as to the limits of the lesson,etc.,--nor should any member of theclass be asked if he is prepared. If, for

any good reason, any pupil has failed toprepare his lesson, let him rise at once,give his reason, and ask to be excused;otherwise, it is to be presumed that allare ready, and all should feel responsiblefor the lesson as it was assigned.

In any class, or school, that does notcontain more than forty members, thereis no need for a roll-call. Let each pupil

have his particular place, and a glanceought to enable the teacher to know if heis in his place.

Let the recitation begin at once, with a brisk movement, and let it continue briskly till the end is reached or the time



has expired. What was said about thehabit of rapidity applies here in fullforce. At the end, let the class bedismissed as promptly as it was called.RIGIDNESS.--When a lesson,

reasonable in kind and length, has beenassigned in the way we have indicated,the teacher should be satisfied withnothing less than complete work. One of the most common, and most serious,faults of our teachers is that they acceptsuch miserably poor work,--they oftencommend what should be heartily condemned. If twenty places have beenassigned for a lesson in geography, the

recitation of nineteen only is not good,--nor of twenty even, if the answer comeshesitatingly, slowly, and uncertainly.Nor, if ten examples in arithmeticconstitute the lesson, should the work bepronounced well done when only nineare solved, nor when the processes areslovenly or some of the results inaccurate. The immediate evils in such acase are not the most serious; they arenot to be compared with the habitformed of meeting responsibilitiesimperfectly, or of being satisfied withinaccurate work.THE PUPIL ON HIS FEET.--In reciting,the pupil should stand on his own feet, both literally and figuratively. Thefollowing are some of the reasons why apupil should stand to recite: First, Hecan be heard better; especially is thistrue if the class is large. Second, He feelsa greater sense responsibility standing; when he is on his feet he becomesconspicuous,--the onus of the work isthrown entirely on him. He is likely tomake more careful statements, and tomake them with more deliberation. Nor



is this a matter confined to pupils in aclass: it accords with a general principle. A man will often shout out from acrowded audience what he would notstand forth and say deliberately before

the same people. If the pupil can notanswer a question, never suffer him tosay carelessly, "I'd'n'know," from hisseat. Make him stand, and say distinctly,"I do not know." The chances are that he will be more likely to know the nexttime. A class of small children may wellstand during the whole recitation. Thetime should be brief, as we have said,and the standing will be a relief to them.

If the class is large, or difficult, it is often best for the teacher to stand; in such acase, he can work more effectively on hisfeet. Both teacher and pupils shouldstand erect, on both feet, withoutleaning on any person or thing. Figuratively , the pupil should be on hisown feet,--that is, he should recite without aid from any source whatever. We are not saying merely that he shouldnot look in his book, nor be prompted by his fellows; this is so obvious that weneed not mention it. Not unfrequently teachers themselves guide shrewd pupilsentirely through their recitations without a suspicion that they are doingso. This may be done by the words thatthey supply from time to time; but itmay be done without speaking a word.The teacher's nods or smiles or frownsare often a complete index to thecharacter of the pupil's work; and it is acurious study to see a shrewd, lazy pupil watch such a teacher's face, while hefeels his way through the recitation of asubject that he does not half understand. When the teacher has given the pupil his



topic, or asked the question to beanswered, his face should be unmovedas that of the Sphinx till the pupil hascompleted his work. An exception may be made, of course, when the pupils are

little children.Nor should other members of the classmake demonstrations to show whetherthe one who is reciting is going right or wrong. No raising of hands should beallowed till the pupil has finished hisrecitation. The pupil who raises his handmay be wrong in thinking that a mistakehas been made; in any case, mischief canonly result. If the one reciting is timid,

the raising of a classmate's hand, whether there be reason for it or not, islikely to confuse him; if he is shrewd andtricky, the raising of a hand the momenthe makes a mistake may enable him torecover himself when he ought to fail.Often, he knows that one of two answersis correct, but he is not sure which isright. If raising hands be allowed, you will see him try one of the answerscautiously, looking slyly out of thecorner of his eye; on the first appearanceof a hand rising, he changes to the otheranswer in the most prompt andconfident way, and comes off victorious. When a pupil's recitation is finished,those who have criticisms may show hands,--only with a class of smallchildren should it be permitted sooner. When an ill-prepared pupil isfloundering in his work, the teacher isoften prompted to help him, fromsympathy or mistaken kindness. Buttrue and wise kindliness will let himstruggle on, or fail even; only in this way can he be taught to depend uponhimself. Sometimes, however, the



teacher's laziness or impatience promptshim to recite for his pupil; it is quickerand easier for the teacher to make therecitation than to wait for the pupil to doit.

QUESTIONING.--This is very importantpart of the teacher's work; skill here is a very valuable kind of skill. If the text- book has questions printed in it, it israrely best to use them; they may aid thepupil in preparing his lesson, but inrecitation other questions shouldgenerally be put. When the question inthe book is used, let it be changed inform; if, for instance, the question is,

"What cape [is] at the southernextremity of South America?" put it inthis way: "Where is Cape Horn?"Leading questions should not be asked,--that is, questions which by their formindicate what answer is expected. Thelesson must be so conducted that thepupil shall do his own thinking.In a good recitation, the pupil doesmuch the larger part of the talking. Heshould be required to use good languagein his answers; but it should generally beother language than that of the book.The contrary course is likely to result in"parrot" recitation, to a greater or lessdegree. If the pupil makes a mistake inhis language, it is generally best to lethim finish his statement before callingon him to correct his language; but theteacher must be very careful not to letthe mistake pass uncorrected. If,however, the mistake is one that thesame pupil makes habitually, he should be stopped instantly, on every occasion,until the habit is broken up.Questions calling for a general answerform all the class must be used sparingly



and cautiously. When a class is timid ordull, such questions may be of use,-so,also, when "drilling" is the purpose. Butfor the purpose of "testing," they are wholly untrustworthy; the lazy pupil

who knows nothing of the lesson addshis voice to the general sound, and socovers up his delinquency. But, even when he has no intention to deceive, hisunprepared condition may be hiddenform his own mind till he is called on tomake a full statement individually.Order.-- The order in which thequestions shall be given to the class is a very important matter. If they are

