LB 1025 .154 q; >s >o ^ CO ^ CO ^ ^ x^ O ^ ^ s ^ p i^ *-7 ^ p 5 r ^ o' & o o QJ Qass. Book THE BEQUEST OF DANIEL MURRAY WASHINGTON. D. C. 1925 ^ESTIONS EACHERS :iPAL T. S INBORDEN ph Keasbey Brick School Enfield, N. C. iS & SROUGHTON PRINTING COMPANY RALEIGH, N, C, Suggestions for the Teacher. Idio^joicrasy is defined as a peculiar- ity of ^lysical or of mental constitution \ or temperament common to certain in- dividuals. When these peculiarities be- come very distinct the individual is said to be eccentric. I presume all persons have peculiarities, more or less, that are common only to themselves; it -. is this in the individual that distin- |i guishes him from other individuals. It .^is the sum of these peculiarities that ;- gives character to one's life. ^^This is my way of doing things" is often of- ;fered as an apology for one's eccen- -^.tricities. '! I know of no vocation in which these eccentricities are more pronounced than in the teaching profession. Whatever weaknesses to which human nature is heir show themselves in unmistakable forms in this profession. It is the ex- 4 Suggestions for the Teacher. tent to which other peoples' eccentri- cities affect our work that makes or mars an institution. If the individ- ual's home training, education and en- vironment have not given him the cor- rect view of life he would do well to ttvke the suggestions and opinions of others who are the best informed. The difficulty in dealing with those who have these eccentricities is that they do not know the opinions of the best in- formed, and any attempt to advise them is like prying open the shell of a mol- lusk. They may see the point, but the absorption of it is a tedious process. Some weeks ago a gentleman, whose business takes him among very many schools, remarked in my hearing that the one thing that interested him very much was the difference in the schools. There is not only this great difference between the schools, but there is a marked difference in the individual teachers of the same school. This is natural. One cannot pick up a list of teachers of any school of any size but The bequest of Daniel f^/lurray, Washington, D. C Suggestions for the Teacher. 5 that he will find as many schools repre- sented in the list of teachers as there are teachers in the school. Each one represents the ideas of the school from which he graduated. He emphasizes the thing that was emphasized with him. It may be the course of study, some form of discipline or the general regulations affecting the life of the stu- dents. The extent to which these vary- ing opinions can be brought into one composite whole measures the success of that school. The spirit with which this is done measures its individuality and character. We often tell our students as they go forth for the summer that one of the first things for them to learn, if they do not know it, is how to work harmoniously with their fellows. They may get all there is in books, hear fine lectures, and give fine lectures, but before they can succeed very long, they must learn how to work with their fellows. If I had any advice to give to the graduates who are 6 Suggestions for the Teacher. going from our schools this year it would be: ''Learn how to work with your fellows." If they have not learned this they have failed to get one of the most important adjuncts to success. This accounts, in a very large measure, for the restlessness in the teaching force of this country. Those who have the oversight of our institutions are very thoughtful of our feelings. When changes are made it is that we can do better work in another field, or it is a promotion. Often this is true, but the real fact of the change, nine times out of ten, is that we cannot work harmo- niously with our fellows. We may be sent to another field, but when the nov- elty of the new field has been worked off, then another change has to be made. The trouble is with ourselves. The knowledge we have of ourselves and our special fitness is too often very super- ficial. We may know all the latest in- ventions and discoveries and know noth- ing about our hearts and the motives that prompt us to action. We do not Suggestions for the Teacher. 7 stop to think about them, but attribute all our troubles to others. I do not mean to say that we are not to have opinions of our own, nor that we should not hold fast to what we know to be ab- solutely right. The educational en- vironment of our friends may give them the same right to their opinions as we have to ours. At such an exigency let us not think that the world will end if we do not have our own way in the mat- ter. Life is too short to have friend- ships broken and usefulness impaired by differences of opinion over non- essentials. The difficulties encountered between teacher and teacher or teacher and school officials are often very small as compared with those arising between teachers and students. We must not forget that our success as teachers de- pends upon our ability to attract to us those who want to learn. Unless we can do this w^e will have no one to teach. Students often have real grievances as well as other people. They may many 8 Suargestions for the Teacher. times be imaginary^ but they are real to them and they must be heard. What- ever may be said to the contrary, it must be admitted that very often the opinion of students respecting an indi- vidual teacher is the best thermometer of that teacher's temperament. Of course trashy gossip must not be encour- aged for a moment. It leads to con- fusion and makes trouble. Teachers cannot afford to engage in it; students cannot afford to engage in it. Xothing detracts from the high standard of dis- cipline more than trashy gossip. It leads to credulousness, jealousy and de- struction. More community divisions and feuds have r .arted from senseless gossip than from all other sources. What are the attractive qualities in a teacher ? EFFECTIVE QUALITIES OF A GOOD TEACHER. The teacher must know the tools with which she is to work thoroughly well. I refer to books. She should know, if she is a gTammar grade teacher, arith- metic, English grammar, geography, Suggestions for the Teacher. 