The teacher a model.-Importance of good habits. CHAPTER III. PERSONAL HABITS OF THE TEACHER. THE importance of correct habits to any individual cannot be overrated. The influence of the teacher is so great upon the children under his care, either for good or evil, that it is of the utmost importance to them as well as to himself that his habits should be unexceptionable. It is the teacher's sphere to improve the community in which he moves, not only in learning, but in morals and manners; in every thing that is "lovely and of good report." This he may do partly by precept, but very much by example. He teaches, wherever he is. His manners, his appearance, his character, are all the subject of observation, and to a great extent of imitation, by the young in his district. He is observed not only in the school, but in the family, in the social gathering, and in the religious meeting. How desirable then that he should be a model in all things! - Man has been said to be a "bundle of habits and it has been as pithily remarked-"Happy is the man whose habits are his friends." It were well if all persons, before they become teachers, would attend carefully to the formation of their personal habits. This, Cleanliness.-Ablution.-The teeth.-The nails. unhappily, is not always done,-and therefore I shall make no apology for introducing in this place some very plain remarks on what I deem the essentials among the habits of the teacher. 1. NEATNESS. This implies cleanliness of the person. If some who assume to teach were not proverbial for their slovenliness, I would not dwell on this point. On this point, however, I must be allowed great plainness of speech, even at the expense of incurring the charge of excessive nicety; for it is by attending to a few little things that one becomes a strictly neat person. The morning ablution, then, should never be omitted, and the comb for the hair and brush for the clothes should always be called into requisition before the teacher presents himself to the family, or to his school. Every teacher would very much promote his own health by washing the whole surface of the body every morning in cold water. This is now done by very many of the most enlightened teachers, as well as others. When physiology is better understood, this practice will be far more general. To no class of persons is it more essential than to the teacher; for on account of his confinement, often in an unventilated room, with half a hundred children during the day, very much more is demanded of the exhalents in him than in others. His only safety is in a healthy action of the skin. The teeth should be attended to. A brush and clean water have saved many a set of teeth. It is bad enough to witness the deplorable neglect of these in A vulgar habit.-Neat dress.-Tobacco.-A puzzle. portant organs so prevalent in the community; but it is extremely mortifying to see a filthy set of teeth in the mouth of the teacher of our youth. The nails, too, I am sorry to say, are often neglected by some of our teachers, till their ebony tips are any thing but ornamental. This matter is made worse, when, in the presence of the family or of the school, the penknife is brought into requisition to remove that which should have received attention at the time of washing in the morning. The teacher should remember that it is a vulgar habit to pare or clean the nails while in the presence of others, and especially during conversation with them. The teacher should be neat in his dress. I do not urge that his dress should be expensive. His income ordinarily will not admit of this. He may wear a very plain dress; nor should it be any way singular in its fashion. All I ask is, that his clothing should be in good taste, and always clean. A slovenly dress, covered with dust, or spotted with grease, is never so much out of its proper place, as when it clothes the teacher. While upon this subject I may be indulged in a word or two upon the use of tobacco by the teacher. It is quite a puzzle to me to tell why any man but a Turk, who may lawfully dream away half his existence over the fumes of this filthy narcotic, should ever use it. Even if there were nothing wrong in the use of unnatural stimulants themselves, the filthiness of tobacco is enough to condemn it among teachers, especially in the form of chewing. It is cer Improved taste.-Order, system.-Courtesy of language. tainly worth while to ask whether there is not some moral delinquency in teaching this practice to the young, while it is admitted, by nearly all who have fallen into the habit, to be an evil, and one from which they would desire to be delivered. At any rate, I hope the time is coming, when the good taste of teachers, and a regard for personal neatness and the comfort of others, shall present motives sufficiently strong to induce them to break away from a practice at once so unreasonable and so disgusting. 2. ORDER. In this place I refer to that system and regularity so desirable in every teacher. He should practise it in his room at his boarding-house. Every thing should have its place. His books, his clothing, should all be arranged with regard to this principle. The same habit should go with him to the schoolroom. His desk there should be a pattern of orderly arrangement. Practising this himself, he may with propriety insist upon it in his pupils. It is of great moment to the teacher, that, when he demands order and arrangement among his pupils, they cannot appeal to any breach of it in his own practice. Cour 3. COURTESY. The teacher should ever be courteous, both in his language and in his manners. tesy of language may imply a freedom from all coarseness. There is a kind of communication, used among boatmen and hangers-on at bar-rooms, which should find no place in the teacher's vocabulary. All vulgar jesting, all double-entendres, all low allusions, should be forever excluded from his mouth. And profanity! Profanity.-Purity.-Accuracy.-Courtesy of manner. -can it be necessary that I should speak of this as among the habits of the teacher? Yes, it is even so. Such is the want of moral sense in the community, that men are still employed in some districts, whose ordinary conversation is poisoned with the breath of blasphemy; ay, and even the walls of the schoolroom resound to undisguised oaths! I cannot find words to express my astonishment at the indifference parents, or at the recklessness of teachers, wherever I know such cases to exist. Speaking of the language of the teacher, I might urge also that it should be both pure and accurate. Pure as distinguished from all those cant phrases and provincialisms which amuse the vulgar in certain localities; and accurate as to the terms used to express his meaning. As the teacher teaches in this, as in every thing, by example as well as by precept, he should be very careful to acquire an unexceptionable use of our language, and never deviate from it in the hearing of his pupils or elsewhere. ༄། There is a courtesy of manner also, which should characterize the teacher. This is not that ridiculous obsequiousness which some persons assume, when they would gain the good opinion of others. It is true politeness. By politeness I do not mean any particular form of words, nor any prescribed or prescribable mode of action. It does not consist in bowing according to any approved plan, nor in a compliance simply with the formulas of etiquette in the fashionable world. True politeness is founded in benevo |