passed around the class in the sameinvariable order, it will happen,sometimes, that shrewd and lazy pupils will prepare to answer no question butthose that will fall on their "turn." Butthe most honest pupil is likely to let hisattention wander when he has answeredhis question, and knows that some time will elapse before he will again be calledon. When this order is followed, theperson whose turn it is to answer willusually be the only one who is reciting atthe moment, whereas all the classshould be reciting, --one orally, theothers mentally. It is often well to stopthe pupil who is talking, in the midst of asentence, and require some other pupilto begin exactly where the first left off. If it is understood that this is likely to bedone at any moment, probably all theclass will follow the recitation closely.In order to avoid the routine inquestioning that we have criticized, it is well for the teacher to propound hisquestion, and then ask at random forsome one to answer it. But he must be very careful, when he "skips around" his



class in this way, that he does notneglect any of the members. He will betempted to call on the bright and ready pupils most frequently, but he mustremember that the other pupils need

most the discipline that will be gained by reciting.

Some teachers are in the habit of inviting the pupils who can answer aquestion to indicate that fact by raisingtheir hands. This is very well when theteacher is developing a subject; but, when the class are reciting a lesson on which they are supposed to be prepared,

it is wholly wrong. It should beunderstood that the teacher expectsevery one to be prepared.

On reviews or examinations, it is well toassign the questions or topics in some way by lot. The teacher who has been with a class a term, generally knows whether any pupil can answer any givenquestion; so it follows that, if hedistribute the questions as he chooses,he will either put them to such pupils ashe know to be able to answer them, orhe must deliberately lead some one tofail by giving him a question that heknows he can not answer. But, if hedistribute the questions by lot, herelieves himself of all responsibility, andcan not be charged with unfairness, whatever may be the result. If pupilsknow that they will be examined in this way, they are more likely to be careful toprepare on all the questions or topicspertaining to the subject in hand.

Oral Instruction.



--By this we do not mean theexplanations and additional informationalready spoken of, but rather somethingentirely apart from the text-book,--thedeveloping before the class, or the

school, of a subject not yet studied by the pupils in any book. Considerable work of this kind should be done inevery school; this will be apparent, if wethink for a moment how many topicsthere are on which pupils ought to beinstructed, but which are not treated of directly in any of their set lessons. A few suggestions will be given in respect to work of this sort.

NOT TOO MUCH MATTER.--Mostteachers who attempt oral lessonsundertake to give too much at a time.They are likely to forget that minds,especially for children, can not graspand master a great deal of new matter atonce. A teacher is especially liable to errin this way when he presents a subject with which he is very familiar. Heforgets that what seems so easy to himmay be very difficult when presented forthe first time. Here we might repeat what was said about looking at lessonsfrom the pupil's "point of view." WELL MAPPED OUT.--The teacher whois to give an oral lesson should go beforehis class with the matter clearly mappedout in his own mind, and perhaps drawnout in writing, in the form of a scheme.He should have clearly determined whatpoints he proposes to reach, and in whatorder they should be reached. In properoral teaching, there must be a freeconference between teacher and pupils,--questions must be asked and answers be given by both parties. Of course, onecan not determine beforehand what the



entire conversation will be, as we find itlaid down in some Manuals on "OralTeaching" and "Object Lessons." Anattempt to make the conversationconform strictly to some prescribed

pattern will make an oral lesson moremechanical, dull, and unproductive thanthe most formal recitation of lessonsmemorized from a tolerable text-book.But the landmarks of the lesson, thepoints to be reached, may be settled before hand, as well as the exact andclear language in which to state theconclusions when they shall have beenfound.

REACH THE POINTS.--As theconversation must be a free one, if theteacher is not cautious he may find someside question suggested that will draw him off from his line of though to suchan extent that he will not put the pointshe intended before his class. It requiressome thought and skill in the teacher totreat such side issues in a reasonableand intelligent way, and still to withstand their tendency to "switch himoff his track."SEE THAT THEY ARE UNDERSTOOD.--The teacher may have reached hispoints in his own mind, and may haveput his conclusions before his class; buthe should not dismiss the subject tell hehas ascertained that he has beencorrectly understood.

A story will illustrate the danger against which we are warning. A Sunday-schoolteacher undertook to explain themeaning of faith to his class in this way:He called their attention to a boatfloating on the river, in full view fromthe window. He said, "Boys, do you see



the boat?" "Yes, sir." "Can you see the bottom of the boat?" "No, sir." "Do youknow what is on the bottom of the boat?" "No, sir." "If I should tell you thatthere is a leg of mutton in the boat,

would your believe it?" "Yes, sir." "Could you see it?" "No, sir." But you would believe it is there?" "Yes, sir." "Well,"said he, "that would be faith." Like agood teacher, on the next Sunday he brought up the review before goingforward with the new lesson. "Boys,"said he, "who can tell me what faith is,this morning?" Many hands were raised."Johnny, you may tell." "A leg of mutton

in a boat, sir."

CALL AGAIN FOR WHAT IS GIVEN.--In oral lessons, as everywhere else, thegood teacher will impress it on hispupils that they must be responsible forreproducing what has been given them.Failures in this regard are very common;probably more than half of all that is put before students orally, from the lecturesin the college and the professionalschool down to the object lessons in theprimary school, is wholly lost, becausethe pupil does not expect to be maderesponsible for it. A good teacher of children and youth always reaps wherehe sows; and his pupils are lead to know that such will be the case before they have been with him a very long time.



CHAPTER XVIII.

TEACHING PARTICULAR SUBJECTS.

THIS is not a book of methods. We shallnot enter extensively into the modes of teaching the ordinary studies of theschool; but we shall merely attempt topoint out some of the aims to be kept in view, and some of the principle thatshould guide the work.

Reading.

