ence.

knows most who proves himself the best instructor. The beginner in teaching needs to carry with him the recollection of this differWhen he passes from the students' bench to the position of command on the floor of the class-room, he obtains fresh evidence every day that inuch more is wanted there, than is implied in drawing upon his stores of information. The test of practice brings out what written examinations had not previously discovered, but had rather obscured. New demands come with the practical work of teaching. He must be his own teacher in the art of teaching, while he is engaged in the practice. Even by his failures, as well as by such success as he is able to command at first, he must learn to rise to higher success.

The learning to which I refer is something very different from the continued study of books. Such study will secure a fuller knowledge and a higher culture, but the learning which is even more needful for the teacher is to be gathered by practice in teaching under carefully maintained self-observation. He who would succeed as a teacher must be a censor over his own practice. He must be thoroughly interested and observant as to his own success. As Dr. Arnold admirably said, when inquiring about a master, 'I prefer activity of mind and an interest in his work to high scholarship, for the one may be acquired far more easily than the other.'

Further, however, it must be considered that the communication of information is not the sole end of teaching. A simple test may satisfy any one that a higher task has been by common consent assigned to the teacher. If the pupils of any school are rude, reckless, and riotous, the school management bears some considerable amount of blame. The common verdict in such a case is quite decided. Public opinion expects more than knowledge as the result of school attendance. The more this matter is considered the more obvious it will become that the expectation is just. I do not say that the teacher is always fairly judged in this relation, nor do I say that the expectations of parents are always reasonable. Home training is the earliest training, and all teachers are in some degree dependent on what that training has been. Deficiency here shows itself quickly at school. It is unreasonable to expect that school training can altogether make up for neglect or mismanagement at home. No doubt the school must some how or other protect itself from the evil consequences which flow in upon it because of a breakdown in home rule. In such cases, however, a burden is thrown upon the teacher which he should not in fairness have had to bear. Accepting, however, his responsibilities, encumbered with all the

disadvantages which may gather around him, the teacher undertakes to exercise supervision over the deportment and conduct of the pupils.

The combination of such supervision with instruction is the greatest service the teacher can render to families and to the State. In the humblest sphere the teacher may claim this great work as his own. In a National System of Education, proper training of the children becomes an important end. Modern civilization wisely rejects the Platonic idea, that children should be more the children of the State than of their parents. The unity of national life is found to be most secure in the recognition of the sacredness of family life. At the same time, however, we can see the loftiness of aim and motive which made Socrates and Plato seek the good of the State, in the goodness of her citizens. In this we reach the rootidea, made grandly conspicuous by the Christian system, that goodness of character is the end of life. The teacher, then, seeks a grand result when he labors to contribute toward the formation of good character in the young, helping them to fight bravely against temptation, and to persevere in the way of rectitude through all difficulties.

What the nation is looking for is a sound moral training, along with instruction, and by means of all the accompaniments naturally attendant on the instructor's work. If the nation is disappointed in this, it loses the higher of the results it looked for when setting in motion a complicated and expensive machinery. It has given the whole teaching profession a higher status-an immense gain in itself-but, by the same act, it has imposed a more extended and more visible responsibility upon the profession. The success of school training is to be tested by the moral condition of the nation in after years. The nation desires not merely that the memory of the children be well stored, but that the intellect be developed, and habits formed which may remain as capital to draw from when the work of life must be done. The great difficulty of our modern civilization, bred of our keen competitions, clash of interests, crowding together of multitudes of people, and consequent craving for excitement, is a waning morality. It meets us in all the narrow lanes of our cities-lanes which we Scotch naturally describe as 'closes.' In these piles of building, vice rather than poverty spreads out the signs of human wretchedness. In these shelters of misery, multitudes of children have all that they can call a 'home.' The attractions of home-priceless to us-are altogether unknown to

The German view of this matter is well put in these words: 'Primary instruction shall have for its aim to develop the faculties of the soul, the reason, the senses, and the bodily strength.

them. From their earliest days they have had a hard and hardening life. Their chances of comfort and respectability are few. What the nation desires is, that skillful and kindly teaching extend to them the chance which they should otherwise altogether miss. Mainly for the sake of these children has our national compulsory. system of education sprung into being.

REQUISITES FOR SUCCESS IN TEACHING.

Self-control is the first requisite for success in teaching. The work of governing even the youngest children requires government of one's self. A man must have his powers under command, if others are to have the full benefit of his guidance. This rule holds in all spheres. It is essential for a high standard of success in any profession. Only in this way can the physician give his patient the full benefit of his knowledge and skill. On this condition alone can a man sway an audience with any share of that power which belongs to the orator. On no other condition can a teacher in reality become master over his scholars. Self-command is essential even for teaching a single child, much more when a person must govern, in order to teach, large numbers of children.

