LB 41 .T6 Copy 1 of % Principal Cloverside School, Montclair, N. J. NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 31 West Twenty^third St. By t.rjansf©) APB 20 1916 xiie Opportunity of the Teacher ELIZABETH WESTON TIMLOW^ PRINCIPAL CLOVERSIDE SCHOOL, MONTCLAIR, N. J. Three hundred years ago, a chattering, laugh- ing group of young artists were passing one day along an obscure street in lovely Florence. One of them, tall, lean, and sinewy, his keen eager eyes seeing all things, suddenly darted into a small stone-cutter's yard, where lay, half buried in the rubbish, a long neglected block of marble. Regardless of his holiday attire, he at once fell to work on it, clearing away its filth and striving to lift it from the slime and mire where it lay. His companions, astonished, asked him what he w^as doing and what he wanted of that worthless piece of rock that had been lying there for years. " There is an angel in the stone and I must get it out," was the reply of Michael Angelo. He had it removed to his studio, and, with two years of patient toil, he let the angel out. What to others was but an unsightly mass of stone, to his educated eye was the buried glory of art; he discovered at once what might be made of it. A mason would have put it in a wall; a cartman would have used it for filling and grading the street; but the artist transformed it into a creation of ex- quisite beauty for ages to come. Such an artist is, or should be, the true teacher. The object of education is some- times said to be the abiHty to adjust one's self to one's environment; it is, rather, to develop the ability to change the environment at one's will — to forward the progress of the world. It was said of a certain famous fisherman that all he needed to catch a fish was a little damp spot and straightway he landed a trout. It is certainly a miracle, what a teacher who is born to her profession can do with the most unpromising material. In the well-conducted school, practically everything, mental, and moral and physical, must be dealt with; its province is not only the development of the mind but of the body; not only of strength but of grace; not only the inner but the outer. Our girls must be trained in manner and car- riage ; they must be taught the inestimable value of a low voice and refined intonation. Can these details of accent, courtesy, posture, consideration for others, thoughtfulness, all that go to make up gentle breeding, be left entirely to the home? There must be the strongest co-operation on the part of home and school ; nothing can be risked in these critical times, and our girls need every safe- guard ; it will be hard for them at the best to keep their feet firm in the rush and swirl of the ideas of the day. Towards all this must their school discipline tend. Carved on an old bit of stonework at Ab- 3 botsford at Melrose Abbey, with the date of 1616, is a little legend that runs as follows: Virtus Rectorem ducemque desiderat : Vitia sine magistro discuntur. " Virtue requires a ruler and a guide : Follies are learned without a teacher." Not only, then, are the outer graces of girl- hood well within the teacher's province, but important moral questions confront us. The school life and the school lessons come but once; life has other lessons to teach us, but this time for preparation never comes again. Here in the schoolroom do we learn our hard- est lessons of faithfulness, patience, persever- ance, promptness, cheerful acquiescence, the germs of which must be planted now — or never. It is well known that the brain reaches its maximum weight by the fifteenth year, though it probably continues to develop, internally, until at least the age of thirty. There comes a time, however, when the brain, like the body, ceases to grow and remains at a standstill. Between forty and fifty, a slow decrease in the weight of the brain takes place. The young brain is vigorous, but much less plastic, after twenty, and it gradually, so to speak, ossifies. Few people, James says, get an entirely new idea into their heads after pass- ing into the thirties, although a structure of almost any height may be built up with mate- rials already gathered on a foundation already laid. 4 Since nature, then, has decreed that we must fight out the battle of life on the lines of our early choice, here is a world of oppor- tunity for the eager general of the schoolroom. Here in history, in literature, in psychology, in the marvelous laws of the mind, are not merely the day's recitations, the day's marks, but the greater lessons that will be for life. Every shrewd student really knows in her heart that it will not affect the universe ten years hence, if she skims over to-day's Greek, or if she does not solve quite all of the orig- inals in geometry, or is not absolutely sure of all her constructions in Sallust or Cicero. But here comes in the realm of the teacher. The student must be made to feel that not one atom of unfaithfulness can occur without branding the heart ; the spirit of unthorough- ness that makes it possible for her to skim over the irregular verbs will make it not only possible but probable that some crisis of life will find her shirking the issue on which much depends. Contrariwise, she must be made to knozv that every knotty problem faithfully wrestled with and thrown, every tough bit of Latin and Greek struggled with and con- quered, gives the character an added strength and fibre to battle with life's sterner issues and come ofif victor in the strife. If our girls are in the habit of giving up over every little schoolroom difficulty, how will they have persistence and endurance when some black trouble suddenly clouds their summer sky, with no refuge near? Ah! They then have 5 only the protection that we have helped them to forge. "Habit, a second nature?" cried the Duke of Wellington. '' Habit is ten times nature ! " The profound truth of this old saying comes home to no one more than the veteran soldier, who has seen years of drill and discipline end by fashioning many a man over completely. The girl