1055 
 
 y 1 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE 
 TEACHER 
 
 AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY 
 
 BY 
 MARTIN LUTHER REYMERT 
 
 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF 
 CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS., IN PARTIAL 
 FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DE- 
 GREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, AND ACCEPTED ON 
 THE RECOMMENDATION OF WILLIAM H. BURNHAM 
 
 Reprinted from The Pedagogical Seminary 
 December, 1917, Vol. XXIV, pp. 521-558 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE 
 TEACHER 
 
 AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY 
 
 BY 
 MARTIN LUTHER REYMERT 
 
 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF 
 CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER. MASS., IN PARTIAL 
 FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DE- 
 GREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, AND ACCEPTED ON 
 THE RECOMMENDATION OF WILLIAM H. BURNHAM 
 
 Reprinted from The Pedagogical Seminary 
 December, 1917, Vol. XXIV, pp. 521-558 
 
LB\0»s\5' 
 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER: AN 
 INTRODUCTORY STUDY 
 
 By Martin Luther Reymert 
 
 Introduction 
 
 This study hcas grown organically out of my Norwegian 
 work in child psychology (50, 51). In going over the inter- 
 national literature which had more or less direct bearmg upon 
 my problems I was frequently confronted with the remark: 
 " This result is probably due to the influence of the teacher." 
 In my own work also I very soon found it necessary to seek 
 refuge in this mysterious sesame whenever I attempted an 
 explanation, and special statistical and psychological data 
 failed to solve the problem in hand. The fact (witnessed by 
 all studies from all countries of children's ideals) that by 
 far the greater part of the children gain their ideals from 
 the curriculum, and the relation of this to the results of recent 
 studies on imitation and suggestion,^ indicated to me that the 
 problem of the role of the teacher was one which stood m 
 need of immediate investigation by all available means and 
 
 methods. . , . ^ 
 
 Since educational psvchology has concerned itselt chietly 
 with the child in school, it has naturally happened now and 
 then that the problem has been touched indirectly as for 
 instance in the investigations of Meumann. Fnedrich, Lobsien, 
 Goddard, Richter, Brandel, and others in the subjects of chil- 
 dren's ideals, their interest in the different schoo subjects, 
 etc. Meumann (43. p. 291) stresses the role of the teacher 
 in this indirect fashion when he says that studies on chil- 
 dren's ideals " also " furnish a valuable means by which we 
 may judge our whole educational system." 
 
 We do not know, however, precisely (or even approxi- 
 mately) how much credit we must give to the teacher mall 
 these mass investigations. The scientific study of the child, 
 whether by clinical psychology, by quantitative measurements 
 of the school work, or by the great and promising work of 
 general experimental psychology {1, Z, ^, ^, ^^, ^^. ^-^^ "'^^' 
 generallyspeaking^m^ 
 
 iSee Burnham, W. HTBibliographi^T^^T^^peHn^^ pedagogy, Pub. 
 of Clark Univ. Library. 1912, vol. 3, PP- ^3, 27. 
 
522 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 the actual role of the teacher. These questions are constantly 
 growing in number, however, and some essential ones repeat 
 themselves over and over, so that we evidently must try to 
 attack them more directly and thereby get suggestions and 
 results which will enable us to check our findings in child 
 study. The study of the child has had industrious workers 
 for many decades, and, gradually refining its methods, has 
 spread to all countries. With the rapid tempo of modern 
 inductive science it has already created an abundance of 
 literature. Differentiating itself into numerous branches, it 
 long ago passed the stage at which one man can master the 
 whole field. A writer in Monroe's Cyclopedia finds it difficult 
 to determine what in modern times shall be included in the 
 term " educational psychology " so complex is already the 
 situation. Child psychology, properly conducted, was long ago 
 recognized as a branch of applied psychology. Well-equipped 
 laboratories, headed by noted psychologists, are established in 
 many countries. 
 