9 English history, elementary science, elementary music even if she has no voice to sing; she should be able to write legibly, correctly and with a reas- onable degree of rapidity. This much is absolutely necessary. If this is the extent of her knowledge of books she will be a very inefficient teacher. It is not enough that she shall know only the authors that she studied while in school herself. She must know many authors and be thoroughly conversant as to their methods. Being a ''Graduate" is no guarantee of one's ability to teach. The success- ful teacher must surround herself with many books on the subjects being taught, and she must be a diligent stu- dent of those books. She must read educational journals and general news. It is not enough to know ancient his- tory and know nothing of history that is now being made, and nothing of the educational reform and industrial wave now sweeping over the world. This in- cludes a knowled2:e of the men who are 10 Suggestious for the Teacher. bringing things to pass. These are live issnes that must be worked into our public and private system of education. They cannot all be put into text-books nor can recitation periods be set aside for all of them. The teacher must herself be the text-book, revised daily, weekly and monthly, in order to be most efficient in her work. She must be a daily digger for new material, new knowledge and new ways of pre- senting that knowledge to others. She must put new life into old subjects and new inspiration into dull students as well as into bright ones. Aside from the knowledge one gets from books and papers, there is nothing so inspiring to the teacher as personal contact with those who are leaders in educational thought and work. This contact may be had in teachers' institutes, confer- ences, summer schools, etc. The teacher can be no more efficient in her work without this contact and inspiration than a carpenter can be efficient in his without sharp tools. He will be a cob- Suggestions for the Teacher. 11 bier in wood and she will be a cobbler in brains. Of the two I would rather have the cobbler in wood, as he will do less harm. Every efficient teacher knows what it means to work after a brain cobbler. They are too numerous. The best teachers, like the best orators, like the best in every other profession, are born to it; when they discover their talent they use every opportunity and every environment to perfect that talent. If teachers find themselves in the profession without the teaching talent it is possible to develop a talent and special gift. Demosthenes had an im- pediment in speech, but by hard work he became one of the greatest orators in antiquity. Disraeli made an inglorious failure in one of his first speeches, but he overcame his disability and was one of England's greatest speakers. We are told that the late Dr. Charles D. Mc- Iver was an utter failure at the be- ginniug of his public career as a speech- maker. ISTo man has figured in the 12 Suggestions for the Teacher. educational movement of ISTortli Caro- lina and in the entire South as that man did. He was sought in all edu- cational counsels and movements look- ing to the educational advancement of the people. If Helen Keller finds her- self bereft of sight, hearing and speech at the age of a few years and discovers her talents with only three senses and becomes a renowned scholar, it seems possible that we should develop any talent with five senses. If we have no talent nor the will to find it and develop it, we had better continue to cobble wood and carry water. The latter we can do without any special fitness. This calls for no special intelligence and ab- solutelv no sham work. The profes- sion of teaching requires the highest possible intelligence. This intelligence cannot be maintained without contin- uous stndv. Some years ag:o a ISTorthem gentle- man visited our school, and we went out to see some work that was being done. The supervisor, in the act of Suggestions for the Teacher. 13 giving some orders to the students, asked my friend to excuse him, to which my friend said, ''Go, ahead, cer- tainly, I want to hear how you give or- ders/' This is the key to our success. We may go through all the ordeals to which teachers are subject, but if we do not know how to give orders we shall fail as teachers. Tact, not simply pro- fessional tact, but that which comes from the heart that rings right. One teacher will say, '^Johnny, go bring a bucket of water." Johnny goes off skipping, jumping, laughing, whistling, and happy. Before you know it the water is there. Another teacher says identically the same thing to the same boy in the same words. Johnny goes off muttering to himself, pouting, mad, and stays so long that another boy has to go for him and sometimes the third boy goes for the two boys. What is the trouble ? Simply the way the teacher said it; the accent that typifies the inner life, thoughts and character of the