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 A Schoolmaster 
 
 with His Friends at the 
 
 Round Table 
 
 
 By 
 
 A. R. TAYLOR, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 President The James Millikin University 
 
 CHICAGO 
 O. P. BARNES, PUBLISHER 
 
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 0" 
 
 v*< 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1912 
 By O. P. BARNES 
 
 
 ©CLA309048 
 NO 1 
 
Some truths are to be proclaimed from the house-tops ■; 
 Others told at the fireside ; 
 Others still should only be 
 Whispered in the ear of a friend.''' 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The intent of this little volume will probably be- 
 come clear enough as the reader advances, and yet a 
 brief foreword may quicken the understanding and 
 give deeper meaning to many a paragraph. The 
 semi-conversational style easily adapts itself to the 
 purpose in view and gives it the advantage of the 
 personal approach of the round-table, as well as a 
 liberty of treatment that insures brevity and direct- 
 ness. The Superintendent is aware of the fact 
 that he does most of the talking, but it may add to 
 the reader's interest if he will feel perfectly free to 
 talk back occasionally, as the impulse arises. The 
 Superintendent really likes it, for it shows him that 
 the teacher is thinking a little, and that is the main 
 reason for these talks. It will probably help him 
 and his teachers to understand each other and each 
 other's problems better. 
 
 While these talks are mainly practical, he hopes 
 that the fundamental principles underlying them 
 will be constantly coming to the surface and giving 
 them ,a significance worthy the high plane of the 
 schoolmaster's art. The highest truths reveal them- 
 
6 Preface 
 
 selves to our ken only in personal experience, and 
 pedagogical doctrine is no exception. The bits of 
 real life furnishing the texts for these little preach- 
 ments are so suggestive that they need scarcely more 
 than a word to set a true teacher a-thinking, which 
 with the most of us is the one thing needful. The 
 philosophy of life is not found in the clouds, but in 
 the lives of the humble folk about us and in our own 
 every-day experiences and consciousnesses. If we do 
 not find it there, we shall not find it anywhere. 
 
 In studying the philosophical and theoretical treat- 
 ises on the subject of pedagogy, one is apt to get the 
 far-away vision, the star-gazing habit, and regard 
 the every-day occurrences as commonplace and tri- 
 fling. If these talks will help to magnify the impor- 
 tance of little things and help the teachers to see the 
 Way and the Truth through them, the Superintend- 
 ent will have joy. It does not detract from this 
 purpose that the themes change so quickly; in that 
 they conform to life's kaleidoscopic changes and to 
 the opportunities of the round-table circle. 
 
 Decatur, Nov. 191 1. A. R. T. 
 
THE KANSAS TEACHER 
 
 AN APPRECIATION 
 
 The author is now some ten years away from a 
 most pleasant experience as President of the State 
 Normal School of Kansas. For nineteen years he 
 served the good people of that wide-awake com- 
 monwealth of the plains in that capacity, and has 
 many reasons for cherishing an abiding affection 
 for them and their institutions. He has often had 
 in mind a formal word of appreciation of the devoted 
 band of teachers with whom he was permitted such 
 intimate association, and to whom he is under pro- 
 found obligation for much wise counsel and sym- 
 pathetic encouragement, as well as for many generous 
 confidences and honors. He takes advantage of 
 this opportunity to express that sense of obligation, 
 which is as much alive today as it was at the time 
 he turned his face again toward the east. 
 
 He assumed the duties of the office named in the 
 fall of 1882, as the state was making assured prog- 
 ress in its recovery from the misfortunes of the pre- 
 ceding years. The people from force of circumstances 
 
8 Among Ourselves 
 
 had been accustomed to doing many things in a 
 small way, in spite of the fact that the seers had often 
 described the stars, which they saw thru difficulties, 
 and that the poets had sung in inspiring strains of 
 the accomplishments of their fathers and of the in- 
 creasing glory of the Sunflower Kingdom. 
 
 They were, however, doing much constructive 
 work, for their reverses had brought them into a 
 better mutual understanding, which was naturally 
 followed by a more sympathetic appreciation and 
 affection for each other. They discovered that 
 they had more in common than they supposed, 
 though they still lacked much in coherence and unity 
 of purpose. With an earnestness characteristic of 
 the Puritans, they were already feeling their way 
 towards a readjustment of their social and civic 
 affairs and the reorganization of the machinery of 
 government more in accord with their environ- 
 ment and their ideals of equity and justice. Being 
 one of the most American of the States, the prob- 
 lems were more intelligently and courageously at- 
 tacked in her borders than would otherwise have 
 been possible. 
 
 The repeated failures of crops in many portions 
 of the state made it necessary for the brightest 
 young people, in thousands of families, to teach school 
 in order to help meet home expenses and to pay 
 interest on obligations for which homesteads had been 
 pledged. That necessity, covering at least a score 
 of years, probably brought into the schoolrooms of 
 
Among Ourselves 9 
 
 Kansas the most serious-minded, the most intelligent, 
 the most progressive, the most conscientious body of 
 school teachers ever found in a state of equal age. 
 A large proportion of them were sons and daughters 
 of soldiers of the Civil War, many of whom were well- 
 educated and well-read. A goodly proportion were 
 children of teachers on one or the other side of the 
 house, and a surprising number were graduates of 
 colleges or normal schools. 
 
 The advanced system of county institutes, organ- 
 ized in the early eighties, brought a most helpful 
 teachers' elementary training school within reach 
 of every youth in the state. Its courses were well 
 formulated on modern lines, and its teaching corps 
 embraced many of the most able and progressive 
 men and women in the profession in Kansas and from 
 other states. In many places the whole community 
 became interested in the institute, and thousands of 
 citizens of both sexes, who had no thought of teach- 
 ing, became regular attendants at lectures, and even 
 at class exercises; mothers put aside their sewing; 
 fathers closed their shops and offices; even judges 
 adjourned court to hear the new evangel of pedagogy. 
 The education of children and the improvement of 
 public schools were topics of serious consideration 
 everywhere. The day of the old-fashioned district 
 schoolmaster was over, and the modern teacher, with 
 no less consecration and enthusiasm, but with far 
 better education and far better preparation, was 
 rapidly taking his place. 
 
io Among Ourselves 
 
 The inadequacy of the county institutes for meet- 
 ing the growing demands for teachers with still more 
 liberal preparation for their work, resulted in an 
 annual influx of hundreds of progressive teachers 
 from eastern states, and in swarms of Kansas teach- 
 ers, present and prospective, flocking to the normal 
 schools and other institutions of higher learning, to 
 avail themselves of the advantages which they 
 offered. In ten years, the attendance at the State 
 Normal School increased five hundred per cent., and 
 at the other institutions proportionally. 
 
 The standards for the certification of teachers, 
 under the stimulation of the State Board of Educa- 
 tion and the hearty co-operation of school officials, 
 became more exacting from year to year. Depart- 
 ments of pedagogy, manned by professionally trained 
 instructors, were organized in practically every college 
 in the state. Licenses to institute instructors and 
 conductors were granted only to men and women 
 meeting the most exacting requirements; the courses 
 of study were revised and enlarged from time to time 
 in accordance with the most advanced educational 
 theory and practice; modern school buildings with 
 liberal equipment were everywhere replacing the tem- 
 porary structures of the pioneer days [in city and 
 country; the school laws were revised, and the whole 
 system organized on a plane more commensurate 
 with the needs of a progressive commonwealth, and 
 in harmony with the spirit of the closing years of 
 the century. 
 
Among Ourselves II 
 
 It is needless to say that the chief promoters of 
 these great changes were the schoolmasters them- 
 selves. They cordially welcomed the outside recruits 
 to their ranks, plunged enthusiastically into the 
 study of the child, and of the history, the philosophy 
 and the methodology of pedagogy; met frequently 
 and regularly, often traveling long distances, to 
 exchange experiences and to discuss methods of 
 improving the organization and management of 
 the public schools, and of increasing their own effi- 
 ciency as teachers. Through the press and plat- 
 form, they strove in every conceivable way to arouse 
 public interest in education and to stimulate larger 
 provision for its advancement. Because of their 
 insistence, the legislature passed the law providing 
 that candidates for the state certificate should have 
 completed a full college course, or its equivalent, in- 
 cluding approved professional courses in the five 
 prescribed subjects, or, pass an examination in the 
 same, a requirement that soon placed Kansas in the 
 front rank educationally. 
 
 That all these beneficent and substantial advances 
 could be accomplished in so short a time is explain- 
 able only as one realizes that the moral motif domi- 
 nated all others in the average Kansas teacher. 
 One could not be among them long without catching 
 its significance and appreciating its influence in the 
 development of the intellectual and spiritual life of 
 the people. The devotion with which the' early 
 settlers had consecrated themselves to liberty was 
 
12 Among Ourselves 
 
 not only inherited by their children, but character- 
 ized the kindred spirits who came later. It leavened 
 more or less all activities, domestic, industrial, com- 
 mercial, social, educational, and civil, with the leaven 
 of righteousness; and conscience, rather than personal 
 or partisan advantage, was manifest in the construc- 
 tive force that wrought public sentiment and gave it 
 expression in statutory enactments. Nowhere else 
 was it more loyally instilled than in the schoolroom, 
 nowhere else was character more highly magnified 
 and virtue more faithfully inculcated. 
 
 High as were the scholastic and professional ideals 
 in the certification of Kansas teachers, the moral 
 ideals were as zealously conserved. There were 
 exceptions, but I have often been impressed with the 
 idea that Kansas teachers, as a whole, rank higher in 
 the three characteristics mentioned than the rank and 
 file of teachers I have met in other states. I have 
 spent twenty years in college work in Illinois, with 
 thousands of students entering from the public 
 schools of more than a score of states, and I am con- 
 vinced that the graduates of the Kansas schools 
 reveal a training in methods of thinking, in habits 
 of study, and in a preparation for college and normal 
 school work, in no sense inferior to that of the older 
 states, and often in many respects very superior. 
 I have found no other state in which the professional 
 side of the preparation for teaching is regarded as 
 more essential for the grades or for the secondary 
 schools. Late in the nineties, a poll showed hundreds 
 
Among Ourselves 13 
 
 of graduates of normal schools and colleges in gradu- 
 ate study at some advanced institution of learning, 
 pursuing special or professional courses, to fit them- 
 selves for better service in the schoolroom. 
 
 The esprit du corps of the Kansas teachers has 
 always been a source of pride among them. Tho 
 having their differences and rivalries, somewhat 
 after the fashion of other mortals, they enjoy 
 each other's fellowship, and strive for the im- 
 provement and advancement of all in a most 
 commendable way. The fraternity spirit among 
 them is so much alive that few teachers are disposed 
 to apologize for belonging to the craft, as is rather 
 common elsewhere. 
 
 Kansas has been finding herself more and more 
 able to fill important principalships and superintend- 
 encies, as well as departmental headships in her 
 secondary schools and colleges, out of the ranks of 
 her own teachers. Many of them have been sought 
 by school and college officials from other states, east 
 and west, north and south. Among them I recall 
 over a dozen college presidents, nearly half as many 
 normal school presidents, nearly fifty college and 
 normal school professors, and a long list of city 
 superintendents and high school principals. There 
 are assuredly several hundreds of them filling more 
 or less important positions in the public and private 
 schools in other parts of the country. I seldom 
 attend a representative teachers' convention in any 
 city without meeting some of them. 
 
14 Among Ourselves 
 
 The efficiency of any system of schools is due as 
 much to the intelligence and loyalty of the rank and 
 file of the teaching body as to that of its leaders. 
 That is the secret of the great strides which Kansas 
 has made. That makes it possible to inaugurate 
 new movements successfully and to build up the 
 higher institutions of learning so rapidly. The real 
 test is to be found there rather than in the number 
 called to other fields and to higher responsibilities. 
 
 I have watched the educational developments in 
 Kansas in these years of absence with much satis- 
 faction, and rejoice that the old spirit still dominates 
 and directs the mass of its teachers, and that it is 
 keeping step with the advanced guard in other parts 
 of the Union. As servants of the state, more than 
 any other public servants, the conservation of her 
 cherished ideals, her whole future, depends vitally 
 upon the character and culture of the teachers. 
 
 Politicians may legislate, reformers may moralize, 
 preachers may exhort, promoters may exploit, but 
 without the teacher, retrogression quickly reveals 
 itself everywhere, paralyzing the forces and the insti- 
 tutions that make for good order, for prosperity, and 
 for righteousness, in the home and in the community. 
 
 George R. Peck used to say that the Kansas farmer 
 must have been in the eye of Saint Paul when he 
 wrote the seventh verse of the thirteenth chapter of 
 First Corinthians. If so, he possibly had the Kansas 
 schoolmaster in mind when he wrote the three verses 
 immediately preceding, for the oncoming genera- 
 
Among Ourselves 15 
 
 tions are showing the training of modest, but master 
 spirits, whose lives have been as forceful as their pre - 
 cepts, and whose examples have been as potent as the 
 truths they inculcated. And yet it would be a pity 
 and a calamity for any body of teachers to be con- 
 tent with no better service than that given by those 
 who preceded them. With a better heritage, with 
 larger opportunities, with improved facilities, and 
 with more sympathetic public appreciation, they 
 ought to be making greater strides in professional 
 advancement and proficiency from year to year. 
 I shall be grateful if these little talks contribute in 
 some small degree to that end. 
 
"Said Life to Art : ' I love thee best 
 Not when I find in thee 
 My very face and form expressed 
 With full fidelity, 
 
 But when in thee my craving eyes 
 Behold continually 
 The mystery of my ??iemories 
 And all I long to be.' " 
 
AMONG OURSELVES. 
 
 Wake Up ! Whether you are a sleepy teacher or a 
 sleeping teacher, it is surely time for you to wake up. 
 The sun of the new education is already high above the 
 horizon, and yet you seem oblivious to the light of this 
 new day. Your fellow teachers are awake and at work. 
 Your patrons are hearing about the discoveries in child 
 life and the improvements in educational method. Your 
 pupils see that you are stupid and slow, and they are 
 running away from you. You are wasting precious time 
 and allowing golden opportunities to go by unimproved. 
 Awake ! 
 
 " Taste the joy 
 That springs from labor." 
 
 Wash Up ! Yes, wash up ! A sleepy teacher needs to 
 wash up. Nothing but a good body bath and vigorous 
 rubbing will bring him out of his stupor and start circula- 
 tion. The sleepy teacher is sure to be slovenly in person 
 as well as slovenly in his schoolroom and in his work. 
 A reform in externals through the generous use of castile 
 soap and hot water is the first requisite for success. His 
 
 17 
 
1 8 Among Ourselves. 
 
 enjoyment of the day depends upon it; his clearness of 
 vision is made possible by it ; his success in interesting his 
 pupils is enhanced with it; the atmosphere becomes pure 
 and crisp and vitalizing; the machine becomes a man! 
 " He that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger." 
 Brush Up ! What ! Do you ask a school-teacher to 
 brush up ? Even so, my brother. Your clothing as well 
 as your hair needs brushing at least once a day, often 
 twice. Your hat looks as though it belonged to a steam- 
 thresher outfit, and your boots suggest the dairy-yard. 
 Certainly you ought to brush up. While we are brushing, 
 let us take a little turn at dusting your books, your desk, 
 and the furniture generally about your schoolroom. 
 Have you really failed to notice the cobwebs in every 
 corner, the rusty old stove, and the greasy-looking black- 
 boards ? But you need to brush up mentally still more. 
 You have not only forgotten many valuable things you 
 once knew, but you have not been keeping your wits sharp 
 and keen by study and investigation. You have been 
 wrapped up in your own self-sufficiency and are as rusty 
 as that old stove. If you do not brush up, you will soon 
 go where it will go when a wide-awake teacher comes in 
 at the front door, — into the old iron pile. 
 
 ' Foul, cankering rust the hidden treasure frets; 
 But gold that's put to use, more gold begets." 
 
 Brace Up ! If the washing and brushing be thoroughly 
 done, you will feel so much like a new man that you will 
 stand straight on your feet and wonder whether you will 
 ever be sleepy again. This is the time to realize the 
 
Among Ourselves. 19 
 
 dignity of your work, to find in it problems worthy the 
 ambition of any man, to cast aside your timidity and face 
 duty willingly and fearlessly, to fortify yourself where you 
 are weak, and to fit yourself for leadership. Your 
 dependency and hesitancy have almost unfitted you for 
 any aggressive action, and nothing but a new baptism of 
 the spirit can give you that confidence which brooks no 
 defeat. Let past ills and past misfortunes be forgotten in 
 the new life upon which you now enter. 
 
 " No great deed is done 
 
 By falterers who ask for certainties." 
 
 Look Up ! This leads me to remark that salvation will 
 not come unless you look upward. The eye can scarce 
 see a dozen miles on the level plain, but it can see a 
 mountain-top a hundred miles away and a star in the in- 
 finite depths of space overhead. No man ever becomes 
 wise or great or strong by clinging to his muck-rake. It 
 is vision that awakens and quickens and inspires. It is 
 outlook that calls forth impulse and multiplies power and 
 vitalizes faith. The rut in which you have been running 
 so long is pretty deep, and it obstructs your view. The 
 little things that have been filling out each day's experi- 
 ences have kept you contracted and narrow, both in head 
 and in heart. 
 
 " In your dull atmosphere, a thing so fair, 
 Never tripped, with footsteps light as air, 
 So glad a vision o'er the hills of morn." 
 
 Work Up ! But what good is it to see and not to 
 realize ? What gain if you simply catch glimpses of 
 
20 Among Ourselves 
 
 greater things and hear vanishing strains of nobler 
 melodies ? What you see and hear is possible of realiza- 
 tion. A perfect understanding of what you are not makes 
 that very ideal attainable, — not in an hour or a day, but 
 in the coming hours and in the coming days. The notion 
 that youth is the only time to learn died long ago. The 
 man who is just out of school is but just prepared to 
 learn; the teacher who holds a first-grade certificate is 
 simply a little better prepared to learn than the one who 
 holds a second- or a third-grade, — that is all. The man 
 at forty ought to be seeing and learning many times more 
 than he saw and learned at two and twenty. Proctor 
 began the study of astronomy in earnest at thirty-nine. 
 W. T. Harris began the study of French at forty. Hugh 
 Miller's scholarship was attained while working as a stone- 
 mason. G. Stanley Hall made his first systematic study 
 of Froebel after fifty. Julia Ward Howe began to study 
 Greek at seventy and became a fine Greek scholar. An 
 hour of study per day now ought to do as much for you 
 as five hours at the age of twelve. Can you not find so 
 much time out of each twenty-four ? I grant that you 
 may be just waking up, but thank God for that, and go to 
 work. Remember that he who aspires must also perspire 
 if he is to accomplish anything. 
 
 •"Tis he, I know the manner of his gait; 
 He rises on the toe; that spirit of his 
 In aspiration lifts him from the earth!" 
 
 Keep Up ! " To have done, is to hang 
 
 Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail 
 In monumental mockery." 
 
Among Ourselves. 21 
 
 It is not enough to work up; you ought also to keep 
 up. No matter what your attainments may be, you will 
 quickly fall behind if you slacken effort. New inventions, 
 new discoveries, new methods, new adjustments of old 
 devices, deeper insight, wider vision, greater economy of 
 time and labor, readier agreement in theory and practice, 
 characterize the advancing years. The only way to main- 
 tain your standing and increase your usefulness is to keep 
 in touch with the best thought and to keep working at the 
 most promising problems of the hour. By this I do not 
 mean that you should feel it necessary to be acquainted 
 with every little fad or novelty that forces itself into the 
 pedagogical horizon, nor with the whole field of peda- 
 gogical literature, but rather with the main currents of 
 thought, — those that touch all phases of our educational 
 life, and with that particular one which relates more 
 directly to your individual work. You ought to be 
 familiar with the latest investigations in physiology and 
 psychology, particularly on the side of the child and of 
 the youth. You ought to'know the pedagogical value of 
 such inquiries, and understand how the results may be 
 profitably utilized in the schoolroom. You ought above 
 all to be bringing yourself more fully into sympathy with 
 your children through a daily study of their dispositions, 
 their limitations, their needs. A little self-study will help 
 the process along materially. 
 
 These Three ! A candidate for the ministry sought an 
 old Scotch divine for counsel concerning his education. 
 The veteran said to him : " Three things you need to suc- 
 ceed : learning, piety, and common sense. If you lack 
 
22 
 
 Among Ourselves. 
 
 the first, go to college; if the second, pray earnestly to 
 God for it ; if you lack the third, neither man nor God 
 can help you! " Brother, which one dost thou lack ? 
 
 Throwing Off the Shackles. In the kindergarten talk 
 at Clarke University this summer, I heard Dr. Hall say 
 that he had spent a good part of a year studying Froebel, 
 and that while he was profoundly impressed with his 
 philosophy, he thought his system of gifts and symbols 
 the most cumbrous and illogical piece of machinery he 
 had ever met ; it was probably the best that could be 
 done in his time, but that teachers in this day and genera- 
 tion should be perpetuating the fetich exactly as Froebel 
 fashioned it was incomprehensible. To the surprise of 
 everybody, the leading kindergartners present were loudest 
 in applauding his remarks. One of them followed him, 
 maintaining that all true kindergartners were throwing off 
 the shackles of the old system and in the clearer light of 
 the new psychology were gaining a better understanding 
 of Froebel and were giving his gifts and symbols a sub- 
 ordinate place among the devices now so abundantly at 
 hand. Intelligent adaptation, not slavish following, is 
 the watchword of the new school of kindergartners. 
 
 The Kindergarten and Child Study. It is hardly 
 conceivable, but it is true, that, many kindergartners are 
 unable to see anything good in child study. They think 
 that Froebel knew everything about the child and wrote it 
 in a book. They can find it there; if not, it is not worth 
 knowing. For the same reason the Mohammedans burned 
 the Alexandrian Museum, insisting that all knowledge of 
 any value is contained in the Koran. There are others, 
 
Among Ourselves. 23 
 
 however, that welcome it as one of the great movements 
 through which they are to know and serve the child. 
 They are delighted to see a little child sitting in the midst 
 of the doctors of pedagogy and with joy receive the glad 
 tidings of the new gospel. A kindergarten course without 
 child study is already like a laboratory without a micro- 
 scope, and our Froebelian fossils may just as well fall into 
 line at once. 
 
 Licked for That ! The hour was late and seven thous- 
 and teachers were tired out, having stood and sat through 
 several long speeches at the opening meeting of the 
 N. E. A. in the great Convention Hall at Washington. 
 As the president introduced Hon. Webster Davis as the 
 representative of the United States Government for an 
 additional word of welcome, two or three thousand of 
 them were on their feet moving toward the doors. In 
 superb voice that reached every corner of the great build- 
 ing, he said bruskly: "What do you school-teachers 
 mean ? I was licked many times when a boy for doing 
 just what you are doing now." Surprised at his blunt- 
 ness and humor, nearly everybody turned back to his chair 
 and gladly listened until the last word had been spoken. 
 The rebuke is too often deserved by us. We are some- 
 times even brutally exacting of our pupils concerning 
 order and silence and chatter away like magpies when 
 others are on the platform. Half a dozen schoolma'ams 
 around me say, "That's so," and yet several of them 
 repeat the offense on the first occasion ! 
 
 ' ' Oh, would some power the giftie gie us 
 To see ourselves as others see us!" 
 
24 Among Ourselves. 
 
 The Glory of Dying. Probably no war has ever been 
 conducted with such regard for the value of human life as 
 the late war with Spain. There was a day when a leader 
 thought it a disgrace to surrender to a foe until he had 
 first sacrificed the body of his soldiers, even though defeat 
 was a foregone conclusion. That day, thanks to humani- 
 tarian education, is gone forever. Never again will public 
 sentiment justify the slaughter of an army simply to 
 demonstrate the bravery of the slaughtered. Rushing to 
 death when nothing can be accomplished by it is inexcus- 
 able suicide. Nobody calls Toral and Jaudenes cowards 
 because, seeing the inevitable, they would not pander to 
 a foolish sentiment and sacrifice their men in a hopeless 
 resistance. The most glorious thing on that glorious 
 Sunday morning in Santiago harbor was the splendid 
 humanity shown by the American seamen in their efforts 
 to rescue the maimed and helpless Spaniards from their 
 burning and sinking ships. The meed of praise goes to 
 the generous-hearted warriors, but the modest teacher in 
 the little schoolhouse and the gentle-hearted mother in 
 the quiet home yonder are the real authors of this great 
 revolution in modern warfare. 
 
 He who helps a child helps humanity, with an imme- 
 diateness which no other help given to human creatures 
 in any other stage of their human life can possibly give 
 again. — Phillips Brooks. 
 
 If a man deserves praise, be sure that you give it him, 
 else you not only run a chance of driving him from the 
 
Among Ourselves. 25 
 
 right road by want of encouragement, but you deprive 
 yourselves of the happiest privilege you will ever have of 
 rewarding his labor. — Ruskin. 
 
 The Better Way. Vinicius, in Quo Vadis, greatly 
 feared the gentler way of managing slaves as urged by the 
 Christians in Nero's time. He tried it one day, and to 
 his intense surprise was met with warm thanks and gener- 
 ous professions of loyalty. In writing to Petronius shortly 
 afterward, he said he was almost convinced that the new 
 way was better than the lash and torture. If thus for 
 servants and slaves, why not also for the children in the 
 schools ? 
 
 The One Great Need. To this query of a friend, we 
 answer quickly, Yes and amen! 
 
 " I have spent many pleasant days with my little friends 
 here, but I often feel discouraged at the thought of how 
 little I can do to minister to their needs. Their greatest 
 need is that of worthy examples — but is that not the great 
 need of children everywhere ? — examples of uprightness, 
 purity, gentleness of manner, and grace of speech ? " 
 
 Morals as is Taught ! Puck has evidently been eaves- 
 dropping, for the following is not all fiction: 
 
 Mother: Now, Willie, you told me a falsehood. Do 
 you know what happens to little boys who tell falsehoods ? 
 Why, a big black man with only one eye in the centre of 
 his forehead comes along and flies with him to the moon 
 and makes him pick sticks for the balance of his life. 
 Now, you will never tell a falsehood again, will you ? It 
 is awful wicked! 
 
 This old-fashioned way of imparting instruction is, we 
 
26 Among Ourselves. 
 
 hope, not among those over whose displacement by the 
 new education some of our fathers mourn. 
 
 What Makes It Kick ? I gave a kicking Brownie to 
 a little friend of mine and he enjoyed it immensely for 
 weeks, but his desire to know " how in the world that 
 funny kick came in," as it rolled over at the foot of the 
 incline, possessed him sorely. One day he tore open the 
 Brownie's coat and found " only a ball " inside. He was 
 satisfied, however, and was wiser than before, though he 
 was minus a plaything. That boy is a philosopher, for he 
 wants to know the causes of things. The Brownie was 
 worth nothing compared with the knowledge and experi- 
 ence it gave him. The truth is, every boy ought to be en- 
 couraged to go to the bottom of things. That he has such 
 a desire is cause for rejoicing. Do everything to keep 
 it alive. In fact, never permit him to leave anything he is 
 investigating until he has discovered what makes it kick. 
 
 In the Pantry. One day Eugene Field was found by 
 a returning mother, in the pantry with the children mak- 
 ing way with some victuals. All were in high glee. 
 Enquiry developed the fact that he had called a few 
 minutes before and, finding the little people alone, pro- 
 posed a foraging party for their entertainment. Just how 
 he wriggled out of the affair I have never heard, but 
 possibly he compromised on " apple pie and cheese." 
 Of one thing I am assured, the children defended him. 
 He ought to have known that the pantry might not have 
 been in its usually tidy condition, that there was nothing 
 there " fit for visitors," that the children never went there 
 without the express permission of mother, that it is wrong 
 
Among Ourselves. 27 
 
 to eat between meals, that it was hardly the proper thing 
 for a caller to do; but the boy that was in him forgot all 
 of these things and off they all went for roast lamb and 
 cold slaw. It was his ability to become a little child, — 
 mischievous, daring, merry, and then to rise up in an 
 instant a big warm-hearted man, that made all the children 
 his friends. It would be a dangerous experiment for a 
 schoolmaster to lead the children into at least one pantry 
 I could name, but there are other ways in which he might 
 endear himself to the whole household if he but possessed 
 the true spirit. 
 