--This subject should claim our attentionfirst, as reading is the key to all the rest;nor is it the key to school-room studiesalone, but to all the vast stores of knowledge that wise men haveembalmed in books. Moreover, oralreading, when its quality is good, is ameans of enjoyment to others, and of high aesthetic culture, like music,

painting, and sculpture. What, then, isreading?DEFINITIONS.--F. W. Parker says,"Reading is getting thought by means of written or printed words arranged insentences." "Oral reading is the vocalexpression of thought that is gained by written or printed words." As anamendment to these excellentstatements, we suggest that feeling or

emotion, as well as thought, may be, andgenerally should be, derived from written or printed language, and itshould be expressed in oral reading. Reading is Talking from a Book. --Weoffer this as a good, short definition of oral reading. Mere calling of words,





a hindrance.How is it best to begin this work?Negatively, not by teaching the alphabet;these letters have no connection withany thing in the child's mind. Not by the

immediate use of books, or cards, orcharts; an introductory work shouldprepare for the use of these. A METHOD.--Take a real object with which the child is familiar, and in whichhe is interested; it may be a cat, or dog,etc. Have the object itself, a toy representation of it, or a picture of it,--orall of them,--actually present. Talk withthe child about the object; get him to

talk about it. Call his attention to thespoken word that represents the object; with this he is already familiar. Put now the corresponding word on the blackboard in neat script. Point to the word, and let him point to the object,naming it at the same time. Let himattempt to reproduce the word on hisslate. Introduce every variety of exercisethat your ingenuity will suggest, to makethe form of the word familiar to him,and to strengthen the association between the written symbol and thespoken word.Proceed in this way, very slowly, day by day, until he has learned the written words corresponding to the names of five or six familiar objects. Next, givehim a few familiar verbs, like run, sit,pat, sleep, etc., in a similar way, lettinghim perform the action indicated inresponse to the written word. You arenow prepared to put short and familiarsentences on the board, using the nounsand verbs already learned, and lettingthe child learn the articles, prepositions,and connectives by sight, as they are



needed. Impress upon the child thethought that you are "talking with yourchalk or pencil." Let him read thesentences you write, and perform theacts any of the sentences indicate.

Do not Read the Sentences for Him. -- If your work is slowly and carefully done,he will read correctly out of his ownthought and imagination: this is a realreading. If you read the sentence forhim, he will imitate your spoken words,perhaps with no conception whatever of their meaning. This will lead at once tothe parrot-like imitation that so oftenpasses for genuine reading, even with

the professional elocutionist.Several weeks or months should begiven to this work, and not more thanforty or fifty words should be attemptedin the time. The pupil should write the words he learns, on his slate,--at firstsingly, then combined into sentencescontaining them, and has learned tomake them on his slate, he may betaught the printed equivalents for hisscript. Let the teacher first print the words neatly beside the same in script.There is no need for the child to print.Now the child is ready for his books andcharts; but he must not be asked to learnnew words too rapidly. ANALYSIS.--During all this time, noattempt has been made to teach thechild his letters,--that is, to analyze the written words. Nor has be been taught toanalyze the spoken words. Now, perhapsthe time has come for both. He really knows his letters; but he has not learnedto distinguish them, nor to call them by name. But, if the previous work has beendone well, he can very soon do both. Norshould he omit to learn the order of the



letters in the alphabet.He may be taught the analysis of thespoken words, also, at about the sametime. He knows the elementary sounds,and he can make them with more or less

success; but he has not learned todistinguish them. The teacher may leadhim to do this by "slow pronunciation." As a single example, let the teacher say:"P-u-t o-n th-e c-a-p," requiring thepupil to suit the action to the word. [ Donot name these letters; give the sounds. ] When the pupil has learned todistinguish the separate sounds, he may then be taught to make them. He is now

ready to begin the arduous task of learning to associate the elements of the written and spoken words,--that is, thephonic elements with the letters thatrepresent them. Do not Speak of the "Sounds of the Letters. "--Letters have no sounds.Letters represent sounds which weremade and recognized long before letters were invented.The method of teaching primary readingoutlined above is no mere theory; it isessentially the one used by our mostprogressive and successful teachers. Of course, the details will vary indefinitely. ADVANCED READING.--The teachingof reading to advanced pupil will vary greatly in mode from the teaching of primary reading, but the same principlesshould guide the work. True oral readingproceeds from within, outward,--neverin the reverse order. First, there must bea mastery, and an appropriation, of thethought and feeling; then, there must bea proper expression of the same. Allformal rules are as futile for direction inreading as they are n speech; all marking



of emphases, of inflections, and of thequality of the voice, pitch, etc., is sure tohamper the reader who attempts tofollow such marks in reading.Directions as to the length of pause or

kind of inflection at the marks of punctuation, are absurd.The rules of syntax serve an admirablepurpose, no doubt, but he who attemptsto think of them as he speaks will makea poor speaker. The same may be saidabout the "Rules for Reading."Proper drill in the use of the vocalorgans, exercises in pitch, power,emphasis, inflection, quality of tone,

etc., will serve a very useful purpose asdrill simply, or as preparatory work. But, when one "reads orally," he should firstmaster the thought and feeling of hisauthor; then, with no consciousness butof that thought and feeling, give forththe true expression. If one be taught,from the beginning, to read in the way we have indicated, he will never becontent to read, like Hamlet, "Words, words, words," when he grows older.Furthermore if he has learned to get themeaning from the printed page, if he isaccustomed from the beginning to havehis inner nature stirred by what hereads, he is not likely either to give upreading, or to develop a fondness for the vapid, worthless literature that appealsto the weak only. We think that a correctteaching of reading has much to do insolving the question of the appreciationand love to good literature.

Writing.

--We have recommended that the pupil begin to write as soon as he begins to



read. We believe this agrees with thelaws of the child's nature. In order to write a word, he needs to study its form,and then to train his muscles to imitatethat form with chalk or pencil. His

perceptive powers are keen; why may henot sue them in studying the forms of words as well as in any other way? Histendency to use his muscles isirrepressible,--they fairly "ache" to beused; why may they not be used incopying forms of the words he hasstudied? Besides, he has a great desire todo what he sees his teacher do; why nottrain him to imitate her production of

written words? Furthermore, experienceproves that it is entirely practicable forchildren to learn to write thus early. Atfirst, the pupils' attempts will be simply attempts to imitate without any analysisor description. But, as soon as they havelearned their letters, they will be ready to practice and to describe the analysisof the letters as taught in any goodsystem of penmanship.Let the teacher choose good, but thesimplest, forms of the letters she uses inthe words she gives her little pupils tocopy. Let her treat their first efforts very leniently. Let her allow them a great dealof practice; it will enable them to passmany hours happily, instead of spendingthem in the torture of "sitting still." We would suggest the following rules asimportant to be observed by the teacher: First. --Select the simplest forms for theletters, and teach but one form for each. Second. --Put no false forms before thelittle pupil, and remove in the quietestand quickest way such false forms as hemay make.Third. --Proceed slowly and insist upon



very careful work; fully recognize andencourage all effort, and give reasonablesuccess its full meed [sic] of praise.It is very desirable that the pupil early acquire the power to write in order that

he may practice "talking with thepencil," as well as understood whatothers say with the pencil. In this way,he will grow into the habit of "composition" as naturally and as easily as he becomes accustomed to hear andto use the forms of oral speech. There isone great advantage in the child'sexpressing himself by writing overexpression by speech alone, he is more

likely to show his individuality; thetendency is less strong to imitate merely.