teacher; that is all, and that is 14 Suggestions for the Teacher. everything. Johnny does not like that teacher. She has not done anything to Johnny, but she will never lead him nor his kind until she changes her tac- tics. If this teacher be a man he will be most repellent. Teachers must do their work in a way to get and retain the confidence of their students. They must feel that they can report to their teachers their troubles as well as their joys. They will not report either to the repellent teacher. Our instruction will not be effective unless we get this confidence. They must feel that we are their best friends. This confidence cannot be ob- tained in a perfunctory way. The les- sons from text-books, and those on per- sonal morals, will be imperfectly taught unless they have been first assimilated in the life and thought of the teacher, so that every word of approval or dis- approval will be genuine and full of sympathy. If we get into their confi- dence we must take them, to some ex- tent, into ours. Suggestions for the Teacher. 15 Teachers too often tell their students uf their faults rather than their merits. ]\Iost of them have some good points in their character and many times this is the only avenue of approach to their in- ner life and reclamation. It will not hurt the student to tell him sometimes vrhen he did the manly thing. There is always ground upon which both stu- (^ent and teacher can most legitimately meet for interchange of thought, opin- ion and mutual helpfulness. They can do this without the teacher's losing her dignity and without the student's for- getting that he is a student. This will mean as much for the teacher as for the student. After all we are dealing with people who are just like ourselves, only they have not had our experience. THE POINT OF CONTACT. If students should vex us with their ways it will not help the matter for us to get mad. It may be a good thing for us to note the one whose ways do not harmonize with our ideas of de- 16 Suggestions for the Teacher. portment, let them happen in our pres- ence or in our room, and talk the mat- ter over. I spoke of teachers getting angry. Of course teachers never get angry; that is preposterous. We may as well get angry as to have students think we are angry. Students should be happy in their work. They learn more when they are happy and it is better. This is equally true of the teacher. One cannot be happy when one has been out on a night's carousal. The wine glass, the card party and the dance hall are incompatible with the best work in the class-room. The teaching profession, above all others, needs positive characters and strong personalities. There is nothing more conducive to these important qualities than a clear conscience and an abun- dance of strong nerves. One cannot have a clear conscience when indulging in secret sins nor can the nerves be strong when the system is poisoned with narcotics and alcohol. Healthy condi- tions of the body make healthy condi- Suggestions for the Teacher. 17 tions of the mind. When teachers are sour, crabbed and cross, the photographs which we make daily in the lives of our students will be an exact reproduction of ourselves. Success in teaching, as in everything, depends upon our point of contact. This is equally true when we are deal- ing with animals. The lion knows at once from the eye of his keeper when that keeper has lost confidence in him- self and ceases to be the master of the situation. 'No one knows this better than the keeper either. It is a psy- chological fact that our thoughts are often felt by other people, and that many times their attitude toward us is shaped by these thoughts. If we per- fect our ideals in others or succeed in training those whose education is en- trusted to us, we must have their confi- dence and make them happy in the acquisition of these ideals. A dozen ig- norant IS^egroes will do more work in one day while singing a plantation bal- lad than the same number of Italians 18 Suggestions for the Teacher. will do in two days with an idea tliat the government is all wrong, that all wealth was acquired by stealth, robbery and ojDpression of the poor. It is this fact that gives emphasis to the saying, that onr homes are the bulwarks of the nation. It is to increase the health and hence the happiness of the laboring population all over this country that the landlords are tearing down old shan- ties, cabins and barracks and rebuild- ing comfortable homes for the laboring classes. One of the very first things the Panama Commission did when it was decided to build the Panama Canal, was to make the isthmus healthy and to build homes for the people, so that the laborers would be happy in their work. We cannot always control arbitrarily. Preceding every national election a campaign is waged from one end of the country to the other, educating the masses in issues of national concern. A democratic government is said to be the best form of government because it Suggestions for the Teacher. 19 is self-government. Every member of society is subject to the laws of his own making, the minority acquiescing with the will of the majority. The excep- tion is anarchy and revolution. It is often best for students to see and to know the reasons for certain require- ments. They may enter more heartily into the work when they see that the requirements are best for all concerned. Students do not make the fundamental rules in our schools, but it is well for them to know that they have resulted from the best opinions of those who are leaders in educational work. They are to be accepted by students, grafted into their lives and become a part of their character. The degree with which this can be done happily is the measure of our success as teachers. This is just as true outside of the teaching profes- sion. Roosevelt is hailed as one of our greatest presidents because he has suc- ceeded better than any other man in bringing order out of chaos in muni- cipal, national and international affairs. 