in the schoolroom who has daily inured herself to habits of concentrated atten- tion, energetic volition, even to self-denial in unnecessary things, will in later life stand like a tower when all things rock around her and Avhen her unsta1)le fellow pupils are ■ prostrated in the first storm. The psycho- logical study of mental conditions is here the most powerful ally of the teacher, who then drives home the lessons we have already mentioned — that we are spinning our own fate for good or evil, which is never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. The drunken Rip van Winkle, in dear Joe Jefferson's play, you remember, excuses him- self for every fresh dereliction, by saying, *' W^e won't count tJiis time!" AVell, he may not count it and forgiving Heaven may not count it, but it is being counted, nevertheless, * in the relentless bookkeeping of nature. Down among his nerve centers, the molecules are registering and storing it up against him, ready to weaken his resistance still further next time the temptation comes. Literally nothing that we do can ever be wiped out. 6 If this had not its good side as well as its bad, if resistance could not be built up as well as weakened, how indeed could we endure life? Here in the classroom, through history and literature, we must begin to teach our girls the mysterious secret of success — of true suc- cess. For how has all real success been gained? By good luck? By accident? These are words that one rarely hears from the lips of the successful man or woman. They know only too well that in this world we get just about what we are willing to pay for. If we would succeed we must have the zvill to suc- ceed. But does not everybody have this, they may ask? By no means. The majority of people are willing to succeed, which, I assure you, is quite a different matter. It is our province to teach our girls the dignity of work ; that the men who have achieved success are the ones who have read, and thought and studied always a little more than was necessary ; who have never been con- tent with knowledge merely sufficient for the present need, but who have sought additional knowledge and stored it away for the emer- gency reserve. We must teach them the pro- found truth that it is the supcrHuous labor that equips a man for everything that counts most in life. The one who, when in doubt does the minimum instead of the maximum quantity, is not the one who will raise the world's stand- ard. Every business man will say that it is the quick eye that sees and the ready hand that executes some necessary service that yet 7 was not '' in the bond," that makes a man in- valuable to his employer. Build up this spirit in the schoolroom with the school lessons. Make the pupils realize, too, the necessity of definite purpose. We older ones know that the great thing in this world is not so much to know where we stand but where we are going. To reach the highest port we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it — but we must sail and not drift, nor yet lie at anchor. We must leave nothing to chance. Why — pardon the hackneyed ex- ample — was Caesar so tmiformly victorious? Did he ever go forward unprepared? Did he leave any weak point undefended? Every school girl and boy fervently answers, " Never." The magnificent commander was provided for every emergency, armed at every point, and — won. Ah ! It is " Enough to know of Chance or Luck The blow we choose to strike is struck." It is here in the schoolroom again that the teacher finds her opportunity, at the psycho- logical moment, to set before these young minds the necessity of an Ideal. There is no more important step than this ; the lives of illustrious men must be studied to see how obstacles are to be overcome, how the heights are gained. The Ideal may embody the energy of a Napoleon, the self-devotion of a Dorothea Dix, the patriotism of a Washing- ton, the disinterested heroism of a Florence 8 Nightingale, the iron will of a Cromwell or the simple faithfulness to duty of a Louise Alcott, the humanity of a Howard or the splendid chivalry of a Susan B. Anthony for her sex. The boy or girl who has not had his or her imagination fired by great deeds will not amount to much. Each must fashion for herself the ideal she is determined to attain. *' Hitch your wagon to a star " means only this. But conversely, " What thou wouldst be thou must be." " That which thou lovest, most E'en that become thou must. Christ's, if thou lovest Christ; Dust, if thou lovest dust." The Hindoos say, "As a man thinketh, so is he." It is not only for the parent but for the teacher to impress upon our girls that an idle, frivolous, chattering, gossiping girlhood will no more develop into ripe, full, rich womanhood than men can gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles.* Here, again, in the schoolroom, she must learn the high meaning of the every day act and the every day word ; the beauty of work, of unselfish, devoted work, with ambition to do the appointed task. There is no royal road to success; our girl must learn that in one way or another we pay the price for all we have and are, for this insane craving to get some- thing for nothing is gnawing at the very root of modern life. We see it on every side with men demanding a full share of the luxuries of life with a decrease of labor; the steady raising of 9 wages and the shortening of the working hour, until, as Charles Dudley Warner prophesied, when labor ge'ts to be ten dollars a day, the working people will not come at all — " They will send their cards." The president of America's greatest University has said that it is only the workingman that can afford the luxury of an eight-hour day. As a general rule we all know that the higher we go in the scale of value to the community, the longer the working hours. Again, our girls learn in the study of psy- chology that every effect has had a due and adequate cause ; in real life, however, because the cause and its effect are often separated as far as the Latin subject and its predicate, youth is