 Father Superior. The position and the function of 
 the superintendent or principal are not very well denned 
 in many schools. In one, I recall, the superintendent 
 hardly knows that his soul is his own, for the school board 
 gives him orders about the minutest details, elects and 
 assigns teachers, adopts text-books, fixes salaries, changes 
 courses of study, buys apparatus, and makes repairs, with- 
 out consulting him in any way whatever. In another, a 
 few subordinate teachers run the superintendent and the 
 entire system of schools. He never thinks of taking a 
 stand on any question until he knows just how much 
 support he can have from the cabal ; indeed, he does not 
 seem to know that there is any position to take until they 
 speak. Both are dummies. In a third, the superin- 
 tendent keeps well in touch with both the board and the 
 teachers. He strives to know their views and to give 
 them respectful consideration. He is conscious that the 
 responsibility for the success of the schools rests in large 
 measure upon his own shoulders, that his position gives 
 
28 Among Ourselves. . 
 
 him a better view of the field as a whole than any one else; 
 that as superintendent he must be the leader of his force 
 of teachers and must be permitted to plan and direct their 
 work. But each of them, as a 
 
 Mother Inferior, has of course certain rights and a 
 certain individuality which must be respected. In cases 
 of differences of opinion, free and friendly discussion will 
 often find a solution satisfactory to all, but when the 
 decision is made, deference should always be given to the 
 views which the superintendent finally urges. Somebody 
 must yield, and if the views of each of the individual 
 teachers obtain, there is nothing but endless confusion. 
 It is true that a subordinate has responsibility as well as 
 the superior, but as an assistant her responsibility is not 
 so grave as his. If the result be unfortunate, the blame 
 lies with him, but only with him in case she has faithfully 
 striven to follow out his plans and methods. A poor 
 method with a proper spirit will accomplish much more 
 than a good method without an understanding and 
 cooperating spirit. But the true relation that should 
 always exist between superiors and inferiors is found only 
 as they work together as 
 
 Brothers and Sisters All ! If each is recognizing the 
 duties and responsibilities of his fellows, if each is con- 
 scious of his own need as well as of the needs of his 
 coworkers, if each is thinking less of his own advancement 
 than of the advancement of the schools as a whole, is ready 
 to yield non-essentials gracefully and to strive for harmony 
 on essentials, is ready to bear and forbear with old and 
 young, is as jealous of the good name of every teacher on 
 
Among Ourselves. 29 
 
 the roll as of his own, is, in fact, always possessed of the 
 true spirit of love and cooperation, there will be neither 
 need nor desire for the father superior to exercise his 
 authority, nor for mother inferior to bend the knee to an 
 exacting lord. If some teachers were to work half as hard 
 in their efforts to promote harmony and to strengthen the 
 hands of their leader as they do to arouse discord, they 
 would often be greatly surprised at the result. And, 
 again, if some superintendents would only strive a little 
 to understand their teachers and to assist them to under- 
 stand the plans which they wish followed, the reward 
 might not be less satisfactory than from the course they 
 now pursue. Each teacher is a whole in himself, but he 
 is also a part of the greater whole, the schools in which 
 he labors. 
 
 If all the year were playing holidays, 
 
 To sport would be as tedious as to work; 
 
 But when they seldom come, they wished for come, 
 
 And nothing pleasant but rare accidents. 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 Shearing, but Not Feeding. Dr. Johnson is said to 
 have refused a very desirable pastorate because, to use his 
 own words, " I am unwilling to shear a flock that I am 
 unable to feed." If a little more of that same spirit were 
 to enter into all of the professions, it would be a great 
 blessing to humanity. The disposition to crowd into posi- 
 tions without fitting ourselves for them is the crying evil 
 of the age. The tempting fleece rather than the food for 
 the flock is the one moving desire. If such a great man 
 
3° Among Ourselves. 
 
 as Dr. Johnson was hesitating, how much more should 
 we be assured of our ability to meet the demands, in the 
 larger sense of the word, of the position to which we aspire. 
 
 Saw Himself. When Orson was about to strike down 
 his brother with whom he was engaged in mortal combat, 
 it is said that he saw his own image reflected in his 
 brother's burnished shield and that his battle-axe fell 
 harmless to the ground. In taking my pupils to task, I 
 have often seen my earlier self reflected in them and have 
 thus been able to understand them better, and have 
 frequently been led to treat them more kindly on account 
 of it. Sometimes the image has reminded me of failures 
 to understand my teachers, sometimes of my inability to 
 resist temptation even though conscious of wrong-doing, 
 sometimes of a perverseness which I needed somebody to 
 fathom, sometimes of a seeming disrespect which I did not 
 feel nor intend to express, sometimes of the fact that once 
 I was a boy with notions and passions very much like 
 those of boys and girls of the present generation. 
 
 Kindling-wood. The Sunday School Times says that a 
 certain church member was being put down by a neigh- 
 boring pastor as poorly educated and evidently of little 
 value to the congregation to which he belonged, when his 
 own pastor interfered and said: " That man is worth one 
 hundred dollars per year for kindling-wood. He has a 
 warm and sympathetic nature, and his zeal never flags. 
 He is always at prayer-meeting and his simple, heartfelt 
 testimonies seldom fail to arouse and quicken interest on 
 every side." How often are teachers' associations kept 
 alive by just such a man or woman. The one who throws 
 
Among Ourselves. 31 
 
 in a cheery word now and then, who leads in generous 
 applause as a good point is made, who comes early and 
 shakes everybody's hands, who insists that " we have had 
 a good meeting, and it has done me lots of good," is just 
 as necessary to the maintenance of a live teachers' associa- 
 tion as the brethren and sisters who do most cf the think- 
 ing and talking along the lines of higher criticism. This 
 very same phosphoric little body often excels his more 
 philosophic brother in the schoolroom, because his pupils 
 are always alert and eager to learn. 
 
 "A Kind of Schoolmaster's Laugh !" Recently a 
 distinguished speaker was addressing a company of 
 students and indulging in a reminiscence of his school 
 days, when he remarked that " the teacher laughed, a kind 
 of schoolmaster's laugh, you know ! " Since then I have 
 been wondering what a schoolmaster's laugh is, anyhow: 
 whether it is really different from that of the preacher or 
 the lawyer or the merchant or the politician; whether it 
 is dyspeptic or healthful, sad or merry, suppressed or free; 
 whether it is like that of a Shylock or a Falstaff, of a 
 Uriah Heep or a Peggotty, of a Jeremiah or a Zagloba; 
 whether it is like the coarse guffaw of the Northmen or 
 the rippling roundelay of the Castilian maidens, the rich 
 roar of the mountaineer, or the gay cackle of the gon- 
 dolier, the amused grunt of the Kaffir chief or the silly 
 giggle of the girl of the period; whether he laughs with 
 his, hands on his sides or on his head, with his mouth 
 open or shut, — explosively, repulsively, expulsively, or 
 effusively, — grammatically, mathematically, aesthetically, 
 or apologetically, — sincerely, hypocritically, patronizingly, 
 
32 Among Ourselves. 
 
 painfully, or pleasurably, lazily or industriously, affectedly 
 or naturally, boldly or timidly, conceitedly or depreciat- 
 ingly. Does he laugh in orotund, oral, pectoral, guttural, 
 or nasal tones ? Does he laugh impulsively or reflectively, 
 individually or collectively, disjointedly or in a logical 
 order, — proceeding from the known to the unknown, from 
 the concrete to the abstract, analytically or synthetically ? 
 Does he laugh like the ghost that pursued Gabriel Grubb, 
 or the witch that hailed Macbeth ? Does the school- 
 master laugh at all ? Does he not simply smile ? Poor 
 schoolmaster! 
 
 And some are dreams that thrill with joy, 
 
 And some that melt to tears; 
 Some are dreams of the dawn of love, 
 
 And some of the old dead years. 
 
 — Eugene Field. 
 
 As soon as a man sides with his critic against himself, 
 he is already cultured. — Emerson. 
 
 Undefined! In writing concerning the moral and 
 religious character of a certain teacher, a correspondent 
 says that it is " undefined." If his moral character is not 
 yet defined, ought he to be placed in charge of anybody's 
 children ? Think of it; a man of " many years' experi- 
 ence " and yet with an undefined character! No wonder 
 " salaries are low and he seeks a better paying position.' 
 Herbart is not the only man who reminds us that moral 
 character is the sole end of all education. 
 
 Things to See. A teacher must learn what things to 
 see and what not to see. He must have keen eyes and 
 
Among Ourselves. 33 
 
 quick ears, seeing and hearing everything, but overlook- 
 ing, so far as his pupils may know, the thousand little 
 things which come about by accident or through the 
 innocence of the children. Some things are essential; on 
 them hang the law and the prophets, — and they must not 
 be passed by. Others are thrown out as feelers by the 
 mischief breeders, and their meaning should quickly be 
 discovered. Miss Smith, over in No. 29, is always in hot 
 water because she has not learned what she may wisely 
 overlook. She frowns if a child smiles when she thinks 
 he ought to look sober; she scolds when he yawns, even 
 though he has sat for an entire hour in a close room with- 
 out moving a muscle; she calls him back for a " love 
 tap " on Tom Brown's shoulder just one-tenth of a second 
 before she gave the signal for the line going to the play- 
 ground to break ranks; she detains him after school 
 because he accidentally touched his slate against his chin 
 when trying to get it into his desk, causing a little girl 
 near by to giggle just one whole giggle, just one! Now, 
 if these things were all done by one boy, there might be 
 some reason for alarm, but they were not. The little 
 offenders are as innocent of wrong-doing as babes, and 
 yet Miss Smith frets and stews as though they had com- 
 mitted crimes against the decalogue. No wonder every 
 child in her room is nervous and restless. It were a 
 miracle if they were otherwise. 
 
 Man to the Tenth Power. In speaking of the intensi- 
 fying of the individual which the colleges are attempting, 
 Dr. Jordan says: It takes a man's "best abilities and 
 raises him to the second power, or to the third, or to the 
 
34 Among Ourselves. 
 
 tenth, as we say in algebra." Could anything more 
 happily express the work which education does for the 
 child ? In his evolution, he simply multiplies himself, 
 rises from one power to another, and education helps the 
 process along. The question is: At what power shall the 
 movement stop ? Shall it be at the third, or the 
 thirteenth ? As there is no limit to the power to which a 
 number may rise, so there is no limit at which the mind 
 must stop. If given intelligent direction, it soon, of its 
 own volition, rises another power, and at each step gains 
 the added strength needed for its onward sweep toward 
 the infinite. How puerile our old three-R conception of 
 education beside this ideal for our youth ! 
 
 That Leyden Jar. Dr. Behrends is quoted by the 
 Pilgrim Teacher as saying of one of his college professors 
 that he never used a text-book. " He was so full of 
 excitement that he was all over the room, in every con- 
 ceivable position, graceful and awkward, standing, sitting, 
 and leaning on his desk, in the chair, on the window sill, 
 in the middle of the floor, and everywhere the same 
 excited and exciting person." No one could touch him 
 without receiving a shock himself. That description 
 reminds one of Ruby's star performance on the piano, — 
 "and the thing busted!" And yet that wriggling, 
 gyrating, textless teacher is held up as an example to 
 Sunday-school teachers! Possibly we need a shock to 
 waken some of us up, for there are many teachers that 
 several volts would not harm, and so we get it in this turn 
 of the electrical machine, but let us pray to be preserved 
 from such nervous contortionists as are here described. 
 
MOONLIGHT ON THE KAW 
 
 And the dusky depths of the willows thrilled From 
 
 As the echoing music rose and rang, KANSAS LANDSCAPES 
 
 And the clouds bent down and their dews distilled Copyright Photo 
 
 Like tears of joy, while the cat-bird sang." By O. P. Barnes 
 
 ■ — Ernest McGaffey. 
 
Among Ourselves. 37 
 
 Pupils whose attention is secured in such a manner will 
 not be doing much profitable thinking in the classroom. 
 A teacher should be a Leyden jar, well filled and under 
 complete control, but not breaking out here and there in 
 all manner of ways, blinding the eyes, shocking the senses, 
 and frightening the "children out of their wits. 
 
 The Lesson of the Tree. All good, strong trees have 
 roots corresponding in size and surface to the branches 
 above ground. The character and wealth of foliage and 
 fruit depends entirely upon the work which the roots are 
 doing in the earth beneath, out of sight and sound. 
 Quietly, ceaselessly they gather nourishment for the tree, 
 sustaining its life, extending its branches, enriching its 
 fruitage. The more active they are in the dark, under- 
 ground, the more vigorous the tree. The same is true of 
 the teacher. The more work he does in his study or in 
 his laboratory, the more he is able to do for his classes. 
 If he spends much time alone investigating, gathering, 
 thinking, planning for them, he is the better prepared to 
 mett their demands and to stimulate them to greater 
 effort. No one should rely upon spontaneous inspiration. 
 He ought to make such a preparation that he goes before 
 his classes gorged and filled with his subject, as the root- 
 cells of the tree crowd each other with the rich food they 
 are hurrying forward to the branches above. Such a 
 teacher goes to his class feeling, as Hazard expresses it, 
 that he " must teach or burst." And such a teacher as 
 that will never fail to sustain interest in his pupils. 
 
 Salt, Soda, and Quinine. And now comes the story 
 from a town in Missouri, that the vigilance committee, 
 
3 8 Among Ourselves. 
 
 which is usually active in every community, has just dis- 
 covered that the teachers of that town have been in the 
 habit of giving their pupils salt as a punishment for the 
 first offense in whispering, soda for the second, and 
 quinine for the third! Evidently such a logical grading 
 of penalties could not spontaneously rise in any corps of 
 teachers, and it must be the result of much experience 
 and earnest counsel. That asafcetida, nicotine, and 
 strychnine did not get into the list of deterrents is possibly 
 due to the activity of that committee. " Some sensational 
 developments are expected when the matter is presented 
 to the school board." Well, let them come! The 
 sooner the better. We wait with breathless interest the 
 result of the deliberations of the board on this latest of 
 methods for preventing whispering. We are a little 
 inclined to think that some sodium or cinchona trust is 
 behind the innovation and that it has more currency than 
 is generally supposed. 
 
 Finding the Heartache. William Allen White told 
 the students at the State University the other day that all 
 of their learning would amount to little, if with it they 
 do not also become so intimately acquainted with 
 humanity and its pulse beats that " they can find a heart- 
 ache as quickly and as unerringly as they can find a star. " 
 Well said and truly said! An education that fails to 
 awaken the sympathetic side of a child's nature, and to 
 keep it growing and expanding and responding to the life 
 around him as he rises into manhood, must result in ruin 
 to the individual and to the community. No interest 
 should engross him which displaces interest in his fellows. 
 
Among Ourselves. 39 
 
 No attainment in scholarship or statesmanship outweighs 
 love and devotion to the interests of humanity. That 
 man, that teacher, serves the world best who hears the 
 cry of distress before it is uttered and who counts its relief 
 the manliest act that he can perform. 
 
 English. Here is what Professor Hart of Cornell 
 University says of the most vital subject in American 
 intellectual life — vital because it is the principal medium 
 through which truth is conveyed from soul to soul : 
 
 " The school is to give the most thorough training in 
 English, not merely, not even chiefly, because such train- 
 ing is needed in college, but because such training is the 
 vital and informing spirit of all education. The school 
 is to do its duty by all its scholars, whether they afterward 
 go to college or not, because the ability to state one's 
 knowledge in clear and proper English is the one unfailing 
 test of knowledge, the one universally recognized badge 
 of scholarship. Why should the study of English be thus 
 set on a pinnacle, as it were, dominating all other studies ? 
 Or, in the serio-comic words of a professor of the classics, 
 why should the English department have the veto power ? 
 I can answer only in the form of a paradox : The study of 
 English should dominate everything else precisely because 
 ii is not a study but the acquisition of a habit, of an art, 
 of an indispensable gift. This acquisition can not be 
 hurried through with a year or less of special ' cram ' ; it 
 implies slow, patient, unremitting effort year after year, 
 under incessant supervision and correction. It is em- 
 phatically anything but an easy process for the average 
 scholar. It means the appreciation of synonyms in a 
 
4° Among Ourselves. 
 
 language singularly rich in shades of meaning but singu- 
 larly defective in the outward signs by which to recognize 
 them. It means the appreciation of word-order in a 
 language which has little or no syntax proper, and in 
 which word-order counts for nearly everything. Above 
 all, it means the implanting and cultivation of the sense 
 of form in young persons to whom, or to the greater 
 number of whom, form, that is, the saying of a thing 
 properly and effectively, is an unknown quantity." 
 
 If we study nature in books, when we go out of doors 
 we cannot find her. — Agassiz. 
 
 Stick to your frog, if you are studying frogs, and he 
 will teach you more about the science of animals than can 
 be learned from all the memorized classifications that you 
 can bracket out on a hundred rods of blackboard ! — David 
 Starr Jordan. 
 
 To Be ! A ministerial friend of mine occupying a most 
 desirable pulpit under the shadow of one of the great 
 universities of the country was called to his present posi- 
 tion not so much on account of what he was, but rather 
 on account of what he was going to be. The university 
 authorities could not find a man of mature life who in 
 their opinion could meet the demands of that pastorate, 
 so they chose a comparatively young man, whose vigorous 
 brain and bounding blood were giving promise of great 
 things. They set about to train him for their service, and 
 now he is already their leader, trusted and worthy. Many 
 school boards and churches could profit by this little 
 story. 
 
Among Ourselves. 4 r 
 
 The True. If Plato be right in saying that the beauti- 
 ful is the splendor of the true, then that philosophy of the 
 beautiful which ignores its ethical basis is superficial and 
 misleading. It also follows that aesthetic emotions are 
 best aroused as the moral emotions are healthy and 
 vigorous. People often wonder at the moral obliquity of 
 many talented musicians, when all agree that music is 
 heaven-born. Artists, at whose touch the dull canvas 
 becomes a thing of radiant life, lead an erratic and dis- 
 solute existence. Poets, who give form and speech to the 
 subtlest emotions of the soul, are strangers to the simple 
 faith of the peasant. Seeing these things, many parents 
 look upon music and art and poetry, with all of their kith 
 and kin, as emissaries of the evil one. They fail to see 
 the distinction between art as an end and art as an 
 expression of an idea — an idea which must be even more 
 beautiful than the thing expressing it. They do not note 
 that the very fascination which art possesses even for the 
 immoral is due to its birth in the true. Nothing is ethical 
 which is not beautiful, and nothing is beautiful which has 
 not the similitude of the good and the true. Ethical 
 longings get their highest satisfaction in the aesthetic 
 emotions. When all education recognizes this relation, 
 then many of the difficulties in the management of children 
 will disappear. 
 
 Than St. Mark's or Vesuvius. A friend of mine, in 
 the midst of an entertaining letter from Italy, suddenly 
 stops describing the beauties of Venice, of Florence, and 
 of the Imperial city, to relate a short conversation with a 
 little girl whose merry prattle had attracted his attention. 
 
4 2 Among Ourselves, 
 
 As he closes the incident he apologizes for mentioning it 
 and explains that he turns aside from the piles of marble, 
 the temples and palaces, the volcanoes and mummies, the 
 lovely landscapes of rare Italy, to this little child, and 
 finds her more interesting than them all ! And what true 
 heart does not say, amen! There is nothing in all God's 
 wonderful creation, in all earth, or air, or sky, so marvel- 
 ously formed as this little creature, fashioned after His 
 own image. The study of chemistry, with its revelation 
 of the subtle forces that lock and unlock the elements in 
 their ever-changing forms; the study of geology, with its 
 strange and thrilling story of the building of land and sea, 
 of the mighty cataclysms by which the mountains were 
 made; the study of astronomy, with its dazzling and 
 bewildering visions of unnumbered celestial worlds; — each 
 and all together are, with their companion sciences, 
 engaging the time and labor of a multitude of devoted 
 lovers, but these all sooner or later discover their unity in 
 the Mind of which the child is the image. It then 
 becomes again the most interesting of all the themes in 
 human experience. Are we teachers realizing as we 
 ought the dignity of our calling and the nobility of the 
 child that invites us to its study ? 
 
 Watch the Machinery ! As we were driving past a 
 field in which a mower was doing poor work, a farmer 
 said to me: " My neighbor has many mishaps with his 
 machinery and his repair bill is a great item of expense 
 each year. I have more machinery than he, but it costs 
 me little to keep it in repair." " Why the difference ? " 
 I asked. He replied: " / always watch my 7nachinery. If 
 
Among Ourselves. 43 
 
 a nut comes loose, I see it and tighten it before it falls 
 off; if a bolt breaks, it is at once replaced; if a belt begins 
 to give way, it is spliced ; if a bar is bent, it is straightened 
 at noontime; if a journal gets hot easily, it is promptly 
 adjusted; if the cog wheels make too much noise, they 
 are equalized: and so I seldom have a serious mishap." 
 His machines are always in order, they run easily, they 
 do good work, and as a result he is always in good humor 
 himself. Not so with his neighbor. He repairs his 
 machines when they will run no longer. A jar or a rattle is 
 nothing to him, and when the crisis comes he has the bill 
 to pay. His temper is in keeping with his machines and 
 he is eternally grumbling about the way things are going. 
 If there be a school-teacher who cannot see the applica- 
 tion of the above, he ought to surrender his certificate and 
 — buy afar?n! 
 
 Re-create. In teaching pupils to sing, Superintendent 
 Powell strives to develop the impulse to re-create every- 
 thing they utter — to appropriate what they meet and then 
 to express it as their own. It is the old principle of 
 putting yourself in the author's place, seeing what he saw, 
 feeling what he felt, and then speaking as he spoke; but 
 it has a wider significance, in that it tends to the develop- 
 ment of the pupil's own resources, to the quickening of 
 his impulses to self-activity, to habits of original thinking 
 and acting. What though the efforts are crude at first, 
 what though he makes many blunders in thought and 
 form, they are vastly better than any parrot-like imitation 
 or repetition of author or of teacher. One day the indi- 
 viduality will succeed in expressing itself in such a fresh 
 
44 Among Ourselves. 
 
 and original way that some people will think a man has 
 come to town ! 
 
 Whose Fault? Statistics show that from 80 to 85 per 
 cent of the children in the public schools drop out before 
 reaching the high school. Somebody is to blame for it. 
 Is it you ? Is it I ? Is it all of us ? Is it the system ? 
 If you are not interesting the children in their work, nor 
 helping them to glimpses of the attractive storehouses of 
 knowledge beyond, then yours is the blame. If I am not 
 widening their vision, not begetting keener appetites for 
 beauty and truth, then I am at fault. If all of us are not 
 exalting the manhood and womanhood of generous culture 
 and are not constantly drawing the children to us and to 
 it, then the condemnation comes to all. If the system 
 does not reach the various sides of the child nor tend to 
 bring him into harmony with the ideal life, then the system 
 needs readjusting at once. I have a lurking little sus- 
 picion that the fault may lie in any of these and that a 
 little more devotion to one's own sphere and work will 
 soon show a great change in the attendance at our high 
 schools. It is said of a certain ward principal in Kansas 
 City that nearly every single pupil completing the work in 
 his building entered the high school, while often a small 
 per cent entered from many other wards. The contagious, 
 unflagging, irresistible enthusiasm and tact of the prin- 
 cipal affected alike teachers and pupils. Shall we not go 
 and do likewise ? 
 
 Shall Teachers Dye ? In speaking of a certain candi- 
 date recently, a member of a school board said: "I 
 quickly made up my mind about him. He had evidently 
 
Among Ourselves. 45 
 
 dyed his beard and his hair before interviewing us, and I 
 prefer a natural man." So say we all of us. There may 
 be a reason for the use of dye stuffs, but its meaning on 
 a man's face is just as evident as on his clothes and he 
 ought not to expect it to pass where fresh and bright 
 goods are in competition. 
 
 The Architect of the Divine. Not the Divine Archi- 
 tect, but the architect of the divine. William Hawley- 
 Smith says he visited a magnificent high- school building 
 which he failed to examine because he had only time to 
 visit the recitations. He said, of course buildings and. ap- 
 paratus " are all well enough and we must have more or 
 less of them; but you know there are houses not made with 
 hands that are greater than hands have ever made; and 
 to see that possible architect of the divine — the teacher — 
 actually at work upon the sacred materials he has to deal 
 with — to see this any time and anywhere is a sight for 
 gods and men." 
 
 "Nobody Kisses Me!" A little girl almost within 
 the shadow of the Normal building, said to a motherly 
 neighbor the other day : " Nobody kisses me! Mamma is 
 always too busy and my grandpa and grandma and my 
 aunties spend so much time with other people that they 
 do not have time to love me! " And with this she burst 
 into an uncontrollable fit of weeping. Poor child! If 
 in these tender years she is denied the caresses of those 
 she holds most dear, how cold and dreary must all life 
 seem to her; how dwarfed and stunted must be all of those 
 nobler emotions which spring from loving and being loved. 
 Whoso offendeih one of these little ones, offendeth me also ! 
 
4 6 Among Ourselves. 
 
 Eternal Vigilance. A letter came to the office the 
 other day from one of the promising young principals of 
 the State. He took pains to educate himself for his work, 
 is popular with his pupils and patrons, and is ambitious 
 for promotion, but this letter given to the public would 
 drive him from almost any position in Kansas. What was 
 the matter with it ? Only this, in two pages he had made 
 several egregious mistakes in capitalization, violated 
 nearly as many rules of grammar, ignored or misused 
 punctuation marks ad libitum, ad infinitum. He can only 
 maintain his standing by being continually watchful of 
 every detail, even the most minute. These little things — 
 they are not little things — reveal the character of the man 
 more truly than he imagines, not necessarily the man as 
 he now is, but as he soon will be, if he continues to be 
 careless. 
 
 Let the Child Gape. The other day a little girl in 
 front of my pew innocently gaped during the sermon. In 
 her anxiety to have the child do everything properly, the 
 mother gently patted the little mouth shut. I was pleased 
 at her tenderness and yet could not but think how over- 
 anxious she was in noticing such a trifle and what a mis- 
 take she was making in suppressing that quiet little effort 
 at relief which the child's comfort imperatively demanded. 
 It but illustrates many cases, however, and it too often 
 happens that the reproof is very harshly administered. 
 For very innocent and most natural actions children are 
 constantly being humiliated and punished by thoughtless 
 parents and teachers. Recent investigations show that in 
 a great majority of a long list of cases of punishments, the 
 
Among Ourselves. 47 
 
 offenses were of the most trivial nature, many of which 
 should never be noticed at all. Scores of times have I 
 seen children sent out of the room crying because of an 
 unreasonable whim, or a puerile notion of propriety that 
 suddenly possessed the head of the family. Let us not 
 forget that children are children and must be permitted to 
 act as children. Be watchful of the essentials, even in 
 little things, but do at least let the five-year-olds gape 
 occasionally, if they wish. 
 
 The Curfew Tolls ! This old-time custom is rapidly 
 reviving, and many towns throughout the West have found 
 it a helpful way to keep the hoodlums off the street after 
 nine o'clock at night. The street has always been a 
 school of vice, but the street at night is the anteroom to 
 the worst place named in the dictionary. Why parents 
 permit boys and even girls to mingle night after night 
 with its filthy, foul-mouthed rabble cannot be explained. 
 There are some good boys on the streets some times at 
 night, but the regular frequenters may be put down at 
 once in the doubtful column. Alas, some homes are no 
 better for the children, but in many of them, they at 
 once go to sleep which is some consolation anyhow. So 
 favorable are the testimonies of citizens in cities where the 
 ordinance is in force that all good people ought to urge 
 its adoption everywhere. Let the curfew toll ! 
 