20 Suggestions for the Teacher. In all these reformations he has had the confidence of the people. He has made his constituency happy in working his reformations. He has not winked at conniving, gTafting and thieving in or- der to do this. It is not necessary that students be allowed to break down all order of decency and school discipline, nor that they be allowed to engage in the lowest forms of rowdyism, and dirty tricks among themselves, calculated to undermine healthy bodies and minds, in order that friendship may be main- tained between teacher and student. The teacher or school authority who al- lows these disorders has no more busi- ness in a school than the student who engages in the disorder. SOME TRADITIOITS. There are some traditions that have come to us in our missionary work that are as fundamental as any code that was ever written. It is interesting to know what these are and why they are. We have visited some excellent schools where there were placards in every hall. Suggestions for the Teacher. 21 pasted or tacked, on every door, but I have failed to see that the order is bet- ter as a result of these placards. Our homes are not governed by placards but by a strong personality of father and mother. The school stands next to the home, and that is the best governed school in which the strongest person- ity of the teachers is manifested. All the American Missionary Association schools have one rule. It is very sim- ple : Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you. This is ap- plicable to every phase of school life. It is a good rule to follow after leaving school. If all men would conduct their affairs by this rule there would be no race clashes, no cheating, no stealing, no killing, no bribing, no fusses and no hatred for any reason. In our schools all rules are subsidiary to the Golden Eule. What are some of these rules? We insist that waste shall not be thrown promiscuously from the doors and win- dows into the yards, but that it must be put into receptacles and carted or 22 Suggestions for the Teacher. carried away. The reason for this is evident, for waste thrown about the yards causes the soil to be contaminated with germs, which, in turn, will cause sickness. It is not a mark of culture nor of good taste to dispose of waste in that way. Fruit parings not only draw flies, but they are dangerous to those walking on them. In most of our well governed cities it is unlawful to throw these parings on the streets. We insist most emphatically that slops should not be thrown from the Avin- dows and that the most loathful habit imaginable is that of expectorating from the windows, ^o sensible person will question the reasonableness of this prohibition. We insist that it is en- tirely in keeping with good manners and good breeding to prefix the proper title Mr. or Miss in addressing gentlemen and ladies. Boys who are bred in the best families are taught that they should take off their hats on entering the threshold of the home. These are ameni- ties that are often overlooked in the Suggestions for the Teacher. 23 rush of every-day life, but that does not make them less important. The ob- servance of them counts the well-bred every time. We must insist that the habit of observing them is continued. Students must make up their beds, clean up their rooms, perform all their household chores and at the right time. With our matrons no lesson is more exacting than this one. She is the mother, matron, house-keeper, teacher and physician, adviser and friend, all in one. The facility and thoroughness with which she governs marks the suc- cess of her work. The thoroughness and spirit with which the students do their Avork marks their industry. Every chair, picture, washstand, broom, and every piece of decoration should be in its place. This is a mark of good taste and refinement. A touch here, a touch there, a little drapery and a few living flowers will add to the esthetic in hu- man nature. The habit of taking care of these little things now will make the home happy after awhile. Teachers 24 Suggestions for the Teacher. who have the oversight of this work and who are succeeding in it may well congratulate themselves that they are laying foundations that shall count for race integrity and for the unity of the home. STUDENTS ARE NOT SERVANTS^ TEACH- ERS ARE NOT BOSSES. Sometimes the tendency in our schools is to treat students as servants. A greater mistake cannot be made. They are not servants in the commonly accepted term. When we recognize them on those terms we lose our place among them as teachers. If we would preserve our usefulness as teachers we must appeal to them on a different basis. It may be a fact that many of them do manual labor, for which they receive ample remuneration, but that does not change the condition. This is an im- portant point. It is the one thing that is said to make the difference between the !N'orthern white man and the South- ern white man. The latter too often sees in the negro only the ex-slave and Suggestions for the Teacher. 