 With this general background, it is indeed an astonishing 
 fact that no one has yet tried to study in any exhaustive and 
 systematic way and in as direct fashion as is possible a factor 
 so closely related to the child's environment as the teacher. 
 This lack besides the often necessarily (and often unneces- 
 sarily) crude methods is certainly a main reason why child 
 study has been somewhat in discredit among psychologists in 
 general. Thus we see, for example, that Dr. Judd (34) takes 
 precisely this defect as a reason for distrusting child study. 
 He says : " Did you never wonder why, in this age when 
 we are studying so eagerly all the factors in the educational 
 situation, no one has ever undertaken an exhaustive study 
 of the teacher? " And further: " We take up psychology and 
 sociology, but we do not seem to have waked up to the fact 
 that bad order in our classes is sometimes a problem in teacher 
 study instead of child study." In his excellent textbook 
 Claparede (14) says: "Given a group of children to bring 
 up, to instruct, what is the attitude that it is desirable 
 the teacher take on coming face to face with them, what 
 ought to be the character of the teacher? What are the 
 temperaments which are the most suitable for the pedagogic 
 vocation?" He is forced, however, to content himself with 
 assigning the psychology of the master as a branch of psycho- 
 technics ; the paucity here of his uniformly excellent bibliog- 
 raphy is further evidence of the necessity for further detailed 
 research on this problem. The bibliography of the United 
 States Bureau of Education for 1910-11 (71) contains 1910 
 titles of which only 0.8% have a direct bearing on the teacher, 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 523 
 
 and of these nearly all are theoretical treatments. In the 
 Psychological Index for 1915 only four or five titles are 
 directly concerned with the teacher. 
 
 All this serves to illustrate the situation. In searching 
 the literature for possible experimental attacks on the problem 
 of the personal equation of the teacher, I find that Dr. G. 
 Stanley Hall was the first to have fixed the problem, and 
 that as early as 1896 he had directed his students' attention 
 to it. In "Adolescence " (27, p. 387) he mentions the ques- 
 tionnaire studies of Small (60), Kratz {2>7), and Sanford 
 Bell (6). Among these Sanford Bell's seem to be the most 
 exhaustive and to give the best indications. The next study 
 is one undertaken in 1900 by Deahl (16). His material, 
 however, is in a shape which makes it very difficult to get 
 any definite results from it. (One of his results seems to be 
 that pupils are least influenced by teachers at the high school 
 age, which is in direct opposition to Sanford Bell's as well 
 ♦as to my own findings.) 
 
 A later study is reported by Book (8). One thousand sixty- 
 seven senior high school students wrote compositions on " High 
 School Education " including the point " some sympathetic 
 (or unsympathetic) teachers I have had." The main outcome 
 was : The favorite teacher understands boys and girls, and 
 is enthusiastic, energetic, and mentally young, is interested 
 in his work and has good scholarship without being a narrow 
 specialist. No sex, and no physical appearance preferences 
 were shown. The study is very suggestive, and gives many 
 practical hints, but deals naturally with generalities. We may 
 also mention a quantitative study by Thorndike (67), bear- 
 ing on the sex of the teacher as a possible influence on the 
 enrollment of boys in the public schools. The value of a 
 quantitative study of such a fleeting factor among a multitude 
 of others of probably greater influence seems very problematic, 
 and his results turn out to be negative. 
 
 In 1910, with the study of Ruediger and Strayer (54) in 
 this country, we find for the first time in the literature of 
 experimental pedagogy a work offering an objective method 
 for rating the influence and efficiency of elementary teachers 
 from the point of view of supervision. These investigators 
 asked a number of principals and superintendents to rank 
 their teachers (from 26 schools in all) in certain specific 
 respects. It suffices here to mention that discipline stands 
 first in the ratings of these school authorities, followed by 
 " teaching method," initiative or originality, etc. Later ap- 
 peared similar studies by A. C. Boyse (12), Miss Moses (44), 
 Littler (40), and finally another by Boyse (11) in which he 
 
