The Teacher

PREFACE.

This book is intended to detail, in a familiar and practical manner, a system of arrangements for the organization and management of a school, based on the employment, so far as is practicable, of Moral Influences, as a means of effecting the objects in view. Its design is, not to bring forward new theories or new plans, but to develope and explain, and to carry out to their practical applications, such principles as, among all skilful and experienced teachers, are generally admitted and acted upon. Of course it is not designed for the skilful and the experienced themselves; but it is intended to embody what they already know, and to present it in a practical form, for the use of those who are beginning the work and who wish to avail themselves of the experience which others have acquired.

Although moral influences, are the chief foundations on which the power of the teacher over the minds and hearts of his pupils is, according to this treatise, to rest, still it must not be imagined that the system here recommended is one of persuasion. It is a system of authority,-supreme and unlimited authority, a point essential in all plans for the supervision of the young. But it is authority secured and maintained as far as possible by moral measures. There will be no dispute about the propriety of making the most of this class of means. Whatever difference of opinion there may be, on the question whether physical force, is necessary at all, every one will agree that, if ever employed, it must be only as a last resort, and that no teacher ought to make war upon the body, unless it is proved that he cannot conquer through the medium of the mind.

In regard to the anecdotes and narratives which are very freely introduced to illustrate principles in this work, the writer ought to state, that though they are all substantially true, that is, all except those which are expressly introduced as mere suppositions, he has not hesitated to alter very freely, for obvious reasons, the unimportant circumstances connected with them. He has endeavored thus to destroy the personality of the narratives, without injuring or altering their moral effect.

From the very nature of our employment, and of the circumstances under which the preparation for it must be made, it is plain that, of the many thousands who are, in the United States, annually entering the work, a very large majority must depend for all their knowledge of the art except what they acquire from their own observation and experience, on what they can obtain from books. It is desirable that the class of works from which such knowledge can be obtained should be increased. Some excellent and highly useful specimens have already appeared, and very many more would be eagerly read by teachers, if properly prepared. It is essential however that they should be written by experienced teachers, who have for some years been actively engaged, and specially interested in the work;-that they should be written in a very practical and familiar style,-and that they should exhibit principles which are unquestionably true, and generally admitted by good teachers, and not the new theories peculiar to the writer himself. In a word, utility, and practical effect, should be the only aim.

Boston, June 20, 1833.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.-INTEREST IN TEACHING.

Source of enjoyment in teaching. The boy and the steam engine. His

contrivance. His pleasure, and the source of it. Firing at the

mark. Plan of clearing the galleries in the British House Of

Commons. Pleasure of experimenting, and exercising intellectual and

moral power. The indifferent, and inactive teacher. His subsequent

experiments; means of awakening interest. Offences of pupils.

Different ways of regarding them.

Teaching really attended with peculiar trials and difficulties. 1.

Moral responsibility for the conduct of pupils. 2. Multiplicity of

the objects of attention. Page 11

CHAPTER II.-GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS.

Objects to be aimed at, in the General Arrangements. Systematising

the teacher's work. Necessity of having only one thing to attend to

at a time.

1. Whispering and leaving seats. An experiment. Method of

regulating this. Introduction of the new plan. Difficulties.

Dialogue with pupils. Study card. Construction and use.

2. Mending pens. Unnecessary trouble from this source. Degree of

importance to be attached to good pens. Plan for providing them.

3. Answering questions. Evils. Each pupil's fair proportion of

time. Questions about lessons. When the teacher should refuse to

answer them. Rendering assistance. When to be refused.

4. Hearing recitations. Regular arrangement of them. Punctuality.

Plan and schedule. General Exercises. Subjects to be attended to at

them.

General arrangements of Government. Power to be delegated to

pupils. Gardiner Lyceum. Its government. The trial. Real republican

government impracticable in schools. Delegated power. Experiment

with the writing books. Quarrel about the nail. Offices for pupils.

Cautions. Danger of insubordination. New plans to be introduced

gradually. 29

CHAPTER III.-INSTRUCTION.

The three important branches. The objects which are really most

important. Advanced scholars. Examination of school and scholars at

the outset. Acting on numbers. Extent to which it may be carried.

Recitation and Instruction.

1. Recitation. Its object. Importance of a thorough examination of

the class. Various modes. Perfect regularity and order necessary.

Example. Story of the pencils. Time wasted by too minute an

attention to individuals. Example. Answers given simultaneously to

save time. Excuses. Dangers in simultaneous recitation. Means of

avoiding them. Advantages of this mode. Examples. Written answers.

2. Instruction. Means of exciting interest. Variety. Examples.

Showing the connexion between the studies of school and the

business of life. Example, from the controversy between General and

State Governments. Mode of illustrating it. Proper way of meeting

difficulties. Leading pupils to surmount them. True way to

encourage the young to meet difficulties. The boy and the

wheelbarrow. Difficult examples in Arithmetic.