 Time for the Boys. The other day I was conversing 
 with a father, a farmer, about his boys. All of them had 
 been studious and ambitious, several of them going 
 through college and into the learned professions. He 
 said : " I will tell you the secret of it all; my wife always 
 
4-8 Among Ourselves. 
 
 had time to answer their questions. No matter how busy 
 or tired she was, no matter how many questions they had 
 asked during the day, from the moment they could raise 
 an interrogation point until they were off to college, she 
 found time to. answer every question even about the most 
 trivial thing, carefully, kindly, and intelligibly. Their 
 mother has always been ready to plan and to talk with 
 them and they have always prized her counsels." How 
 many fathers have failed to do this themselves for their 
 boys. In how many homes do the inquiries of the 
 children secure nothing but ridicule and rebuff. Curiosity 
 and wonder, without which every child must remain a 
 dunce, are brutally stifled and suppressed at every turn 
 until the children get wise enough to ask no questions 
 and to smother even the longing for the affection and 
 confidence of those who brought them into the world. 
 Is it any wonder that such parents are disappointed 
 in their children ? Better take time for the children. 
 You must do it sooner or later. If not when they are 
 prattling about your knees, you will do it as they grow 
 into their teens and into manhood and womanhood in 
 sleepless nights, in long and bitter hours of anxiety and 
 remorse. 
 
 Possibility and Recognition. Great possibilities and 
 grand privileges are not uncommon, they are indeed very 
 frequent and general — the rule rather than the exception. 
 Possibility and privilege is one thing, recognition of them 
 through gaining real success and true greatness and 
 creditable distinction is quite another thing. Many a 
 one who thinks he has never had a chance has had a mul- 
 
Among Ourselves. 49 
 
 titude of chances, but did not recognize them and take 
 possession. If all who hear my words would use rightly 
 their talents, would develop possibility, would accept the 
 promises and obey the injunctions, the roll call of the 
 eternities would show a long list of the great, the worthy, 
 the distinguished, and the successful in this company. 
 Great are the chances, the openings, the opportunities — 
 such are the universal laws of life, but only the fully 
 worthy, the genuinely noble, the truly holy, the rich in 
 godliness are able to triumph gloriously and possess the 
 things that last forever. God uses men, but those alone 
 who are in harmony with the conditions, who are willing 
 to put themselves into the proper attitude of usefulness, 
 who are able to be sincere in fidelity and thus carry out 
 the laws of God in the gaining of things of value, eternity 
 and indestructibility. " Many are called but few are 
 chosen," not because many are not desired, nor necessary 
 to the great work of the world, but because the few alone 
 are ready and respond to the call. Heed the call, be 
 ready for the service, prepare for great things, is the 
 proclamation of the King of Kings, the Maker of destiny 
 — the Rewarder of the upright in heart. — Dr. H. H m 
 Seerly. 
 
 The Heart of Gold. 
 
 " A sunbeam, sunk in the black pond, told 
 Of the sky so blue with its heart of gold, 
 Till out of that black pond's ooze and mould 
 Sprang the lily white with its heart of gold," 
 
 Had the sky no heart of gold, neither the lily nor its 
 
50 Among Ourselves. 
 
 heart of gold would rise in pond or strean. A lesson is 
 here for every teacher that will stop a moment to think. 
 
 "The Boys Were Gentlemen. " The highest compli- 
 ment ever paid to the gentle, the wise-hearted Gerson was 
 that, after he had gone, the common people were wont to 
 say : "The boys were gentlemen in Gerson's day." Re- 
 flecting upon this, I wonder whether this same record 
 might not be worthy the ambition of any teacher. As one's 
 work is done, to have the assurance that the children under 
 his care have not only grown wiser and stronger, but that 
 they have also grown truer, nobler, gentler, is compensation 
 enough for a life of toil and sacrifice. Confidentially, how 
 is it with the children in your schoolroom these days? 
 Are the boys gentlemen and the girls ladies ? 
 
 That Bath-tub. Following close upon the action of 
 the Chicago School Board, the Boston board, "after a 
 heated discussion," has decided to introduce the bath in 
 one of its schools as an experiment. Children who come 
 to school unwashed or poorly washed are to be turned into 
 the bath until the proper grade of cleanliness is attained. 
 That a Boston child should be insulted by the suggestion 
 of the need of a bath has roused the old spirit of the revo- 
 lution, and hence the bitter protest of the common people. 
 But the school board is right. The health of teachers and 
 pupils alike demands the bath-tub with hot water, " Pear- 
 line," and crash towels, for children who do not have such 
 luxuries at home. Filth is the breeder of all kinds of 
 loathsome diseases and it has no place in the schoolroom. 
 
 The Teacher's Ubiquity. The Eureka Herald says a 
 city teacher recently found it necessary to give a small boy 
 
Among Ourselves. 51 
 
 a " little talking to " for stealing an apple. He was very 
 repentant and was evidently sorry for the offense. The 
 teacher, in order to make the lesson a little more impress- 
 ive, asked him this question : " Who sees you at the time 
 and takes note of your misdoings?" The little fellow, in 
 a tearful, trembling voice, replied: "You do ! " Many 
 a boy or girl has a similar notion of his teacher, and it is 
 not a bad reputation for the teacher to have. If the child 
 thinks the teacher is pretty sure to discover his sin, it proves 
 a great help to resist the temptation. Later, the strength 
 gained enables him to resist from higher motives. Many 
 teachers fail in government because they are not every- 
 where with their pupils and not always awake to their fail- 
 ures as well as their needs. 
 
 " Only Eight Months of School." " Well, the city is 
 out of money and we must do the nine months' work in 
 eight." Just so! But the school-teachers will then be 
 out of money too, I suppose. Would it not be better for 
 each of the four or five hundred tax-payers to pay three or 
 four dollars apiece extra to continue the school nine months 
 rather than that each of the thirty teachers should be asked 
 to accept from forty to fifty dollars less for the year's work, 
 thus practically making the taxes of each just that much ? 
 But the injustice is even greater to the children, for that 
 extra month's work is necessary in order that the most of 
 them may properly maintain their class standing and com- 
 plete the course. Just such a reduction as this discour- 
 ages and drives out of the schoolroom many of our best 
 teachers and sets adrift hosts of boys and girls who other- 
 wise would be found at their posts. I know that such a 
 
52 Among Ourselves. 
 
 reduction sometimes seems a necessity, but more often it 
 may be avoided by wise planning and a very little sacrifice 
 on the part of the patrons. 
 
 Where Has Curiosity Gone ? For the first five years 
 of a child's life everything has interest for him. He is so 
 eager to learn that he can often keep two or three people 
 busy investigating and answering his questions. He carries 
 much of this same longing into the schoolroom, bilt how 
 soon it is nearly all gone ! How soon does he lack all 
 interest and how soon it is necessary to drive him to his 
 tasks ! — Tasks ! Ah, that is now the proper word to use ! 
 But what has become of all that glowing, that irrepressible 
 wonder which was never satisfied until the tired eyes closed 
 in sleep ? Who is responsible for it ? Wherein has the 
 teacher failed to adjust himself to the child so as to increase 
 and magnify this thirst to know? I entered a room re- 
 cently where the children were taxing the resources and 
 ingenuity of the teacher to meet their multitudinous appeals 
 for information, while in the same building the pupils of 
 another teacher were inattentive and stupid beyond belief. 
 Each was responsible for the condition of her pupils and 
 each was getting her reward. The first found joy in her 
 work ; the second found drudgery in it, nothing more. 
 
 Love Them ! " What shall I do to my seventy little 
 foreigners that roll into my schoolroom every morning ? 
 They speak fourteen different languages and their faces and 
 clothes are covered with even a greater variety of dirt. 
 They are as turbulent as so many little pigs, and I am con- 
 stantly at my wits' end to know what to do with them." 
 So said a young teacher to me two years since. I replied: 
 
Among Ourselves. 5$ 
 
 11 Love them /" She laughed and said: "I have been 
 doing that, and they all love me dearly, but that is a 
 little thing to do." And yet it was the greatest thing she 
 was doing, for out of her love sprang a thousand little 
 devices whereby she might serve the children, and coming 
 spontaneously, unselfishly, it proved helpful beyond any 
 ken of hers. So she worked away, loving them and serv- 
 ing them and making sunshine for them and teaching them 
 to serve each other, and one day she was surprised by a call 
 to a larger city and better pay. Here she works as earnestly 
 as ever, and here the children love her just the same ; but 
 I often wonder whether they need her as much as those 
 " seventy little foreigners " who drew so strongly on her 
 affection and patience. The more loveless the lives of the 
 children, the more we need to love them. 
 
 " Not a Candidate for reelection" — Why not? 
 ". Because I have already served two terms as county super- 
 intendent, and the prejudice against a third term is so 
 strong that I do not care to ask my friends for their sup- 
 port further. " There are probably twenty or thirty just 
 such county superintendents in Kansas to-day who have 
 been eminently successful in their offices and who by virtue 
 of their experience and acquaintance with the schools of 
 the county would be two or three times as valuable as any 
 other man could possibly be, and yet, on account of this 
 foolish sentiment, are set aside for an untried man or woman. 
 If it did not mean such a great loss to the teachers and the 
 children of the county, we might be content ; but in their 
 name we raise our protest and urge the friends of the 
 schools everywhere to rise in their might and right this 
 
54 Among Ourselves. 
 
 great wrong. Little permanent improvement can be made 
 in the schools of a county as long as these frequent changes 
 in the superintendent occur. That county or that city 
 which has attained to any efficiency or to any eminence in 
 the educational world has reached it by the wise guidance 
 of a single man, and not by a constant change of men. 
 There is neither educational nor business sense in this 
 " anti-third-term " cry, at least so far as it pertains to the 
 superintendency. We have been deploring it long enough. 
 If the teachers will demand, with practical unanimity, the 
 renomination of competent and faithful superintendents, 
 the politicians will readily yield to us. The next election 
 is not too far ahead for us to begin to agitate the question 
 now. 
 
 Character. A teacher whose school is made up of 
 " odds and ends," writes me asking for a definition of 
 character. It may be denned as the sum of all the ele- 
 ments that go to make up the individual, his knowledge, 
 his disposition, his habits, his temperament, his motives, 
 his standard of right, his ambitions. Accordingly any- 
 thing that could be truthfully said of him would be raming 
 some element in his character. It may be good, bad, or 
 indifferent, but it is character just the same. Character is 
 very different from reputation, the former being what a 
 man is, and the latter, what he is thought to be. So a 
 man of bad character may have a fine reputation, and one 
 whose life is as pure as that of an angel, be regarded with 
 suspicion by many people. Reputation often has great 
 commercial or social value, hence it is a common thing for 
 people to be more solicitous about it than about their 
 
Among Ourselves. 55 
 
 character. In the long run, however, character and rep- 
 utation are usually in accord, for the time at last comes 
 when one's real character becomes known to all. Take 
 care of the character and the reputation will sooner or later 
 take care of itself. The same teacher wishes to know 
 
 " What are the Conditions of its growth and develop- 
 ment." A volume is necessary to answer this question. 
 Any condition will develop character, such as it is, but for 
 the development of character in the noblest and best sense 
 of the word, a healthy, Christian home is the first and most 
 important requisite. No other forces combine so effec- 
 tively to awaken the sense of respect for others, the spirit 
 of self-sacrifice, the impulse to serve one's fellow men, 
 true ideas of justice, and lofty conceptions of manhood. 
 The love and sympathy and mutual confidence, and the 
 infinite forbearance of such a home, combined with the 
 purity and sacredness of its atmosphere, as naturally pro- 
 duce exalted characters as sunshine and moisture and rich 
 loam produce towering oaks and sturdy elms. Character 
 is a growth, and these quiet forces slowly but effectually 
 evolve it. Next to the home, a good school embodying 
 as many of the features of the ideal home as possible, sup- 
 plies an essential condition. Good companions and good 
 books are auxiliaries of incalculable value. 
 
 " Are They Self -existent in the child or can they be 
 created in the school? " This question is already partly 
 answered. Capacity for development is necessary. A 
 child with sense enough to learn anything, furnishes the 
 subjective condition. A little acquaintance with him will 
 soon discover his intellectual bias, his emotional tendency, 
 
56 Among Ourselves. 
 
 and his control of himself. A knowledge of what may be 
 expected of a normal child is just as essential as a knowl- 
 edge of this particular child, for thus only can a fair idea 
 of the work of teacher or parent be obtained. The objec- 
 tive conditions should be provided in the school ; they 
 are to be found in the subjects taught, in the way they are 
 taught and the resultant habits in the child, in the man- 
 agement of the school, and above all in the character 
 and the spirit of the teacher. I can conceive of nothing 
 in the way of surroundings, in the books provided, in 
 the physical condition of the schoolroom, in the method 
 and the manner of the teacher, that does not contribute its 
 part in determining what the child shall be. Neatness and 
 order, promptness and system, thoroughness and persever- 
 ance, truth and sympathy in the schoolroom always be- 
 come more or less fully a part of the child. 
 
 " What is Your Method of building up a strong char- 
 acter? " Believing as I do that the chief function of the 
 teacher is simply to produce continually certain favorable 
 and stimulating conditions, for arousing the child's activi- 
 ties, I would set about at once to provide the conditions 
 already suggested, in the fullest possible measure. They 
 are the permanent factors always at work and always co- 
 operating with the various forces which come into the life 
 of the child with each new experience. If the teacher 
 now comes into close personal relationship with the pupil, 
 even to the exchange of friendly confidences, a further 
 powerful factor has also been introduced, victory already 
 being assured. To discriminate readily between right and 
 wrong, to find pleasure only in doing the right, and to be 
 
s4mong Ourselves. 57 
 
 able to follow the behests of the better self are the elements 
 making up the ideal character. A well-trained intellect 
 is, then, just as necessary as a well-trained will. The two 
 must always be conserving each other, the emotions con- 
 tinually stimulating their cooperation. The needs of each 
 child being known, every little experience, every bit of 
 real life, every lesson story, every tale of self-denial, of 
 sorrow, of struggle, of defeat, of victory, of justice, of ret- 
 ribution, may be utilized to clarify his notion of right and 
 to awaken impulses to right doing. Never-failing sympathy, 
 abundant patience, little chiding, frequent encouragement, 
 wise management of the little things, never fail in bringing 
 satisfactory results. Keep close to the child and one day 
 he will keep close to you and to your ideals. 
 
 Potato Tercentenary. (1896.) As we are enjoying 
 our Thanksgiving festivities the tercentenary of the intro- 
 duction of the potato into Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh is 
 being celebrated by the Irish people. Tubers Peach Blow, 
 tubers Peerless, tubers Early Rose, tubers Beauty of Heb- 
 ron, tubers Neshannock, tubers St. Patrick, tubers Snow- 
 flake, and tubers galore are on the exhibit tables of the 
 Irish Gardeners' Association vying with their cousins and 
 their uncles and their aunts in doing honor to the name of 
 Sir Walter. " The exact spot where the blessed plant 
 took root and blossomed to become forever after the 
 prized product of Irish and European soil," will be cov- 
 ered with garlands and made more sacred in the eyes of 
 Emerald's sons than ever before. In bringing the little 
 tuber to Europe, Raleigh strangely but forever united his 
 name with the destinies of the two continents, "an alii- 
 
58 Among Ourselves. 
 
 ance of prose and poetry" which will make his name 
 memorable when his other deeds will long have been for- 
 gotten. This bit finds a place here to enable me to say 
 that at no other time could such interest be aroused in the 
 study of this great staple, the most common, the most pal- 
 atable, the most wholesome of all the vegetable foods that 
 come to the tables of the Anglo-Saxon, the Teutonic, and 
 the Celtic races. Its history always reads like a fairy tale, 
 but at such a time as this it glows with added interest, par- 
 ticularly to the young. The wide-awake teacher takes 
 advantage of such anniversaries and celebrations to give 
 them reality and significance which ordinary days fail to 
 emphasize. What an event in history ! What a mighty 
 cargo of provisions for the oncoming millions did Sir 
 Walter carry in the curious root-stocks as he returned to 
 his old home that November in 1596 ! 
 
 The Difference between a good and a fairly good 
 teacher, to say nothing of a bad one, is incalculable, but, 
 like all things of the soul, inappreciable to the general 
 public. — G. Stanley Hall. 
 
 " Some sow the seed and sit and wait 
 For suns to shine and rains to fall 
 And mourn the harvest comes so late, 
 Or fear it will not come at all. 
 " Some, single-minded, still work on, 
 Nor stop to ask or understand ; 
 The rose-bloom of success is won, 
 And harvests ripen at their hand." 
 
 Finish Every Day and be done with it. You have 
 done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no 
 
Among Ourselves. 59 
 
 doubt, crept in ; forget them as soon as you can. To- 
 morrow is a new day ; begin it well and serenely, and 
 with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old non- 
 sense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too 
 dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment 
 on the yesterdays. — Emerson. 
 
 Always Sunshine. "You will always find her room 
 full of sunshine. That is the reason her children love her 
 so ! " Exactly ! There is no day in the year, however 
 gloomy it may be outside, but that you will find it bright 
 and cheery within. The rays are not sun's rays, but rays 
 coming from her warm heart and her cheery face, rays 
 that will penetrate any gloom and transform the most com- 
 mon-place room into a fairy's bower. 
 
 " What You Put In ! " A favorite educational prin- 
 ciple just now is that one gets out of every experience just 
 what he reads into it. A friend to-day said that " we get 
 out of children just what we put into them — they respond 
 in kind." The truth is that the larger part of the child's 
 life is of this responsive character, and skill in presenting 
 the stimuli determines not only the nature of each indi- 
 vidual response, but in due time the entire character of 
 the child. Heredity and imitation have their propor- 
 tionate influence, but here is the far greater reason why 
 children are so much like their parents. The difficulty in 
 managing children is not so much in the children as in 
 ourselves. 
 
 Merry Outside, but! "That teacher is one of the 
 merriest young women in all my acquaintance, at home or 
 in the social circle, but the moment she steps into the 
 
60 Among Ourselves. 
 
 schoolroom she becomes as rigid as an iceberg and does 
 not relax during the day ! I have tried to break her of the 
 habit, but have failed." So said a zealous superintendent 
 to me recently. Any one who has taught school can un- 
 derstand that an emotion with such a tendency comes to 
 all of us as we stand at the teacher's desk for the first few 
 times, but many of us also know that we are heavily handi- 
 capped until we succeed in throwing it off entirely. This 
 intense self consciousness ruins work and destroys that 
 spontaneous reciprocal action between teacher and pupil, 
 which is the charm of all true school-keeping. 
 
 Scrub Out ! The Chicago school board is just now 
 making some radical changes in methods of caring for 
 school buildings. Hear what it says : "The sanitary care 
 of the school buildings is in keeping with the knowledge, 
 or rather ignorance, that obtained twenty years ago in 
 matters of hygiene, germ theory, and germ propagation." 
 Says Dr. Stewart Johnstone : " Our present knowledge in 
 this premise would call for a modern system of ventilation 
 and the scrubbing of floors with a disinfected solution at 
 least once a week, as well as walls so finished that they 
 could be gone over with a disinfectant as frequently. I 
 am persuaded that improved care of these public rooms 
 would lead to great diminution of all infectious diseases in 
 both children and adults." 
 
 Grade Yourself ! I am now receiving from the teach- 
 ers' agencies the following confidential inquiries about 
 teachers referring to me. Grade yourself on these points : 
 
 (a) Scholarship (thorough, good, or only fair) ? 
 
 (b) Could teacher have remained in any position he has 
 
Among Ourselves. 61 
 
 occupied had he so desired? If not, why? Has there 
 been a failure, or a partial failure, in any position? If so, 
 for what cause? Can he retain his present position? 
 Why does he leave ? If you had a position open in your 
 school such as he seeks, would you engage him? 
 
 (c) Are you confident teacher could manage success- 
 fully a very difficult room ? Has he never failed in disci- 
 pline ? 
 
 (d) Does he use tobacco? Liquor? Play cards? 
 Dance? Use profane or obscene language? Has his 
 character ever been questioned ? Is he of a quarrelsome 
 disposition ? Member of any church ? What church, if 
 any? 
 
 (e) , Neat and becoming in dress? Any unpleasant 
 mannerisms? Any peculiarities or eccentricities which in 
 any measure disqualify him for a position ? Voice gentle, 
 well modulated, or harsh? Cultured, or comparatively 
 indifferent to social requirements? Refined, polite, or in- 
 different, gruff, or b rusk ? Conversational ability? Use 
 good English ? 
 
 (_/") Single or married ? 
 
 Politics Not All. At the State Teachers' Association, 
 one of the speakers insisted that politics should be a part 
 of the school work, for "it is that only which makes 
 history." The idea is no less erroneous than the old one 
 which imagined history to be simply a recitation of wars. 
 We thought that teachers generally are now agreeing that 
 both of these subjects are but a small part of the real his- 
 tory of the world. No work on history is now acceptable 
 anywhere which does not magnify and exalt those great 
 
62 Among Ourselves. 
 
 movements in human history compared with which poli- 
 tics and wars are scarcely worthy of mention — the rise 
 and growth of the world's great industries, its commerce, 
 its literature, its art, its religion, its morals, its educational 
 systems, the development of its natural resources, etc., etc. 
 Come, brother, wake- up ! 
 
 The Rugby Way. The Master, in speaking to the 
 boys about the Doctor's way of introducing reforms, offers 
 a good hint for us all. He said the Doctor quietly, 
 naturally puts a "good thing in the place of the bad, let- 
 ting the bad die out ; no wavering and no hurry — the 
 best thing that can be done for the time being and no 
 hurry for the rest." This is in sharp contrast with the 
 bluster and impatience so frequently manifested in certain 
 superintendents and principals even in our day. 
 
 With a Withe ! " Mary whipped Henry with a 
 withe," said the speaker, and thirty school-teachers had to 
 go to the dictionary to discover whether he pronounced 
 the last three words correctly. Try it yourself and consult 
 the International. 
 
 Quit It ! It is high time to stop making fun of the 
 children's efforts at writing in rhyme or prose about the 
 beautiful snow and about spring. There is a time in life 
 when every child naturally wishes to say something about 
 both, and he is entitled to the privilege, just as you were. 
 It is a part of his development and ought to be encouraged. 
 More, the immortal poem about each is to be written yet, 
 and many millions of people must make the effort before 
 it is done. Shortly before Tennyson died, he thought it 
 not beneath his great genius to write an Ode to Spring. 
 
Among Ourselves. 65 
 
 Hard Times. One of the young men of the University 
 writes me that the work of the students has greatly im- 
 proved since he was there several years ago. He believes 
 it to be the result of the hard times. '• Formerly many 
 of the boys and girls felt that their parents had plenty of 
 money, and they could just as well have a good time while 
 the opportunity offered, but now they see the necessity of 
 economizing and of anticipating their entrance into real 
 life. They now give a great deal more thought about what 
 they are going to do when they finish their college course. 
 What blessings may sometimes follow- seeming adversity!" 
 This is but a repetition of the true story everywhere. 
 Fathers and mothers too frequently mourn because they 
 cannot supply their children with plenty of money, when 
 in many cases it would be their ruin. These hard times 
 may have their sorry side, — they also have much of com- 
 fort. They stimulate endeavor and make men where pros- 
 perity makes pigmies. Blessed be hard times ; for they 
 sooner or later bring us true prosperity. 
 
 Then and Now. In speaking of the introduction to the 
 new course of study proposed for the Kansas schools, a 
 leading teacher said, "That could not have been read intel- 
 ligently by the teachers twenty years ago. ' ' Which remark 
 reminds us that at that time there were very few teachers 
 in the public schools who pretended to know anything 
 about psychology, particularly as related to education, and 
 that a far less number had any acquaintance with a work on 
 teaching with any philosophic basis. About that time the 
 translation of Rosenkranz's Pedagogics began to put life 
 into the dry bones, and the leaves on the mulberry began 
 
66 Among Ourselves 
 
 to shake a little. Some pioneers had struck out into the 
 new field, and many teachers were doing ' ' a sight of think- 
 ing," but they were exceeding wary of any book even 
 slightly sprinkled with metaphysical terms. Since then 
 books have multiplied so rapidly that the bibliography of 
 education makes a great volume itself; terms then strange 
 and ponderous have become as familiar as household words ; 
 the educational problem has shifted around a dozen times ; 
 and now there are few teachers in any locality who are 
 willing to acknowledge that they have not heard of the 
 change that has come over the schoolmaster, at least by par- 
 cels if not distinctly. For a half dozen years the giants have 
 been disputing over the meaning and application of a few 
 terms coming prominently forward with the Herbartian 
 psychology, and they are now moving on to other questions 
 of great attractiveness, and, possibly of greater importance. 
 The average teacher can no longer afford to be abashed in 
 the presence of these terms, and for their sakes we attempt 
 a simple explanation of a few of them. 
 
 Apperception. Robbed of its metaphysical cloak, it is 
 simply the process by which the mind interprets a new ex- 
 perience by bringing to bear upon it the knowledge gained 
 in past experiences. Everything one learns becomes a part 
 of his mental mechanism, and as it becomes organized into 
 himself, this new self, with each recurring experience in- 
 terprets and gives it a meaning which is always colored and 
 determined by the effect past experience, past knowledge, 
 has had upon the self. The principle has long been rec- 
 ognized, but not generally well defined; neither has its far- 
 reaching function in education been understood by many. 
 
Among Ourselves. 67 
 
 It has given startling emphasis to the idea that in all in- 
 struction the psychological order, or the order in which a 
 subject develops to each individual mind, must ever be 
 paramount to the logical order. 
 
 Concentration. This word shifts the view a little. It 
 means rather the bringing of past related knowledge to bear 
 upon a present experience, than of the self as organized as 
 a result of past experience or past knowledge. It refers 
 more specifically to the knowledge used than to the self. 
 We may say that we apperceive by concentration. If 
 there be no concentration, there is no apperception. 
 Concentration is the means by which we apperceive. 
 It is the process of applying self and what self knows to 
 the understanding, the apperception of the present experi- 
 ence. All of this being true, it is held by many that it is 
 possible to arrange a course of study so related that each 
 item of knowledge shall be so successfully anticipated by 
 that which goes before, that a vast amount of time and 
 labor shall be saved to the children, and that the educa- 
 tional results shall be far more satisfactory than at present. 
 
 Correlation. To do this, the interrelations of the 
 various branches of learning must be discovered and the 
 subjects so organized into a course of study that they will 
 not only be mutually illuminating and stimulating each 
 other, but that they will be arousing all sides of the child's 
 activity and promoting the harmonious development of all 
 his faculties. That there is such a relationship and de- 
 pendence, no one disputes, but the extent to which it may 
 be wrought, out in a general scheme of studies or in a prac- 
 tical way in the schoolroom is the live educational problem. 
 
68 Among Ourselves. 
 
 Correlation discovered arid expressed in a formal way 
 without regard to the relation of the subjects to the de- 
 mands of the growing mind would be of little value, but 
 with these demands controlling, it will furnish invaluable 
 aid in utilizing the principle of concentration in the school- 
 room. 
 