Spelling.

--Of course, in merely copying the formsof words the pupil begins his work inspelling, even though he may not yethave learned to distinguish the letters. When he comes to make such

distinction, he is studying spelling moreeffectively. And his is studying it in theonly way that is practical,--that is, as hehas occasion to use it. He learns to spelleach word when he learns the word; hegets the correct picture of it in his mind,and he learns to make that picture.Moreover, he learns the form of the word in connection with its meaning;this is the only reasonable way. There is

no occasion for the absurd practice of spelling lists of abstract words.By this method, the child forms thehabit of looking at words in their parts,--of taking cognizance of the letters thatmake up a written word at the time helearns the word. Why is not his sight as





exhilarate , if he remembers itsconnection with hilarity ; or exonerate ,if he connects it with onerous .There are very few rules for spelling thatare of any practical value. We know of

none except these three: First. --Final silent e is omitted ontaking a suffix beginning with a vowel. Second. --Final y, preceded by aconsonant, is changed to i on taking any suffix which does not begin with i.Third. --Monosyllables and wordsaccented on the last syllable, ending in asingle consonant preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant on

taking a suffix beginning with a vowel.The exceptions to these rules are very few, although every one of them hassome exceptions; these exceptionsshould be very carefully learned.

Drawing.

--Reading and writing are modes of expression; and drawing, in its

elements, should be taught to childrenas a mode of expression also. Its relationto art may properly be ignored inordinary classes of beginners. The wishto draw, to "make" something, is almostuniversal with children. Many of us canremember when it was a crime in schoolto indulge in this propensity. A betterday has dawned, and children are now allowed to beguile many a weary hour

with slate and pencil. A little care,encouragement, and instruction from a wise teacher can develop this taste inchildren into an efficient and pleasingmode of expression. Lead the children todraw simple forms, help then to see thecharacteristic lines and to reproduce



them; encourage effort, recognize any real success, and insist upon slow andcareful work.

Singing.--

This, too, is a mode of expression in which most children take delight. Unlikethe others, it is primarily an expressionof the feelings. Care should be taken thatthe little songs shall be simple, but thatthey shall not be nonsense. The childrenshould learn them by rote at first, andshould be taught to sing them withcorrect expression. Do not suffer them

to shout nor scream in their singing.Encourage a clear delivery of the words.It has been found that children can learnsimple musical notation very early; butit is not our purpose to speak of that inthis connection.

CHAPTER XIX.

TEACHING PARTICULAR SUBJECTS.--Concluded .

Grammar.

--Many text-books on grammar containthis sentence: "English grammar teachesus to speak and to write the Englishlanguage correctly." It is certain that asgrammar is commonly studied this isnot true. Many who are most expert in



the processes of analysis and parsing areexceedingly clumsy and inaccurate intheir use of the English language. Thedistinction between practical languagelessons and the study of technical

grammar is a very obvious one, and theteacher can not afford to ignore it, nor tolose sight of it.LANGUAGE LESSONS.--The childlearns to talk correctly by talkingcorrectly. If he hears nothing but goodlanguage, he acquires the habit of usinggood language unconsciously. But thegreat trouble is, that few or no childrenhear none but correct speech. Hence, the

teacher needs to exert himself to correctthe evil effects of incorrect languageheard by the child at home, in theplayground, on the streets, etc. Lessonsin language are the first to be given inschool; training in the awakening of thought and in the art of expressingthought is the chief work of the primary teacher. Nor should the training in theart of expression be relinquished orrelaxed during the whole period of pupilage. This is not the place to pointout methods of doing this work,--wesimply insist on the absolute importanceof it. One who inquires earnestly how todo it will find many helpful books in themarket, but his success will dependmainly upon two things: First, Thecorrectness of his own speech; Second, His ingenuity in devising ways of leadinghis pupils into habits of expressive andcorrect language.TECHNICAL GRAMMAR.--Thesuccessful pursuit of this study demandsa good degree of maturity of mind, and aprevious training in the processes of reflection and analysis. Hence, this



should be one of the last studies to betaken up in a country school. In ourgraded schools, it should be deferreduntil the pupil is nearly ready for theHigh School,--if, indeed, it should be

undertaken at all before the pupil entersthe High School. When the study is undertaken, the pupilshould be led to an acquaintance withthe laws of English speech by aninductive study of the English languageitself. As in any other inductive study, agood text-book may aid; but it must be atext-book made from a study of theEnglish tongue, not a Latin Grammar

reconstructed to fit the Englishlanguage. When the study is properly pursued by pupils who are prepared forit by age and previous training, few studies, if any, will surpass grammar ininterest or profit.

Arithmetic.--

The first thing to be said about

arithmetic is that it takes much too largea proportion of the time in a majority of our schools. Yet, while this is true, very few pupils become really accurate andexpert in the practice of arithmetic. Wethink there are several reasons for this,some of which will be given.Sufficient care is not taken to teach thepupil numbers in themselves,--he ishurried too soon into notation, and a

manipulation of abstract symbols.[ F.W.Parker writes, "Discriminate verysharply between learning number and learning the language of number. Theormer must precede the latter. If I am

any judge of results, nine tenths of theteaching of arithmetic consists in



teaching figures alone, with little or noregard to numbers." -- this is a footnote ] He is not drilled upon the fundamentalprocesses until he thoroughly mastersthem. The subject is made too

complicated; operations involving thesame principles and essentially the sameprocesses are treated as though there were no likeness between them. Themultiplication of "rules" and "cases" isneedless, confusing, and discouraging.Not enough practice is given inexamples from real life, such as thepupil does not find classified andarranged under their respective "rules."