25 the possibility of a good servant. The former sees in his evolution that God has something tangible to add to the white man's civilization. So if our work as teachers is supervising manual labor, or manual training, or domestic science, or any of the trades, or if it be in the class room, we must come to it not as ^'boss," nor as '^overseer," nor simply as supervisor, but we must come as teacher in the spirit of Christ to this the most sacred of all callings to teach those who may, in the future, be our true liberators and masters. If we come in any other spirit we shall fail utterly as teachers. We shall be out of harmony with the environment. The ministry is only another name for this same profession. The profession of teaching cannot be used as a stepping stone to something higher; there is no higher profession under the canopy of heaven than that of teaching. FORMING CORRECT HABITS. My contact with teachers of ]^egro youth leads me to believe that there are 26 Suggestions for the Teacher. only a few who really know and appre- ciate the sacredness of their calling. It would be surprising to know how the lives of teachers are affecting the lives of students under 'their supervision. The students in our schools are receiv- ing, like clay in the hands of the potter, impressions that they will never forget. Let us hope that they are all good im- pressions, but we know very many of them are ^^a-etchedly bad. Does any one doubt that the spirit of grafting, pilfering, conniving, double dealing, etc., had its incipiency in the class- rooms forty years ago? Does any one doubt that all the immoralities that are characterizing many of our institutions of public trust had their incipiency in the tardy discipline of the schools and families of that period ? I think these matters should be studied with an idea of correcting the tendencies in our schools to-day. In too many instances the family delegates its work to the school, the school acts on the assumption that the formation of good habits is Suggestions for the Teacher. 27 the function of the home. So that what is most important is often neg- lected. This is why we place so much stress upon the formation of correct habits in the schools in which we are most concerned. It is easy to do things when we have formed the habit. It is more important that the student form the habit of correct study than it is to learn a few things and recite them like a parrot. Bad habits will always get people into unpleasant relations, good habits never. I might make one excep- tion to this. Some years ago one of our boys ran away from school. I was anxious to locate him; in my search I met a man on the public highway and made inquiry about him, but he said he had not seen the boy. I said, ''You would remember him if you saw him because he would tip his hat so politely that it would attract your attention.'' ''Yes, I met him," said the man. I telephoned up the road twenty miles to an officer that if the boy came to his town to hold him until I arrived. When 28 Suggestions for the Teacher. I got there on the next train the officer had the boy. He told me that he rode past the boj twice on his wheel and each time he passed the boy's hat went off automatically. This was one time when a good habit got a yomig man into trouble. It also got him out of trouble. What we want is the auto- matic habit. We have not formed it correctly until it is automatic. We do not have to think to dress when we get up in the morning. We do not have to think to perform our toilet. When the child has been taught these things, at maturity they are habits. If they are neglected in the home the school must take them up. It is very important that students be tidy in every personal appearance, respectful and polite to everybody, and punctual to every obli- gation. These habits are most impor- . tant in. the formation of character. They are the fundamentals. If students are allowed to be slipshod in school, when they get out among the people they will live slipshod lives. They will be slip- Suggestions for tJie Teacher. 29 shod teachers and slipshod preachers and slipshod farmers. The tardy at- tendance of nearly all of our public gatherings is a practical illustration of this fact. If they are late two minutes when being gored along, they will be late for everything when the restraint is moved. As the leaders are, so the masses will be. Bad habits on the part of teachers will affect every student in school and school government will be harder on account of such a one. I am not putting it too strongly when I say that we have men and women in our teaching profession to-day whose lives are simply contaminating. They can put on a good appearance and that is all there is to them. The school supervisors know this to be too true, but the parents of the children know it bet- ter. This may be why God allows the race to be ^' Jim Crowed.'' We have so many shams and hypocrites. They are in our churches, in our school rooms, recognized as our leaders, presenting our grievances to the nation, big men 30 Suggestions for the Teacher. in the great gatherings and many of them with their pockets filled with poison, their breath scented with the fumes of hades, and their lives other- wise will not bear inspection. Their sentiment is, *^^Do not do as I do, but as I say do." A more infernal doctrine never proceeded from the mouth of man. I am speaking to teachers. I am glad I have the pleasure of speaking to you who are in this 'profession, because the yoke, the mantle or whatever you are pleased to call it is upon us. Shall we walk worthy of this vocation? HIGH TEMPER IS NOT A BAD POSSES- sioisr. I have another thought that may help you. Teaching for most of us is a life profession. The more we know about it, therefore, the better for us. There is scarcely a characteristic common to man but that it may affect us individ- ually at some time. Students often say that certain teachers are high tempered. There is only one other compliment that I would regard greater than that of hav- Suggestions for the Teacher. 