Proper way of rendering assistance. (1.) Simply analyzing intricate

subjects. Dialogue on longitude. (2.) Making previous truths

perfectly familiar. Experiment with the Multiplication table. Latin

Grammar lesson. Geometry.

3. General cautions. Doing work for the scholar. Dulness. Interest

in all the pupils. Making all alike. Faults of pupils. The

teacher's own mental habits. False pretensions. 64

CHAPTER IV.-MORAL DISCIPLINE.

First impressions. Story. Danger of devoting too much attention to

individual instances. The profane boy. Case described. Confession

of the boys. Success. The untidy desk. Measures in consequence.

Interesting the scholars in the good order of the school. Securing

a majority. Example. Reports about the desks. The new College

building. Modes of interesting the boys. The irregular class. Two

ways of remedying the evil. Boys' love of system and regularity.

Object of securing a majority, and particular means of doing it.

Making school pleasant. Discipline should generally be private. In

all cases that are brought before the school, public opinion in the

teacher's favor should be secured. Story of the rescue. Feelings of

displeasure against what is wrong. The teacher under moral

obligation, and governed, himself, by law. Description of the

Moral Exercise. Prejudice. The scholars' written remarks, and the

teacher's comments. The spider. List of subjects. Anonymous

writing. Specimens. Marks of a bad scholar. Consequences of being

behindhand. New scholars. A Satirical spirit. Variety.

Treatment of individual offenders. Ascertaining who they are.

Studying their characters. Securing their personal attachment.

Asking assistance. The whistle. Open, frank dealing. Example.

Dialogue with James. Communications in writing. 105

CHAPTER V.-RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE.

The American mechanic at Paris. A congregational teacher among

Quakers. Parents have the ultimate right to decide how their

children shall be educated.

Agreement in religious opinion, in this country. Principle which is to

guide the teacher on this subject. Limits and restrictions to religious

influence in school. Religious truths which are generally admitted in

this country. The existence of God. Human responsibility. Immortality of

the soul. A revelation. Nature of piety. Salvation by Christ. Teacher to

do nothing on this subject but what he may do by the common consent of

his employers. Reasons for explaining distinctly these limits.

Particular measures proposed. Opening exercises. Prayer. Singing.

Direct instruction. Mode of giving it. Example; arrangement of the

Epistles in the New Testament. Dialogue. Another example; scene in

the woods. Cautions. Affected simplicity of language. Evils of it.

Minute details. Example; motives to study. Dialogue. Mingling

religious influence with the direct discipline of the school.

Fallacious indications of piety. Sincerity of the Teacher. 152

CHAPTER VI.-MT. VERNON SCHOOL.

Reason for inserting the description. Advantage of visiting

schools; and of reading descriptions of them. Addressed to a new

scholar.

1. Her personal duty. Study card. Rule. But one rule. Cases when

this rule may be waived. 1. At the direction of teachers. 2. On

extraordinary emergencies. Reasons for the rule. Anecdote.

Punishments. Incident described. Confession.

2. Order of Daily Exercises. Opening of the school. Schedules.

Hours of study and recess. General Exercises. Business. Examples.

Sections.

3. Instruction and supervision of pupils. Classes. Organization.

Sections. Duties of superintendents.

4. Officers. Design in appointing them. Their names and duties.

Example of the operation of the system.

5. The Court. Its plan and design. A trial described.

6. Religious Instruction. Principles inculcated. Measures.

Religious exercises in school. Meeting on Saturday afternoon.

Concluding remarks. 181

CHAPTER VII.-SCHEMING.

Time lost upon fruitless schemes. Proper province of ingenuity and

enterprise. Cautions. Case supposed. The spelling class; an

experiment with it; its success and its consequences. System of

literary institutions in this country. Directions to a young

teacher on the subject of forming new plans. New institutions; new

school books. Ingenuity and enterprise very useful, within proper

limits. Ways of making known new plans. Periodicals. Family

newspapers. Teacher's meetings.

Rights of Committees, Trustees, or Patrons, in the control of the

school. Principle which ought to govern. Case supposed. Extent to

which the teacher is bound by the wishes of his employers. 221

CHAPTER VIII.-REPORTS OF CASES.

Plan of the Chapter. Hats and Bonnets. Injury to clothes. Mistakes

which are not censurable. Tardiness; plan for punishing it. Helen's

lesson. Firmness in measures united with mildness of manner.

Insincere confession: scene in a class. Court. Trial of a case.

Teacher's personal character. The way to elevate the character of

the employment. Six hours only to be devoted to school. The

Chestnut Burr. Scene in the wood. Dialogue in school. An

experiment. Series of Lessons in writing. The correspondence. Two

kinds of management. Plan of weekly reports. The shopping exercise.

Example. Artifices in Recitations. Keeping Resolutions; notes of

Teacher's Lecture. Topics. Plan and illustration of the exercise.

Introduction of music. Tabu. Mental Analysis. Scene in a class. 242

THE TEACHER.