Another phase of this rule is seen when things are looked at from the children's point of view. The youngest children are quick in observation. They readily discover what degree of control is maintained by those over them. Guided by their own observations, they quietly submit to be governed only in so far as they recognize the elements of governing power in their superiors. Fond of liberty, prone to catch at a passing opportunity for diversion, children are quick in taking advantage of any deficiency in the power of command, any laxity in the exercise of control, or want of observation. These characteristics are so uniform that they can not be overlooked. He who would succeed as a teacher must recognize them,-must enjoy their comical side, and not merely be disturbed by the test to which they subject himself,-but must utilize them so as to make them contribute toward government. The restlessness of children is inevitable, their fondness for fun is delightfully helpful in saving school work from prosaic monotony. In harmony with these admissions, they must be governed. He who would control them easily and wisely must keep himself in harmony with the children, which certainly implies that he keep himself in good humor, and shun irritation.

The

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE-BY EYE, VOICE, AND PUNISHMENT.

power of the Eye is the primary source of the teacher's in

fluence.

Only let the pupils feel that the eye of the teacher runs swifter to the mark than words fly to the ear, and his power will be felt. The conduct which is to be regulated must be observed. To the extent to which this is possible, every thing done in the school must be under the eye of the teacher. To forget this, or to become indifferent to the need for it, is a serious mistake. As a pre-requisite, it is of consequence to have the scholars so placed that observation is easy. Any arrangement of seats which makes it difficult, involves a willful surrender of a large part of a teacher's power, and at the same time of the children's benefit. The eye is much more the expression of all that the teacher is than the best chosen words can be. The scholars can understand it more quickly than they can understand words, and there is nothing for which the eye is more available than the expression of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with what is seen. The eye is hardly misinterpreted by one who observes its play. In addition, it is the most quick and most silent of messengers. There is no quicker telegraph for the school-room, and it is practically free from risk of error in communication. Without the slightest interruption to school work, the eye conveys more encouragement, warning, and rebuke, than there could be time to utter. To leave all this uncommunicated would be an unspeakable loss of influence. Through the eye an unexpressed, but clearly recognized, understanding is gradually established between master and pupil, which greatly aids school management. Connected with this form of control, there is all the advantage of comparative secrecy in the midst of public procedure. It serves all the ends of a cipher in telegraphic communication; and in school life, private influence upon a single mind is of vast consequence. The teacher is constantly occupied in public exercises, yet more than most men, he needs opportunity for communicating hints of purely personal application, which are best conveyed when they reach the person concerned without knowledge of those around. This holds specially of those timely warnings which are to check the beginning of wrongdoing. To utter every warning to a child in the hearing of all his companions would be to blunt the edge of the warning itself. In many cases the calling of general attention to what is being done would throw the mind of the offender into an attitude of defense, altogether unfavorable. A warning conveyed by a look gives the pupil all the advantage of profiting by it without injury to selfrespect. Encouragement thus conveyed, gives a great additional impulse, carrying a consciousness of a certain advance in the good

opinion of the teacher, without the fact giving rise to pride, as it might otherwise do.

Next in order of influence is the teacher's Voice. For mere purpose of discipline it can not be so frequently in use as the eye. It must be more commonly appropriated to the work of general instruction. When used to promote discipline, the voice should convey the same lesson to all the scholars. In this way the teacher's voice should be a training power for the whole school. But words to be wisely used in this way must be sparingly used. There is not a greater mistake in this relation than to suppose that abundance of speaking is the measure of its power. Needless speaking is an offense against good government, as in the scholar it would be a breach of discipline. In every case it should be generally felt that there was real occasion for speaking. Besides, it must be remembered that even appropriate counsel may be overdone by frequency of repetition. Warnings lose their force if they are incessantly reiterated, and this unfortunate result is more rapid if they are invariably shouted at the pitch of the voice. As has been well said, 'Nothing more impairs authority than a too frequent or indiscreet use of it. If thunder itself were to be continual, it would excite no more terror than the noise of a mill.' Incessant fault-finding involves a rapid evaporation of moral influence.

Last in the order of consideration-last, and least to be resorted to in practice-is Punishment of offenses. I do not exclude punishment from consideration, nor do I see how it is to be excluded from practice while the teacher fulfills the functions of his office. All government must be supported by the sanction of punishment for willful violation of its authority. While, however, this is to be admitted, it is to be hoped that the schools of our country are for ever freed from the reproach of an irrational and cruel resort to corporal punishment for the most trivial offenses. I do not deny that the old régime could point in self-vindication to good results secured by its rough appliances. I do not deny that there are many -I myself among the number-who look back on the share of suffering experienced under well-directed use of the taws' with acknowledgment of its value. But the records which can be given of scholastic punishment in years not far past are undoubtedly any thing but honorable to our educational skill and study of human When the instruments for chastising the scholars were in constant use, their very commonness made them insufficient, and tempted the teacher to a baneful inventiveness of new and more humiliating forms of punishment. So it was that forms of punish

nature.