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Miscellaneous hints.-Things to be avoided.-Prejudice.

CHAPTER XIV

MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS.

ON looking over the notes which I have at various times made of my own experience and observation, during twenty years of practical teaching, I find there are several thoughts which may be of some service to the young teacher, and which have not been introduced under any of the general topics of this volume. I have therefore thought best to introduce a special chapter, with the above title, where I might lawfully bring together, without much regard to method, such varied hints as may convey to some reader a useful lesson. Some of these hints will refer to faults which should be carefully avoided, while others will point out some duties to be performed.

SECTION I.-THINGS TO BE AVOIDED.

1. Guard against prejudice on entering a school. It is not always safe to rely upon first impressions as to character. At the opening of a school, perhaps fifty individuals for the first time are brought before the teacher. Some of them are from humble life, and perhaps bear upon them the marks of parental neglect

Danger of prejudice.-Its injustice.-Why?

Their persons and their clothing may present nothing to attract and gratify the eye of a stranger. Little accustomed to society, they exhibit an awkward bashfulness, or an impertinent forwardness, in their manner. Contrasted with these, others appear who have been the children of indulgence, and who have seen much more of the world. A more expensive garb attracts the eye; a more easy and familiar address, conforming to the artificial modes of society, is very likely to win the heart. The teacher is very prone to find his feelings committed in favor of the latter class, and against the former. But this is all wrong. A judgment thus hastily formed is extremely hazardous,—as a few days' acquaintance will usually show. The child of blunt or shy demeanor often has the truest heart,—a heart whose sentiments go out by the shortest course, -a heart that has never learned the artificial forms of the world, because it has never felt the need of them. And how unjust to the child is a prejudice founded on the circumstance of dress! Must the inability or neglect of his parent be doubly visited on him? Is it not enough that he daily feels the inward mortification. of a contrast with his more favored school-fellows? Must he be painfully reminded of it by discovering that his teacher repels him on that account, and bestows his kindliest smiles upon those who are "the brightest and best clad"?

And yet such unjust prejudice is common; wrong and unfeeling as it is, it is too common. A fine dress, and a clean face, and a graceful manner, I know

Pupils not to direct their studies.-This the teacher's province.

are attractive; but the teacher has to do with the mind and the heart;-and he should never be deterred by any thing exterior, from making a diligent and patient search for good qualities which have their home behind the surface, and he should ever possess a smile as cordial and a tone as parental for the neglected child of poverty and ignorance, as for the more favored son of wealth and ease

2. Do not allow your pupils to direct their own studies. Whatever their age may be, they are seldom capable of doing this. It is the aim of the young to get over a long course of study. They are usually pleased to belong to higher classes before they have mastered the branches taught in the lower. If children are suffered to direct their own studies, they usually make themselves very poor scholars. This is the bane of many of our select schools and academies, where the teacher yields this right in order to secure pupils. and a salary. But no one, not even the parent, is as competent as the teacher ought to be, to direct in this matter. He has the best opportunity daily to fathom the pupil's attainments, and to understand his deficiencies. He may claim the right to direct. In case the pupil withstands his decision, the teacher should appeal to the parent, and endeavor there to sustain his point, a thing generally within his power, if indeed he is right. If the parent too is obstinate, and firmly insists upon the wrong course, the teacher may perhaps sub mit, though he cannot submit without the consciousness that his province has been invaded.

A mistake.-An egregious evil in all schools.-Illustrated.

It is too frequently the case that the teacher at the first yields all this ground voluntarily, by asking the children what they wish to study. When he has once made them a party in this question, he need not wonder if they claim to be heard. This he should not do. He should first be sure that he is qualified to direct aright, and then, as a matter of course, proceed to do it, just as the physician would prescribe for the physical malady of such a child. The latter is not more the rightful duty of the physician, than the former is of the school teacher. Neither has the power to enforce his prescription against the parents' consent, but that consent may be taken for granted by both, till informed that it is withheld.

I

may here remark that in all my intercourse with the young, whether in the common or the higher school, I have found no greater evil than that of proceeding to the more difficult branches before the elementary studies have been mastered. It is no uncommon thing to find those who have "attended" to the higher mathematics-algebra, geometry, and the like—whose reading and writing are wretched in the extreme, and whose spelling is absolutely intolerable! They have been pursuing quadratics, but are unable to explain why they "carry one for every ten;" they have wandered among the stars in search of other worlds, by the science of astronomy, without knowing the most simple points in the geography of our own; they have studied logarithms and infinite series, but cannot be safely trusted to add a column of figures, or to com

The teacher-the remedy.-Do not attempt too many things.

pute the simple interest upon a common note! In short, they have studied every thing, except what is most useful to be known in practical life, and have really learned-nothing!

Now if this evil-grievous and extensive as it is at present is destined ever to be abated, it is to be accomplished by the instrumentality of the teacher, acting, in his appropriate sphere, in the capacity of a director as to the course of study for the young. He must not be a man who can merely teach, but one who understands the high import of a true education, and knows how to prescribe the order of its progress; one, in short, who will never attempt to erect a showy superstructure upon an insufficient foundation.

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3. Do not attempt to teach too many things. There is a tendency at present to introduce too many things into all our schools. Nothing is more common than to hear our public lecturers declare, as they become a little enthusiastic in any given department, that "this branch should at once be made a study in our common schools." This is heard of almost the whole round of the natural sciences. But it seems to me to be dictated by over-wrought enthusiasm. Every thing cannot be well taught in our schools; nor should too much be attempted. It is the province of our schools -particularly our common schools-to afford thorough instruction in a few things, and to awaken a desire for more extended attainment. The instruction given should, as far as possible, be complete in itself,—while it should afford the means of making further advance

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