Usually, the pupil has the "answer" before him, and works to obtain thefigures which express the answer,instead of solving his problem in apractical and independent manner.Fully one third of the text-book isusually made up of matter wholly irrelevant, consisting either of preposterous puzzles or of work that isspecial and technical. Why should thespecial work of the banker, the custom-house officer, etc., enter into the generalcourse of instruction in arithmetic? If the pupil thoroughly master theprinciples, and become quick andaccurate in calculation, the work of thecommon school is done; the specialapplications of these principles may well be deferred till he enters the bank or thecounting-room.PRIMARY WORK.--The first steps inarithmetic should lead the pupil to a fulland thorough knowledge of a few of thesmallest numbers. A child may be ableto count to ten, who does not know ten.He does not know ten till he knowsthoroughly all the numbers that will



make ten, and can put together allpossible unequal numbers to make ten,as well as all equal numbers that willgive the same result. He must know alsoall the ways in which ten can be

destroyed, either by taking away unequal numbers, or by withdrawingequal numbers.In all this elementary work, he must deal with objects, not with abstractions. Lethim count objects, always putting fourthings together when he says "four" inhis counting, etc. Often the child'scounting is a mere saying of empty words; when his "three" is not an empty

word, it often means only the thirdinstead of an aggregate of three ones. Itis thought by many experienced teachersthat a child does well if he really learnsthe first ten numbers in one year. But, whatever time it may take, his first business should be to learn thesenumbers thoroughly; he is not ready fornotation, nor for any use of figures beyond a simple writing of thesenumbers, until this work is done. WRITTEN WORK.--When the pupilpasses on to written work in arithmetic,he should be shown that the chief use of figures is to enable him to makecomputations with numbers too largefor him to grasp mentally,--the thoughtnecessary to lead to a correct process isust the same as in the case of small

numbers, where no figures are used.There is no reason for the widedistinction between "mental" and"written" arithmetic.In beginning the use of figures incomputation, let the child first masterthe process thoroughly; the reasons for"carrying," for "inverting the divisor,"



etc., may come later,--first, how ; then,why . A very thorough drill on thesimple operations, the "ground rules,"should be given; slow progress here, if sure, is true haste. The pupil should not

only learn his multiplication tablecompletely, but he should learn theprime factors of all numbers as high asone hundred, and he should learn thesquares as far as the square of twenty-five at least. Usually, the subject of factors and factoring is passed overquite too slightly.He should be encouraged to use shortmethods whenever it is possible, and he

should be taught to be on the lookout foropportunities to use them. The distinctprinciples of arithmetic are very few,and the pupil should be led to see whatoperations rest on the same principle,once for all; and then he should be heldto recognize that principle in all cases to which it applies. He should be taught to be satisfied with nothing short of accuracy; if he has made a mistake in his work, that work should not be erased tillthe mistake has been found andcorrected. He should be taught to avoidfrequent changes in his work; let himput his figures down with the thoughtthat they are not to be changed, but areto stand as first written. It may be wellto forbid him to use an eraser in any case without special permission. None but neat work should ever be accepted by the teacher.

Algebra.--

The study of algebra in our commonschools should aim chiefly to throw lighton the principles and processes of



arithmetic, and to train the pupils'power of abstraction and reasoning. It isnot of much consequence to find thelength of a pole that is partly in the mud,partly in the water, and partly in the air!

The first business in learning algebra isto master the notation; every algebraicterm is a word or phrase in algebraiclanguage,--the equation is the sentence.Finding an equation for a problem istranslating that problem from commonlanguage into the language of algebra.Great care must be taken that technicalterms do not obscure thought; the pupilshould be asked to give and to illustrate

their meaning very frequently. It is often well to forbid the use of technical termsfor a time; let the pupil describe hisoperations on an equation without oncesaying "transpose," "change signs,""collect terms," etc. The pupil shouldoften be required to translate formulasinto rules, and rules into formulas; inshort, he should be led to see that, inelementary algebra, he is simply using a briefer and more general language thanhe has found in his arithmetic.

Geometry.--

Dr. Thomas Hill, in his "True Order of Studies," shows that the study of formmay well come before algebra, orprimary arithmetic even,--it is a study for young children. This is not properly

a study of geometry, but it is an excellentpreparation for that study. In the early steps in geometry, great care must betaken that the pupil does not fail to seethe relation of what he is now studyingto the things that have claimed histhought and attention previously. As in





saw, and he hunts out names on a mapthat means nothing beyond the thingitself. He shuts up his book and map,leaves them in his desk, and goes outinto the real world hardly thinking that

what he now meets has any connection with what he has left.PRIMARY WORK.--A certain amount of preliminary work should be done in theprimary classes, to prepare the pupil forthe study of geography,--copious andthorough exercises in learning direction,distance, and relative position are what we mean. Then, he needs to learn thelanguage by which these things are

expressed in maps and charts. Let theteacher, with his little pupils, make asurvey of the school-room, observing thedirections, distances, and relativepositions of the parts of the room andthe objects in it. Then, let the teachermake a plan or map of the school-roomon the blackboard, properly representing all these things. It is well to make this map on the northside of the room. This map may be made the key to thereading of all maps; it is a symbol to thepupil of something he has seen; andthrough it he may learn how to getknowledge of what he can not see by theuse of similar symbols. A map of theschool-room should be followed by amap of the school-yard, then by one of the neighborhood or the village.Other things in the neighborhoodshould now be studied: the familiar brook must be made the type of rivers;the hill, of the mountains; the plain, of the prairies, etc. The business of theneighborhood must be made themedium for understanding the



occupations of men the world over. Thepolitical, social, and religious affairs of the village or town must be made thekey to the politics, religion and social lifeof the nations.

