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A young teacher must guard his health. You can't teach day and night. The petty worries of the school-room must not be carried to your home or boarding place. Shake them from yourself when you quit the building and grounds. Lock them in the school-room when you leave it, and if you sleep soundly they will have vanished into thin air before the door is opened the next day. Your health will react upon your work in the school-room. Not the work, but the worry kills. During my first three terms I taught school all day and dreamed school all night. The dreaming was harder than the teaching. My best pupils, the ones who would not for the world do anything to cause me trouble, were always in mischief in my dreams. From the first, force yourself to think of the pleasant things of the day as much as possible, and forget the unpleasant or shut them from your thoughts. Too often you find after sleepless nights of worry about some frivolous little breach of conduct by some thoughtless boy the whole thing glides by without a ripple, and the problem solves itself.

If you are blessed with a good digestion, the world ought to look bright to you. No terrors in teaching are equal to those caused by undigested beefsteak, and a dose of pepsin is often a far greater aid in teaching than a six-foot switch. Eat plenty of nutritious food, such as agrees with you, drink plenty of pure water, take plenty of exercise in the open air, laugh when you can, meet and mingle with people, think good thoughts, teach yourself to believe in your own ability and success without growing egotistic, sleep not less than eight hours in each twenty-four, and make it nine if you can sleep soundly; keep clean, and the world and your school will move well with you.

The mind is self-creative. It can make a "heaven of hell or a hell of heaven" Milton tell us, and it is true. But there is a close relation between its activity and mental coloring, and the physical condition of the body. Teachers especially should learn to keep the body and the mind each at its best. Each reacts upon the other, and your school as well as your own happiness depends upon keeping both in the best condition. Avoid late study, irregular habits, and all kinds of dissipation. Planning and preparation of work is necessary, but it is not the number of hours you work, it is the intensity of the application that counts most. Systematize your work and work regularly and intensely, but do not encroach upon your hours of sleep unless you want to pay the penalty with interest. Let me say here parenthetically that if all teachers had a fair knowledge of shorthand, enough to enable them to record their own thoughts and to read their own notes readily what a saving of time it would mean in the preparation of their daily work. Would not it be worth while for every teacher to know this much stenography?

Then, too, regular habits count for so much--regular eating, regular sleeping, regular exercise. Teachers who board cannot always get just what they want, but as a rule their accommodations are fairly good--often as good as they would get at home. One can adjust themselves to the conditions if these be regular. In most homes the meals are served nearly on time, seldom varying more than half an hour, but sleeping is often irregular. Regular sleep is perhaps the most important item of all--a good bed, ventilation, comfort, quiet, with little variation in retiring or rising--these are important to the teacher who must meet with plenty of reserve and nerve force the problems of the school-room next day.

There are various forms of dissipation. In addition, however, to intoxicants as a beverage, the habitual use of many patent medicines may be almost as injurious. Then, too, there are lighter beverages very injurious. The coca-cola habit is little better than the beer-drinking habit, and the same is true of many other drinks so "refreshing to tired nerves." One of the worst forms of dissipation is day-dreaming, or simply idling away the time. If you have time to idle or to day-dream, do it in the open air and in the sunshine where the exercise will do you good or go forth on a still, clear night and watch the movements of the heavenly bodies, the star-decked sky, and drink in its inspiration and beauty. Much of the light reading--newspaper, magazine, and the rag-time fiction so current--is the worst form of mental dissipation.

The love-sick young man and the giddy girl are too often teachers, and the time and energy in thinking and writing to one another is more than is used in their teaching. I do not speak lightly of love or criticise teachers for falling in love or in loving one another or in loving some one who is not a teacher. Love in its highest form and love of the individual as well as the love of humanity as a whole is essential to the development of the person. Nothing creates higher ambition or nobler impulses than love. To love a pure-minded woman--a teacher she may be--is one of the greatest things that can happen to a young man. It is equally valuable to a young woman. The young man or young woman in love, with the hope that this love is or may be mutual, and when this loved one is idolized as made up of all that is pure and worthy and noble, is always safe. It gives new life and energy and ambition. It can be seen in the flashing eye, the elastic step and the bodily poise. No tonic is so life-giving, no beverage so invigorating, no view of life so rich in its coloring. Health, hope, courage, ambition, all good things follow in its wake. Such love as this is not dissipation. But the love-sick young man who pines for his lady love--the last one who smiled on him, it matters little who; the giddy girl who has two strings to each of her half a dozen beaux and is too busy pulling these strings to think of anything else--these are unfit to teach.

