Part 8 (1/2)
Weresponsibilities--as pupil, teacher, companion, and mother As a pupil, she is sensitive, conscientious, quick, aree, as compared with the other sex, the power of intuition The boy is logical, or he is nothing; but logic is not necessary for the girl Not that she is illogical; but she usually sees through, without observing the steps in the process which a boy must discern before he can comprehend the subject presented to his mind In the use of the eye, the ear, the voice, and in the appropriation of whateverand reflective faculties, she is inco for a demonstration, and she obeys the law founded upon it without being its slave She instinctively prefers good manners to faulty habits; and, in the requirements of family, social, and fashi+onable life, she is better educated at sixteen than her brother is at twenty She is an adept in one only of the vices of the school--whispering--and in that she excels But she does not so readily resort to the great vice--the crime of falsehood--as do her coreat vice, because, if this were unknown, tardiness, truancy, obscenity, and profanity, could not thrive
Holmes has well said that ”sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that will fit them all”
In many primary and district schools the habits and ood habits and good ain and again, and soliloquize upon the litters,” we instinctively believe, however often we are betrayed Habits and manners are the first evidence of character; and so ive credit and confidence to those whom in our calmer moments we know to be unworthy The first aim in the school should be to build up a character that shall be truthfully indicated by purity and refinement of manner and conversation It does, indeed, sometimes happen that purity of character is not associated with refinement of manners This misfortune is traceable to a defective early education, both in the school and the hoent, the evil would have been averted And, as there are many homes in city and country where refineht, the schoolsIn this connection, the value of the high school for females--whether exclusively so or not, does not see women are naturally and properly the teachers of prirade; and society as naturally and properly looks to them to educate, by exaood habits, good ood her relations of life, when, as wives andand future generations The law and the lexicons say ”_home_ is the house or the place where one resides” This definition may answer for the law and the lexicons, but it does not meet the wants of common life
The ill usually find in her husband less refinereat privilege, if not her solemn duty, to illustrate the line of Cowper, and show that she is of
”The sex whose presence civilizes ours”
It is the duty of the teacher to make the school attractive; and what the teacher should do for the school the wife should do for the home
The home should be preferred by the husband and children to all other places Much depends upon theht to claim all of the wife and mother But, without her aid, they can do but little With her aid, every desirable result may be accomplished That this result enerous, critical, and pure, in everything that relates to manners, habits, andcan serve in their stead We should add, no doubt, thorough ele, both for her own good and for the service of her children Intellectual training is defective where these elelected, and their importance to the sexes may be equal We should not omit music and the culture of the voice The tones of the voice indicate the tone of the raceful and gentle forive due attention to the cultivation of the hu This is an invaluable accoland'sorator, and felt that well-known lines frolish poets derived neer, if not actual inspiration, from the classic tones in which the words were uttered
A cultivated voice in woman is at once the evidence and the irl are more acute than those of the boy, so the reater than that of thethe; and I can co of one's own life, than the discreet and careful training of the voice It is itself a power It de or its cause is revealed by articulate speech; its tones awe assemblies, and command silence before the speaker announces his views; and the rebellious and disorderly, whether in the school, around the rostrum, or on the field, bow in submission beneath the authority of its ood school, and very rare to see one, where this power is wanting in the teacher Woe of schools where there are lads and youth destitute of that culture which would lead them to yield respect and consequent obedience Physical force in these cases is not usually to be thought of; but nature has vouchsafed to woree of moral power, of which in the school the voice is the best expression, as often to fully compensate for her weakness in other respects
It is unnecessary to coood readers are so rare ae teachers to qualify thereat work_, because everything else is comparatively easy to the teacher, and comparatively uni It should be introduced as soon as the child's reasoning faculties are in any degree developed, and presented by the living voice, without the aid of books The alphabet should be taught in connection with exercises for strengthening andthe voice, and the elementary sounds of the letters should be deemed as important as their names All this is the proper work of the felects her duty, the evil is usually so great as to ad is at once an imitative and an appreciative art on the part of the pupil Heof the writer; but he will depend upon the teacher at first, and, indeed, for a long time, for an example of the true ive It is not enough that she can correct faults of pronunciation, censure inarticulate utterances, and condeuttural sounds; but she must be able to present, in reasonable purity, all the opposite qualities The young women have not yet done their duty to the cause of education in these respects; nor is there everywhere a public sentiment that will even now allow the duty to be performed
It is difficult to see why the child of five, and the youth of fifteen, should be kept an equal number of hours at school Each pupil should spend as much time in the school-room as is needed for the preparation of the exercise and the exercise itself The danger fro pupils Those in grah schools may often use additional hours for study; but a pupil should be somewhat advanced, and should possess considerable physical strength and endurance, before he ventures to give more than six hours a day to severe intellectual labor It must often happen that children in primary schools can learn in two hours each day all that the teacher has time to communicate, or they have power to receive and appropriate Indeed, I think this is usually so It may not, however, be safe to deduce from this fact the opinion that children should never be kept longer in school than two hours a day; but it seeood homes, they may be relieved from the tediuer opportunity for ies of well-educated female teachers in primary schools; nor do I deem it iers of schools of higher grade, according to the present public estiard to the latter position, I have neither hope, desire, nor anxiety Whenever the public judge thee of high schools and norned to theree of public confidence is accorded, it is useless tothe ability of woher order of teaching talent is required in the primary school, or for the early, judicious education of children, than is required in any other institutions of learning Nor can it be shown that equal ability for government is not essential There must be different h school; but, where proper training has been enjoyed, pupils in the latter ought to be far advanced in the acquisition of the cardinal virtue of self-control, whose existence in the school and the state renders government co, there are the opportunity and the duty of education But our present great concern, as friends of learning, is with those schools where children are first trained in the elements If in these we can have faithful, accurate, syste else desirable will be added thereunto But, if we are negligent, unphilosophical, and false, the reasonable public expectation will never be realized in regard to other institutions of learning
The work must be done by women, and by well-educated women; and, when it is said that in Massachusetts alone we need the services of six thousand such persons, theteachers h in this field for every feh schools are not required, or cannot exist, and for every high school and normal school in the commonwealth?