31 ing a high temper. It is the compli- ment of being the master of that tem- per. The man or woman without tem- per has not all the requisites necessary to meet the demands of the world. The temper must be guided, it must be di- rected, we must master it or it will have us hunting a job all the time; unmas- tered it will make us uncomfortable with our fellows, it will give us trouble, take us to the tombs or to the gallows. The teacher with unmastered temper will incite the devil in the minds of stu- dents. Look over your acquaintances and you will find that those who have mastered their tempers have more vir- tues to recommend them than those who have not thus mastered them. Iron is a worthless product until the art of the smith has been applied to its tempering. All metals must be tempered before they are of practical utility. It is the tem- per that gives life. Without that they are dead. So let us have the temper, but let us control that temper. We can- not control students with unmastered 32 Suggestions . for the Teacher. tempers. You cannot control even ani- mals with unmastered tempers. You may beat, drag and pull them along, but YOU cannot train them. You get mad, the animal gets mad. The spirit of the infernal regions is in you both. His Satanic Majesty is triumphant. He knows his power and your weak points and how to make an invapion. We can- not control others until we learn to con- trol ourselves. Students are in their formative period. We must not chas- tise them for their high temper, but we must seek to control that temper. It is possible to direct it along other chan- nels. You have the wand, only use it skilfully. In my experience I have found that those who have a "high tem- per" are usually our best students in their books. They are most alert and thorough in their work. They are the quickest to resent an insult and the neatest in their personal appearance and conduct. This is true with respect to people who are not students. It is the temper back of the determination that Siiggestious for the Teacher. 33 makes a man succeed in any pursuit. There are exceptions, of course, but these are some of the virtues that I have noticed among my friends, and they are commendable. WHAT IS THE SALARY ? It is unfortunate that this is one of the first questions which the material- istic age in which we live suggests. Yet it is a fair question. When servant oirls can set fifteen dollars a month for house work and farm hands a dollar a day for their labor, it is not a bad ques- tion for school teachers to inquire, at least, as to what they shall receive for their services. It is to be remembered that the average salary which I^egro teachers receive in !N^orth Carolina is only $22.20 a month. It is an alarm- ing fact that this pittance is driving from our profession the best brain that comes from the colleges. The pay is altogether incompatible "with the nature of the service and the demands of the class room. We pay our bricklayers and carpenters, who never spent a day 34 Suggestions for the Teacher. in the class-room, more for two weeks' work than we pay our teachers for a month's work. Those who follow the profession are forced to take np some other line of work in order to support their families. This leads to a division of interest, and both occupations suffer. Another deplorable condition which is reported sometimes in our teachers' gatherings is the fact that in some com- munities the position of the teacher is auctioned off to the one who will teach for the least amount of money. This is a great injustice to the profession and an imposition upon those who have pre- pared themselves to do efficient work in the class-room. When good teachers have to compete thus for their positions it is time for them to get out and take up another calling Avhere personal honor will not be sacrificed in getting a job. Parents cannot expect much from such teachers ; school commissioners get what they pay for — slovenly and shoddy work; the community gets trouble. Suggestions for the Teacher. 35 The question of salary is an impor- tant one for several reasons. Take the matter of board. Provisions, alone, cost 40 per cent more than they did a fev^ years ago, so that one cannot get board by the month for less than ten and fifteen dollars. This is particularly true in the towns. Teachers should at- tend educational conferences, and read a few of the educational journals and keep otherwise posted on current events. They must do this in order to keep up v.'ith their profession. After they have paid for their own keep and shared with their families there is nothing left for personal improvement. Under these conditions it is not strange to see all over this country relegated school teach- ers. THEY SHOULD NOT NAG. Some teachers have a way of nagging their students. I know of nothing so nauseating as to be nagged all the time. I was once a hotel boy. I went to that position from the country — Loudon County, Virginia. I was every whit a 36 Suggestions for the Teacher, country lad, a ^^Greenj from the sticks," with country woven suit, box-toed