Then, too, the young teacher must sacrifice something to public opinion. Public opinion may be ever so narrow, so unreasonable, so unjust, but if you are to establish your reputation in that community as a reliable, trustworthy teacher, you cannot afford to be indifferent to it. I am speaking especially of the town, the village, and the country where all eyes are on the teacher, and where every man, woman and child knows him. In the towns, villages and the country the teacher is relatively of greater importance than in the city. Young men teaching in these communities cannot afford to do much keeping company or going to see the girls, and young women teachers cannot afford to have many beaux or even one regular one whose attentions are quite noticeable to the public. The highest motives may prevail, the enjoyment and pleasure may be great, and even then the teacher, like the minister, must forego many things which would be unnoticed in others, or else pay the price which is often dear enough. Sniggering school boys and giggling school girls for weeks will nudge one another and make remarks at your expense, and not always complimentary. Rail against it if you will, but it makes matters worse. Laugh about it and it often compromises your dignity. Punish for it, and you stir up a hornets' nest in the neighborhood. You can soon kill your influence in that neighborhood for good by a little harmless indiscretion. Beware!

Just how to get the good will and respect of patrons and pupils no one can tell you. It is a problem to be solved by your own good sense and personality. It is easier to tell you what not to do than to tell you what to do. The best advice is to be yourself, but to be your best self. Do not try to show off. Do not try to advise on every topic that comes up. Do not push yourself forward in outside matters. Listen to those older than yourself. Weigh what they say, but in school matters be your own boss. Talk little about your plans or your past success. Keep your school room troubles strictly to yourself. Do not criticise former teachers, and if teaching with other teachers beware of criticising another teacher in the same school, however much you may dislike their methods. The teacher may be ever so unpopular, and the person may invite criticism ever so much, but it is your place to avoid it. Then, too, do not criticise or praise one pupil before another pupil or patron outside of school. It is dangerous, and a little tact will enable you to avoid it. Your criticism will do no good, and your praise may cause the bitterest of jealousy. "Miss Jones, don't you think Grace is smart?" said a little girl. "Yes, we have many smart pupils in school," replied Miss Jones, and the girl's question was answered and no jealousy created.

Your success and power for good in the neighborhood will be determined very largely by the esteem and confidence the pupils and the patrons place in you.

GRADING THE SCHOOL.

The planning and making of a course of study falls to the lot of few teachers at present. Nearly every state has either a well-planned state course or else the county is the unit, and the county superintendent or the county board of education plan the course. While there is growth along this line in many places, the organization of the schools is less perfect, and the course of study is planned by the teacher in charge of the school.

Experienced teachers who have become used to the old way are often the first to cry out against the change, and assert vehemently that it will never work in the country school. Long after it has become an accomplished fact there will be some who will refuse to see it. Like the stubborn father whose son had told him he could show him snow in June. Following the boy up a narrow little ravine, the boy pointed down in the cavity of an old hollow stump and said, "Look there father, there is the snow." The father took care to close his eyes before looking, and replied: "Son, I don't see a bit of snow."

The very argument used to prove that the country school cannot be graded and follow a uniform course of study is the best argument for gradation and a uniform course of study. I believe that every one who has ever studied the subject will agree that a rational uniform course of study will do the following things:

There is but one argument against the grading of the country schools. That argument is that the pupils do not attend regularly. Grading is one of the best promoters of regular attendance. If there is anything that stirs parents and makes them alive to school matters and observant of what is going on in school, it is for their boy or girl to fail to be promoted. Irregular attendance is very apt to be remedied when they find that it will endanger the promotion. This overcomes many a flimsy excuse which would otherwise keep the child out of school near the close of the year. It makes the work of school a reality, a business, something to be rated along with any other kind of business instead of an entertainment or place of amusement to be attended when there is nothing else to do.

In my own experience I have never been troubled much with attendance running down near the end of the year, although I have taught in different schools, different localities, and often as late as the middle of June. Pupils and parents knew that those who missed the last month or the last few weeks of the term must stand an examination at the opening of the next term before being promoted. It may have been a false motive, but I believe it was as good and as legitimate a motive as many parents have for keeping children out of school the last month or six weeks of the term as is often done. Pupils want to come and parents usually arrange to let them come rather than to risk an examination after the summer's vacation of three months.