When this stock of knowledge of hisimmediate surroundings is madeconscious and systematic to the child,then he is prepared to enter on the study of geography.The usual progress of the child is fromthe whole to parts, and now he isprepared for some lessons upon theearth as a whole. Here a globe is of prime value; only, care must be taken

that the pupil regard the globe as asymbol,--his thought must not beallowed to stop with the globe itself.Suppose the teacher has no globe? Use afoot-ball or a pumpkin; an ingeniousteacher can always find means of illustration. Make no attempt at thisstage of the work to teach mathematicalgeography. When the pupil has done thepreliminary work, and has someknowledge of the earth as a body, hemay then enter upon the study of thecountries of the world; he should begin with his own. The map should be madeon the basis of his study,--and the mapshould be transferred, as it were, fromthe paper to the mind; to do this, study the map, and draw it. Map drawingshould be a prominent part of geographical work from beginning toend.Let the earth's surface receive attentionnow; modeling in clay will be helpful inlearning about the surface. Do notattempt too great minuteness in themaps nor in description; select only a



few things to be learned, and those themost important, and teach themthoroughly. Enrich the study by pictures, anecdotes, stories of travel,imaginary journeys, etc. Appeal to the

imagination in all ways. All truegeographical knowledge lies in the mindin a series of pictures. And the teacher who succeeds in setting the imaginationof his pupils in geography to workingactively and judiciously, will find no lack of interest or progress.

History.--

This study is very closely related togeography. There is the same necessity for choosing wisely out of the multitudeof facts that might be learned; there isthe same call for the imagination to work. Geography may be made moreinteresting by teaching something of history with it; and the study of geography must be kept up in history;map drawing is just as important here as

there. Historical study for quite youngchildren must be mostly in the form of biography.In higher classes in history, some datesmust be learned; let them be few and well-chosen, and let them be learnedthoroughly. Let the study of history dealmuch with the every-day lives of men,and as little as may be with their warsand fightings.

Natural Science.--

But little, if any thing, can be done in thestudy of natural science in our commonschools. But, if the senses are properly trained, if plants and animals are



studied, if geography is properly taught,if the pupils are trained and encouragedto make and arrange collections, a surefoundation will be laid for studyingthese subjects in the right way when

time and opportunity shall serve.

CHAPTER XX.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Community.

--It depends primarily upon thecommunity whether our public schoolsshall be what they ought to be or not. With us, no "paternal" government canreach down and make the schoolsgreatly different from what the peopledesire. The people determine how muchmoney shall be spent for schools; and,

throught the officers whom they choose,they determine what pay the teachershall receive, and what shall be thegeneral character of the work done inthe schools. Where the people are awake andintelligent in school affairs, it can rarely fail that good schools will be found. Where the people have little interest, ormistake in their notions of what

constitutes a good school, there canhardly be a good school except by a kindof accident.It is certain that, in many places, thepeople are not as earnest as they should be to have their children well taught, norhave they the knowledge that they ought



to have as to what constitutes goodteaching. Much is done to fit teachers fortheir work, to improve text-books andapparatus, to build good school-houses,etc., while little seems to be done to

disseminate a more correct knowledgerespecting education among the people,or to arouse them to demand better work in the school-room.

The Teacher's Relations.--

Our purpose, however, is to speak chiefly of the relations of the teacher tothe community.

TO SCHOOL OFFICERS.--The teachershould understand and fully recognizehis relations to the school officers by whom he is employed, and under whomhe works. He must admit that the law make them his superiors, and gives thepower of ultimate control into theirhands. They may be ignorant,prejudiced, or overbearing; but, if he is wise, the teacher will enter into no

controversy with them. If he can notcome to such an understanding withthem as shall permit him to go forwardpeaceably in such a performance of hisduties as his judgment dictates, he would better close his connection withthem, and seek another field.Usually, however, if a teacher really understands his business, and if hischaracter is such as to command the

respect of others, he can secureharmony and co-operation form hisschool officers by such a combination of suavity, firmness, and good sense as would give success in other relations with men. At any rate, no school can beexpected to be very prosperous without



harmony and co-operation between theteacher and the school authorities.TO PARENTS.--There is much truth inthe saying that the teacher is in loco

arentis, --in place of the parent. The

work of the school is supplementary tothe work of the home; the school is not asubstitute for the home. Teacherssometimes assume that the whole work of education is in their hands; on theother hand, they are sometimes heldresponsible for the whole work of themental and moral training of thechildren. This is a grave mistake; theteacher can only enter into the parents'

labors at best, and he should be heldresponsible only for the part of the work that fairly belongs to him.The work of the parent and teacher isone. From this, it follows that the closestunderstanding and harmony betweenparent and teacher is of the greatestimportance. The teacher should beactive in bringing about this harmony. First, By visiting the parents, not merely as a teacher, but socially as a friend. Onthe occasion of such visits, it may beproper for him to talk of the condition of the school, of his plans for itsimprovement, and of the condition andprogress of the pupils from the family heis visiting. Such statements as he makeson these subjects should be frank andtruthful. But his influence will be greatly strengthened if he can converse on othermatters of interest besides the school. Itis no compliment to teachers that somany people feel that they mustintroduce school topics when they meetteachers in a social way. But it is to befeared that the habit has grown up because so many teachers have been



found unable to talk intelligently aboutanything else. Second, The teacher should be able toinduce the parents to visit the schooland to observe its operations.

Sometimes a cordial invitation will be allthat is necessary. But, if a simpleinvitation does not accomplish theresult, other ways can be found. One of the simplest is to set apart a specialtime,--say Friday afternoon, --for somekind of an exhibition. No attempt should be made to turn the school into a smalltheater; let the programme consistlargely of readings, compositions, and

such other exercises as are proper to theregular work of the school. But let theexercises be carefully chosen, wellprepared, and of a sufficient variety to bring out most or all of the pupils. Thechild who is to have a part in an exerciseon such an occasion is very likely toissue an invitation that will bring themother at least. And the exercises may be so conducted as to exhibit very effectually the spirit, methods, andgeneral progress of the school.TO THE PEOPLE.--The teacher,especially in a country district, should bea person of influence in the community.It has been suggested that the peopleoften need instruction in matterspertaining to education. Who should bemore competent for this than theteacher? Let him be careful, however,that he does not attempt it in any offensive way.On the occasion of such a schoolexhibition as we have recommended, ashort talk or paper from the teacher may do much; or he may get the people tomeet for a discussion of educational



topics in the long winter evenings. Suchmeetings might be quite informal, andthey might include several features of aliterary and social kind. Skill in theteacher to inaugurate and assist in such

gatherings will do much to increase hisinfluence, as well as to benefit thecommunity.Let him write for the county or villagepaper. If his articles are thoughtful, andare well prepared, editors will gladly give them a place, and they will beeagerly read. The newspaper is one of the most potent factors in shaping thethought of a community.