 Law of Congruence. This principle was given special 
 prominence by the able report of Dr. B. A. Hinsdale 
 to the National Council of Education in 1895. The 
 natural and spontaneous tendency of certain muscles and 
 of other parts of the physical organism to act in mutual 
 accord, as well as a similar tendency on the part of the 
 different mental faculties, suggests at once the idea that the 
 work of education would be greatly simplified if this ten- 
 dency were more generally recognized and its real nature 
 better understood. Concentration will be profitable only 
 when in accord with the laws of congruency. Nature will 
 not be forced. She has her own ways of doing things, 
 and man is most successful when he works in harmony 
 with her. If he furnishes the conditions in the way and at 
 the time she demands, she will do the rest, and her response 
 will be in generous measure. The principle is just as true 
 in the subjects of knowledge. There is a certain congru- 
 ency, a definite way in which they come to reenforce each 
 other, based upon the laws of association and suggestion, 
 that must always dictate their arrangement in any course 
 of study. The subtleness and delicacy of their interactions, 
 and their dependence upon the particular state of the con- 
 sciousness at the particular time at which they come in 
 contact with it, make the problem of correlation one of 
 
Among Ourselves. 69 
 
 the most difficult in all pedagogy. It is easy enough to pre- 
 pare a scheme in which the different subjects are mechan- 
 ically correlated, but the contingencies of congruency are 
 so numerous that there must always be left room enough for 
 its free play. So the laws of concentration and correlation 
 are all subservient to the supreme law of congruency. 
 
 " Over Their Heads ! " Teachers as well as preachers 
 are frequently talking " over the heads " of their children, 
 and consequently the little people lose interest and no 
 profit comes. Recently a friend of mine talked very 
 entertainingly to some children, and yet it was evidently 
 of more interest to the older children than to the little 
 people. In order to satisfy myself as to the effect which 
 the talk had upon them, I asked one whose age was much 
 above that of the average if he could give me the meaning 
 of some of the words which my friend used. The follow- 
 ing is the result : 
 
 "Poise means boys;" "Triumph means to work 
 harder;" " Swoop means something to drink;" "Wis- 
 dom means smart; " " Discover means first one to find 
 out;" "Provides means to give you;" "Microscope 
 means look at through a glass." 
 
 The boy said he did not know the meaning of victim, 
 national emblem, rapidity, impressed, Assyrian, Babylon, 
 vivid, and Isaiah. There were many words which I noted 
 that I thought were too difficult for the children, that he 
 defined very satisfactorily. There were others which I 
 was satisfied he could not define, but they came too 
 rapidly for me to note. The boy is a very intelligent 
 
70 Among Ourselves. 
 
 little fellow and is considered by his teachers as more in- 
 telligent than the other boys of his age. 
 
 Anniversaries. Superintendent Gove, of Denver, 
 issues an order to the principals of the several schools in 
 that city to fly the national flag from sunrise to sunset on 
 the opening and closing days of each term, on national 
 and State holidays, and also upon the following named 
 days: 
 
 !8o9 — Feb. 12: Birthday of Lincoln. 
 
 xy-p — Feb. 22: Birthday of Washington. 
 
 1865 — April 9: Appomattox. 
 
 1 775 — April 19: Battle of Lexington. 
 
 1822 — April 27: Birthday of Grant. 
 
 1789 — April 30: Inauguration of Washington and, 
 1803, contract signed for the purchase of the Louisiana 
 Territory. 
 
 !6o7 — May 14: Founding of Jamestown. 
 
 1844 — May 27: First telegraphic message. 
 
 I777 — June 14: Adoption of the flag by Congress. 
 
 1775 — June 17: Battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 j8o7 — Sept. 2: First trip of steamboat. 
 
 ! 783— Sept. 3: Treaty of Paris. 
 
 1862— Sept. 22: Emancipation Proclamation. 
 
 1492— Oct. 12: Columbus discovered America. 
 
 1781 — Oct. 19: Cornwallis' surrender. 
 
 1783— -Nov. 25: Evacuation of New York City by the 
 British. 
 
 1620— Dec. 22: Forefathers' Day. 
 
 No Parting There! A teacher in Ohio, recently 
 lectured her children on the subject of combing the hair 
 
Among Ourselves. 7* 
 
 and incidentally severely condemned the habit of young 
 men parting their hair in the middle. True to a peculiar 
 instinct that comes spontaneously in some quarters, a 
 dozen boys came to school next day with their hair care- 
 fully parted in the middle. She invited them into the 
 cloak-room one by one, and they came out properly 
 balanced. Now the parents are siding with the boys and 
 insist that their personal liberty has been infringed. A 
 lawsuit is likely to follow. We hope the courts may 
 decide this matter at once. There are certainly too many 
 boys parting their hair in the middle and too many girls 
 parting their hair on one side. If the habit is not soon 
 suppressed* by the strong arm of the law, what awful 
 results must follow! 
 
 Punish at Leisure. By this I do not mean that we 
 should punish leisurely, though that may be a good 
 injunction. I mean that we should take plenty of time 
 to consider the nature of the offense and of the punish- 
 ment if any should be given. Too many people punish 
 children upon the impulse of the moment and regret it 
 afterward. All such punishments do more harm than 
 good. The teacher as well as the pupil should be self- 
 possessed and should thoroughly understand the matter 
 before he is ready to administer any punishment. 
 
 Expect the Best. We are probably all guilty of under- 
 rating the capacity of our pupils, and they soon imagine 
 that we do not expect much of them. Various reasons 
 may be named, but the child usually acts as his experience 
 teaches. When in college, my classmates and I usually 
 prepared our lessons much better for a certain professor 
 
72 Among Ourselves. 
 
 than for the others, because we knew he would not only 
 expect the best from us but that he would be content with 
 nothing else. Some of the other professors were disposed 
 to accept plausible explanations of failures and were con- 
 stantly inventing them themselves, or at least appeared to 
 be doing so. If we are expecting the best things from 
 our pupils, they naturally respond, and find pleasure in 
 doing them. No boy or girl ever amounted to much in 
 the schoolroom or out in the world who understood that 
 little was expected of him. Hold high ideals before your 
 pupils constantly and encourage them to strive for their 
 realization. 
 
 Time-keepers. C. P. Huntington, the great railroad 
 magnate, says that even when a boy he noticed that some 
 workmen were always watching the clock and that the 
 moment it struck, they threw down their tools wherever 
 they happened to be and adjourned for dinner. Others 
 took a few moments to finish the work in hand so that it 
 might suffer as little as possible, evidently thinking more 
 of their work than of their dinner and their rest hour. 
 He now asserts that these men who watched the clock are 
 still watching it, while the others have attained unto a 
 competency, and many of them to high and responsible 
 positions in the world. If any one succeeds, his mind 
 must be upon his work and not upon his meals. His 
 constant desire must be to do something useful and not 
 to spend his time in leisure. There are a multitude of 
 school-teachers who are faithful enough in beginning and 
 closing on time each day, but who do not find a moment 
 
Among Ourselves. 73 
 
 outside the legal hours for serving their children, and for 
 improving their work. They are merely time-keepers. 
 
 Had Not Seen Him. Recently I happened to call at 
 the desk of a principal who had just finished a letter to 
 the father of a bad boy telling him that it would be neces- 
 sary for him to be withdrawn from school. The principal 
 kindly read the letter to me. A word in it interested me 
 at once. I inquired of him whether he had seen the boy 
 himself. He said that he had not seen him, but that his 
 teacher had been laboring with him a long time and had 
 exhausted all her resources. I took the liberty of suggest- 
 ing that he had a personal responsibility himself and that 
 he might be doing the boy a great wrong by suspending 
 him without making an effort himself to reclaim him. 
 The letter to the father was withheld and I have every 
 assurance that it will never be sent. Principals and 
 superintendents have a personal duty to perform which 
 they are frequently overlooking. A little intelligent co- 
 operation on their part will often prove most valuable to 
 the subordinate teacher. The call to the superintendent's 
 room puts a little more serious aspect upon the conduct 
 of the pupil and impresses the necessity for immediate 
 reformation. Of course all cases should not come to the 
 principal, but because all should not come, it does not 
 necessarily follow that none should come. 
 
 Shall He Smoke ? The superintendent of Dolores 
 county, Colorado, has refused to issue a certificate to 
 teach to a graduate of the Toronto University, though he 
 meets all scholastic requirements. She bases her refusal 
 on the fact that he is an inveterate smoker and that the 
 
74 Among Ourselves. 
 
 law requires teachers to give instruction on the evils 
 resulting from the use of tobacco, which she thinks he 
 cannot do. Probably he might serve as a concrete illus- 
 tration, and would need to theorize very little about it. 
 Her position will bring the matter before the state board 
 of education and the question will soon be settled whether 
 the coming teacher shall smoke. 
 
 A CRY in the night; a lullaby song; 
 A chase through the fields for a butterfly; 
 Then musket-rattle, cannon, bell, and gong; 
 And night again, and hands that wring good-by. 
 
 — D. S. Landis. 
 
 Benefits of Travel ! " Well, I don't see any difference 
 between the people in Kansas and in Indiana; no Injuns 
 yet," said a middle-aged lady as she stared at the 
 natives crossing the street at Newton yesterday. A man 
 responded : ' ' Why, no ; do you not remember that these 
 people have all come from the East ? They are just as 
 refined and live in just as comfortable homes as any in 
 Posey county." After a long sigh, the old lady again 
 exclaimed : " Well, I do say! Sidewalks here too! One 
 learns many things on the cars that he cannot get out of 
 books! " 
 
 " Did Yer See My Name ? " "I rode over to St. Joe, 
 t'other day, and wheeled up in style to the old Jesse 
 James house and carved my name on it. Did yer see my 
 name in the papers next day ? " With all the satisfaction 
 of a hero, the boy leaned up against the depot and the 
 others looked on him in admiration. Here was a school 
 of three and here was a lesson that a whole week of con* 
 
Among Ourselves, 75 
 
 scientious teaching by the most skilful teacher could not 
 correct nor efface. In our plans for work in the home 
 and in the schoolroom, we must not forget this other 
 school and this other teacher that so easily touches the 
 inner nature of the child and fills it with deadly virus. 
 Talk about muzzling dogs to prevent their biting the 
 children! Far greater gain would come, if we could but 
 muzzle some of these teachers of the street ! 
 
 Mr. Barber! "It was Mr. Barber, you know him, 
 who first started us to try to get a better education. He 
 talked to us boys and girls, and we have been at work ever 
 since." So said the leader in a company of bright-faced 
 young people who stood before me the other evening 
 asking questions about the Normal. For three years he 
 had been among them, and though he had gone to 
 another field, they were still keenly eager for something 
 better than they yet had known. I am free to say that I 
 envied Mr. Barber a little just then, for no teacher could 
 wish higher reward thin the quiet testimony of those 
 high-school seniors to the quickening influence of his 
 devoted life. God bless you, Mr. Barber! 
 
 " Don't Take Home with You ! " In a window near 
 the Union depot at Kansas City, among a medley of wares 
 displayed, is a four-by-six envelope containing " four rich 
 and racy photographs." In large type is the suggestive 
 instruction, " Don't take home with you, however! " 
 Well, where are they to be taken ? Certainly to no clean 
 place; the devil knows best where! Is there no way of 
 stopping this nefarious business ? Does Kansas City 
 imagine that she can wink at such things and not always 
 
7 6 
 
 Among Ourselves. 
 
 be reaping the whirlwind ? Here is a good chance for 
 her city papers, which have often proved a terror to evil- 
 doers, to lead a reform. Clean out those show-windows. 
 Put wholesome, inspiring pictures, pure and stimulating 
 books in them and encourage the boys to seek the light 
 rather than the dark. 
 
 Jona Piper, an old-time fellow institute worker, ran in 
 on us the other day. He is feeble in body, but clear in 
 brain still. In a word in " 56 " he said: " This diagram 
 shows the assistance the child needs in education. At a 
 he is helpless, and the assistance he needs is represented 
 
 bee 
 
 ad/ 
 
 by ab. As he grows in body and mind, he needs less and 
 less of parent and teacher until at manhood, cd, he stands 
 alone, free. As old age appears, he needs just a little 
 help, then more and more, until he is helpless at/; and 
 then, — all is over! " In his earlier years, Mr. Piper used 
 but the rectangle abed, but now at seventy he adds cdef. 
 A pathetic story that whole rectangle tells, and yet it is 
 the history of every effort, of every triumph, of every life! 
 
 The child-heart is so strange a little thing — 
 So mild — so timorously shy and small 
 When grown-up hearts throb, it goes scampering 
 Behind the wall, nor dares peer out at all ! 
 
Among Ourselves. 77 
 
 It is the veriest mouse 
 That hides in any house — 
 So wild a little thing is any child-heart ! 
 
 Child-heart ! mild heart ! — 
 
 Ho, my little wild heart ! 
 Come up here to me out o' the dark, 
 Or let me come to you ! 
 
 — James Whitcoi?ib Riley. 
 
 Slow in Starting. In my yard is a large rose-bush, 
 loaded down with the most beautiful and fragrant roses in 
 our corner. For several years that bush stood there 
 obstinately refusing to grow. It was watered, and culti- 
 vated, and fertilized, and yet responded only with a few 
 sickly looking leaves and a warty little branch or two. 
 Last summer it ran up and out so vigorously that it even 
 outstripped some of its most hardy neighbors and now 
 eclipses them all with its glorious June blushes. There 
 are many children just like that rose. For some reason 
 they sit stupidly among their fellows, apparently learning 
 little and growing less, and yet one day they surprise 
 everybody by their keen interest, their ready judgment, 
 their wide grasp of details, their unsuspected powers. 
 Do not overlook these slow ones. Many of the greatest 
 men of all history did not wake up until they had passed 
 the age when most others had done their best work. 
 
 Always Do Your Best. Not many weeks ago, a friend 
 of mine was urging a certain teacher for a position, when 
 the response came, " I happen to know of her being 
 called upon to do some work recently and there was 
 nothing right about it." Her friend reported his recep- 
 tion, when she burst into tears, saying she ' ' did not 
 
78 Among Ourselves. 
 
 know that that work was of any importance." When 
 shall we learn that anything which is worth doing at all, 
 is worth doing well, and that the little things we are doing 
 every day make up our reputation ? 
 
 Try a New Spot ! Superintendent O. tells me that in 
 driving mules over the plains, he found that in applying 
 the whip to the same spot always, it soon had little effect, 
 but that if he reached around to a fresh place, the mule 
 promptly responded with a quicker pace. The principle 
 holds good in the management of children. If we keep 
 hammering away at one spot all the time, they are not 
 affected, but if we change the point of attack they are 
 easily aroused. Let us utilize this little bit of philosophy 
 from the mule-driver. If one incentive fails, try another, 
 and another. 
 
 Dear, Dear, What Can the Matter Be ? The Atchison 
 Globe says: " There is a new war-cloud in the sky, and 
 sympathizers and opposers of slavery never took a more 
 bitter part than is taken by those engaging in the 
 skirmishes that prelude the first battle. It is a war 
 between normal and university graduates, and the earth 
 will soon be covered with torn-up diplomas, hair, and 
 school books, and the sky spattered with blood before the 
 fight ends. If you haven't seen the signs of an approach- 
 ing storm, ask some school-teacher about it. If she is a 
 high-school or university graduate, praise a normal 
 graduate to her, and fizz! bang! will go the powder. 
 It's awfully silly, but awfully real." 
 
 Good Enough! A friend of mine, a county super- 
 intendent, has a boy of six, who was permitted to go with 
 
Among Ourselves. 79 
 
 him several times to visit schools. At one school he dis- 
 covered several pupils evidently deceiving their teacher in 
 the recitation. In his talk to the school afterward, the 
 superintendent told the old story of the ass donning the 
 lion's skin, laying special stress on the appearance of the 
 ears which finally revealed the deception. One day after 
 he had forgotten the incident, he mentioned the fact that 
 he had a good many schools to visit and wondered how 
 he was going to reach them all. Looking at his little tot, 
 he said in a serious way, " Could you not visit some of 
 them for me?" The boy said he could, and that he 
 would ride the old mare while his father could take the 
 buggy. "But," said the father, "you must make 
 speeches, you know." Hesitating a moment, he replied 
 that he thought he could do that, naming several little 
 speeches he had committed. His father said none of 
 them would be suitable, but at last with as much dignity 
 as a chief justice, the child said, " I can tell that jack 
 story, and I suppose that will do! " 
 
 That Teacher No Good ! " Well, she had been highly 
 recommended, had she not?" "Yes, but she is no 
 good, just the same. She works hard enough, but she is 
 only a miserable plodder. She evidently could wash 
 dishes and sweep the house as well as most people, but 
 she does not know how to handle boys and girls. She 
 was probably a good classroom student, but she is blind 
 to the beautiful world outside of books. She is good 
 enough and sweet enough, but she is such a negative 
 creature that she never stirs up anybody else to be good. 
 She may be interested in her work, but her pupils are the 
 
80 Among Ourselves. 
 
 worst idlers I ever saw. She is as quiet as a church- 
 mouse herself, but bedlam breaks loose in her school 
 several times a day. She may know all about scientific 
 grammar, but she cannot talk one minute without violat- 
 ing some simple principle in language. " And on he went, 
 with buts enough to satisfy anybody that the teacher was 
 "no good." Now, who do you suppose recommended 
 her? A superintendent who knew that she was "no 
 good," but — and here the round of buts begins again, 
 but— 
 
 Forty Thousand Dollars ! President Knappenberger 
 recently startled the graduating class by declaring that it 
 owed the State of Kansas forty thousand dollars, "for 
 that is the sum the State is now paying each year for the 
 support of the State Normal School." That amount and 
 more the State expects to come back to it in the way of 
 better service to its children in the public schools. In a 
 similar way is every boy and girl educated at the people's 
 expense indebted to the State. The money going into 
 the public schools is given because the people consider it 
 a profitable investment. Whenever they are convinced 
 that it is not, the supply of funds will promptly stop. In 
 these days when so many people think that the State owes 
 them everything, it is well to remind them of their per- 
 sonal indebtedness to the State. Who has a better 
 opportunity to do this than the teacher ? If he fails to 
 send the children out into life conscious not only of their 
 monetary obligations but also of their great moral obliga- 
 tions to the community, he too fails to discharge one of 
 his highest duties. 
 
Among Ourselves. 81 
 
 Its Real Endowment. Dr. Leffingwell says that ' the 
 real endowment of an institution of learning is not in 
 bonds and real estate, but in the consecration of noble 
 lives to her service." Large incomes are desirable, but 
 the consecration is essential. Money makes an institution 
 independent, but consecration makes it serviceable. 
 Kansas boasts of her schoolhouses and her princely 
 public school fund, but if the hearts of the teachers are 
 not correspondingly large and their devotion to the chil- 
 dren not correspondingly great, there will be little gain. 
 Money may command talent, but the children need more 
 than that in their teachers; they need loving, sympathetic 
 companionship, that unselfish devotion which is akin to 
 that of the mother, that self-sacrificing service which love 
 only is always begetting. 
 
 " Great Scott, Mary ! " The patience of little Mary's 
 mother was exhausted, and so the child was sent upstairs 
 to think over her offences and decide what she was going 
 to do about them. She soon appeared below with a 
 cheerful face, and her mother said, " Well, Mary, what did 
 you do upstairs?" "Oh, I told the Lord all about it 
 and asked him to forgive me." " And what did he say, 
 my child ? " " He said, ' Great Scott, Mary! You are 
 not half so bad as many other children I know! ' " It 
 is possible that Mary may not have been so bad as her 
 mother thought, and also that our own weariness and 
 nervousness may often cause us to think that our children 
 are much worse than they really are. Oh, that some good 
 spirit would the giftie gie us to see these little creatures 
 as the Lord sees them ! 
 
82 Among Ourselves. 
 
 The New Birth. Neither philosophy, nor art, nor 
 ethics, nor any sort of science can get through you to 
 the children in sealed packages. Truth must be reborn 
 in you before it is schoolroom wisdom. — W. L. Bryan. 
 
 Not to Die, but to Live. One of the speakers at 
 Denver said we ought to teach our young men and 
 women not how to die for their country but how to live 
 for it. That is the true doctrine. Enough men have 
 been dying for the country. What we now need is that 
 everybody should live for it. Forgetting ease, forgetting 
 self, forgetting gain, forgetting aught but the common 
 good, let everything be done with the happiness and 
 prosperity of the community only in view. Better patriot- 
 ism than this cannot be taught anywhere. 
 
 What Did You Lose? "Nothing." Beg pardon, 
 my friend, but you did lose something. It was a glorious 
 opportunity to give that discouraged pupil a kind word 
 of sympathy and to make him feel that he has a friend in 
 you. It is too late now and the chance may never come 
 again. These are rare moments in your pupils' lives, and 
 unless you are constantly watching for them, you will 
 always be missing them. Your own soul is drying up for 
 the lack of the joy that would come to it from giving just 
 such help to your pupils. 
 
 Be Definite. The bane of much of our teaching is its 
 indefiniteness. Pupils get vague notions of things and 
 imagine them knowledge. They have no shape in their 
 minds and never find expression in language. This 
 dreamy way of thinking soon becomes a habit, and then 
 farewell to all positive mental growth. Do not tolerate 
 
Among Ourselves. 83 
 
 it in yourself nor in your pupils. Know one thing well 
 rather than a mere smattering of a hundred. Remember 
 for the thousandth time over that it is not important how 
 much the pupil knows, but rather how well he knows it. 
 
 Teach with a Hook. Lachlan Campbell, in speaking 
 of a certain young preacher, said: "A fery nice young 
 speaker and well pleased with himself. But I have been 
 thinking. There was a laddie feeshing in the sum before 
 my house and a very pretty laddie he wass. He had a 
 rod and a string and he threw his line peautiful. It was 
 a great peety he had no hook, for it iss a great want, and 
 you do not catch many fish without a hook." That's it. 
 Pretty manners, graceful language, good humor, excellent 
 order may characterize a teacher's work, but if there be 
 no hook on his line, what is it all worth ? 
 
 With Enthusiasm. A pupil said to me the other day : 
 " I like my work fairly well, but the teacher is so poky 
 and slow. He has no enthusiasm and little method. I 
 like to have a teacher interest me. I like to have him 
 stir me up. I like to have him make me hungry for 
 something." One that reads this was that teacher, but 
 he is not the only one who fails in this direction. Too 
 many of us lack in spirit and in devotion. Nothing is so 
 infectious as enthusiasm, and many otherwise ordinary 
 teachers are successful because of their unbounded en- 
 thusiasm. Wake up, my brother; move a little more 
 rapidly, my sister. Even your pupils see how much of a 
 machine you are and how lifeless is your teaching. 
 
 Wash and Be Clean. It does not take long to wash 
 your face and hands thoroughly clean while you are at it, 
 
84 Among Ourselves. 
 
 and it adds much to your general appearance. A good 
 body bath twice a week will make you feel like a new 
 creature and will be a wonderful comfort to your friends. 
 No school-teacher can afford anything else. The other 
 day I heard a pupil complaining about a teacher, and that 
 teacher was a woman, too, and the burden of her com- 
 plaint was that she evidently had not had a good bath 
 since the warm weather began! Shame on any teacher 
 w r hose sloveliness calls forth such a criticism. Out on all 
 who are too lazy and too shiftless to keep themselves and 
 their clothing clean ! 
 
 Ventilate. There are five thousand schoolhouses in 
 Kansas, if the estimate be correct, where ventilation 
 receives little or no attention. It seems strange that the 
 foulest place in the district should be the schoolroom. 
 Recent investigations in New York, San Francisco, and 
 other large cities show a deplorable neglect of the simplest 
 principles of sanitary science. In many places filth from 
 sewers, cesspools, and factories contributes its unholy 
 share to the noxious air that rises from defective closets 
 and dark, damp alleys. Though windows may be raised 
 and registers open, the air reeks with poison still. It 
 were a consolation if these were the only places where the 
 health of the children is thus endangered. Whatever 
 limitations there may be in the large cities, there is no 
 excuse for vitiated air in Kansas schoolhouses. 
 
 Microbes. A Southern scientist has taken up the 
 cudgel in defence of the microbes. After showing how 
 beneficial they are in the water we drink, the air we 
 breathe, the food we eat, and how needful is a generous 
 
Among Ourselves. 85 
 
 stock scattered throughout the body for its healthful 
 functions, he almost makes one wish to add this petition 
 to his daily prayer, Lord, give us an abundance of microbes. 
 The article shows how little many of us know of the 
 hidden life round about us and it comes also as a 
 reminder of the existence of those subtler spiritual forces 
 which are everywhere at work round about and in and 
 through us. Without them we would soon drop into an 
 indifferent, sluggish mental and spiritual life whose end 
 could only be death. We are painfully conscious of the 
 forces that tempt to evil, and of the whole vile brood that 
 beget unholy desires, but we forget how many silent 
 voices are constantly calling us into a higher life and how 
 many thousand little impulses to be manly and true and 
 gentle and good come into our hearts every day. 
 
 See My Pants ! Some time since a little boy was put 
 on the program at a school exhibition for a recitation. 
 The fond mother spent no end of time in fitting him up 
 in a new suit of clothes for the occasion. He became 
 more interested in it than in his declamation. The 
 house was crowded, and when little Jim was called, he 
 strode forth in all the glory of a prince of the realm. 
 After making his bow, he hesitated a moment and then 
 called out in the heartiness of his pride, " See my new 
 pants! " The effort was too much for his little brain, and 
 he retreated in confusion without making any attempt to 
 recite. The case but illustrates the many where little 
 children are pushed forward before the public with the 
 idea that the dresses in which they appear are more 
 important than the exercises they are to present. It 
 
86 Among Ourselves. 
 
 would seem possible to engage the children so fully with 
 the recitation or the song that they would forget all else 
 save the story they are telling. Very early the child's 
 heart may be set on clothing and display, and very early 
 these things may be given a minor place in the child's 
 eyes. 
 
 Shame ! It is a common thing for a teacher to go 
 into a community and not receive even the poor courtesy 
 of a call from a single resident. We know of a young 
 woman of excellent social qualities, who went to a small 
 city last year to teach, and though she became an active 
 church-worker and president of the Endeavor society, but 
 one woman called upon her during the entire year. She 
 was literally giving her life for others, and yet those whom 
 she served failed to give her that sympathy and fellowship 
 which every soul craves. Thank the Lord, there are some 
 communities where teachers are shown the respect and 
 love they deserve, and the number of them is growing 
 greater each year. There is some consolation in knowing 
 that they treat the teacher about as they treat each other, 
 but it also shows how little these people are getting out 
 of the social life, and how selfishly they are living. Our 
 schools should not ignore this side of education, but 
 should improve every opportunity to encourage and 
 direct it. 
 
 Literature and Character. It is very evident that 
 our course of study is deeply rooted in the past, that 
 culture and civilization are a product not to be manufac- 
 tured to order, but a growth and registration in historical 
 and literary forms of racial experience and progress. The 
 
Among Ourselves. 87 
 
 reason why we harp so much upon literature and history 
 is because they contain in potent educative solution the 
 rich culture influences which we wish to see redeveloped 
 in every child. Moral and social culture, with all their 
 humanizing influence, are contained in the choicest litera- 
 ture of America and Europe. Here are the ideals of life, 
 revealed in their supreme strength and beauty. Here are 
 the examples of men and women who lift and inspire. 
 Here are revealed the moral qualities which should form 
 the backbone of character. — Chas. A. McMurry. 
 
 The Reward. Let us endeavor to make our pupils 
 love their work, without fearing us. They may live — God 
 knows — to love us. Whether they ever love us or not 
 perhaps matters but little, if we do our work single-heart- 
 edly. The mind conscious of right is itself no mean re- 
 ward. — D. W. Thompson. 
 
 That's the Way. The " Lieutenant " at Bonnal took 
 care that whatever went into the heads of the children 
 should be as clear and lucid as the silent moon in the 
 heavens. He said: "Nothing can be called teaching 
 which does not proceed on that principle." That's the 
 way the "Lieutenant" succeeded, and it's the way the 
 teacher down in District No. 5 succeeds too. 
 
 Fads. There are fads and fads, but simply because you 
 do not know anything about a new idea or a new principle 
 do not pronounce it a fad. Some people are calling child 
 study a fad. So they quickly set aside these great ques- 
 tions of apperception, correlation, and concentration 
 which are commanding the attention of the greatest minds 
 of the world to-day. They may be fads, but they are 
 
88 Among Ourselves. 
 
 neither freaks nor whims, and there is room on each hobby 
 for every teacher who may wish to keep up with the ad- 
 vancing procession. 
 