shoes, ruffled bosom shirt, flaxen hair pre- dominating with red, pants dyed to har- monize with the season, Virginia brogue typical of the mountain country. My steps were not agile and quick but in strides and leaps. I thought a bell boy had to ring bells and that a waiter had to sit and simply wait. I knew more about the plow and wagon than I did about the tray. I could handle a four horse team with one line better than I could bring from the kitchen meals for four men. I was an expert at cutting corn and taking up wheat behind a cradle, but would almost break my neck daily walking over the marble floor of the hotel. Was I nagged? I could maul rails all day in the woods but could not walk from one end of the dining- room to the other without liability of hooking into some one's feet. When a gentleman asked for syrup I would just as soon give him a bottle of Worcester- shire sauce, and. argue with him that, Suggestions for the Teacher, 37 '^that v/as what we serve molasses in." Was I nagged ? What did I know about a silver syrup pitcher ? I never saw one before in my life. I was nagged and guyed, guyed and nagged. Had it not been for the superhuman am- bition I had for an education I would have gone back to the country a thousand times. I never was quite so well pleased as I was one morning about twenty- three years ago in Cleveland, Ohio, when I picked up a morning paper and found that my chief nagger had gotten him- self into trouble and had been sent to the State's prison for two years. It was certainly a great relief to me when he went. While we worked together I was reminded daily that my hair was curly, that my dyed pants needed a little syrup on the bottom to hold them down, that I had not lost my Virginia brogue, that I had fallen in the dining-room a dozen times, that on one occasion the second waiter had to extricate me and the tray — once full of dishes — from the threshold of the spring door which had 38 Suggestions for the Teacher. iinfortunatelj come into contact with my box-toed shoes. Was I nagged ? I would as soon ask for a dish of "dupli- cates'' as for a dish of corn beef hash. I knew as much about the one as the other. The hotel help never had a bet- ter picnic than they had with me. I know how it feels to be nagged and guyed. As a student I know what it is to fail tO' make a recitation for a week and to have to appear before the teacher Sat- urday to make up five zeros; instead oi getting five perfect marks get the sixth zero with advice from the teacher in these words: "There are some students in this class who would make better ox drivers than scholars." I took it all tc myself without passing back any retort, because I knew too well that I was a first-class teamster, but that was no rea- son why I should not at least try to be a scholar. It was a great humiliation to be thus nagged. About the only conso- lation I had was the fact that there were others in that class who had all the ad- Suggestions for the Teacher. 39 vantages and when I went to make up my zeros I found them doing the same thing. ]^ow, do not form a bad con- clusion about that teacher. She was a splendid woman. She meant well. She made the mistake that thousands of our teachers are making all over this country to-day. She did not know the soul of the boy. I held on like the four legged canine. I never proposed to let loose. When she saw that I meant to stay she came to me and asked me to give her a place as teacher in the Sunday-school of which I was superintendent. She taught most acceptably and I was glad to have her in our Sunday-school because of the opportunity it gave me to come into con- tact with her outside of her o^vn class- room. This was in the town of Oberlin. in a colored Sunday-school and she was a white lady. In all of my study under her she never knew me until she came to this Sunday-school to teach in which I was superintendent. It was here and under these circumstances that we came to know each other as only student and 40 Suggestions for the Teacher. teacher should know each other. My success under her tutorship after that was assured. So, my fellow teachers, you can not afford to nag your students when they are doing their best, nor can you afford to allow others in your pres- ence to nag theirs. If you want to send your siudents home or to some other school, just nag. If you want them to hate you now or curse your memory when you are dead just keep nagging. If their parents insist that they must re- main under your tutorship you have no bett'x^r n'ay to break their spirits and to take I'-way their ambition for learning than to just continue nagging. It is like the frill, the continuous fall of a drop of waler in the hearing of a prisoner, who can not extr.'cate himself from its tor- mtmt': ; it i« excruciating, it is agonizing, it is death. Do not forget that you are a teacher and that you are moulding the lives of the future. The greatest lessons youi' studpnt'3 will take from your school. Ihe one that will cling to them when all the c'cadomic studies have been forgot- Suggestions for the Teacher. 41 ten, when yov.v lectures shall liave faded into insignificance, will be the lesson of your personal example. I have n'-'t songht in these few chap- ters to exhaust this subject, for it is an exhai;b^-lcss subject, but simply to state a few thoughts that have come to me as a result of eighteen years as a teacher in the class-room, and a large part of this pupervising, helping, planning and directino' others in their work. h LRBJe VTD59hETDDD SSaMONOD JO AHVHflll