524 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 offers an estimation blank, compiled from empirical data, 
 for the purpose of estimating the teacher's efficiency on 45 
 points. Each point is carefully defnied, to avoid the use of 
 terms in different senses by the different raters. This plan 
 offers many promising indications for future " standardised " 
 blanks, from which students of education can draw an abund- 
 ance of material concerning the comparative traits in good 
 teachers for different grades. However, as Boyse points out, 
 the work of standardisation is a very complex and difficult 
 matter, and it is our opinion that numerous special investiga- 
 tions as to the reactions of the child to different traits in the 
 teacher must be instituted and their results brought into rela- 
 tion before any final standardisation is undertaken. 
 
 The only studies in French literature dealing with the prob- 
 lem of the teacher that I have discovered are one by Claparede 
 on what pupils think of their masters, and a small but signifi- 
 cant one by Joncheere (33). After he had been acquainted 
 with the new class in his normal school for two months he 
 questioned every pupil in a personal interview to discover 
 the reason why he entered thfe school. It turned out that not 
 a single one had done so out of a real interest in the vocation. 
 The materialistic advantages of the profession were the chief 
 motives. This is indeed an enlightening and fundamental con- 
 tribution as a background for future investigations of the 
 personality of the teacher. 
 
 In Germany the work of J. Diick (20) marks an interesting 
 and practical approach to the circle of problems contemplated 
 in our investigation. In Scandinavian countries no direct 
 experimental attack is to be found. There are, however, in 
 all countries, many valuable statements as to the influence of 
 the teacher on the basis of long teaching experience or from 
 general psychological observation scattered through books and 
 periodicals. As excellent examples may be mentioned those 
 of Jerusalem (31, 32) and H. Gaudig (25, 26) in Germany, 
 and of Nils Hertzberg (29) in Norway. Perhaps even more 
 valuable counsel on the basis of a similarly general background 
 is to be found in the American works of William James (30), 
 Miinsterberg (46), and Hall (27, 28).- 
 
 This brief review of the present status of our problem we 
 may summarise as follows : The study of the teacher has with 
 the exception of a very few experimental studies been very 
 much neglected. Such studies are, however, of paramount 
 
 ^As a good background for coming studies in regard to the teacher 
 in this country I would deem it very fruitful to read Dr. Hall's des- 
 cription of the good and bad aspects of the pedagogical situation (28, 
 vol. I. Introduction). 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 525 
 
 importance in the study of the school child ; in fact, they are 
 a conditio sine qua non for a large number of problems in child 
 study. They open up a vast and exceedingly complex field 
 for investigation which will demand the co-operation of stu- 
 dents in all branches of pedagogical science. It is for the 
 purpose of getting a rough outlook over this field, and for 
 throwing into relief the essential questions which demand 
 immediate investigation, that the present questionnaire study 
 has been undertaken. 
 
 Some Remarks on the Method. — The questionnaire method 
 has lately been severely criticized by many noted psychologists. 
 It must be admitted that much of the criticism — when we con- 
 sider the way in which some questionnaire studies have been 
 conducted — has been more than justified. G. E. Miiller calls 
 it " the method of reminiscence." A French psychologist 
 terms it " La methode democratique." Professor Jastrow at 
 the annual meeting of " The American Association for the 
 Advancement of Science," 1916, said: "Many of us think 
 it belongs to the devil." However, we can understand that 
 psychologists dealing chiefly with pure science will find the 
 method of no value for them. What, however, is more diffi- 
 cult to understand is that an educational psychologist like 
 Thorndike (66) after a thorough discussion of the method, 
 in an entire chapter, seems to reach the final conclusion that 
 it, generally speaking, ought to be entirely abandoned. While 
 we can fully agree with much of his criticism, and appreciate 
 the constructive factors in it, we can not agree with his con- 
 clusion. Much better do we in this connection understand 
 Claparede (14) and William Stern. Stern (63, Chapter VIII) 
 also at the outset condemned questionnaires, but he later 
 changed his view to the effect, that for certain problems, prop- 
 erly conducted, the method was, although a rough one, per- 
 missible. Thorndike, speaking of questionnaires (66, Chapter 
 IX), offers the following program for the future work: "It 
 is to be hoped, that if an equal amount of genius and effort 
 is spent in the next decade upon similar problems, the work 
 will be done by means of direct expert observation, of repre- 
 sentative cases, with reference to all the factors involved,^ and 
 