If it is asserted that the supply of fereater than the demand, it ed in teaching, but that the number of competent teachers is, and ever has been, too sreat deal, to send into a toell-qualified fe to those who are under her tuition, but her exae the local senti teachers and schools When may we expect a supply of such persons? The hope is not a delusion, though its realization may be many years postponed How are coe will be gradual, and it is to be made in the public opinion as well as in the character of teachers and schools And is it not possible, even in view of all that has been accoe, with only the hope that it leads to an outward-opening door, where, in ht we shall perceive new truths concerning the philosophy of the human mind, and the means of its development? At this moment we are compelled to admit that practical teachers and theorists in educational ard to the truethe alphabet, and divided and subdivided in opinion concerning the order of succession of the various studies in the prireement on these points is not probable; it reater contribution can bethan a presentation of these topics and their elucidation, so that the teacher shall feel that what he does is philosophical, and therefore wise
The only way to achieve success is to apply faithfully the means at hand Generations of children cannot wait for perfection in ht not to neglect any opportunity which proress in the profession that they have chosen As teachers improve, so do schools; and, as schools improve, so do teachers The influence exerted by teachers is first beneficial to pupils, but, as a result, we soon have a class of better qualified teachers With these ideas of the importance of the teacher's vocation to pri, it is not strange that I place a high value upon professional training A degree of professional training more or less desirable is, no doubt, furnished, by every school; but the admission does not in anyht, yet without experience, , by devoting six, twelve, or eighteen months, under competent instructors, in co a similar object in view, to the study, examination, and discussion, of those subjects and topics which are sometimes connected with, and sometimes independent of, the text-books, but which are of daily value to the teacher
At present only a portion of this necessary professional training can be given in the normal schools If, however, as I trust may sometimes be the case, none should be admitted but those who are already qualified in the branches to be taught, the tiraduates proportionately increased There are about one hundred high schools in the state, and, within the sphere of their labors, they are not equalled by any institutions that the world has seen Young , co eneral duties of life
They are also furnishi+ng a large number of well-qualified teachers Soarding only the past, they are entirely satisfactory; but, ani the future, we claiuised that the members of nore rank in scholarshi+p with graduates of high schools
This is a estion, diffidently made, yet with considerable confidence in its practicability and value, that graduates of high schools will often obtain additional and necessary preparation by attending a normal school, if for the term of six months only And I am satisfied, beyond all reasonable doubt, that, when the normal schools receive only those whose education is equivalent to that now given in the high schools, a body of teachers will be sent out ill surpass the graduates of any other institution, and whose average professional attainhest reasonable public expectation Nor is it clai known or practised in normal schools that may not be known and practised elsewhere; but it is rather attributable to the fact that in these institutions the attention of teachers and pupils is directed al, and the hts, and discussions, are devoted to this end If, with such opportunities, there should be no progress, we should be led to doubt all our previous knowledge of human character, and of the developentlemen, before I conclude, allow me to remove, or at least to lessen, an impression that these remarks are calculated to produce I have assu is a profession--an arduous profession--and that perfection has not yet been attained I have assu, especially in the primary and reat as they ought to be But let it not be thence inferred that I am dissatisfied with our teachers and schools
There has been continual progress in education, and a large share of this progress is due to teachers; but the time has not yet come e can wisely fold our arms, and accept the allureht, on this occasion, to present even an outline of a system of fe a us, it should be as comprehensive, as minute, as exact, as that furnished for youth of the other sex Nor is it necessary to concern ourselves about the effect of this liberal culture upon the character and fortunes of society I do not anticipate any sudden or disastrous effects The right of education is a coht of wo and sin if ithhold any, even the least Having faith in humanity, and faith in God, let us not shrink fro to all, without reference to sex or condition, the benefits of a public and liberal system of education, which seeks, in an alliance with virtue and religion, whose banns are forbidden by none, to enlighten the ignorant, restrain and refor and civilization, so that the highest idea of a well-ordered state shall be realized in an advanced and advancing condition of individual and family life
THE INFLUENCE, DUTIES, AND REWARDS, OF TEACHERS
[A Lecture delivered at Teachers' Institutes]
It is the purpose, and we believe that it will be the destiny, of Massachusetts, to build up a comparatively perfect system of public instruction To this antiquity did not aspire; and it is the just boast of modern ti is not the amusement of a few only, ealth and taste have led into its paths, but that it is encouraged by governments, and cherished by the whole people Antiquity had its schools and teachers; but the latter were, for the most part, founders of sects in politics, ion, or the habits of daily life; while its schools were frequented and sustained by those who sought to build on the civilization of the times such structures as their tastes conceived or their opinions dictated
There were not in Athens or Ro to the American idea, any schools for the people; and Carlyle, Brownson, and Eh not in power and influence, as were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle These men were leaders as well as teachers, and their folloere disciples and controversialists rather than pupils
But it is not possible for modern leaders in politics, philosophy, and social life, to rival the ancients Manual labor is not more divided and subdivided than is the influence of the human intellect The newspaper has inspired every ree, for its exercise The ancients, whose naht by conversations, discussions, and lectures; the moderns, as Carlyle, Brownson, and Emerson, by lectures, essays, and reviews But these systems are quite inadequate to meet the wants of American civilization