While in common with all good teachers, I have put forth an extra effort near the close of the school year to keep up school interest and a good school spirit, I think the graded school course has helped me much. As a boy, I attended the ungraded school where any pupil took practically anything that suited him or his parents. I began teaching in an ungraded school, and am glad that at the end of two years I left it as well graded as many city schools. The schools of that county are now well graded, much to the advantage of education in the country. Two of my best teachers were bitterly opposed to the grading of the country schools. They fought it in institutes, associations and at every possible opportunity in conversation. One of them taught long enough to be converted and see the error of his way, the other never did surrender, quit teaching fifteen years ago, and thinks the world is badly out of joint. The grading of country schools is coming, in fact, is here in some form except in the most primitive communities. It is the common sense plan, it is practical, it is efficient. It does not have the hide-bound red tape of the city system, but it gives all the interest of class stimulus and definite rational accomplishment as a standard.

If you want to find individualism gone to seed, if you want to find hobbies ridden hard, and to the everlasting detriment of children, go to the ungraded public or average private school. The teacher leads off on his hobby, and he magnifies the hobby as he goes. If it is an ungraded public school, they go to seed on arithmetic, or history or map-drawing, or the particular line that offers least resistance or that fits the teacher's particular whims best. If it is the average ungraded primary private school, filled with mammas' little angel darlings, too pretty and too petted to go to the public school, it is even worse. The teacher masticates everything, and puts it into the most charming fashion and makes believe they are really doing something. She is also discovering latent geniuses every few days. If the child likes to use water colors, she is an embryo artist, and her mother must develop this unusual talent. If the child can sing "Merry Greeting to You" she is a musician and the mother must from that day plan to keep her very exclusive and later send her to Paris to finish. A uniform course of study planned properly, representing the accumulated experience and judgment of our best educators, may have some flaws, but on the other hand it saves many of the gravest mistakes with the great mass of teachers and persons unaccustomed to thinking on educational subjects.

The planning of a rational course of study is no small task. It will vary with state and probably with the locality within the state. It will vary much with the nation. The danger is that each small locality may feel that their particular needs are different and must have special attention. In making the course of study the knowledge of the specialist is needed, toned down and corrected by the liberally educated man with broader views. Conditions must be weighed and due consideration for the worth of studies taken into account. The scientist wants to magnify science, the historian history, the mathematician mathematics, etc. It is in this particular that the specialist in the high school or the grades must be held in check by a liberal-minded superintendent or principal. Unless this is done, each will overload the student with his specialty. I have had teachers who if left to themselves would have monopolized the time of the high school pupil with Latin. The student that did not know Latin was in the estimation of that teacher a block-head, and should quit school and go to work.

Examine a course of study and you will find revealed much of the judgment and mental caliber of the teachers of the school. It is not uncommon to find high schools proper with university curricula. High-sounding names, often, are an attempt to hide the fact that it is an ordinary high school and many times very ordinary indeed.

Before me is a recent catalogue of a collegiate institute--it would be more appropriate to call it a village high school, that completes in two years Latin, including Preparatory Latin, Caesar, Cicero, Sallust, Ovid and Virgil, and then devotes the last year to Greek. There must be either intellectual giants in those parts or else some gigantic fools. To the thinking man the course of study would be a signal to give the school a wide berth.

We must not forget that the course of study is made for the child and not the child for the course of study. It must not be too hide-bound. There may be once in a while an exception to it. There may be extraordinary children that will not fit into the ordinary course. These should be treated as exceptions, and considered by themselves. Study the cause and figure the results of such changes and then be true to the child rather than to the course of study. The ungraded school goes to one extreme. Each child is changed and classified for any sort of whim. If he does not get all of to-day's lesson he goes it alone, thereby losing the incentive that comes from class competition. On the other hand, the course of study may become a fetich until the pupil that cannot make the uniform course is ignored. The saner, safer middle ground is best.

Below is given a mere skeleton outline of a course of study. Roughly it follows what is sometimes called the nationalized course. It would seem that careful adjustment would adapt it to almost any kind of school. The teacher or local board could follow its guidance as to subjects and quickly allot the work in the different grades. The texts used, the local conditions and the particular classes would thus be cared for. One class perhaps could do more in arithmetic than the same grade next year. Certain standards could be set. If the class could not reach this standard they could come as near reaching it as possible, and the remainder of the work could go over to the next year. The best classes would set standards of attainment that succeeding classes might be envious of equaling or surpassing. I have known teachers and classes to snooze over simple interest for month after month while if the teacher and the class had known that if they did not get a good working knowledge of simple interest in one month that the class would be considered slow or else the teaching poor, the work would have been done and well done in one month. Teachers and classes accomplish most when much is expected of them. That is one of the good things about a uniform course of study. One school learns to compare itself with another school, and both are benefited by it.