We have hinted at one of the ways in which a teacher may do something forthe intellectual improvement of thepeople among whom he labors. He may assist in other improvements, also, suchas the founding and promoting of libraries, lecture courses, etc. Norshould he be backward in regard tophysical improvements that will tend to beautify a village or a district,--such asplanting trees, etc. A wide-awake,intelligent, active teacher may leave alasting monument to his memory, in theneighborhood where he works, by suchmeans as these. Nor should he beignorant or indifferent about the business affairs which are so essential tothe material prosperity of thecommunity. Nothing will raise him morein the estimation of practical men thanto find that he has an intelligent interestin business affairs. At the same time, it will save him from shriveling up into a"mere pedagogue."Neither should he be a cipher inreligious and political matters. Not thathe should be a noisy partisan; but it will



generally be found that a teacher whohas convictions on such subjects, and who takes a manly stand according tohis convictions, will receive morerespect, even from those not of his sect

or party, than one who is indifferent, or who attempts to identify himself with allparties. The teacher should be aChristian and a patriot; but mostChristians find it best to identify themselves with some denomination,and most patriots belong to somepolitical party. There is no good reason why the teacher should be an exception.In short, the teacher should be a man

among men,--intelligent, earnest, andactive in the things that claim theattention of other good and influentialmen. What is said here, with somenecessary changes, will apply just as wellto the teacher who is a woman as to aman.

The "New" Education.--

Of late, it has become common to hear,or to read, the phrase "new education." What does it mean? Strictly speaking,there can be no such thing as a new education. Education is the same thingin all the ages; its principles areunchanging; and its methods mustconform to these principles, if they areright methods, however they may vary inform.

The most marked feature of what iscalled the new education is in regard tothe principles of child-nature. It insiststhat the teacher shall study the nature,the capacity, and the tendencies of thechild, and shall adapt the work of instruction accordingly, instead of giving



all attention to the subject matter to betaught, or attempting to teach accordingto preconceived notions of what thechild needs and can do. This is whatGarfield meant when he said, "The

teacher should study the boy more thanthe book." Another principle of the "new"education is that it seeks to make theacquisition of knowledge, and all the work of the school, agreeable to thepupil. The human mind naturally cravesknowledge, and its acquisition gives thehighest pleasure, but it must be realknowledge,--not its semblance, symbols,

or husks. It is believed that the work of the school may be so conducted that thepupil may realize at all times that hisstore of knowledge is increasing, that hispowers are strengthening, and that hemay rejoice and be glad in his growth.This is a worthy aim, and the teachercan hardly regard it too highly. Yet, it may be doubted whether thegiving of pleasure to the pupils should be made the ultimate or only test inestimating the character of school work.In life, duty often imposes upon us tasksthat are not wholly agreeable, althoughtheir accomplishment may bring thehighest pleasure. It may well be asked whether school should not train us tomeet and to do bravely just such tasks?It is sometimes asked whether a teachershould join freely in the sports andgames of his pupils? To our mind, theanswer is clearly in the affirmative. Sucha course, if judiciously followed, will benefit the pupil; it may improve thecharacter of his sports; it may preventevils that would other-wise infest theplayground; it will cement the bond of



union and sympathy between him andhis teacher. It will benefit the teacher by bringing him into a closer sympathy with his pupils; it will help him into acloser sympathy with his pupils; it will

help him to keep from growing old before his time; it will give him a betterinsight into the personal characteristicsof his pupils than any thing else. But hemust join in the sports as an equal; hemust not, by the assumption of adictatorial manner, make his presenceon the playground disagreeable;furthermore, it is important that heshould be able to play well any game in

which he may join. If it be objected thathis dignity will suffer from his joining inthe pupils' plays, we have only to say that a dignity which can not bear the testof the playground must be of theartificial or false kind. True dignity means genuine worth shown in a worthy way.

Apparatus.--

Every school should be supplied with allthat is necessary for the proper work of illustration, but many schools are wofully [sic] lacking in this regard. And,if nothing can be used as apparatus butsuch as is highly finished, and sold inthe markets, the cost is no smalldrawback to its supply. But an ingeniousteacher will find means to illustrate

without being wholly dependent on thecostly apparatus of the shop; kernels of corn, or beans, or pebbles may take theplace of the numeral frame; a pumpkin,of a globe, etc. A little home-madeapparatus may answer nearly allpurposes in physics, also. All such



apparatus has one decided advantage,--the pupil's attention is less likely to bearrested by the apparatus itself; its useas a means to something beyond itself isless likely to be hidden. For instance, the

pupil is in less danger of thinking thathis combinations of numbers areconfined to the numeral frame, if helearns the same combinations by the useof common objects.

Marking.--

Few topics connected with the work of the school have been more discussed of

late than the "marking system." Muchhas been uttered in the way of bittercriticism of it. It is not said directly thatschools would be better without any careful record of the attendance,deportment, and scholarship of thepupils; but that seems to be a fairinference, if what is charge to the"system" necessarily belongs to it, andnot simply to the abuse of it.