sometimes slow to recognize the in- evitable connection. Every thing worth hav- ing is worth its price in work — and if we apparently get it for nothing, we may be pay- ing the heaviest price of all — the price of our self-respect. It is our place as teachers, no less than it is the duty of parents, to empha- size this with unceasing iteration. Luther Burbank, in a recent article on the Training of the Human Plant, has the follow- ing noteworthy thought: " There is not a single desirable attribute, which lacking in a plant, may not be bred into it. Choose what improvement you wish in a plant, and with crossing, selection and persistence, you can fix this desirable trait irrevocably. Pick out any trait you want in your child, be it honesty, fairness, purity, lovableness, or what not, and with the proper environ- ment, persistence and love, you can fix in your child for all his life, all of these traits." lO Is not this startling? However, we must inculcate the lessons of the girls' responsibility, not only to themselves but also to others. Not too young is any girl in her teens to learn the tremendous im- port of Kant's famous Categorical Imperative : " So act that the reason for your action may be a universal law." It is considered a legitimate subject for ridicule that when a mother brings her little maid or lad to school for the first time, she is very apt to say, anxiously, " You will have no trouble with Genevieve if you will try to understand her, but she is so peculiar. She is not a bit like other children." But while bystanders laugh, the experi- enced teacher knows that this is exactly true, although possibly not as the mother meant it. No two children are alike, nor do any two need exactly the same treatment. This shy child needs praise and improves under it, but droops under criticism, however kindly. That one needs to have her self-conceit gently pruned. This one is thorough and painstak- ing and conscientious; she needs restraint, if anything; another is inclined to slight her work and must be taught to go to the root of her subject. This girl has a tendency to be exclusive and to put too much stress on the possession of money or position ; she must be shown that brains make the world's masters. Another is careless and superficial ; much doing over of her untidy work will help II her to mend her slipshod ways. This lassie is dreamy and poetical ; she needs more mathe- matics than her prosaic, independent sister. Another child is lazy and needs the spur; the eager brain of her friend should have restraint ; and so on through a hundred varying types. With each one the plastic minds should never be stretched to one procrustean bed of studies, but each subject should trend towards the development of the highest self. It is said that certain native artists, when they would drill a hole in pearls, first fit them loosely in apertures bored in pieces of soft wood ; then a little water is sprinkled around them which gradually penetrates the fibres, and causes the wood to swell until each little pearl Ts held firmly in its place as in a vise. Indeed, no vise could hold such delicate little treasures so firmly, yet without marring them and thus diminishing their value. But by this device the choicest ones are kept securely in their places without injury until the artist's work is done ; then, as the water dries out, the fibres relax and the pearl is free. Thus must the teacher hold the soul-pearls by faith and sympathy until her work is done. She must know her ground thoroughly. She must feel intuitively when to trust and when irre- pressible girlhood would take advantage of leniency. She must understand when to en- courage and when to lash unsparingly mere laziness. Moral development along every line is her province, no less than mental. Children are at school not merely to cram 12 Latin and mathematics down ostrich-like throats, but to learn to become loyal and true and high-minded, and to strengthen characters that should grow more womanly day by day. But all this can be accomplished only by a lavish outpouring of one's very self — one's own heart's blood. Nature is stern in her exchanges. We have seen that nothing for nothing is her Draconian mandate. It is, in the arena of the schoolroom, *'A life for a life," in another sense than the rigorous Hebrew decree; here it is a life gained for the life that is freely given, for in no lesser, easier way can this mighty question of education, this drawing out, this leading on, this build- ing up of our future citizens, this training of the hands that are in time to rule the world, be accomplished. The teacher's privilege it is to inspire these eager minds with enthusiastic love for truth and high ideals. To bring before them the lofty examples of the world's heroes. To set true values before their eyes. To imbue them with deep scorn of all that is ignoble and base. To instil appreciation of the transcendent quality of the spiritual as opposed to the material side of life. To cultivate the too often neglected sense of honor and imprint upon these mobile, sensitive natures utter loathing and contempt of all falsehood and hypocrisy. She teaches them to live up to their birthright in life, and imbues them with the deepest sense of the responsibilities which that position entails — that responsibility that 13 is in exact proportion to the blessings that have been given. She teaches them that they are infinitely more culpable for the smaller lapses from the path of right than are the chil- dren of the streets, because of the very differ- ence in these opportunities. Thus sympathetically, faithfully, does she strive to lead her charges to a noble woman- hood, joining with the mother in training them to " self-reverence, self-knowledge, self- control, by which alone man can approach the gods." The world needs our daughters and we must send them out clad in the completest armor that can be forged by earnest care, by wise instruction, by tender watching, and by human love. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS n 022 138 805 7 #