Set certain definite accomplishments for the class and the grade, do well what work you undertake, but keep moving. The outline may help you.

No one would expect you to have a daily lesson in all the above subjects. For example, in the first year reading, writing, spelling and language would be combined. In the second year these subjects in the main would be combined. The general lessons need not be daily lessons and often two or more years could be combined in the same instruction. Calisthenics could be general exercises for all the grades or the two advanced grades might be excused from these if you thought best. History and geography might come on alternate days, or history and physiology. The course is to represent the lines of study that in a well-graded school are kept abreast. The allotment of time and the work is left to the adjustment of the teacher or school.

OPENING EXERCISES.

No period of the day is so important in its influence on the day's work or so rich in opportunities for good in after life as the first fifteen minutes after school is called in the morning. The teacher's task is not an easy one. Before her are as many dispositions as there are pupils. Before her are the physical, mental and moral defects of inheritance and the pernicious habits of home neglect and wrong training. The rich and the poor, the high and the low, the proud and the humble, the good and the bad, a heterogeneous group all are there--and out of these the teacher is to construct the working unit, the school.

The spoiled babe, the father's favorite, the mother's pet, the orphan and the outcast, all meet here on common ground. The hope of a democracy is based upon this meeting and mingling. The perpetuity of our institutions must stand or fall by the results of such meeting. Each here learns to estimate the other and the estimate is usually the par value of the pupil. The banker's boy must measure brains with the bootblack and often each gets the best lesson of life in that measurement. The banker's boy often finds a worthy rival in the bootblack and unconsciously rates him higher than if they had never met. The bootblack may have higher hopes and ambitions kindled, together with a better estimate of his own innate worth and this is uplifting. Blood tells, but it as often tells weakness as strength, and often the best lesson of a wealthy boy's life is when he is wallowed--wallowed physically as well as mentally--by some poor, humble widow's son upon whom he had always looked with contempt.

Out of this group of individuals, the teacher is each day to construct the working unit, the school. They gather from various homes and conditions, some gorged with indigestible dainties, others with appetites hardly appeased with the plainest of food, some bubbling over with fun and mischief, and others sour and sullen, all these are to become a unit for the day's work. To focus these minds, to draw them from the petty home incidents of the morning, to put them into harmony with the work of the day, the tuning of these minds is the one great purpose of the daily opening exercises of the school.

But in the very process of the exercise there comes numerous opportunities for the richest lessons of the school course. It gives the opportunity for teaching lessons of patience, patriotism, duty, love, respect, obedience, gratitude and devotion. Kindness to animals, appreciation of the beautiful in art and nature and literature, higher ideals of life, faith and hope and charity, and greatest of all the criterion of the really educated person, liberal-mindedness--all of these should find food in the unifying process of the school, the opening exercise.

Perhaps, the one thing that will bear repetition oftenest and grow in its good results by repetition in the opening exercise is singing. I discriminate between singing and a lesson in music. A lesson in music may not be one whit better for unifying the minds of the pupils than a lesson in grammar or arithmetic. But singing is better. An angry pupil cannot sing. In the singing he forgets his anger. Nothing so quickly recalls the wandering minds of pupils and gets them into harmony with the purpose of school, and makes them forget petty troubles, as a good, soul-stirring song in which all unite. Patriotic songs, devotional songs, folk songs, songs of the home and the heart, nature songs--the list is long--all have their use in the opening exercise. Glad or sad, as the teacher desires to stir the pupils, so let the morning song be in opening exercise.

Even if the teacher sings but little, there will be found always the faithful half dozen who can and will sing. The others will follow. Choose the songs that nearly all like and sing with enthusiasm. For the opening exercises not many songs are needed. If music is taught, new songs may be learned, and the favorite ones added to the list for morning use. Let me emphasize the fact that it is not the new and the difficult, but the old, the familiar, the soul-stirring song that is most useful in opening exercise. Something that all like, something that all can sing, something that appeals to the emotions--these are the songs for the opening of school.

The opening exercise requires study, planning, and skill on the part of the teacher. No lesson needs more planning and in no lesson will you get better results if you do plan wisely and well. You must know in advance what you will present, not leave it to the impulse of the moment. Then, too, there must be variety. Children tire of sameness. If pupils know weeks in advance just what to expect at the opening exercise they will care less to be on time, especially if this particular exercise does not happen to appeal to them. If there is variety, if they feel that something new and good may occur any morning, they are more apt to be on time. Tardiness will decrease as the opening exercise increases in interest and value.