By the marking system, a deliberaterecord is made of the attendance,deportment, and recitations of thepupils; it is a record of facts as they transpire, or of the teacher's judgmentsmade at a time when there is the latestcause for mistake, --that is, when thematter is freshest in his mind. ATTENDANCE.--In respect toattendance, the marking should be

simply a record of facts. The pupil ispresent or he is absent,-- he is tardy orhe is not. This the marks should show,and this alone. No account must betaken of any reasons for absence ortardiness,--these can not affect the factsof his attendance, but may properly



affect his deportment record.DEPORTMENT.--Here the marksshould be a record of the teacher'sopinion concerning the pupil's merits ordemerits, made at the time of the

transactions by which his standing isaffected. It is not easy to see how such arecord can be an evil, nor how any thing better can be substituted for it. Theteacher will have an opinion about thepupil's deportment, and the degrees of its worthiness or unworthiness, and he will sometimes be called on to expressthat opinion. How can such an opinion be made up better than from the average

of daily records?SCHOLARSHIP.--The statements lastmade will apply with equal force to theteacher's opinions respecting thescholarship of his pupil. But it may notalways be clear, even in the teacher'smind, exactly what the scholarship mark should show. Negatively, it can not show the pupil's disposition towards study; itcan not show the degree of effort he hasput forth; it can not show absolutely how much he may know about the study in question. It should be simply the written record of the teacher's estimateconcerning the relative success of thepupil's efforts at reciting on the giventopics. We say the teacher's estimate, for we regard "self-reporting" of eitherscholarship or deportment as unworthy of serious discussion.Now, we fail to see the force of theobjections urged against a writtenrecord of these things. It is said thatmarking takes much time; but thisobjection is not pertinent, if it is worththe time it takes. When a pupil recites,the teacher forms some opinion of his



performance as it goes on. Why may notthat opinion be formed on a numericalscale? And how long will it take to writethe figure to express it? It is said that thepupil is led to work for marks. Is that

not better than to have no motive; but why need it prevent higher motives fromoperating in cases where higher motivesfrom operating in cases where highermotives have any influence? Or, shall wediscard all motives by the very noblest?It is said that the marks are not alwaysust. This is what we should expect so

long as the teachers are fallible. But willthe fallible teacher, in the absence of a

daily record, be likely to reachconclusions that will be more just? Itseems to us that any valid strictures onmarking must pertain to the abuse of thesystem, or to the inherent weakness of the teacher, rather than to the systemitself. We shall not try to indicate the bestmethods of marking; we shall notdiscuss the question whether the pupilsshould be allowed to see their marks;nor shall we discuss the proper andimproper uses to be made of the marks.But we believe that, if the true meaningof each kind of marking is kept clearly in view, if the record is carefully andconscientiously made, the marks willserve very valuable purposes; and that itis not possible to find any adequatesubstitute for them.

Religious Exercises.--

We believe it to be very desirable that aschool should be opened by religiousexercises when they are genuine, and when they can be had without



controversy. But we should much regretto see them prescribed by law, quite asmuch as we should regret to see themforbidden by law. Most of our statesleave the question to be decided by the

local authorities; and, in our opinion,this is just where it ought to be left. Wethink, also, that any teacher who prizessuch exercises, and who is allowed tohave them, will make a great mistake if he compel any pupil to take part inthem, or even to be present, against hisown will or the expressed will of hisparent or guardian. Religiousperformances that are forced, or are

merely perfunctory, have no value that we can estimate.

Primary Teaching.--

There is some reason to hope that theday is not far distant when no intelligentperson will say, "Oh, any body can teachlittle children." We believe the opinion isgaining ground among our people that

the primary schools require the very best teaching talent, and the mostcareful preparation, and that successfulteaching in such schools is entitled toreceive the highest compensation.Nowhere else is it more disastrous toattempt to build on a poor foundationthan in education; and nowhere else arethe results of bad work at the foundationmore certainly without remedy. In no

other stage of the work can theprinciples of sound pedagogy be violated with so great damage. Nowhere else inthe work are the pupils so open topersonal influences, and in no otherstage of the work are the teachinginfluences so exclusively personal. In the



primary schools is the place to lay thefoundations of a sound character, noless than the foundations of a soundintellectual culture. And people arecoming to feel more and more that a

sound character is the great outcome of a good education. On all accounts, then,the primary schools demand and shouldreceive the most careful attention.

Teaching, a Profession.--

Teaching can never become a professionin the same strict sense as law ormedicine, so long as the majority of our

schools are in session but for a few months in the year, and pay such small wages to the teacher; nor so long as theoversight of the work is committed topersons outside of the profession; nor solong as the majority of teachers follow the employment for a few years only.But the time may come when the person who makes teaching a life-work, and who brings to it the talent, energy, and

special preparation which otherprofessions demand, will receive all therespect and deference that areconsidered due to the members of otherprofessions.How soon this time shall arrive dependschiefly on teachers themselves,--there isno conspiracy on the part of the peopleto keep teachers below the position to which their worth entitles them. And it

is the solemn duty of every teacher tomake his full contribution to the sum of influences that shall raise teaching tothe height it ought to occupy by virtue of its transcendent importance.



Principles.--

In closing, we will present a few important principles in a compact,aphoristic form:

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES:

1. Education is a development; it is,in no sense, a creation.

2. Any human power that is underthe control of the will can beeducated.

3. There is only one way of developing any human power; viz., by wise use, or self-activity.

4. Self-activity in education has twophases; viz., First , From without,inward, --receptive andacquisitive; Second , From within,outward, productive andexpressive.

5. The receptive and the productivephases should go together in allthe work of education.

6. Self-control is the proper outcome

of education; i.e., self-control of the hands (the body), of the head(the intellect), of the heart (theaffections, wishes, and purposes).

7. It is a general law that desireprecedes acquisition.

8. Learning, or knowledge, is themind's food; but food strengthensonly as it is digested andassimilated.

9. No progress in education ispossible without attention.

10. In education, nothing is really ours till it has become habitual tous.

11. In all the work of education, thehabits that are formed are more





3. With young children, in all theirschool exercises, somethingshould be given them to do.

4. With young children, the progressshould always be from the known

to the unknown. 5. With young children, the concrete

should precede the abstract. 6. With young children, the

particular should precede thegeneral.

7. With young children, give alwaysthe idea before the word,--thething before its symbol.

8. Care should be taken not to

confound things with theirsymbols; the danger of this isgreatest with young children, butit is not confined to them.

9. False forms should never be put before young children forcorrection; such false forms asthey make should be removed asquickly and as quietly as possible.

10. Early youth is the best time tocommit things to memory,--to"store the mind."

11. It is well for youth to commit tomemory some good things not yetfully comprehended.

12. Begin where the child is; allattempts to teach little children will be futile or worse, unless they are adapted to the present state of the children's mind, as regards both knowledge and strength.

End of text.n index is included, but is worthless in

the present setting.



Documents

A TREATISE of Pedagogy for Young Teachers