 Teach Neatness and Order. I happened in a primary 
 room yesterday as the teacher was about dismissing the 
 pupils and was pleased to see a little boy or girl pass- 
 ing up each aisle receiving and picking up scraps of all 
 kinds and depositing them in the waste-basket. There 
 was little work for the janitor when they had finished. 
 How neat and trim everything looked ! How bright and 
 happy were their little faces as they said good-night to 
 their teacher ! Who can tell how many homes would be 
 revolutionized after a few years' work with such a teacher ? 
 
 Schoolhouse Wells. Out of 183 cases of typhoid fever 
 in one year, in a city north of us, 180 of the persons af- 
 flicted had been using well-water. This reminds us how 
 many wells and cisterns, that stand unused during the long 
 vacation, are supposed to be ready for use as soon as the 
 pump-handle is fixed or bucket tied to the rope. Every 
 such well or cistern ought to be thoroughly cleaned out 
 before the pupils are permitted to use the water in them. 
 Filth, and too often death, is at the bottom. Teachers, 
 do not forget your responsibility in such matters. See 
 that the board understands its responsibility also. 
 
 Consistency. I met a man the other day who was not 
 sending his little eight-year-old boy to school because he 
 was unwilling to have him in classes with colored chil- 
 dren. I visited the school and found just one little col- 
 ored boy in the room which his boy would enter, and he 
 was a clean, neat, bright little fellow, holding his own 
 
Among Ourselves. 9 1 
 
 with them all. I afterward learned that the man I met 
 is a coarse, passionate father, carrying the treatment of his 
 family even to brutality at times, and often indulging in 
 unrestrained profanity. Be it said to the honor of the 
 colored people who have attended here, that their personal 
 habits as well as their morality and manners are highly 
 commendable. 
 
 " A Brutal Teacher.' • So one said recently of a 
 teacher who would not for his own right arm strike a 
 pupil with his hand or whip him with a rod, and yet his 
 words and manner strike his pupils so cruelly as to call 
 forth such an exclamation as the above. Some teachers, 
 even of great ability, forget the commonest courtesy due 
 their pupils, imagining that there is some pedagogical vir- 
 tue in such methods. There is no greater mistake. If 
 they only knew how much suffering they cause, and how 
 much their usefulness is curtailed by it, they would at 
 once turn to the better way. No teacher has a right to 
 abuse or wound a pupil simply because the pupil cannot 
 help himself and must take it in silence. 
 
 Don't Be Peevish. Of course you are not, but I am 
 simply asking that you be sure to retain your present 
 equable temperament and that you maintain that happy 
 atmosphere so characteristic of you/ I have seen so many 
 miserable, grumbling, fretful teachers that I am trying to 
 do something to diminish the number. I happen to know 
 two most delightful young women, who I had thought 
 would never develop into chronic whiners ; but of late I 
 have seen some startling symptoms in one of them. Some 
 teachers seem to think they are not filling out the measure 
 
9 2 Among Ourselves. 
 
 of their being unless they are making other people share 
 their own querulous and discontented spirit. Don't be 
 peevish. Take some quinine, or catnip tea, or — if noth- 
 ing else will do — a little strychnine ! 
 
 Teach Them How to Play. Endeavorers in Philadel- 
 phia are finding a new field for their energies. They 
 have discovered that few children among the slums know 
 how to play. They know how to scratch and fight, but 
 that is about all. Did it ever strike you that others be- 
 sides slum children do not know how to play ? I meet 
 hundreds of children whose lives have never been quick- 
 ened into a hearty glow by spontaneous, rollicking play. 
 It is just as important that children be taught a variety of 
 healthful and enjoyable games as that they be taught 
 arithmetic or history. They need them for the develop- 
 ment of their imagination, for the whetting of their per- 
 ceptive faculties, for the stimulation of their emotions and 
 for the cultivation of their social and moral natures. In- 
 nocent and attractive amusements have kept many a child 
 from sinning. Plan plays as well as lessons for your chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Thanks! " He only did his duty and as he received 
 his pay, as per agreement ; why thank him ? ' ' Well, if 
 he did his duty he did more than most people and is de- 
 serving thanks for that. If he received his pay it was no 
 more than his due, but does it not add a little to his hap- 
 piness to know that some one appreciates what he has 
 done and takes pleasure in telling him so? Will it not 
 serve as a stimulus to do better next time ? It costs you 
 nothing, and means much to him. It will do you good 
 
Among Ourselves. 93 
 
 also. It is more blessed to give than to receive. He is 
 your teacher or the teacher of your child and no one else 
 knows how much time and thought he has spent in devis- 
 ing ways and means to make his teaching more effective. 
 From sheer inability to understand and appreciate what a 
 teacher is really accomplishing, the average man or 
 woman makes his work a thankless task. You ought not 
 to be among that number. Try the new way and see how 
 both are blessed. 
 
 Schools ioo Years Ago. Cowper was suspicious of 
 the schools, including academies and colleges, and ad- 
 vised parents who would have a son become a sot, or a 
 dunce, or a dissolute spendthrift, to send him to school 
 and 
 
 " Train him in public with a mob of boys, 
 Childish in mischief only and in noise." 
 
 To insure success in the project, at eighteen send him to 
 college where, in a short time, he throws off all restraint 
 though " Some sneaking virtue lurks in him no doubt." 
 He then declares 
 
 " That these menageries all fail their trust, 
 These public hives of puerile resort." 
 
 His ''Tirocinium" is a terrific arraignment of the public 
 schools of his time. It is said that he never recalled his 
 school days without disgust and even horror, and hence 
 became an eloquent advocate of home and of private in- 
 struction, painting in glowing colors their advantages and 
 results. Though certainly all the English schools of his 
 time did not deserve such scathing denunciation, one 
 
94 Among Ourselves. 
 
 would hardly need go very far even now to find too fre- 
 quent a suggestion of the evils he describes. Every 
 teacher ought to read that poem over many times, for he 
 will surely find himself somewhere in it and will pretend 
 less and work more. 
 
 Intelligence and courtesy are not always combined. 
 Often in a wooden house, a golden room you'll find. 
 
 — Longfellow. 
 
 Just So ! F. D. Maurice says : " I know that nine- 
 tenths of those the university sends out must be hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water. But if we train the ten-tenths 
 to be so, then the wood will be badly cut and the water 
 will be spilt. Aim at something noble ; make your system 
 of education such that a great man may be formed by it, 
 and there will be manhood in your little men of which you 
 do not dream." 
 
 Two-story Teachers. Just in front of my window as 
 I write are two two-story business houses, and yet one of 
 them is more than one-half higher than the other. There 
 are some two-story teachers who are not nearly as high as 
 other two-story teachers or even as some one-story people 
 whom I know. They are supposed to be " away up," but 
 it is in name only. There are many taller, broader, better 
 teachers below them, teachers who are in every way their 
 superiors, and yet work in humbler spheres. It is well 
 that it is so ; otherwise what would the poor children do ? 
 For their sakes let us find crumbs of comfort in it. 
 
 Bad Breath. One of the best teachers I know is 
 afflicted with a breath that always gets in the way, when I 
 
Among Ourselves. 95 
 
 think of her. Much as I detest tobacco, I would prefer a 
 tobacco breath every time. Whether it is due to indiges- 
 tion, decaying teeth, the kind of food she eats, tuberculosis, 
 or quinsy, in her case, I cannot tell. Whatever it is, she 
 ought to rid herself of it. I would that she were the only 
 teacher of my acquaintance so handicapped. Like her, 
 they probably are unaware of its existence, and might thank 
 a friend to tell them of it. The remedy in most cases is 
 easy enough, and they all ought to hasten to use it. 
 
 " Stop Kicking ! " "A horse cannot kick and pull at 
 same time." Neither can a teacher. He may imagine 
 that he can spend his strength in faultfinding, but one day 
 he wakes up and finds himself a long distance behind the 
 procession. There used to be a man in Kansas who de- 
 lighted teachers' conventions with his humorous kicks at 
 all sorts of real and imaginary evils in teachers, pupils, 
 school boards, and the public generally. After kicking 
 himself out of several good places, he finally kicked him- 
 self out of the state and clear over the mountains. He was 
 a good man in many ways, but having spent his strength in 
 kicking, he had none left for pulling. Stop kicking, my 
 brother, and fiu/l. 
 
 "How Tedious !" 
 
 " As tedious as a twice-told tale, 
 
 Vexing even the dull ear of a drowsy man." 
 
 It was about "a very interesting subject," so the teacher 
 said, but her pupils wondered where the interesting part 
 came in, and, after waiting awhile for its appearance, put 
 in their time in getting tired. It was an interesting sub- 
 
9 6 Among Ourselves. 
 
 ject, but the manner of the teacher was as dry and lifeless 
 and dreary and aimless as the plains of Sahara. The only 
 spirit she manifested was impatience at the listless inatten- 
 tion of her pupils. So this "interesting subject" was 
 passed, and so each day passed, and at last the teacher 
 passed. She is still passing. 
 
 'Fessor Winans Talked to Him! "Yes, I know 
 'Fessor Winans mighty well," said the bootblack as he 
 gave me an extra polish on learning that I was a friend of his 
 old superintendent. " I wuz a mighty bad kid when he 
 wuz here, that I wuz ; fightin', an' swearin', an' lyin', an' 
 throwin' stones. The teacher used to whip me mighty 
 hard for it ; but didunt do any good. 'Fessor Winans 
 'ud call me in sometimes an' talk to me. That 'ud make 
 me feel bad. I'd ruther take a lickin' any time than have 
 'Fessor Winans. talk to me. He's a mighty kind man, 
 that's what 'Fessor Winans is." 
 
 Well Done ! In a southern Kansas town, a buxom col- 
 ored girl had been having her own sweet way all the way 
 up through the grades, taking hold of some of her teachers, 
 and actually leading them out of the schoolroom to " cool 
 off." She entered " 8- A " and at once showed her 
 stubbornness by refusing to go to the blackboard and re- 
 cite as asked. As she did not disturb the school in any 
 other way, the teacher, a man, utterly ignored her for three 
 or four days. At last, in a quiet, positive way, he said: 
 " You are only doing yourself harm by refusing to do as I 
 bid you. You are losing grades and chances to get help 
 which I am always ready to give you." She quickly saw 
 her mistake, and is now one of his most obedient and en- 
 
Among Ourselves. 97 
 
 thusiastic pupils. When will we learn that we may say 
 even to the children : Let us sit down and reason together P 
 
 Dangerous Psychology ! One of my friends is requir- 
 ing his teachers to study a little primer on psychology, 
 and soon after the close of a meeting for the discussion of 
 a leading topic, surprised a number of them listening to 
 an excited teacher who was denouncing the study. She 
 said: " I tell you, girls, we shall all become insane if we 
 keep this up. This thing of looking into our minds and 
 examining ourselves is most dangerous. It will drive any- 
 body crazy, and I'm afraid of it ! " And so it has come 
 to this ! Long since a wise one said, " The noblest study 
 of mankind is man." He could not have thought, how- 
 ever, that it would result in driving them crazy. Perhaps 
 he did not think of encouraging women to undertake it. 
 We get some consolation, though, out of the fact that 
 even religion sometimes drives people to the madhouse, 
 and if psychology does throw a teacher out of balance 
 occasionally, we can still afford it for the benefit of the 
 multitude. 
 
 Be Yourself. If you try to be somebody's double, you 
 will fail as sure as the sun rises, no matter how excellent 
 that other may be. Some years since I found a teacher of 
 high reputation in despair over her work. She was en- 
 deavoring to teach as her superior taught, and her pupils 
 were already in quiet rebellion at her failures. The reason 
 was so evident that I insisted upon an immediate change 
 to the method in which her own better self would be called 
 into exercise, and in which she would feel untrammeled. 
 To her surprise she really enjoyed the first recitation fol- 
 
98 Among Ourselves. 
 
 lowing, and her pupils were soon saying land things of her 
 work. She gradually put into use some of the best meth- 
 ods of her superior, but she was able to use them profitably 
 only as they became her own. If your methods are poor, the 
 only way to make them better is to make yourself better. 
 Then the better method is the natural method for you. 
 
 Do Not Lose Your Wits ! When about to pay a small 
 bill, many a man has found to his dismay that his money 
 had disappeared through a hole in his pocket. It were a 
 consolation if money only disappears in emergencies. 
 One's wits often disappear in times of his greatest need. 
 Fear, embarrassment, nervousness, consciousness of weak- 
 ness, one or all, may be its cause. I have a friend of high 
 nervous temperament, who is a fine pianist, but she never 
 sits down to the piano to play for a company without taking 
 one hand in the other and waiting a moment to become 
 fully possessed of herself. This little device may prove 
 helpful to many others. It seems to complete the circuit 
 and produce that equilibrium so essential in trying or unex- 
 pected situations. These frequently arise in a teacher's 
 life, and they are the true test of his skill. Drill yourself 
 to stop a moment and think; take no more time than ab- 
 solutely necessary, but be sure that you are right before 
 proceeding. Get right first, then speed. If necessary, 
 go out and get a breath of fresh air, wash your face in cold 
 water, count fifty-eight, quote a proverb to yourself, or 
 utter a prayer for help. If you have dropped your wits, 
 pick them up then and there before they are lost beyond 
 recall. If you must lose them, let it be when alone and 
 not in the schoolroom in the presence of your pupils. 
 
Among Ourselves. 99 
 
 Here's the riddle: — 
 
 ' How all's in each, and every one of all 
 Maintains his self complete and several." 
 
 " Keep Well the Dreams of Youth ! " So the Ger- 
 mans say, and it is good pedagogy, too. Do not grow 
 old. Do not allow the disappointments of life to rob you 
 of those visions which illuminated the days of your youth. 
 Hold them sacred, too, in your children. The shadows 
 come quickly enough and thick enough in every life. Let 
 our mission be to keep the warm sunlight in us and all 
 around us, even when sore trials come and dark clouds 
 hover near. 
 
 " Excellent, Fair, Good." So the superintendents 
 mark the governing ability of teachers on their certificates. 
 How it must make a teacher wince to see anything but 
 "good" or "excellent" on this line. School boards 
 are scanning it more carefully these days than heretofore. 
 They ought to select their teachers as discreetly as they 
 select eggs. If they are simply "fair," nobody wants 
 them; if "good," it might be well to look farther; but 
 if "excellent," why not sign up the contract at once? 
 
 Too Much for His Mind ! In speaking of a certain 
 member of a city school board recently a patron said, 
 "He has too much education for his mind!" Poor 
 fellow ! And yet 'twere well, if he were the only man so 
 beset. Who is to blame ? Certainly every teacher who 
 spends his time cramming his pupils instead of making 
 them think and reason, who fills their heads with knowl- 
 edge and forgets that skill in its use is the more important, 
 
ioo Among Ourselves. 
 
 who teaches subjects rather than children, who knows not 
 that the mind grows and attains great power only as inter- 
 est awakens and the self-activity of the pupil is stimulated 
 to mastership in everything it touches. 
 
 " Get the Stupidity Out of You ! " Last summer for 
 the first few days after going up into the mountains, I 
 felt very lazy and drowsy. In speaking to the "grand- 
 mother ' ' of the ranch about it, she comforted me by say- 
 ing, "You must be a little patient, for it may take a 
 week or ten days to get the malaria and stupidity out of 
 you, but relief will surely come." I could only exclaim, 
 what a glorious place for school-teachers ! Here we are 
 working along under pressure day by day, with dull wits 
 and slow plodding of which most of us are only too con- 
 scious, when there are ways to free ourselves from it, and 
 to come to our children with the freshness and vivacity of 
 perennial interest. Quinine or beberine may drive out the 
 malaria, but higher altitudes only will relieve us of stu- 
 pidity. 
 
 Keep Your Own Counsel. John Halifax said of Mrs. 
 Tod, "She has one remarkable virtue for a woman: she 
 knows how to hold her tongue ! " In a city not for away, 
 one of the best teachers lacked this " remarkable virtue," 
 and wondered why she was not reelected. Her disposi- 
 tion to talk about her superintendent and her fellow 
 teachers brought her no end of trouble. She is but one 
 of a whole tribe of restless people who find their own 
 schoolrooms too small for their vocal powers and though, 
 in many cases, really most excellent and valued workers 
 are consequently permitted to depart in peace. It mat- 
 
Among Ourselves. 101 
 
 ters not that much of the talking is done " confidentially," 
 it sooner or later reaches ears "confidentially," where 
 harm is done, and "confidentially" the original talker 
 pays the penalty. 
 
 Mix a Little. " A good teacher and a fine man, but 
 he is a poor mixer, so we had to let him go. He made 
 friends with nobody, was a perfect stick in society, and 
 lived to himself alone. It was a common remark among 
 the merchants that they never saw him down town save 
 when he came down to get his order at the end of the 
 month. On that day just fifteen minutes after four o'clock 
 he always appeared with a brisk walk and a pleased look, 
 but on that day only. How different from his successor, 
 whom everybody knows, whom the children greet with a 
 smile wherever they see him, who is a leader in any circle, 
 who is found at every sick-bed, and who in a few months 
 has become as fully a part of us as the oldest inhabitant. 
 He is not so learned nor so good a teacher as the other 
 man, but he is doing us more good, and can stay as long 
 as he pleases." Yes, mix a little, my friend. 
 
 " Shine ! " One day a bootblack came running up to 
 a company of us, shouting, " Shine P " when one glancing 
 at his boots, said to Chancellor Lippincott, " I guess I 
 don't need any, do I ? " The Chancellor replied, " Well, 
 no, not at that end ! ' ' Many people are anxious about 
 the polish of their boots, and pay little attention to the 
 polish of their brains. Many are fastidious to a fault 
 about their dress, but spend little time or thought in the 
 cultivation of that better part of us whose lustre neither 
 dust nor moisture can dim. They utilize the services of 
 
102 Among Ourselves. 
 
 the bootblack, the tailor, and the draper without stint, 
 but manage to get along without the aid of the school- 
 master, or of that great army of books whose acquaint- 
 ance would enlighten and refine with that wisdom which 
 rubies cannot buy. Possibly we do not cry "s/iine" 
 enough on the highways, 
 
 Sympathy. Not long since an attending physician in 
 one of the Chicago asylums was adjudged insane. The 
 verdict declared that his long acquaintance with the un- 
 fortunate insane, and his devotion to their needs, con- 
 sumed by a sympathy for them in their helpless condition, 
 had resulted in unbalancing his own mind. How com- 
 pletely had he surrendered his own life for the poor crea- 
 tures coming to him for help ! How sharp a comment 
 upon those of us who fail to enter sufficiently into the life 
 of the children entrusted to our care to be touched by their 
 mute appeals for love and sympathy and confidence ! If 
 sympathy for the child does not develop, we cannot be- 
 come like him, nor grow in our power to serve him. No 
 man or woman whose heart is not touched by the cry of 
 the child, or whose eye does not kindle as he hears its 
 merry prattle, is fit to become its teacher. Sympathy, 
 rich and warm as the blood that flows through the veins of 
 youth, tender and spontaneous as a mother's love, should 
 crown the other graces that make up the ideal teacher. 
 
 The Office of Enemies. We often get discouraged 
 over the criticisms and opposition of our enemies, and 
 fight back or run away. Nine times out of ten we ought 
 to do neither. There is usually some ground, apparent 
 or real, for a criticism, and our first concern should be to 
 
Among; Ourselves. 103 
 
 discover it and set about at once to remove it. If every- 
 body had only words of approval, as our friends usually 
 have, we should soon grow lax and careless, than which 
 nothing is more destructive. We need to have some one 
 get in our way occasionally to wake us up and to stimulate 
 to renewed exertion. Skill never comes to one who 
 never meets resistance. I often think that I have been 
 more benefitted by the criticisms of my enemies than by 
 the advice of my friends. My enemies have at least had 
 the virtue of frankness, while my friends have been slow 
 to speak. It too often happens, however, that when our 
 friends try to do us a service we at once interpret the 
 criticism as prompted by unfriendliness, and we lose both 
 a friend and an opportunity also. So do not worry if you 
 find an enemy on your school board or among your 
 patrons. He may serve you better than your friends, if 
 you but use him properly. Take every criticism in a 
 kindly spirit and you will grow in efficiency and in the 
 number of your friends. You will soon see great reasons 
 for blessing them that despitefully use you. 
 
 Oh, for the rising of that day, when the real majesty 
 and power of the human mind shall be revealed to the 
 ignorant multitude in all its magnificence! Here is the 
 only greatness worth the name ! Here, the only power fit 
 for universal rule! — Mrs. Alfred Gaily. 
 
 "Hush Thee, My Baby! " Simply because you are 
 trying to teach school, and yet are acting like a spoiled 
 child — you are as sensitive and jealous as a baby — you 
 pout and whimper as though you had been greatly abused 
 
io 4 Among Ourselves. 
 
 by your elders, and every little trouble that comes along 
 calls out a flood of tears. You are not old enough to 
 teach children, even though you have seen thirty summers. 
 Your superintendent is getting weary of playing the 
 mother to you. He would have you go nowhere else 
 with your sorrows, but he prays daily that you may be 
 more of a woman and less of a child, more brave and less 
 tearful, a tower of strength to him as well as to your- 
 pupils. Hush thee, my baby / 
 
 Be Brief. A woman went to a physician and, rolling 
 up her sleeve, showed a blistered arm and simply said, 
 " Burn! " He looked at it and said, " Poultice! " She 
 came back in a week and said, " Better! " He only 
 said, " More poultice! " She came back in a fortnight 
 and said, " Well ! What is the bill ? " He bowed grace- 
 fully and said, "Nothing, Madame, you are the most 
 sensible woman I ever saw; good day! " Now, the 
 average teacher needs to read that story and ponder. I 
 confess to a little pleasure in doing a good deal of talking 
 to my classes myself, but that story is helping me. 
 Most of us do talk too much and too long. Well do I 
 remember going to sleep in spite of myself as my learned 
 professor would discourse wisely and dryly and lengthily 
 upon some point in the lesson, that I understood already, 
 and vastly better before he began than when he closed. 
 
 "Well, I Declare !" Once when strolling through 
 the French Market in New Orleans, I heard the greatest 
 clatter and jabber on my right, and turning saw a little 
 Frenchman making the scales fly from a fish on his block 
 and shouting at lightning rate and with no end of 
 
Among Ourselves. 105 
 
 variation and inflection and tone, "Well, I declare/" 
 Whether surprised at the fish, at himself, or at the state of 
 trade, I could not tell, but each time as I came near, I 
 found him rattling away in the same old vein. I wondered 
 why he had little or no trade, while his quiet neighbors 
 were kept busy waiting on their customers. It is the old 
 story, though, for the people soon learn that the noisy 
 fellows are the least worthy of their confidence. They 
 prefer the man or the woman who is willing that the 
 work shall speak for itself. Teachers may learn a good 
 lesson on this subject from the medical profession. 
 
 The Professor. Brother MacDonald has long made 
 war on the vulgar use of the word professor. I wonder if 
 he was not born in Drumtochty and was not an occasional 
 visitor at David Ross'. If so, it accounts for it all. David 
 was careful about the use of the title, particularly when 
 speaking of his son John, who had already won five 
 degrees. He said to Meg: "We maun be cannie wi' 
 John's title, wumman, for ye ken Professor is no ordinar' 
 word; a' coont it equal tae Earl at the verra least; an' it 
 wudna dae tae be aye usin' 't. " "Ye might say 't aince 
 in a conversation, juist lettin' 't slip oot by accident this 
 wy, ' the Professor was sayin' in his laist letter — a' mean 
 oor son in Australy ' — but a' wud ca' him John at ither 
 times. Pride's an awfu' mischief, Meg." But Meg 
 flared up at once and declared: " Ye're as prood as a'm 
 masel, David, and there's nae use ye scoldin' at me for 
 gein' oor laddie the honor he won wi' his brain and work. 
 A'm no feared what the neeburs say. Professor he is, 
 an' Professor a'll ca' him; ye'll may be sayin' Jock next, 
 
io6 Among Ourselves. 
 
 tae show ye're humble! " " Dinna tak me up sae 
 shairp, gude wife, or think a' wud mak little o' John; 
 but the Almichty hes na gien ilka faimily a Professor an' 
 a'm no wantin' tae hurt oor neeburs, " said David; — and, 
 somewhere in the above is a truth and its moral. 
 
 Loyalty. If teachers were a little more loyal to their 
 patrons and to their principals and superintendents, much 
 good would come. Loyalty does not consist simply in 
 refraining from saying anything disparaging concerning a 
 superior, nor in defending his good name when attacked, 
 but in hearty cooperation with him both in spirit and 
 method, a?jd also in advising him in a friendly manner of 
 his errors and of ways and means whereby his work might 
 be made more effective. If many teachers were to work 
 half as hard in this way to assist a superior as they do to 
 break him down, they would be surprised at the good 
 results following. What if you do not like him per- 
 sonally ? What if he is not congenial ? What if you do 
 know more than he ? What if he is a little autocratic ? 
 What if he is a little slow ? He is your superior officer, 
 and, for the sake of the children, the more grievous his 
 faults the more he needs your sympathy and support. 
 
 The Main Purpose. The other evening at the organ 
 recital the organist played the " Visit of the Magi Kings 
 to the Christ Child." He kept one single high note, 
 representing the star which guided them, sounding all the 
 time while he played the journey, the visit to Herod, and 
 the adoration as a sort of accompaniment to it. Through 
 it all there was not a note out of accord with the star. 
 At times we practically lost sight of the star as we became 
 
Among Ourselves. 107 
 
 absorbed in the story, and again it would flash out with 
 increased brilliancy. How much like a life bent on one 
 grand purpose, never changing through the years. Often 
 as we see it engrossed with affairs of the world, or 
 apparently turning aside from some long-pursued plans, 
 we fancy the purpose surrendered; but one day it stands 
 out more clearly than ever, and we see that after all it was 
 controlling every thought and act. Happy the man in 
 whom a lofty ideal thus becomes a ruling passion and 
 whose every impulse, every deed, is in perfect harmony 
 with it! 
 
 The Heart's a' the Part a' ! I look back to-night and 
 count nearly a score of teachers on my fingers, and raise 
 the question of their influence upon me. Just one crowds 
 any or all of the others out, and that one was neither the 
 handsomest nor the most learned among them. He was 
 the only one, however, who seemed to live wholly in his 
 pupils. He seemed to have no other ambition than to 
 serve them. He loved his home, he loved his church, he 
 loved his books; but his great love was for his pupils, and 
 somehow they all felt it and all knew it. They could 
 hardly tell how, nor why, but when they were counting 
 up their friends they never left him out, and his genial, 
 unselfish spirit had love enough to go round them all. 
 It appears a little strange now I think of it, but every 
 other teacher seemed to have some other ambition, some 
 other love, superior to that which he had for his pupils. 
 One was planning to study law; one was stocking a farm 
 which he soon expected to settle upon; one was building 
 up a great library in which he spent his happiest hours; 
 
108 Among Ourselves. 
 
 one was engrossed in his scientific investigations and 
 experiments; one had his eye on a higher position; one 
 had 
 
 A charming lover so fair ; 
 and another was just trying to earn a livelihood; but this 
 dear soul was simply living for us — we absorbed every- 
 thing. As he surrendered himself so completely to us, 
 he was able to exercise an influence over us which called 
 into being the best impulses of our nature. His supreme 
 indifference to self and his sublime devotion to us served 
 as an irresistible stimulus to attempt great things. I owe 
 much to many of my teachers, God bless them all, but 
 this man kindled within me the noblest ambitions of my 
 life. Oh, for such a large heart and such warm blood in 
 every schoolroom in the land ! 
 
 The mind of the scholar, if you would have it large 
 and liberal, should come in contact with other minds. — 
 Longfellow. 
 
