Some Pedagogical Principles

The best teachers are trained in the kindergarten of observation, the high school of study, the college of investigation and the university of experience.

Some teachers are visionary; not a few have visions and an increasing number are coming into the list of those who have vision.

Let us forever abandon the idea that analyses, dissections, classifications and memorizing of facts will reveal to the children the story, the lesson, or the life of nature. They must be helped to feel its pulse, hear its music, come in touch with its forms, be warmed by its breath and respond to its call.

These are the things which kindle the fire that warms the heart and brain. To see a thing in its expression, relation, harmony and proportion is to see it to some purpose.

Facts we shall always have with us. It is a part of our duty to know and master them. But facts are means, not ends. One should know them so well that he is unconscious of his knowledge and of their existence.

It is

what they suggest, make possible, inspire, that has value. If we can grow to rightly value the spirit with which we work, the purpose that inspires us and the motive that holds us to our task, we have made possible a great blessing to ourselves and to others. Then we feel a just sympathy with all worthy effort, a true harmony with all life, a full recognition of all beauty and a prompt hospitality for all revelation.

Observation makes it clear that we often hold things so close to our noses that we cannot see them. It is also true that sometimes we try to see so much that we fail to see anything.

The entomologist can narrow his soul by a too close study of a single bug and so can the linguist by too long a search for a Greek root. One can live and live worthily, without knowing much about the structure, characteristics, or habitat of a bird. If he can see its grace, hear its melody, feel its charm and appreciate its abandon he has gained more than facts contain.

We must know the alphabets and formulæ of science. We must be able to make tabular statements, classify and analyze; but we may know and do all these things and still be deaf and blind to the great lesson that life and nature teach.

It should make us pause when we remember that the school and the pupil take their color, tone and atmosphere

from the teacher. Hence he must be clean, kind, responsive, hospitable, broad-visioned, receptive, large enough to be willing for others to be larger than he, strong enough to be gentle and wise enough to be simple.

Teachers should not indicate by their systems of instruction that they feel that the results of thinking are of greater value than the power that has been gained in reaching conclusions.

The teacher must be a scholar in the sense that history will tell him the path his children have come and why the ages have made them what they are; his knowledge of science must be so familiar that he can count the pulse of nature; his companions in art and literature must be those who have written the record of the world before it was lived and have made their prophecies and longings a part of the progress of the race.

The teacher should not aspire to furnish brains for his pupils; he should not be willing or presume to do their thinking. Such things are an injury to both without being of service to either.

Children, like other human beings, do the best work when they have some scope and choice. If their personality is respected, their judgment recognized and their aptitudes considered, they are stimulated to do their best. If they know the principles which underlie the facts studied, let them be left to work out the details under one who is

quick to see, prompt to command, apt in suggestions and can win more by request than he can compel by command. Such a one will help children to become increasingly skillful. But to accomplish all this he must be more interested in growth than concerned about having his little conceits reduplicated.

A person cannot retain his courage to work unless his vision extend more years into the future than the records tell him have passed. He must possess his soul, see whence life has come and whither it is going, and be content to add his contribution to aid in giving it breadth, depth and richness. He must hear and help others to hear the music that has no vocal expression. He must perceive the grace that finds no outward form and the thought that seeks no words to give it utterance.

We stand in the rotunda of a golden age of great achievements. We owe it to the future, as well as to ourselves, to appreciate our inheritance and use the capacities the travail of the world has given us.

The sun is shining upon a better day than any upon which it has set. It is to dawn upon better days than the one upon which it is shining.

That

The function of the school is character building. teacher fails grievously who does not help his pupils to see that hateful words, unkind acts and untruthful statements injure, to an alarming extent, those who indulge in these

vices. It should be made clear to children that the most of their unhappiness will be caused by the injustice and suffering they inflict upon others.

It is important that they learn, while young, that he who is generous in thought and deed and ready to add to the joys and to the prosperity of others will receive greater blessings than he bestows.

The teacher will do a greater service for the children if she leads them to see that altruism brings happiness and

selfishness ends in misery. ing the decision that no one can afford to spend in unworthy rivalries that strength which ought to be given to winning honest success. The true teacher will use every influence she commands to bring home to the hearts of her pupils these truths.

She should aid them in reach

More study and effort should be given to developing conscientiousness in children. The controlling sentiment of the school should condemn the act of the wrong-doer. The children must have that moral quality which will warrant us in believing what they say, and in trusting them when alone. There should be developed in them the feeling that they are less than honest if their tasks are done for them. There is great danger of permanently injuring children by being consciences for them. They must not think that we will direct them to the extent of always pointing out the right and that by positive restraint we