Make the opening exercise brief, interesting and pointed. I have tried the various plans given below with success. The interest in each particular exercise varied with the school, the class and the conditions. If the pupils were particularly pleased I continued it longer. If they showed that they were not especially pleased I left it sooner and came back to it later, else omitted it in the future. These suggestions worked out will I believe give you abundant material for a year of school.

THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER.

The more one studies the forces which combined make a successful school, the more he sees that the teacher is the all-important factor. Buildings, grounds, furniture, apparatus, books, all these are important--and the material equipment of a school makes much difference--but over and above these and vastly more important than these, is the spirit of the teacher. From the contact of mind with mind grows a quickened intellect. Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and Garfield on the other, these, Garfield said, would make a university. The teacher whose soul is on fire with her work, the pupil who is willing to learn, these are the essentials of a good school. The teacher, one whose heart is in the work, one who realizes the dignity and the importance of teaching, one who not only knows the subject to be taught and the laws of mental development, but has that innate tact and worth and personal magnetism that draws young people to her, such a teacher is a priceless gem. Such a teacher brings order out of chaos. The pupils feel the magnetism of her presence. She enters into their very lives, lifting them to higher things and leading the way.

It is the spirit of a teacher that governs a school. In one room is disorder, a spirit of idleness and sometimes defiance, carelessness and contempt for all that is pure and good and noble in school life--loose paper, marred desks, paper wads, marked walls--you know the signs. The teacher among her personal friends and intimate acquaintances speaks always in contempt of the pupils, calling them her "mean kids," "hateful little imps," "despisable brats," etc. She longs for the monthly return of pay day and the end of the term. She scolds, frets, punishes, threatens, bribes and coaxes by turns and in rapid succession, and then expresses surprise that the pupils of her room take little interest in their work and are so "torn down mean." She is lacking in natural dignity and seriousness, and wonders why her pupils are frivolous. She makes no daily preparation of lessons and cannot understand why the children do not study. She is the giddiest of the giddy in talking about her beaux, and wonders why the school girls are so rude as to speak about their "fellows."

The pupils of another room--and often the same pupils under another teacher--are quiet, orderly, obedient, respectful and studious. She does not gush. She is not petty and has no pets. She is quiet, bright, cheerful, cheery, orderly, serious, natural, and has confidence in her pupils. She speaks kindly and affectionately of her boys and girls, neither thinking them faultless nor lauding them to the skies. Her every act is an inspiration to her pupils. She plans her work, she works to her plans, and the pupils both consciously and unconsciously imitate her. She shapes the lives and destinies of her pupils for the better. The work of such a teacher is above all money value. The former is dear at any price.

The spirit of the teacher will show itself in the pupil's view of life. I often think of one of my favorite teachers. I have forgotten most of the lessons he taught me from books. Much of the algebra he taught me has been relearned or else I do not know it. I violate daily many of the rules of syntax he tried so hard to teach me, and yet he taught me one of the greatest lessons of my life. He looked on life with a broad perspective. He was liberal-minded. He taught us, unconsciously perhaps, to be generous in our judgments of others. He opened our minds and our lives to the beauties and harmonies of nature all about us. The sunset took a brighter tint, the rainbow showed a deeper color, the pansy gave a more delicate odor, life gleamed broader and sweeter because of the unconscious inspiration of this man's life. Cheerfulness, hope, faith, trust in the eternal triumph of right should be a part of every teacher's faith. No carping, sour-grained, narrow-minded teacher ever did much to develop healthy, hearty, liberal views of life in the pupil. One of the greatest misfortunes of our schools is the fact that occasionally such teachers are found in them.

The spirit of the teacher is shown in the attitude of the pupil in his daily work. She cheers or depresses. Constant nagging would drag down angels. If there is anything that saps the mental life of pupils, dulls their intellectual desires, disgusts them with school and all that pertains to it, it is the spirit of the grumbling, growling, whining, probing, complaining teacher. Occasionally we meet such a teacher in the schools, and her work is followed by the wreck of childish hopes and ambitions. Her very atmosphere is blighting and dwarfing. Have you ever met such a teacher? I trust not, and yet I fear you have. Here is a sample:

"Now, George, you may tell us about Braddock's defeat. Stand up and tell us all about it. You remember you had that topic yesterday and did not know it. I told you to take your book home with you last night and to study all about this topic, you remember. You may stand up now and try it again. Stand up straight. Get out from the desk. Now, that is better. I have told you several times how I wanted you to stand when you recite. Put down that rule and take your hand out of your pocket. How often am I to tell you about that.