 The dignity of every occupation wholly depends upon 
 the quantity and the kind of virtue that may be exerted 
 in it. — Burke. 
 
 "I Was in a Hurry." Miserable excuse! If you 
 had done it right always when not in a hurry, the habit 
 would not have failed you in the emergency. You mis- 
 spell a word, omit an abbreviation-mark, do not capitalize, 
 forget a date, blot the paper, omit the subject or predicate 
 of a sentence, neglect to thank a friend for a favor, keep 
 his lead pencil, come into the room with dirty shoes, etc., 
 etc., et cetera, et ceterumque 1 Take time to do every- 
 
Among Ourselves, 109 
 
 thing right, if you do but one single thing in a whole day. 
 By and by you will be able to do two things right in a 
 day, then three, then many! First accuracy, then 
 rapidity! 
 
 Is Love Blind ? So says the old proverb, but Barrie 
 insists that it is a mistake, and that Love has three eyes, 
 one more than ordinary people, by which it sees the good 
 where others see only the bad. This is the reason teachers 
 need it so much. It must be admitted that only a third 
 eye could find anything good in some children, but that 
 only makes it more of a necessity. If we do not find the 
 good, who will ? If no good is found, how are we to 
 begin the process of character-building without which all 
 education is a failure ? Love is not necessarily blind to 
 faults, but it never fails to find the good. The former it 
 tries to cover up, the latter it tries to magnify and build 
 up, holding that one of these days it will be the one great 
 thing in the life as it is now in the love. 
 
 Courteously ! The other day I entered a dining-car 
 and learned a lesson in courteousness. One of the waiters 
 innocently blundered and the head waiter, who had 
 already won me by his suavity, came up and took special 
 charge of my table, treating me as though I were the 
 president of the railroad. I observed similar solicitude 
 for everybody else at the tables. It is true that when my 
 bill came in, it looked as though I would need to be 
 president of something, but I could afford to pay it for 
 such generous and cordial treatment as they gave me. 
 Why should it not be so everywhere ? Simply because 
 too many of us are forgetting it as a part of our teaching. 
 
no Among Ourselves. 
 
 We are careful enough about those holding positions 
 above us, but fail to remember our duty to our equals and 
 to those below us, who, after all need it more than our 
 superiors. Are you giving regular, practical lessons in 
 good manners to your children ? If not, this is a good 
 day to begin. 
 
 Such Ingratitude ! Not that exactly, my friend. 
 Though your pupils may act as if they were not apprecia- 
 ting your work, many of them may be very grateful and 
 simply lack in knowledge of ways of showing it. Your 
 experience is but the lot of all. I have many a time given 
 a hand to a pupil to help him over a difficulty, have borne 
 with this one and that one times without number, have 
 labored hard to secure positions for some, and never 
 received one single word of thanks. Some, however, are 
 so warm and generous in expressions of gratitude as to 
 shame me that I did not do more. They make up in 
 part for the tardy ones and for those who never respond 
 at all. Learn from the experience of the Master: Were 
 there not* ten lepers cleansed, but where are the nine? 
 Find great comfort in the kind words of the few, and hope 
 that the others are more appreciative than they seem. As 
 a matter of fact, many of them are telling their friends how 
 much you have done for them and some day, may, when 
 you need it more than now, surprise you with assurances 
 of their love and gratitude. May be after all, you are 
 being paid in your own coin. If so, hasten to pay your 
 own long-overdue debts and you may have the joy for 
 which you crave. Take this also along with you : It is 
 
Among Ourselves. 1 1 1 
 
 far better to find your chief pleasure in service and not in 
 rewards. 
 
 Save the Best for your Pupils. A rare soul, whom I 
 can name, has long been in rather poor health, but no 
 one would suspect it when visiting her schoolroom. She 
 is as bright and cheery as a young girl and the atmosphere 
 is full of that magnetism which no one, not even the most 
 mischievous boy or the most indifferent girl, can resist. 
 At home or in company she does not exert such a power. 
 She saves the best for her children. I can name several 
 others who give the best of their time and their strength 
 to society and to friends or even to charity, while their 
 children suffer. Their schoolrooms are as dead and 
 spiritless as the chambers of the pyramids. They cannot 
 make them otherwise, for they have already given their 
 blood and their strength elsewhere. Brethren and sisters, 
 these things ought not so to be ! Whatever we do, let us 
 not rob the children. Let us live for them. 
 
 Covering up Faults. We teachers are always hard at 
 work trying to pick flaws, and, having found them, show 
 the culprit little mercy. It were better if more of us knew 
 just when and how to cover up a defect in a pupil to his 
 profit. A teacher misspelled a word on the blackboard in 
 assigning a lesson, and two or three pupils got together 
 and made sport of it; another inserted a caret and wrote 
 the omitted letter prominently above so as to call attention 
 to it, though pretending to help the teacher out; a third 
 carefully erased two or three letters and deftly corrected 
 the spelling so that no one would notice his teacher's 
 blunder. Which of all these, think you, was the teachers 
 
ii2 Among Ourselves. 
 
 neighbor P Learn a lesson from this story. It often does 
 a pupil more good for the secret to rest between him and 
 his teacher, or even for the teacher to overlook the fault 
 when the pupil sees it, than to bring it out to the full 
 view of his mates. Study only the pupil's good in it all. 
 
 By the Way, are we not, as teachers and as parents, 
 failing to teach the children the duty of thanking those 
 who serve them ? How many a weary heart would forget 
 its burdens if some one would speak a kind word of 
 appreciation. I know a young woman who sang all the 
 day long because a friend in passing in the morning, 
 dropped a pleasant word of appreciation for something 
 she had done. It is a beautiful custom to remember a 
 teacher, or a servant, or a friend, with some little token 
 on his birthday or on Christmas, but it is far better to let 
 him know by smiles and pleasant greetings and grateful 
 words and the doing of a quiet little service in return 
 whenever possible, that you are not forgetting his good- 
 ness to you. Children are naturally responsive in their 
 early years and their sense of appreciation simply needs 
 direction. Do not be selfish about it. Train them to 
 right expression of kindly appreciation of others. Your 
 turn will come by and by. 
 
 Increase Your Resources. When a boy, I read that 
 no one could stand under a tree with Edmund Burke for 
 half an hour, waiting for a shower to pass by, without 
 being convinced that he was the greatest man in the world. 
 The barrister would talk so fluently, and so entertainingly 
 about everything in sight — the storm, the rainbow, the 
 tree, the birds seeking shelter near by, the pebbles at his 
 
Among Ourselves. 113 
 
 feet, the nest hanging from a limb above, the brook now 
 swelling to a torrent, the flowers that smiled an assurance 
 of safety— that one felt he had learned the greatest lesson 
 of his life. How rich and helpful such a man among his 
 fellows! The teacher who knows only his dear little text- 
 book, lives in a narrow sphere and fails to drink in the 
 wonderful inspiration which nature never ceases to pro- 
 vide. What a dry sort of a crust he is to his pupils. 
 How narrow his direction of their vision. But that other 
 one to whom 
 
 " Nature speaks a varied language," 
 and whose mind is filled with the treasures of history, of 
 literature, and of art, comes to them every day with a 
 richer supply of thought and of power. He stimulates 
 them all to look out and up and over and through, and 
 so never knows that drudgery of the schoolroom which is 
 fatal to so many teachers. 
 
 There is nothing more terrible than a teacher who does 
 not know more than the scholars at all events ought to 
 know. — Goethe. 
 
 Bide Your Time. Montan says to Wilhelm Meister: 
 "Practise till you are an able violinist and be assured 
 that the director will have pleasure in assigning you a 
 place in the orchestra." This is good advice to all, par- 
 ticularly to those who are more impatient to fill some 
 exalted position than they are to fit themselves for it. 
 They spend their time dreaming and scheming for place 
 instead of improving and perfecting themselves in their 
 
ii4 Among Ourselves. 
 
 art. They seem ignorant of the fact that the world will 
 not be slow in finding them as their skill and worth 
 appear. Neither the gold in the mountains nor the pearls 
 in the sea are more eagerly sought than are the men and 
 women whose attainments fit them best to serve it. 
 
 "Of this World. " So said Principal Rounds as we 
 visited the grades in the Webster school at Washington, 
 D.C. Every teacher seemed to realize that the world 
 round about us is abundantly provided with material for 
 the education of the children, and that an acquaintance 
 with it and its great heart is one of the chief ends of 
 education. As a consequence, we found little of that 
 abstract, pettifogging sort of teaching which is so common 
 in many schoolrooms. The children were wide-awake, 
 attentive, earnest, clear-headed, self-reliant, progressive. 
 As they went out of the schoolroom, they did not find 
 themselves strangers in a strange land, but were at home 
 everywhere and interested in what they saw. 
 
 Good Manners. In this same building we also saw 
 what a little training in good manners will do for children. 
 Without any apparent suggestion from the teacher, one 
 of the boys promptly provided us with chairs and at 
 recess, as we were putting on our overcoats, a gentle- 
 manly little fellow stepped up behind with a helping hand 
 and a pleasant bow. Such training as that everywhere 
 will not fail to make a nation of gentlemen and ladies out 
 of any people. 
 
 " Give Me Attention, Please." A friend some years 
 since visited the schools of Leavenworth and reported to 
 me that in a single recitation he had heard a teacher ask 
 
Among Ourselves. 115 
 
 the attention of his class at least thirty times. It was: 
 " John, let's have your attention, sir! " " Let's have the 
 attention of all, please! " " Mary, are you not talking 
 to Susan instead of attending to your lesson ? " " Now, 
 everybody, attention to this! " "I cannot do anything 
 for you without your attention, Henry! " etc., etc. I 
 spent a day recently visiting these same schools and did 
 not hear a single teacher ask for attention. One of them 
 ordered a pupil to stop doing something, but everywhere 
 there was that keen interest which is the highest test of 
 successful school-keeping. In some cases, I thought the 
 tension even too strongly drawn, but the relief from that 
 indifferent, lazy plodding, or that forced attention of the 
 martinet was worth going a long distance to find. 
 
 "No Vicious Pupils Here ! " What! not in all these 
 five hundred boys and girls ? " No, sir," said Principal 
 Rodgers of one of the Leavenworth ward schools, " save 
 possibly one who might be called that by some people. 
 We have a dozen or fifteen who give us a little trouble 
 occasionally, but they are not vicious, and are fast learning 
 the better way. " This was said with a spirit and an assur- 
 ance that revealed the secret of it all — love, sympathy for 
 the children, discreet management, and motherly patience 
 that finds the good even in the worst of them, that 
 tolerates no suggestion of incorrigibility, and that goes 
 bravely about building up new motives and new ambitions, 
 enable her to say "we have no vicious pupils here." 
 Go thou and do likewise / 
 
 "I Fell Down." "Did you, dear? Well, I'm so 
 glad you told me, for I do not want you to take this ex- 
 
1 1 6 Among Ourselves . 
 
 ercise if you are not able to take it." So said the teacher 
 as a little fellow explained his inability to file out with his 
 class, and there was then and there sealed a compact of 
 mutual sympathy and helpfulness that time cannot efface. 
 Though I do not have that teacher's name, these simple 
 words, as I passed hastily through her room, told me all 
 about her life and showed me its beautiful ministry. 
 
 Not Submission, but Cooperation. That teacher who 
 asked his pupil why he whipped him and heard the apt 
 reply, " Simply because you are stronger than I am, sir!" 
 raises the question whether he is the only one who rules 
 by mere brute force. It is possible that many do not try 
 to rule in any other way, but they blunder sadly in forget- 
 ting that cooperation is worth a thousand times more than 
 submission. Pupils who study and obey simply because 
 they fear punishment are not making much progress 
 toward manhood and womanhood. It is only when they 
 become possessed of the spirit of spontaneous and hearty 
 cooperation that great progress is assured. 
 
 "So Hungry !" The Child- Study Monthly tells the 
 story of a bad boy in one of the Chicago schools whose 
 general wickedness and restlessness had exhausted the pa- 
 tience of his teachers, until one of them thought to ask him 
 why he was so bad. He promptly replied: "Because I 
 am so durned hungry ! " Can it be possible that this is 
 the one great explanation of the fact that so many children 
 of the very poor are so difficult to govern ? At certain sea- 
 sons of the year, how many of them come to school every 
 day not only hungry for necessary food, but hungry also 
 for the little relishes that make food palatable even to the 
 

Among Ourselves. 119 
 
 hungry? Teacher, do you know whether any of your 
 children are sitting to-day in your forms hungry for bread? 
 Does not the possibility of it prompt you to know more 
 about them? Being hungry for bread, they are still more 
 hungry for your sympathy. 
 
 That Good Name. It often happens that a teacher is 
 exceedingly careless of his good name. He is not always 
 anxious about shunning the very appearance of evil. He 
 is not choice in the selection of his associates. He in- 
 dulges in questionable amusement. He is occasionally 
 seen where the best people hesitate to go. He keeps late 
 hours. He rather enjoys being called a sport. He forgets 
 to pay his debts. He neglects his studies. He does a 
 score of little things that annoy and alienate his friends, 
 and one day he is grievously surprised that the substantial 
 people in the district are not urging his reelection. It 
 might be a good plan for a school board to insist upon a 
 certificate of good character from the preceding board 
 before employing a teacher. That certificate might also 
 wisely include the reason for the teacher's seeking a change. 
 
 Perhaps it happens as often that the teacher is a woman, 
 and that her indifference to the value of a good name is 
 simply appalling. I think just now of one who really enjoyed 
 the notoriety of having aroused the jealousy of the wife of 
 one of her patrons; of another who could not understand 
 that frequent rides with a man whose wife was kept busy at 
 home taking care of the stuff and the children, should call 
 forth unfriendly criticism ; of another who thought it no- 
 body's business if she did keep company occasionally with 
 a man whose general morals were supposed to be fairly in 
 
120 Among Ourselves . 
 
 keeping with his well-known reputation as a common gam- 
 bler ; of another who found recreation in promenading the 
 streets in such a way as to attract the attention of light- 
 headed gentry without number ; of another who showed 
 such utter disregard of the ordinary courtesies of good so- 
 ciety that she was not welcome in any refined home ; of 
 another who was known to accept the company of strange 
 gentlemen on a five-minute acquaintance ; of another who 
 spent fewer hours in sleep than in amusements. Of what 
 priceless value in a woman as well as in a man, are dis- 
 cretion and common sense. It ought to take little of 
 either to understand that a good name is to be desired above 
 great riches. If the teacher is not awake to its import- 
 ance, how can the children know how to prize it ? 
 
 That Blackboard. It was not black, nor white. It 
 was a sort of grizzly gray, with more of the grizzle than the 
 gray, and with but an occasional spot where a whole word 
 could be written without crossing a crack. The teacher, 
 having never seen a better, was thinking it pretty good. 
 Herein lies a moral. Pick it out. 
 
 " Better Every Year." Thus writes a teacher who is 
 growing in her work. She enjoys it better each year 
 because she has a conscience and because she faithfully 
 strives to find better ways of serving her pupils. The 
 drudgery of which many teachers complain is unknown to 
 her. She has no humdrum routine, because she finds 
 something new and interesting in every lesson and in 
 every pupil every day. 
 
 The Way It is Done ! ' ' She simply keeps her pupils 
 so busy thinking about their work that they do not care 
 
Among Ourselves. 121 
 
 to whisper ; that's the whole story! " But that is not the 
 whole story. By what magic, by what subtle power, 
 by what sorcery, by what mystic charm, by what touch 
 divine, does she manage to keep them busy thinking about 
 their work ? When you have told me that, you have told 
 me the whole story and not before. When I have learned 
 that I shall be satisfied. 
 
 " I Won't Do It ! " So said a little three-year-old, 
 who had just learned in the morning how to say it explo- 
 sively, as his father asked him to do something that dis- 
 pleased him. His father turned to him and said, " My 
 son, don't you tell your father you won't do it." With 
 an expression of interrogation on his face, the chick 
 promptly replied: "Please, father, I won't do it." 
 There it was, and there it is ! The little diplomat was 
 willing to compromise on that, and so gracefully managed 
 his case that he maintained his self-respect at least. 
 
 Skill Also. The simple act of getting the knowledge, 
 of acquisition, of understanding a truth, is but the first step 
 in the act of learning. It must be repeated, says Rosen- 
 kranz, until it becomes a part of the pupil. He must use 
 it, express it, apply it, in such a variety of ways and so fre- 
 quently that it comes to him spontaneously when the 
 occasion for its use arises. Thousands of pupils are rushed 
 along in their classes, merely getting glimpses of things, 
 getting neither growth nor skill. The teacher learns 
 sooner or later what superficial, helpless creatures he has 
 made. The old call to drill, not merely mechanical con- 
 cert drill, needs to be repeated over and over again to 
 every schoolmaster. 
 
122 Among Ourselves. 
 
 "He is Lazy!" Now, who would have thought it, 
 and he a school-teacher too ! What do you mean ? "I 
 mean that he does not like to work ! Oh, yes, he is 
 usually on hand when there is any chance to talk or to 
 come to the front, but he does not take pleasure in the 
 daily, hand-to-hand work with his pupils, without which 
 they can make little progress. He seldom knows much 
 about his lessons, but relies on his shrewdness in putting 
 questions and on the faithfulness of a few of his better 
 pupils to hide his shiftlessness. There is nothing ready, 
 aggressive, helpful, inspiring about him. He does not 
 carry himself. How can he carry his pupils? I have 
 watched him long enough to understand him thoroughly. 
 He is lazy ! ' ' 
 
 Holy Zeal. Rosenkranz says that the artistic element 
 in the teacher's method is not, as many of us imagine, the 
 most important thing. The teachers who have elegance of 
 manner and grace in diction are too often disposed to rely 
 upon them for success. He reminds us that such teachers 
 are apt to keep themselves in view and forget their pupils. 
 The didactic element is the one thing needful, and what- 
 ever artistic skill the teacher possesses must be made sub- 
 servient to it. No teacher can succeed who does not 
 exalt his pupils above himself. If he fail to do this, they 
 soon detect his vanity and the shallowness of his interest 
 in them. Naught can take the place of holy zeal. It 
 must give color and texture and life to everything the 
 teacher does. 
 
 " In Your Small Corner." It often happens that a 
 teacher imagines he is not doing much, because his name 
 
Among Ourselves. 123 
 
 is not more frequently mentioned in the newspapers or he 
 is not given prominent places on the convention pro- 
 grams. He ought, however, to find a little comfort in 
 knowing that it is not an unusual thing for some teachers to 
 furnish personal items of news about themselves, and that 
 teachers who spend much time in preparing papers for the 
 public, not infrequently do it at the expense of their pupils. 
 In my visits to different parts of the State, I am always find- 
 ing teachers of great ability, whom the children love and 
 whom their patrons hold in high esteem, and yet of whom 
 I had never heard before. They were doing their work in 
 their own small corner, content to do it well, rich in the 
 affection of friends, neither seeking nor caring for notoriety. 
 " Short-order " Colleges. Some of the colleges and 
 schools that promise such an elaborate education in a few 
 months may have their place in our educational system, 
 but it must certainly be about as that which the short- 
 order restaurants hold to the regular hostelry. The former 
 serve in case of haste to bridge over until the succeeding 
 regular meal, but for supplying the regular diet they soon 
 prove a very unsatisfactory substitute. So these short- 
 order colleges may help along a little when time is the 
 most precious thing in the world, but the man or woman 
 who depends upon them for that education which is to 
 serve him for life, and which is to fit him for coping with 
 its great problems, will soon find how inadequate has been 
 his preparation and how unsatisfactory are all of his sup- 
 posed attainments. No, no, brethren and sisters, short- 
 order education is a delusion and he that is deceived 
 thereby is not wise ! 
 
1 24 Among Ourselves. 
 
 " According to Nature.* ' If there be a paradoxical 
 doctrine in our theology, it is this. Shall it be according 
 to the nature of a particular child, with all its whims and 
 restless fancies, its demands for the possible and the im- 
 possible, for the hurtful as well as the beneficial ? Shall it 
 be according to the nature of the child as some philoso- 
 phers of the cloister have decided him to be, a sort of an 
 abstraction, a fairly definable, yet impalpable something 
 which one never finds entering the schoolroom? Or 
 shall it be according to the nature of the average child, 
 the possible child, as he is known to those who handle him 
 and study him every day, a spirit incarnate, a real thing 
 having much in common with all the boys and girls in the 
 world, and yet with enough variety to tax the teacher's 
 energies for his management and development? There 
 are many things in the nature of this last boy that may be 
 regarded as normal and "according to which" we may 
 safely proceed, but let us not be led far aside by the others. 
 Nature is our only true teacher, our only safe guide, but 
 let us not mistake its freaks for its true self. 
 
 Most readers, like good-natured cows, 
 
 Keep browsing and forever browse ; 
 
 If a fair flower comes in their way, 
 
 They take it, too, nor ask, " What, pray 1 : ' 
 
 Like other fodder it is food, 
 
 And for the stomach quite as good. 
 
 — S. H. Clark. 
 
 "Pm as Cross as a Hornet to-day; you better look 
 out ! " Indeed, and do you expect pay for acting the 
 hornet to-day? Do you think it will stimulate a better 
 
Among Ourselves. 125 
 
 spirit and better work on the part of your children to-day 
 that they know you are in danger of stinging them? 
 Have you forgotten that boys seldom go near hornets' 
 nests without throwing stones at them, and that even girls 
 sometimes try it? Did you ever hear the maxim, "Like 
 priest, like people?" Do you know how far you have 
 fallen in the estimation of every child in the room whose 
 love you crave by that foolish remark ? Do you teach self- 
 control, and yet expect your pupils to attain it in an at 
 mosphere filled with the venom of hornets' stings ? Have 
 you never heard, that he thai ruleth his own spirit is better 
 than he that taketh a city P 
 
 A City Psychologist. Some of the papers are poking 
 fun at Professor Royce, of Harvard, for suggesting that 
 every board of education should employ a competent psy- 
 chologist, whose duty it would be to examine the children 
 for the purpose of determining their mental condition and 
 suggesting the kind of instruction and drill needed. By 
 it he would discover at once the "born shorts," the pre- 
 cocious, the latents, the defectives in imagination or 
 memory, the sense-defectives, the truly incorrigible, etc., 
 and would be able to advise with the teacher and parent. 
 He holds that such an expert would soon prove the most 
 valuable member of the teaching force. Our own opinion 
 is that every superintendent and principal, if not every 
 teacher, should possess such ability, and that the people 
 will not be long in demanding it. No one is profession- 
 ally educated in the best sense who lacks it. 
 
 The Teacher's Health. The Chicago board of educa- 
 tion requires each teacher to pass a physical examination 
 
126 Among Ourselves. 
 
 before the contract is signed. Could anything be more 
 appropriate ? There are at least two great reasons for such 
 an examination : The work of the teacher is exhaustive, 
 and only those in good physical health should undertake 
 it. The atmosphere in every schoolroom should be as 
 pure as it is possible to make it. A sickly teacher, partic- 
 ularly one afflicted with eczema, or bronchial or lung 
 troubles of any kind, may easily poison the air in a room 
 to such an extent as to make it dangerous for the children 
 to breathe it. 
 
 Whack ! Whack ! He is an earnest, hard-working 
 teacher and often wonders why he is not securing better 
 results. Though he was taught better, as the children 
 march out of his room, he beats time by bringing a long 
 pointer down on his desk with a noisy whack, whack, that 
 grates on the ear of every sensitive child in the line and 
 makes sufficient confusion to afford opportunity for grunts 
 and pranks from the rougher boys and girls. He formerly 
 used a gong, but finds this is better for marching, as it is 
 more " stickcatto-like ! " When are we to learn that 
 whacking-sticks, gongs, and the whole tribe of tom-toms 
 have no place in the schoolroom? A quiet tap with a 
 pencil or counting for a few paces until the children catch 
 the step is in far better taste and is much more effective. 
 Occasionally it may be well to resume the tapping or the 
 counting for a moment, but it should not be continued 
 longer than absolutely necessary. If the line is boisterous 
 or stamping heavily, do not add to the noise and disorder 
 by any of the above-named devices, but stop the line at 
 
Among Ourselves, 127 
 
 once and let it move only as it moves quietly. A little 
 perseverance in such a drill will soon work wonders. 
 
 The Trouble. "If your sagassity were only equal to 
 your perspigassity" as Mrs. Hyde often wrote to Jane, 
 " your usefulness to the community would be unlimited. 
 You see a wonderful lot of things, you hear as many more, 
 and you imagine five times as many as you see and hear. 
 Such insight is invaluable to the gossips, for it gives them 
 a constant supply of delicate morsels to chew. But did you 
 ever think that you are in miserably poor business and that 
 you are feeding a class of social buzzards of which you are 
 the chief among ten thousand? If you were only wise 
 enough to use your penetration in discovering the good in 
 your neighbors, in devising ways and means to help them 
 reach up to a better life, instead of pulling them down, 
 you would not only be a better teacher, but a better woman 
 also." In which remark is much food for reflection. 
 
 Babies ! There is a time and a place for babies, but the 
 schoolroom is certainly not the place for them. No mat- 
 ter how cute and sweet — all babies are cute and sweet — 
 a baby may be, it cannot be brought into the schoolroom 
 without attracting the attention of the pupils and interfer- 
 ing with the work of the school. It frequently happens 
 that mother wishes to spend a day with a neighbor, and 
 that she may be free from care, sends her two-year-old 
 Angie with his brother Fred to visit the school-teacher. 
 Angie smiles, Angie talks, Angie tumbles off on the floor, 
 Angie pouts, Angie wants a drink of water, Angie wants a 
 piece of bread and sugar, Angie cries, Angie gets his 
 fingers in the ink and rubs it on his face, Angie wants his 
 
128 Among Ourselves. 
 
 mamma ! Angie ! Angie ! ! ! Angie visits the 
 
 teacher in her dreams that night ! It takes at least another 
 whole day to overcome the distracting effects of that visi- 
 tation. Yet, out of the goodness of her heart and the 
 weakness of her courage, that teacher tells that mother at 
 church next Sunday how much the children enjoyed having 
 Angie with them that day, and expresses the hope that he 
 may come again. He comes ! Who is to blame ? Not 
 Angie ! 
 
 Shall the Boy Fight ? We are surprised to see the 
 editor of the Child Study Monthly answering this question 
 in the affirmative. He heartily commends a mother who 
 had compelled her son to go and pummel a fellow from 
 whom he had received some affront, and urges mothers to 
 teach their boys to fight when insulted. He says that he 
 had recently forced his own boy, "an eight-year-old, 
 against the boy s own inclinations, to go and trounce his 
 antagonist. He whipped him in a most creditable man- 
 ner — had he not, I would have felt disgraced for life." 
 Sic ! He says further that a mother must sometimes be 
 willing to sit at her window and see her boy fight like a 
 fiend in the gutter outside. ' ' Tenderly bandage his 
 wounds, if he comes out second best, but ask no questions, 
 give no advice. Rather than have your boy a coward, 
 dear mother, the next time he is involved in a righteous 
 quarrel, stand over him and make him fight it out, even 
 at the risk of nervous prostration and hysteria." It is a 
 long time since we have seen such pugilistic doctrine ad- 
 vanced in a respectable journal, and we wonder whether our 
 brother's longing for children's gore may not have been 
 
Among Ourselves. . 129 
 
 aroused by the smell of Spanish blood. The average mother 
 has about all she can do to keep her boys from fighting at 
 any provocation, and certainly would hardly thank any one 
 for adding to her difficulties. The boy who has the reputa- 
 tion of " never taking an insult " usually has all the fight 
 he needs and frequently has an extra one or two on hands. 
 If he wins, he seldom fails to become a bully and a brag- 
 gart himself. If he loses, he spends much of his time in 
 sneaking around and tormenting little fellows who only 
 resist to their undoing. The term "insult" covers a 
 multitude of offences in a boy's mind : the crook of a 
 finger, an inadvertent remark, a frank statement of a dif- 
 ficulty to a teacher, talking to another fellow's girl, an 
 innocent remonstrance against an unkind word, an impu- 
 tation of lack of courage, etc. The boy who is taught to 
 fight and has once tasted gore, is too generally on the alert 
 for an insult, and has no difficulty in finding one, as his 
 reputation as a fighter may be waning a little. We recall 
 a winter of school in which, under such instruction as 1 the 
 Doctor gives, the boys managed to fill out nearly every 
 day with a scrap or two. One would " insult " another 
 and get a whipping from the insulted. Then the " in- 
 surer's" big brother would come around and thrash the 
 "manly" vindicator; and then this big brother would 
 catch a dressing on his way home from the bigger brother 
 of the other fellow who had hid in the fence corner in an- 
 ticipation of his coming. Periodically the heads of the 
 families involved would join in exchanging compli- 
 ments. By the way, many of our readers have probably 
 seen that mother whom the Doctor mentions, urging on 
 
130 Among Ourselves, 
 
 her " noble b'y " in choice brogue and have also seen 
 Mrs. O'Flanigan, the sturdy mother of the other brave 
 lad, in a state of wrath, approaching from the rear ! No, 
 no, "dear" Doctor, such advice as you give savors not 
 of the Sermon on the Mount, but rather of the law which 
 died when the new gospel came. Is it not better to teach 
 a child to pay no attention to unkind remarks or slights, 
 even to yield to a boor or a bully for the time rather than 
 have an unseemly squabble with him ? that it often requires 
 more courage not to fight than to fight ? that the 
 really manly man is he who dares to revile not again ? 
 that enemies are to be made friends by kindness rather 
 than by violence? that the only time when he is justified 
 in striking another is when his personal safety or that of 
 one who is unable to defend himself is in danger? These 
 boys are to be men some day. They will be very much 
 the same kind of men as they were boys. They ought 
 to learn under mother's tutelage the better ways of right- 
 ing wrongs and of showing their courage. 
 
 This great world is the mirror into which, to know our- 
 selves, we must look. Let this be my scholar's book. To 
 him a closet, a garden, the table, his bed, solitude, so- 
 ciety, morning and evening, all hours will be the same, 
 all places will be his school. It is not a soul, it is not a 
 body, we are training. It is a man ! — Montaigne. 
 
 The Old Story. At least it is beginning to get old in 
 some places. A lady said to me the other day, " Since 
 your talk to the teachers of our city, one of them has dis- 
 covered that the eyes of my little girl are affected and has 
 
Among Ourselves. 1 3 l 
 
 brought her to the front seat. She had suffered much 
 from headache and was losing interest in her studies. In 
 a few days her headache left her and she is now taking 
 more pleasure in school than ever. You may know how 
 grateful I am for the discovery and I hope you will make 
 every teacher see how important child-study is." 
 
 The Cause of It. At Newton Rev. Brown said: "I 
 have been compelled to take my boy out of school a day or 
 two every now and then because of a dreadful headache 
 produced by the teacher requiring him to hold his book at 
 the regulation distance as he studies or reads. He is very 
 near-sighted and the strain on his eyes thus caused almost 
 prostrates him at times." "Did you ever tell his teacher 
 about it? " asked the superintendent. " No, sir ! " And 
 there it is! That "regulation distance" for a book is 
 one of the most senseless and cruel things ever introduced 
 into the schoolroom. There is the proper distance for 
 the normal eye, of course, but to force all children to ob- 
 serve it is as unreasonable as to demand that all shall be- 
 come of the same height of stature. But — ■ 
 
 The Pity of It Is that the teacher in this case did 
 not discover the trouble with the eyes of the boy, and still 
 more that the father, knowing it all the time, should have 
 failed to inform the teacher and talk freely with her about 
 it. If we can have our way, there will be no shadow of 
 an excuse for such negligence on the part of Kansas teach- 
 ers in the future, and we call upon every superintendent 
 and principal in the State to tell this story to their teachers 
 and insist upon the most careful examination and con- 
 siderate treatment of every pupil in their classes. We 
 
132 Among Ourselves. 
 
 also urge parents to be more free in talking to the 
 teachers about the physical and mental defects of their 
 children, that by their mutual confidence and sympathy 
 they may serve the children more effectively. 
 
 Another Mistake. In one of our good little towns, the 
 principal became exasperated at the repeated failure of one 
 of his boys to heed his requests and to do his work prop- 
 erly, and gave the climax to a series of sharp reprimands 
 and scoldings by punishing him severely in the old-fash- 
 ioned way. The boy had been insisting that he had not 
 understood the teacher, but protest had only brought an 
 impatient " Pay attention to what I say, then!" With 
 the severe punishment above named came a brutal attack 
 upon the teacher by the boy's father, an exciting trial, and 
 a six months' jail sentence. The excuse which the father 
 offered was that his boy was hard of hearing and that the 
 punishment the teacher had given him was undeserved. 
 Whatever was the provocation, this fact should have been 
 known by the teacher and it should have suggested a 
 treatment with which the father could have been in perfect 
 accord. Though the teacher is one of the noblest men in 
 the profession, and he joined heartily in securing the com- 
 mutation of the father's jail sentence, it must ever be a 
 source of great grief to him that he did not take time to 
 learn more about that boy before using such severe treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Whose Fault? A month since, the whole state was 
 deeply interested over the mysterious disappearance of a 
 little girl in one of the Wichita schools, who had been 
 suspended for a trivial offence, by her teacher. The first 
 
Among Ourselves. 133 
 
 report laid the blame upon the teacher and stated that the 
 child felt the disgrace so keenly, that, crazed by grief she 
 had chosen to go anywhere else rather than home. She 
 was brought back a day or two after by a kind farmer in 
 whose home she had found a refuge, and now comes the 
 real explanations of her conduct. The teacher had re- 
 quired her to bring an excuse from her parents for tardi- 
 ness or absence, and they had refused to give it to her, 
 either through indifference or obstinacy, and the poor 
 child, being shut out of school, was afraid to go back home 
 lest she might be scolded or punished by her loving par- 
 ents. It is not the first time that the teacher has been 
 severely blamed, when the fault lay mostly if not wholly 
 with the parents, and it ought to remind us again how 
 helpful the sympathetic cooperation of parents would be 
 
 to us all. 
 
 Are They Best for the Child ? Miss Smith's interest- 
 ing paper at Newton opens a fruitful line of inquiry con- 
 cerning what things children remember most easily and 
 whether they are most profitable for them. In a moral 
 way they certainly have little difficulty in remembering a 
 good many things that are not for their best interests. 
 Some things that they ought to be remembering they are 
 constantly forgetting. In an intellectual way the truth is 
 probably no less evident. But why should one go to the 
 other extreme and insist that that which is difficult to re- 
 member is most useful to the child ? Let us have some 
 further tests to give a better understanding to the matter. 
 
 Contagious Diseases. Teachers cannot be too careful 
 about enforcing the rules excluding children with con- 
 
134 Among Ourselves. 
 
 tagious diseases from school. Familiarity with their symp- 
 toms, daily vigilance that their first appearance may be 
 discovered, care in refusing admittance until all danger of 
 infection is past, and prompt cooperation with the health 
 officer have saved the life of many a child. There is 
 hardly a community anywhere in which some family is not 
 mourning the loss of a dear one whose death was caused 
 by the ignorance of the teacher or by his neglect to pro- 
 tect it properly against the disease which carried it away. 
 I can never forget how bitterly a friend of mine com- 
 plained of the negligence which he was assured had robbed 
 him of the idol of his heart. Be wise enough and brave 
 enough to protect the little ones entrusted to your care. 
 Better by far err on the side of safety than run any risk of 
 jeopardizing a precious life. 
 
 Easy Enough. The other day a friend showed me a 
 handsome present he had received from a lady in grati- 
 tude for curing her little boy of stammering. He had met 
 the family on a boat and becoming interested in the 
 boy, had spent a few hours in trying to cure him of the 
 habit named. He found that a little patient drill in 
 enunciation, slow but accurate at first, then rapid and 
 varied, soon overcame the lack of muscular control, and 
 in but a day he had the rare pleasure of hearing him speak 
 as naturally and as fluently as any other child. All efforts 
 of the mother had failed because they were not intelli- 
 gently directed, and her joy at the success of my friend 
 was unbounded. 
 
 Poking Fun. Years ago, a company of us were having 
 an enjoyable half-hour poking fun at little Frank, when 
 
Among Ourselves, 135 
 
 his mother appeared on the scene and explained that he 
 was not accustomed to being fooled and that she preferred 
 that he should not take lessons in it just yet. Now, that 
 incident furnished us some food for reflection, and we have 
 agreed that no greater harm can be done to a little child 
 than to destroy his naturalness and simplicity by the per- 
 nicious habit of ridiculing him and poking fun at him. A 
 little of it may be a good thing in these early years, which 
 is doubtful, but he will soon enough come in contact with 
 those forces which embarrass and confuse him without 
 our hurrying the process unduly. 
 
 " One Man Objected." Well, what if he did? Was 
 that any reason why the school board should declare the 
 principalship vacant, set the principal adrift hunting a new 
 place, mortify his family, destroy his reputation, and put 
 all the schools of the city under the extravagant and 
 wasteful ordeal of introducing a new and untried man at 
 the opening of the next term ? What if half a dozen men 
 or a dozen of them objected ? Do you expect to find a 
 man who will please everybody ? Perhaps a little inquiry 
 will show you that the man objects because for once his 
 children are made to obey the regulations of the board, or 
 because the principal has not shown the partiality for his 
 children which they have been accustomed to regard as 
 their right, or because of the disposition of the principal 
 to follow his own judgment about the conduct of the 
 school, or because he could not see his way to approve the 
 application of the niece of the objector for a position as 
 teacher, or because he bought his butter of another grocer, 
 or because of any one of fifty silly little reasons, he, the 
 
136 Among Ourselves. 
 
 objector, has taken a dislike to the principal. The man 
 who makes the fewest enemies may be a most cowardly trim- 
 mer and a miserable excuse as a teacher. The man who is 
 brave enough to attempt the advancement of the schools 
 and enforcement of order, can hardly avoid making some- 
 body unfriendly, and school boards ought not to make a 
 change until, after careful investigation, they are satisfied 
 that the reasons for complaint are well founded and that 
 the causes cannot be removed. 
 
 Everybody Makes Mistakes, and the principal ought 
 to be given a chance to correct those he makes before he 
 is decapitated. It is no light thing for a man to be com- 
 pelled to seek another place, and the evil effect upon the 
 schools of changing teachers can often hardly be overcome 
 in a whole quarter's work. The moral effect is too fre- 
 quently never overcome. As soon as a few children learn 
 that a little rebellion and a little grumbling can drive a 
 teacher away, they do not find it difficult to trump up an 
 excuse and to keep the schools in confusion all the time. 
 Disturbers here, they become disturbers in after life and 
 everybody suffers. I venture the statement that a little 
 reasonable effort on the part of members of the school 
 board will usually satisfy the patrons and result in great 
 good to the schools. An ordinary teacher, faithful to his 
 trust, and generously sustained by his board, will accom- 
 plish far more than a procession of superior teachers, no 
 one of whom stays long enough to realize his ideals, or to 
 bring the children and the community into harmony with 
 them. There are men and women who ought not to be 
 
Among Ourselves. 137 
 
 reelected, but there ought always to be a better reason than 
 because one man or several men object. 
 
 Lesson of the Bicycle. My instructor said to me at 
 my first lesson : " Put yourself in harmony with your front 
 wheel, become a part of it, and the victory is won." It 
 did not take long to learn why, for as he rode about every- 
 where without touching his hands to the handles, I saw 
 that it was because the wheel and the man were one. 
 Here is a lesson for teachers in the schools. Though we 
 may sometimes find it necessary to "lay on the hands," 
 we must soon learn to control and direct by becoming one 
 with the pupil, and by that method alone. The wheel un- 
 consciously does the bidding of the rider ; so the pupil 
 may as readily be directed by the teacher, if he but be- 
 comes so fully a part of him that he knows his pupil's every 
 impulse and so may quickly, silently, surely anticipate its 
 coming and make it obedient to his own ideals. 
 
 War Talk. War has her victories, but peace also has 
 her triumphs. In these days of bluster and of brag, the 
 average citizen needs to be reminded that — 
 
 " He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that 
 taketh a city. ' ' 
 
 Victory over self assures victory over others. 
 
 Dean Stanley says : 
 
 " Think how often you have been mistaken ; how often 
 you may be mistaken yet again. Think how, in the 
 warmth of your own better feelings, your hard and cold 
 heart has melted, and you may fairly hope and believe that 
 the same genial warmth will spread toward whom it is 
 
138 Among Ourselves. 
 
 directed; and many a proud spirit that would have long 
 met scorn with scorn, and hate with hate, will be bowed 
 down to the dust by one kind word; many a hard heart 
 will be melted down by the morsel of bread and the cup 
 of cold water, that would have resisted a whole furnace of 
 angry invectives." 
 
 Keep Growing. It must not be forgotten that the 
 teacher who is willing to rest on past or present attain- 
 ments will soon lose caste in the profession, and will 
 sooner lose the ability to interest and stimulate the chil- 
 dren to great things for themselves. The freshness and 
 vigor perpetually arising in himself with each day's growth 
 are imparted to the children, and they always respond with 
 corresponding activity. We must not imagine that Ave 
 know it all, or that the wisest possess all the truth that will 
 ever be known. Lowell says : 
 
 The world advances, and in time outgrows 
 The laws that in our fathers' days were best; 
 And, doubtless, after us, some purer scheme 
 Will be shaped out by wiser men than we, 
 Made wiser by the steady growth of time. 
 
 The Sacredness of the Child. If anything can be 
 said or done which will exalt the child in the minds of 
 parents and teachers, there never was a better time for it 
 than now. The "Doctor" said: "I winder why we 
 have always tried to read the supernatural meaning into 
 the story of the Christ-child. I tell you the message of 
 the angel means too that the birth of human life is always 
 sacred. We might well say at every birth, 'Go and search 
 for the young child and bring me word that I may come 
 
Among Ourselves. 139 
 
 and worship him.' " He comes into the world, the 
 image of God, a prince among all his creatures. Shall he 
 not have the choicest from a thousand hills for his meat, 
 the softest fleece from the king's flock for his raiment, the 
 most loving and tender of queens for his nurse, the most 
 learned and consecrated of scholars for his teacher, the 
 rarest and noblest of men for his companions, the holiest 
 of missions for his ambitions ? If he were my child, yes ! 
 If he were yours? Yes ! If he were your neighbor's? — 
 If-he-were-your-neighbor's — ? 
 
 Buttoned-up Wrong. So Janet insists and explains 
 that everybody is buttoned-up just one hole too high on one 
 side or the other. Poor Janet ! She squints ; that's the 
 trouble, and so she goes about seeing everything and 
 everybody askew. Be kind to her. She may gain her 
 normal vision some day, but it will never come by ridicule, 
 nor by harsh treatment. This world is not out of tune. 
 Neither is the great mass of God's children so far out of 
 harmony with him as many people imagine. We must 
 after all get our alignment from them, and he who dis- 
 covers none good stands self-condemned at once ; he sees 
 the surface of things only and fails to discover the mighty 
 pulses of humanity whose source is the great heart of God 
 himself. 
 
 " Just Pegs!" The following from the Pilgrim 
 Teacher ought to be passed along: 
 
 "They didn't let any little child put the pegs in ! " 
 said a three-year-old kindergartner mournfully at the table 
 the other day, just after coming home from Sunday-school. 
 "They did it all their own selfs ! " "Oh, well," said 
 
140 Among Ourselves. 
 
 some one soothingly, " you had the fun of seeing them put 
 the pegs in." " 'Taint any fun ! " persisted the child. 
 "I don't care 'bout seeing pegs ! It's pegs, but it ain't 
 kindergarten." There the subject dropped. But some 
 of the elders at table felt instructed. The essence of 
 attractive and efficient teaching in the younger classes 
 certainly lies very much in our success in getting the chil- 
 dren themselves to "do things," as they put it. When 
 they have learned the Bible verses at home, they want 
 to say them ; those who have carefully committed the 
 golden text feel defrauded if they are not offered a chance 
 to repeat it ; and the little ones who have found out the 
 positions of the towns around the Lake of Galilee feel that 
 they have earned a right to " put the pegs in. ' ' Of course 
 the teacher may do it and save time. It is a wasteful 
 saving. The children look on listlessly, the glamour 
 gone. As the baby said positively, "It's pegs; it ain't 
 kindergarten." 
 
 The Primary Object. The truth is that the man or 
 woman who gets the best happiness from life, who gives 
 the most happiness back to his fellows, — who really makes 
 a living, — does not live to make money. Any fool can 
 make money; most fools can squander it; many fools can 
 hoard it. The primary object of an education should be 
 to instruct men and women in the gentle art of spending 
 money after they have earned it. It is not a simple 
 matter; when one thinks of the joy one may bring to tired 
 hearts, the comfort one may give to weary hands, the wis- 
 dom one may see in an open book, the beauty one may 
 conjure from a printed page — each with one humble Amer- 
 
Among Ourselves. 141 
 
 ican dollar, it is small wonder that the intelligent man 
 should ask for more light before he executes his trusts 
 and parts with that which Providence has lent him. — 
 William Allen White. 
 
 Growing Better. The world must be growing better. 
 Indeed we are growing better. You who have gathered 
 here to-day assemble in a cause as holy in your time as 
 that which called the Knights of the Cross to Jerusalem. 
 The simple rites with which these doors are thrown open, 
 begin a work which should mean to the world more than 
 does the crowning of a king. With you, young men and 
 women of Kansas University, is left the answer to the 
 question, Shall this ceremony be consecrated to God, or 
 shall it be an empty show — on a pagan holiday? Your 
 work here, your lives when you shall leave these walls, 
 shall prove the folly or the wisdom of your pilgrimage 
 after knowledge. You should work, not because the night 
 is coming, but because you have faith in a day that is 
 coming. Faith — the evidence of things not seen ! Faith — 
 the substance of things hoped for ! What a strange 
 order, what a beautiful order, shall prevail in the day that 
 shall be, when the mill of education has taken greed from 
 the human heart, when men shall toil for the good they 
 can do with the rewards of their labor ! Then they shall 
 master the science of getting only that they may practise 
 the art of giving. — William Allen White. 
 
 You cannot give yourself up to learn the truth without 
 becoming great.— Dr. Hall. 
 
 That man may last, but never lives, 
 Who much receives, but nothing gives ; 
 
142 Among Ourselves. 
 
 Whom none can love, whom none can thank — 
 Creation's blot, creation's blank. 
 
 — T/iomas Gibbons. 
 
 No Discipline There. We have no sympathy for that 
 patronizing enunciation of some schools that discipline is 
 unknown with them, as if this were a state to be desired. 
 If order is heaven's first law, surely it ought not be made 
 the last with man. An undisciplined school is no more de- 
 sirable than an undisciplined home or an undisciplined 
 state. Discipline is the very thing sought in the develop- 
 ment of the man physically, mentally, morally, and spir- 
 itually. Discipline is victory to the army, prosperity to 
 the government, happiness to the home, efficiency to the 
 school, success to the individual. Discipline must be 
 learned as other lessons in life, by study and practice ; 
 and every creditable institution of learning is bound to 
 instruct therein if it aims to develop a complete, strong 
 manhood- — The Bulletin. 
 
 Too Much Uniformity. " The practice in some public 
 schools of requiring the children, when moving in a body, 
 to observe more than the military rigidity of line, with 
 penalties for looking in any other than a prescribed direc- 
 tion, or for lifting a hand to allay a facial irritation, 
 reaches a climax in the San Francisco schools. There the 
 boys, when lined up in front of the school, awaiting the 
 tap of the bell, are required to stand with their arms 
 folded across their chests exactly in the prison attitude. 
 When they move it is with the prison lockstep, and be- 
 tween rows of nails driven into the sidewalk, and woe be 
 to the unlucky youth who steps over the line. The criti- 
 
CO 
 
 nj o a 
 
 ^£° 
 
 ^ o > 
 
Among Ourselves. 145 
 
 cism of the method comes from a detective. The boys, he 
 claims, are acquiring a habit which in later years will be a 
 source of annoyance and a cause of suspicion. Discharged 
 convicts, the detective asserts, frequently resume the prison 
 habit of the lockstep and the folded arms when their minds- 
 are preoccupied, and to the veteran police officer the mo- 
 tion and the attitude are as distinctive as the striped suit." 
 
 The above from a Western paper may overdraw the 
 San Francisco method a little, but the point is well made. 
 
 The Lesson of the Barber. As he finished brushing 
 my hair, my barber friend said to me: "There! You 
 never had a better cut than that even for the thirty-five 
 cents you paid the other day in Denver. Competition 
 here compels me to do it now for fifteen cents, but I cut 
 it just as well as I did when I received thirty-five cents for 
 it. Some barbers say they manage it by giving a fifteen - 
 cent cut, but I cannot afford to do that. Its effect on me 
 would soon be to make me a second-class barber, and I 
 have too much pride for that, to say nothing of my con- 
 science." This reactive effect on the self is usually for- 
 gotten by all classes of people, not omitting the school- 
 masters when they are content to give cheap work for low 
 pay. They are not only wasting their opportunities and 
 ruining their reputations, but they are also destroying their 
 power to do first-class work when they wish to do it. 
 
 The tear down childhood's cheek that flows 
 Is like the dewdrop on the rose ; 
 When next the summer's breeze comes by 
 And waves the bush, the flower is dry. 
 
 —Scott. 
 
146 Among Ourselves. 
 
 A man who does not learn to live while he is getting a 
 living, is a poorer man after his wealth is won than he 
 was before. — Holland. 
 
 We Learn by Learning. That is, by keeping at it. 
 This is not tautology. There is no other way to do it. I 
 have a lady friend who is regarded as one of the best 
 musicians in the West, and I find that she must have put 
 nearly ten thousand hours at her piano in practice before 
 she felt willing to undertake a very difficult piece of music 
 on her own responsibility. She would spend the best 
 practice hours for months on a selection before she would 
 consent to play it in public and then her auditors found 
 little to condemn and much to praise. This is the secret 
 of true learning, and yet how many of us are trying to 
 learn in a very superficial, hasty way, giving little time, 
 care, strength, or method to the process. When we per- 
 sistently strive to learn everything we undertake thor- 
 oughly well, the reaction upon the self becomes marked 
 and wholesome, increasing one's skill and speed with each 
 succeeding effort. No man ever became a great scholar 
 who minimized the importance of the act of learning. 
 Abiliiy to learn conies by learning. 
 
 Jack's Trades Union. Jack came to town to get work 
 and in an innocent way did so fine a job of mowing and 
 trimming a lady's yard that several neighbors came to him 
 to have their lawns mowed. They all said that he did so 
 many things that other laborers overlooked. He soon 
 had more than he could do, and ere long was able to buy 
 a little truck farm for himself. He raised more potatoes 
 to the acre than the other farmers and his customers in- 
 
Among Ourselves. 147 
 
 sisted that they were better. He seldom failed to sell a 
 truck-wagonful on every trip. He was liberal in meas- 
 uring everything. His biographer says that he always 
 rounded up the half-bushel and then put still a few more 
 potatoes on top, often saying to himself, " They don't cost 
 much, and it helps trade ! ' ' He had many requests to join 
 trades unions, but always insisted that the trades union 
 between himself and his customers was good enough for 
 him. Jack's theory and Jack's practice reveal the secret 
 of the success of many people, teachers not excepted. 
 We are too particular about the letter of the contract 
 and stroke the half bushel every time. Let us rather 
 imitate Jack, doing everything a little better and working 
 a little longer than was expected. // does not cost much, 
 and it helps trade ! 
 
 The Conch Shell. What a beautiful fiction this, that 
 the soft murmur of the conch shell as I put it to my ear, 
 is the tale which the sea long ago poured into its cham- 
 bers—a tale told to it in whispers and anon with the 
 voice of the mighty tempest, the tumultuous churning of 
 the contending waters, the deafening crash of wild thun- 
 ders, the blinding sprangles of the livid lightning, the de- 
 spairing cries of drowning seamen, the pitiful wail of the 
 victims of the deep sea monsters — and yet all now issuing 
 forth again from the labyrinths of the shell as a hushed 
 lullaby, its discords and mad passions all gone, gratefully 
 sweet and soothing. So the struggles and discords of life, 
 the tempests, the disappointments, the shocking tragedies, 
 the bitter sorrows, even the thrilling victories, gradually 
 lose their sharp lines under time's tempering touch, mel- 
 
148 Among Ourselves. 
 
 lowing to a harmony with the key to which each life is 
 set. Few professions are set to a nobler key than ours ; 
 few persons in any profession enjoy the consolations of a 
 well-spent life more than the true teacher. The memories 
 of the long gone years, years of conflict, of tension, of 
 anxiety, of lack of appreciation, of self-denial, of sacrifice, 
 of heart-aches, of betrayal of trusts, of defeat in cherished 
 plans, return again in the mellow years purified and chas- 
 tened by the one consuming motive of life, service. The 
 pleasures of imagination, however dear to youth, are far 
 less satisfying than the pleasures of a memory thus refined 
 and hallowed. 
 
 Needed Encouragement. A young man, ' ' who ought 
 to have known better," was frequently offending, and had 
 been repeatedly reprimanded. One day he protested that 
 he was not getting the treatment he needed. He said, " I 
 need encouragement, not scolding." Then he told his 
 story, and it was sad enough for tears. . . . The indigna- 
 tion and impatience of the teacher at once subsided and 
 deep sympathy took their place. He learned more about 
 human nature in that passionate apology and appeal than 
 he had learned before in a dozen years. He saw how 
 often he had driven pupils from him who were longing for 
 the very friendship and encouragement which he was able 
 to give, and what a grievous wrong he had done his own 
 better nature in shutting himself up in his self-sufficient 
 shell and blindly ignoring the simple laws controlling the 
 development of ideals of human conduct. 
 
 Humor in the Recitation. I remember it well. One 
 of the young men in our class was being slowly driven to 
 
Among Ourselves. 149 
 
 the corner by the interrogations of our merciless president, 
 and manifested his distress in such ludicrous ways to my 
 seatmate and myself that twice we were forced to smile, 
 the last time broad enough to attract the attention of the 
 president himself. He had suppressed the class the first 
 time by a withering look, but now he read the riot act in 
 tones that had but one meaning. Though a very learned 
 man and generally regarded as a man of good judgment, 
 he lacked the power to discriminate between a healthy, in- 
 nocent bit of merriment and that born of irreverence, dis- 
 respect, or ridicule. Anything of a humorous nature 
 seemed to him to disturb the train of thought he was 
 trying to develop and to be beneath the dignity of seli- 
 respecting students. How droll and dreary many of his 
 recitations were ! It grieves me that the only thing in 
 my work with him standing out clearly in memory to-night, 
 is the little episode above mentioned, and yet I am not 
 disposed to blame myself much. My lessons were usually 
 well prepared, and I enjoyed their study, but the utter 
 humdrum of the recitation, the keen consciousness of the 
 fact that a smile was "out of order, young gentlemen," 
 the sphinx-like expression of the occupant o f the Chair, 
 and the nervousness induced by the fear of some little in- 
 discretion in act or language, combined to suppress the 
 interest already aroused and to rob study of its best fruit- 
 age. It is an easy thing for a teacher to destroy a recita- 
 tion by too much levity, and this extreme is as reprehen- 
 sible as the other, but the proper mean is certainly not 
 difficult to find. 
 
15° Among Ourselves. 
 
 " If at first you don't succeed, 
 Try, try, again." 
 
 Willie had just learned this encouraging little couplet, 
 and as ne was closing his evening prayer, he surprised his 
 mother by adding : 
 
 O Lord, make me very good, — 
 If at first you don't succeed, 
 Try, try, again. 
 