"A little louder, I can't hear you. I told you the other day to speak loud enough that you could be heard by any one in any part of the room. You must remember what I tell you.

"Now, that is better. Stand up straight. Now, tell us all about Braddock's defeat. Begin over again. 'Braddock was a British general sent over to this country to help us,' well that is all right so far. Go on. Who was Braddock? Who was he and what had he done? Tell us all about him.... Well, if the book does not say, you ought to have looked it up in some other book. Didn't I tell you I wanted you to read other histories and not to depend on one text-book?

"Now, stand up and tell us all you know about Braddock's defeat. You've had that topic two days, and surely you can tell us something. You have got to study your history. Take your book home with you to-night and study the lesson three or four times. A great big boy like you ought to know history. You will want to vote sometime. I would be ashamed if I were you. Study that topic so you can tell us all about it to-morrow. Remember this class completes history this year. If you are to be promoted you will have to work. We will have an examination on all of these topics, and after we have had these lessons over and over again, if you do not pass it is not my fault. You will have to work, young man, or fail. That is all I have to say about it.

"Remember, you have got to learn this lesson next time. If I were you, I would try to use my brains, if I had any. It makes me tired when I have to tell and tell you what to do and you do not care a cent. I am just doing my best to help you, and you do not seem to appreciate it a bit. I would be ashamed, and you would be if you had the least bit of get up to you.

Of course, George left the recitation with a burning desire to learn all about Braddock's defeat. The inspiration was sufficient to do him for life. The inspiration from the recitation in other subjects being of the same satisfying kind, he withdrew from school two months later. The spirit of a teacher sometimes kills.

The school, large or small, country or town, blest with a teacher of broad mold, liberal-minded, active, studious, still learning, virtuous and pure-minded, such a school is a dynamic force for good in the neighborhood. Such a teacher is not worried by bad boys. Her energy is not sapped by keeping order. She does not nervously pound the desk or the call bell for quiet. Her very attitude begets quiet without having to demand it. She may sit down and hear a recitation. Composure on her part gets composure on the part of the pupils. If John forgets himself and gets into mischief a look from her settles him. She does not have to stop the recitation every few minutes to reprimand. She does not nervously walk the aisle to keep order while she is hearing a recitation. If a boy is devoid of principle and persists in doing annoying things she lets him come to her instead of rushing back after him. Her look of indignation and scorn makes him feel his insignificance, and he does not try it often. She has learned the lesson of letting the offender do the walking instead of the teacher.

When patrons and officials learn that it is the personality and individuality, or the spirit of the teacher that counts in teaching, then will they discriminate between teachers and school keepers, and be willing to pay the former living salaries and encourage the others to try new fields of labor.

THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY.

What do you read? A look at your library will reveal much of your interest and professional zeal. Gypsies examine your hand or feel of your head to tell your fortune and predict your future. If you want revealed the future and the fortune of a teacher examine that teacher's library and see what books they read and have read. A glance at the library will tell much of the teacher's zeal, earnestness, and enthusiasm in the profession. You can gauge them pretty accurately by the books they read. One's library, like one's dress, oft proclaims one's character.

Of course the teacher does not confine herself to professional books and reading alone. No one would expect such a thing. It would make you narrow. If this had been your entire line of reading you would be narrow now. The question is, do you ever read professional books and professional literature? What faith would you have in a physician who had never read medical books, and who did not take and read the current literature of his profession? Would you engage a lawyer to defend your interests or to look after your business who had never read or heard of the great treatises on law? Would you entrust the life of your child to the former? Would you intrust your business to the latter?

Would you then ask parents to entrust the education of their child to you when you have never read nor heard of the literature that bears upon teaching and education? If you neither read nor care for the current literature of teaching, educational journals, and magazine articles of merit bearing upon your work, do you think that you are equipped properly for the best interest and education of the child? Can you blame thinking men and women for criticising and often giving very little deference to the teacher's opinion of education? Is the mind so much less important that good judgment would reject the physician and the lawyer who have done no professional study, and accept the teacher, ignorant of the literature of her line of work and who had never given any study of why or how or what to teach in order to best develop the child? Is the mind of less importance than the body? Is property dearer to the parent than the child?

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