 There it is in a nutshell! Shall all perseverance be on 
 one side ? Shall the child be the only one to try again 
 and again ? Shall not the teacher also repeat his effort 
 to help the child to see clearer and to be better ? If he 
 fail once, or twice, or even thrice, shall the quality of 
 mercy be strained ? Shall kindly effort therefore cease ? 
 Nay, verily, my brother! 
 
 Why Not ? As our minister was leading his people in 
 earnest prayer the other morning, the entire congregation 
 was startled by a sharp cry from a little child in a rear 
 pew. A lady near by slipped over and found a six-year- 
 old boy pounding his little brother of five " to make him 
 keep his head down until the prayer was over. " The two 
 had knelt very reverently, but the younger had grown 
 restless and wanted to see what was going on around him, 
 — hence the chastisement which followed. With no more 
 regard for time and place, with no more reason for his 
 course than this elder brother, many a teacher thumps and 
 punishes a pupil for offenses no more serious, offenses 
 that would have been overlooked but for the childishness 
 of the teacher himself. 
 
Among Ourselves. 15 1 
 
 The One Thing Needful. Too many of us spend time 
 hunting positions, which had far better been spent in 
 fitting ourselves to fill them when offered us. Montan's 
 advice to Wilhelm Meister will serve us as well as him : 
 " Practice till you are an able violinist, and be assured 
 that the director will have pleasure in assigning you a 
 place in the orchestra. Make an instrument of yourself, 
 and wait and see what sort of place humanity will kindly 
 grant you in universal life." 
 
 Fresh-mindedness. Edward Eggleston, in his intro- 
 duction to the "Schoolmaster in Literature," wisely 
 declares that no other device of the teacher can ever 
 render study so delightful to the pupils as the " fresh- 
 mindedness" of the teacher himself. If his mind is 
 refreshed daily by drawing inspiration from the master- 
 pieces of literature, if his zest for knowledge grows keener 
 with each new experience, he will hardly fail to render the 
 pathway of his pupils delightsome. Whether a grade or 
 high-school teacher, the need for good, wholesome mental 
 food each day to keep the mind fresh and vigorous is just 
 as positive as is the need for good and wholesome food to 
 sustain a strong and healthy body. Every teacher will 
 find it profitable to set apart an hour each day that shall 
 be faithfully devoted to self-culture, — to the interpretation 
 of some great poem, the reading of some thoughtful 
 essay, the review of some interesting period in history, the 
 analysis of some great character, or the study of some 
 superior work of art, — to a better acquaintanceship with 
 the life of the forest and field round about, and with the 
 great social and industrial movements of his time. That 
 
i 52 Among Ourselves. 
 
 is the only way to maintain the fresh-mindedness so potent 
 in the schoolroom. 
 
 Coming Along Nevertheless. Years ago I entered a 
 railway car going east just as a heavy snowstorm came 
 up from the west. We were soon flying along, and I 
 settled down to my book. On looking up some time 
 afterward, I was greatly surprised to find that the snow 
 was coming from the east, and supposed that the wind 
 had suddenly changed. As the train slowed up at the 
 next station, however, the wind almost ceased for a 
 moment and then was blowing from the west again ! I 
 then knew that the snow had been blowing from the west 
 all of the time and that part of the time we had been 
 going at a higher speed than the wind, hence the illusion 
 of its change. We often get out of patience with our 
 fellow craftsmen and with the world at large, because they 
 seem to be standing still or to be going backward, when 
 as a matter of fact they are moving in the same direction 
 in which we are going, but may simply be coming along at 
 a little slower rate, — possibly with a better understanding 
 than we ourselves. 
 
 The Touch of Truth. Matthew Arnold says that the 
 touch of truth is the touch of life. The children are not 
 able at first to grasp truth in the abstract, but must be 
 given it in the concrete. They must see it with their eyes 
 and feel it with their hands; they must see it in action 
 and be aroused by its touch. It is^as true of moral as of 
 intellectual truth, perhaps more so. The Master became 
 incarnate to reveal the Father as the truth and the life. 
 Men could not understand it before as they have since. 
 
Among Ourselves. 153 
 
 Laws, rituals, scourgings, ceremonies, the smoke of 
 bloody altars, the odor of frankincense and myrrh, and 
 symbols without number, had failed to bring mankind to 
 its proper conception. Christ came to show that the 
 truth and the life are one; through the life he showed the 
 world the truth. The woman who was healed by touch- 
 ing his garments had life because she had touched the 
 Truth. How full of suggestion to us! How much easier 
 are our tasks assured if we but live the truth, so that virtue 
 shall go out to our pupils if they but touch our garments. 
 I have known such; and blessed is their memory. 
 
 " My Eyes ! " In conducting an advanced spelling- 
 class years ago, I followed the plan of requiring the 
 students to exchange writing-spellers after the words had 
 been written and to mark the misspelled words in each 
 other's spellers. Some member of the class pronounced 
 and spelled the words correctly as a guide to the marking. 
 One day one of the pupils came to me complaining that 
 her critic was marking words that were correctly spelled. 
 I spoke about it to the offender, who, by the way, was 
 one of the most conscientious girls I ever met, and in 
 evident distress, she exclaimed, " My eyes! I suppose it 
 must be my eyes! " A little investigation confirmed a 
 suspicion which she had not been willing to verify for 
 herself before, and a flood of light was at once thrown 
 upon many of her difficulties. The story points its own 
 moral. 
 
 Spelling by Muscular Pictures. A little experimenta- 
 tion will show fou that in writing words, accuracy 
 depends more upon the attainment of perfect muscular 
 
1 54 Among Ourselves . 
 
 movement in learning to write them than upon the eye- 
 pictures. While the eye-pictures enable us to determine 
 their correctness, the correctness of the writing is depend- 
 ent upon the nature of the response which the muscles of 
 the arm and fingers make as the word expressing the 
 thought comes into the mind. We write hundreds of 
 words automatically, the mind being engrossed with the 
 thought. Who ever stops to spell out mentally the words 
 he uses every day ? How many of us are good proof- 
 readers and yet make mistakes in spelling when the 
 thoughts flow rapidly ? How many seldom make a 
 mistake in writing down their own thoughts and yet mis- 
 spell many words when dictated in columns ? How 
 many blunder in oral spelling, but seldom write a word 
 wrong ? The problem of good spelling is a problem of 
 muscular control as well as a problem of eye-pictures. 
 This principle has long been recognized in penmanship 
 and drawing, but is too generally ignored in teaching 
 spelling. It explains why many pupils misspell words in 
 their writing-spellers that they spelled correctly orally at 
 home to their mothers or other members of the family. 
 It explains the persistent misspelling of certain classes of 
 words when children " know better. " It also magnifies 
 the importance of correctly spelling every new word as 
 the child meets it, particularly as he attempts to write it, 
 and of a sufficient number of repetitions to insure the 
 integrity of the whole movement when the word is 
 attempted again. As I am closing this paragraph, a 
 principal of long and successful experience tells me that, 
 at his suggestion, his teachers have for many years 
 
Among Ourselves. 155 
 
 required their children to write correctly several times 
 each new word they meet, so as to fix definitely its mus- 
 cular-picture, and that the results have always been most 
 gratifying. 
 
 The two great banes of humanity are self-conceit and 
 the laziness coming from self-conceit. — Spinoza. 
 
 To have the sense of creative activity is the great 
 happiness and the great proof of being alive. — Matthew 
 Arnold. 
 
 Self-activity. In Commissioner W. T. Harris' most 
 profound and stimulating treatise on the Psychologic 
 Foundations of Education, he clearly sets forth the func- 
 tion of self-activity in the educational process. Self- 
 activity is the inherent activity by which an individual 
 realizes itself. In the mineral, under given conditions, it 
 builds up certain crystalline forms in accordance with 
 ideals imposed upon it by a power above itself. Each 
 mineral has its own characteristic crystallization and it 
 can take upon itself no other. The vital principle of the 
 plant germ through its activity realizes the ideal form 
 imposed upon it, each producing after its kind. The 
 same inexorable law controls all animal life, dictating the 
 limits of self-activity and fixing the forms which it shall 
 realize. In these three worlds, — the mineral, the plant, 
 the animal, — the function of self-activity is purely that of 
 realization, of form building, the ideal to be realized 
 being imposed from without. In the realm of mind this 
 self-same activity exists, but its function is now twofold : 
 it sets up its own ideals and it also realizes them. The 
 
J 56 Among Ourselves. 
 
 office of education is then not to be limited to the 
 process of training a child to conform to certain ideals 
 set up by his teacher; it includes that higher and more 
 important process, the process of teaching the child to 
 think for himself, to build ideals of his own. Plants and 
 animals can be trained, but not educated. Too many 
 children are merely trained and hence become machines 
 only. Their power to think is neither quickened nor 
 directed. A clear understanding of the double function 
 of self-activity naturally suggests the double function of 
 education, hence the great value of a knowledge of the 
 full significance of self-activity to every teacher. In our 
 efforts to stimulate the thinking or idealizing activity of 
 the child, however, w r e ought not to ignore the necessity 
 for the development of skill in realizing his ideals. 
 Parents often think it enough to assist a child to clear 
 ideals of right and wrong and forget to assist him in doing 
 the right and avoiding the wrong a sufficient number of 
 times to make right action instantly conform to right 
 thinking. They are also prone to forget the reciprocal 
 effects of thinking and doing on each other, the enlighten- 
 ment which comes to thinking through experience, the 
 skill that in turn is attained in execution through the 
 guidance of the intellect thus enlarged. The conception 
 of this dualism in education is an essential basis for all 
 method and all philosophy. 
 
 Utilizing Simple Means. In building a bridge across 
 the Charles river, the workmen discovered a heavy sewer- 
 pipe buried deep under the bed of the stream, which had 
 been in disuse so long that everybody had forgotten it. 
 
Among Ourselves. T 57 
 
 It became necessary to remove it. Heavy cable chains 
 were attached and a steam tug was called into requisition. 
 One failed to start it, and a second was called to assist. 
 The two together could not shake it in its bed. A 
 Yankee standing near said he could lift it without any 
 machinery whatever, and after a little parleying he was 
 given the contract to do it. He had two old hulls of 
 ships towed up the river, and laid two immense logs across 
 from one to the other, over which he fastened the cable 
 chains attached to the pipe. He did nothing more but 
 go up the bank and sit down and whistle. Soon the tide 
 began to come up and the old hulls began to rock a little. 
 Before the tidal wave had reached its full height they 
 began to go with it, carrying the sewer-pipe along with 
 them. And the Yankee continued to whistle! 
 
 The above story by Dr. A. E. Winship ought to bring 
 many who read it back to " first principles " at once and 
 ought to help us all to the solution of certain puzzling 
 problems. 
 
 Loading Up. It is the easiest thing in the world for a 
 teacher to permit himself to load up with all kinds of 
 work. Just now there comes to me the case of a young 
 woman who is breaking down and fears she will be com- 
 pelled to give up her school. She is the leader of the 
 church choir and of the young people's society of the 
 church, teaches a class in Sunday-school, is an active 
 member of a missionary society, is the moving spirit in a 
 literary club, is keeping up the reading in the teachers' 
 reading circle, and is punctilious in the discharge of her 
 social duties. These things alone are enough to use up 
 
158 Among Ourselves. 
 
 the strength of an average woman, but when the work of 
 the schoolroom with all its accompanying responsibilities 
 and anxieties is added to them, there can be but one end. 
 When there is so much to be done and the teacher seems 
 to be the one most competent to do it, the temptation to 
 yield to the solicitations of friends to accept leadership 
 is always great, but the lesson might as well be learned 
 first as last that one can do only a very few things 
 thoroughly well. One's best time and best strength 
 should be saved for his regular work. A reasonable 
 amount of both ought to go into the service of the church 
 and of society, but every one owes it to himself as well as to 
 those whom he serves that he preserve inviolably a certain 
 amount of time each day for self-culture. Growth ceases 
 without it, and usefulness does not last long after that. 
 
 Ways of Doing Things. Dr. A. E. Winship. is 
 authority for a good story illustrating ways of doing 
 things. A lady went to take charge of a school that was 
 notorious for fighting. She soon discovered that a certain 
 youth of fourteen was the leading pugilist, and sought 
 means of winning his friendship. When she felt sure that 
 she could ask a great favor of him, she told him she had 
 a special request to make which she hoped he would 
 grant at once. He told her with emphasis that he would 
 do anything in the world for her, except to quit fighting ! 
 No argument could move him. Punishment had failed. 
 What was to be done ? She happened to read a story 
 from " Greek Heroes" to the pupils one morning which 
 interested the boy greatly. He asked her to lend him the 
 book. In a few days he brought it back, saying that he 
 
Among Ourselves. J 59 
 
 had read it through, but that " the stories did not read 
 like they did when she read them." She agreed to read 
 one a day after school for him. After a few more had 
 been read, he told her with a sigh of despair that he had 
 been born too late. She asked why. He replied that he 
 was a born fighter, and that if he had been born in 
 ancient Greece he might have been somebody. She told 
 him that he might make a name for himself by stopping 
 the righting in that school. He said that he would do it. 
 At the next recess she heard a disturbance at the door, 
 and looking up, saw him holding a boy by the hair with 
 each hand and occasionally giving them a push against 
 the sides of the door by way of emphasis as he exclaimed : 
 " I'll teach you kids how to fight around here. I tell 
 you this thing has got to stop. There will be no more 
 righting in this school. Do you hear? Well, then, 
 mind ! ' ' 
 
 And there was no more fighting in that school. 
 
 The Graces. While it is essential that every teacher 
 should possess those graces of heart and soul which are 
 everywhere recognized as the characteristics of true man- 
 hood and womanhood, success in managing children and 
 in inspiring them with ideals of the finer sort is also 
 dependent upon the external graces, or those graces which 
 in a general way may be called the graces of attitude and 
 expression. They include the habits, as commonly under- 
 stood, such as cleanliness, neatness, stature, movement, 
 expression, language, voice, manners, etc. Their pres- 
 ence is in large measure the secret of the success of many 
 very ordinary men and women, and their absence, the 
 
160 Among Ourselves, 
 
 secret of the failure of many men and women of genius. 
 Long ago — 
 
 Cleanliness was ranked next to godliness, and it holds 
 its high place in these later years. In a land where water 
 is plentiful and soap is cheap, there is no excuse for 
 slovenliness. The civilization of a nation is easily deter- 
 mined by the quality and the amount of soap it uses, — 
 likewise of an individual. In commending a lady to me 
 some years since the president of an Eastern college said, 
 " Her scholarship and ability are unquestioned, but when 
 here, she was slovenly in body and dress, and I am afraid 
 has not reformed." A visit to her home confirmed his 
 suspicion, and she was given no further consideration. 
 One may be poor, but he can always be clean. Least of 
 all men the school-teacher has an excuse for filthiness, 
 and yet I am sorry to say one of the filthiest men I ever 
 met was a certain village schoolmaster, while one of the 
 tidiest was a foundryman. In addition to the comfort 
 given those with whom we associate, there is a freshness 
 and a vigor which cleanliness perpetually begets that 
 increases mightily our own daily relish in living. 
 
 Neatness is the Child of cleanliness, and it is difficult 
 for one to keep house without the other. It shows itself 
 in the kitchen-maid by the luster of her kettles and pans 
 and by the tidiness of her bib and tucker, in the artisan 
 by the condition of his work -bench and of his tools, in 
 the shopkeeper by the attractiveness of his show-case and 
 the judgment exercised in the display of his wares, in the 
 teacher by the fit and the appropriateness of his clothes 
 as well as by the condition and arrangement of the furni- 
 
Among Ourselves. 161 
 
 ture, the books, the apparatus, the work on the black- 
 board, his manuscripts, etc., etc. This grace reveals its 
 presence in a multitude of little details that give a man or 
 a woman recognition anywhere, and nowhere else more 
 readily than with the children. What we need is influence 
 with the children, power to control them by awakening 
 their higher sensibilities rather than by brute force, and 
 as we strive to influence our peers and our superiors by 
 appeal to their aesthetic sense, shall we ignore its value in 
 dealing with the children ? When Joseph was asked to 
 appear before Pharaoh, the first thing he did was to shave 
 himself. One great secret in gaining favors, whether 
 from children or adults, is to assure them by seeking them 
 with such a gracious presence that it begets a desire to 
 serve you even before the request is uttered. The people 
 of this world are often more wise than the schoolmasters. 
 Stature. By this I do not mean size, great or small, 
 though it may enter as a factor. I mean rather a sym- 
 metrically developed figure, a healthy, vigorous body, a 
 square-shouldered, full-chested, clear-eyed, warm-blooded 
 animal; one whose nerves are constantly giving off enough 
 magnetism to quicken the movement and the perception 
 of every sluggish child and to lead all of the pupils into 
 harmony with itself. No person of low vitality ought to 
 teach school, and, other things being equal, the prefer- 
 ence should always be given to those candidates having 
 the least physical blemish. I am sometimes told that 
 this is a hard doctrine, but the schools are supported for the 
 sake of the children, and not for the sake of the teachers. 
 Does anyone dare say me nay? In Phoenix, Ariz., as 
 
1 62 Among Ourselves. 
 
 well as in many other cities, a rigid physical examination 
 is required of all teachers, and no applicant will be 
 employed who shows the slightest tendency to tuber- 
 culosis. The aesthetic and hygienic reasons for this 
 demand are, however, not the only weighty ones prompt- 
 ing it. If you desire to teach school, fit yourself for it 
 physically as well as mentally. This fitting will neces- 
 sarily include the grace of — 
 
 Movement, for grace in form is usually the product of 
 grace in movement. Easy, natural positions in sitting 
 and standing are characteristics of the well-bred lady or 
 gentleman, and the self-possession shown in them gives an 
 immediate command of a schoolroom that the lounging 
 or fidgety teacher is never able to attain. One of the 
 best instructors in my acquaintance recently lost a good 
 position because he persisted in spreading himself all over 
 his own desk and the desks of his pupils. He also had 
 a hitching gesture, much of the time with his hands in his 
 pockets, that made his pupils nervous and restless. The 
 lazy, indolent way in which many teachers rise or sit down 
 is simply inexcusable. In a week's time half of their 
 pupils are unconsciously imitating them, and the demoral- 
 izing effect is most deplorable. Pupils naturally get their 
 ideals from their teachers, and consciously as well as 
 unconsciously imitate them in nearly everything they do, 
 — in walking, in using the pointer, in handling the eraser, 
 in gesture, in voice, in language, in manners, etc. A 
 distinguished journalist was walking with me some time 
 since and noticed all of the boys among my students 
 tipping their hats as they met me. He said: " How is 
 
Among Ourselves. 163 
 
 this ? Do you require all of your students to salute you 
 in this way ? " I replied: " No sir; I always tip my hat 
 to them and few students fail to respond in the same way 
 after the first greeting. Watch these little boys ahead of 
 us as we meet them." 
 
 Milton says of his ideal, — 
 
 " Grace was in all her steps, 
 Heaven in her eye, 
 In all her gestures 
 Modesty and love." 
 
 So along with these graces should come the specific grace 
 of— 
 
 Facial Expression, by which the changing counten- 
 ance reveals the passions and thoughts of the soul within. 
 No teacher has a right to enter his schoolroom habitually, 
 or even frequently, with a long face, nor with a troubled 
 face, much less with an angry or repellent face. What- 
 ever of the other graces he may possess, if his countenance 
 be indifferent or forbidding, he is at once shorn of much 
 of his power. Nature may not have done much for him, 
 but through interest and sympathy and consecration the 
 homeliest faces become radiant and winning, assuring 
 and helpful. A kindly eye, an encouraging smile, a flush 
 of pleasure at the success of a pupil, evident regret at his 
 failure, though not a word be spoken, are potent factors 
 with all grades of children. A friend of mine rules every 
 circle she enters by her smile; another drives nearly 
 everybody away from her by the cynicism that shows in 
 every look. It is said that in one of the French provinces 
 the girls are taught from the moment they leave their 
 
1 64 Among Ourselves. 
 
 cradles that the chief end in living is to be beautiful. As 
 a result, the girls and the women of that province are the 
 most beautiful in all the world. It being possible to 
 cultivate this grace, who is excusable for neglecting it ? 
 As the facial expression of a husband or wife by long 
 association usually approximates that of the more self- 
 assertive of the two, so in much greater measure and in 
 much shorter time the countenances of the children are 
 fashioned after those of their teachers. Remember the 
 story of ' ' The Great Stone Face. ' ' 
 
 Language is a grace that belongs in every good 
 teacher's equipment. Among all the graces that I have 
 mentioned, I prize none so highly as the grace of lan- 
 guage, — the ability to express one's ideals readily, clearly, 
 forcibly, elegantly in one's mother tongue — that mastery 
 of words which always enables one to select exactly the 
 right word at the right time, no matter what the demand 
 or the occasion, — to use not simply the word having the 
 desired meaning, but the word fit for the moment, the 
 word having appropriateness of tone and of rhythm. 
 Such command of language is invaluable at every turn the 
 teacher makes, giving him skill in the recitation as well 
 as in the management of his pupils. Once I heard a lady 
 say that no music, vocal or instrumental, no painting or 
 piece of sculpture, had ever affected her so powerfully as 
 eloquent language. With this statement I heartily agree. 
 I would rather converse like Madame de Stael than sing 
 like the Swedish nightingale. I would rather write like 
 Hawthorne than play the violin like Ole Bull. No other 
 grace is so insinuating, so irresistible. No one can read 
 
Among Ourselves. 167 
 
 any author much without unconsciously imitating him in 
 style and diction. How much more true it is of a child 
 that whatever there be of excellence or defect in the 
 language of his teacher or his parents it will assuredly 
 become part and parcel of his own endowment. If I 
 were to be permitted to choose a companion and teacher 
 for my child who speaks graceful English, but would not 
 teach it technical grammar, and one who speaks " ordi- 
 nary" English and would teach it grammar, I would not 
 hesitate a moment about preferring the former. It would 
 not be difficult to foretell the result in either case. 
 When our examinations in grammar include the graceful 
 use of the English language in conversation and writing, 
 we shall have taken a great step forward. 
 
 I am laying stress on these graces for their utilitarian 
 effect, not in a narrow but in a broad sense, and do not 
 hesitate to include the — 
 
 Grace of Voice. The grace of language is greatly 
 enhanced by it, but the voice has a specific value of" its 
 own. Many people are reached by a musical voice who 
 are deaf to language only, and children are particularly 
 susceptible to its charms. Byron says, — 
 
 " The Devil hath not in all his quiver's choice 
 An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice." 
 
 But it is also even a more effective weapon for appealing 
 to the finer and nobler sentiments of the soul, and its 
 office in education has too long been overlooked. It is 
 not enough that a teacher read well and speak well on 
 the platform. He should have a well-modulated voice, 
 pure in tone, low in pitch, rich in quality, incisive, 
 
1 68 Among Ourselves. 
 
 flexible, resonant. Nasal, twangy, high-pitched voices 
 will sooner or later ruin any school; the same is true of 
 very low, asthmatic, or aspirated voices. Peevish, mourn- 
 ful, rasping voices are far too common, and yet how are 
 we going to suppress them Us long as teachers will use 
 them in the schoolroom as models for their children ? A 
 teacher should give as much attention to the voice he 
 uses as to the sentences he utters. 
 
 Good Manners. The merely learned man is not a 
 civilized man. He becomes civilized only when he has 
 attained that mastery of self and of social forms which 
 continually prompts and enforces deferential and gracious 
 treatment of those with whom he comes in contact, what- 
 ever their rank or station. The art of good manners is a 
 fine art, and when properly learned is a passport to any 
 circle, to any home. It wins friends everywhere. Emer- 
 son says that "Address rules the world." It gives its 
 possessor the mastery of palaces and of fortunes wherever 
 he goes. The great diplomats have all been masters of 
 this art. Queens of the social circle are without exception 
 skilled in it. Many teachers win the affection and loyalty 
 of their pupils by a graciousness of manner and a gentle- 
 ness of courtesy whose subtle power even gross souls 
 cannot resist. Given, the graces already named and this 
 grace of good manners and the problem of government is 
 already solved for a teacher in most schools. But again, 
 and for a thousand times, let it be said that " the graces 
 are catching," and of no other is it more true than of 
 good manners. Refined, gentlemanly boys and ladylike 
 girls are better assured by example than by precept only. 
 
Among Ourselves. 169 
 
 The atmosphere of a schoolroom over which such a 
 teacher as I am describing presides, will do more toward 
 quickening the finer sensibilities of child nature and 
 eliminating selfishness and boorishness than all of the 
 lectures that father Gradgrind could deliver during his 
 natural life. 
 
 Subconscious Forces cannot be ignored in education. 
 They give tone to a child's feelings and often affect them 
 most subtly and profoundly. Whatever pleases him, 
 gains so much power in controlling him. As a matter of 
 fact, the principal part of the educational process is in 
 making conditions, setting up suitable environment, 
 putting into operation healthy and appropriate stimuli. 
 This being true, do you not see the vital importance of 
 surrounding a child with those influences that conspire to 
 refine and. uplift him ? If you are a conscientious teacher, 
 in just such measure as you lack the graces named, will 
 your daily burden be increased; and here again is empha- 
 sized a more liberal preparation for the holy calling of the 
 teacher than is usually thought necessary. 
 
 Can You Reach It? The noble standard of action 
 which Marcus Aurelius sets up for us may well be care- 
 fully studied by everybody. Shall we not try to reach it ? 
 
 "One man, when he has done a service to another, is 
 ready to set it down to his account as a favor conferred. 
 Another is not ready to do this, but still in his own mind 
 he thinks of the man as his debtor, and he knows what 
 he has done. A third, in a manner, does not even know 
 what he has done ; he is like a vine which has produced 
 grapes, and seeks for nothing more after it has once 
 
170 Among Ourselves. 
 
 produced its proper fruit. As a horse when he has run, 
 a dog when he has caught the game, a bee when it has 
 made its honey, so a man when he has done a good act, 
 does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes 
 on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the 
 grapes in season. Must a man, then, be one of these, 
 who in a manner acts thus without observing it ? Yes. 
 
 "What more dost thou want when thou hast done a 
 man a service ? Art thou not content that thou hast 
 done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou 
 seek to be paid for it, just as if the eye demanded a 
 recompense for seeing, or the feet for walking ? " 
 
 The Future Life. The following oft-quoted inspiring 
 words from Victor Hugo, as premonitions of the end of 
 his life came upon him, may serve to quicken your vision 
 and help you also to catch the strains of immortal 
 symphonies : 
 
 " I feel in myself the future life. I am like a forest 
 which has been more than once cut down. The new 
 shoots are stronger and livelier than ever. I am rising, I 
 know, toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. 
 The earth gives me its generous sap, but heaven lights 
 me with the reflection of unknown worlds. . . . You 
 say the soul is nothing but the resultant of bodily powers. 
 Why, then, is my soul the more luminous when my bodily 
 powers begin to fail ? Winter is on my head, and eternal 
 spring is in my heart. Then I breathe at this hour the 
 fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and the roses as at 
 twenty years. The nearer I approach the end, the plainer 
 I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds 
 
Among Ourselves . 171 
 
 which invite me. It is marvelous, yet simple. It is a 
 fairy tale, and it is history. For half a century I have 
 been writing my thoughts in prose, verse, history, philoso- 
 phy, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode, song, — I 
 have tried all. But I feel that I have not said the 
 thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to 
 the grave, I can say, like so many others, ' I have finished 
 my day's work,' but I cannot say, ' I have finished my 
 life.' My day's work will begin again the next morning. 
 The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It 
 closes in the twilight, to open with the dawn. 
 
 " I improve every hour, because I love this world as my 
 fatherland. My work is only a beginning. My monu- 
 ment is hardly above its foundation. I would be glad to 
 see it mounting forever. The thirst for the infinite proves 
 infinity." 
 
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