 ^The most impressive work in analytical science, which tries to take 
 "all factors involved" into consideration 1 have met, is G. E. Miiller, 
 "Zur Analyse der Gedachtnisstatigkeit und des Vorstellungsvcrlaufes." 
 Zeit. f. Psych, u. Phys. der Sinncsorgane." Erg. B. V ., and with which 
 I have been made familiar through Dr. Baird's Journal Club at Clark 
 University. However, to gain such a gigantic outlook over a situation 
 is probably not given to one man in thousands. In educational psychol- 
 ogy, where we are at the mere start, we shall have to be humble for a 
 long time to come. 
 
526 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 with a moderate amount of statistical care." This exceedingly 
 voluminous phrase (which also has crept into Monroe's Cyclo- 
 pedia) does not take us very far. Experts are very few. 
 
 " Representative cases " in the educational situation of 
 to-day are hard to find ; and do not bring out the particular 
 needs, as do the special investigations. It is too early to 
 deal with generalities in experimental pedagogy. We started 
 out that way. Now is the time to gather masses of special 
 facts — and correlate them slowly, as we go along. Where 
 is the genius to take all factors involved into consideration ! 
 While generally speaking we may say, that in all inductive 
 science, discussion of method may be of more importance than 
 discussion of results, we think it most sane and safe to 
 take the view of Dr. Hall, that method can not be discussed 
 on a general basis, and that a method is permissible, when 
 properly conducted, it suits its purpose. In spite of clinical 
 child psychology, in spite of quantitative educational measure- 
 ments, etc., we are not in pedagogical psychology out of the 
 stage at which we need questionnaire studies. Let us use all 
 methods, and correlate the results. 
 
 For my purpose the following questionnaire was prepared 
 and submitted: 
 
 The Good and Bad Teacher 
 
 The undersigned desires to ascertain from the memories of adults 
 what qualities made teachers favorite and what made them disHked. 
 Will you kindly answer the following questions, numbering them in 
 your paper as they are numbered below, and the fuller and more 
 detailed your reply, the better. 
 
 Please think over very carefully before selecting your teachers as 
 good or bad, and please at the end add any other traits or suggestions 
 that occur to you, and that may help this study. Can you outline your 
 ideal of a teacher in person, etc.? How much has physique, good looks, 
 manners, complexion, physical strength, to do with it ; and do moral 
 and do religious traits play any role? Please especially speak of the 
 teacher's influence upon you outside the school. 
 
 I. Please recall the best teacher that you ever had. 
 
 a. Was this a man or a woman? 
 
 b. How old was this teacher? Give age as near as possible. 
 
 c. How old were you when you had this teacher? 
 
 d. Was it the personality or the methods (or both) employed by 
 
 this teacher that caused you to like him or her? 
 
 e. H through his or her teaching, in which subject or subjects? 
 \ II. State in as few words as possible what you remember as to the 
 
 following : 
 
 a. This teacher's general appearance (physical, dress, neatness, 
 
 etc.). 
 
 b. The quality of his or her voice. 
 
 c. Enthusiasm — optimism. 
 
 d. Serious or jovial or changeable in nature. 
 
 e. Was he or she self-controlled? In what way did it appear? 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 527 
 
 f. Was he or she "bookish" or did this teacher bring you in 
 
 touch with life? Enthusiastic specialist? 
 
 g. Was this teacher strict in discipline? 
 
 h. What kind of punishments did this teacher use? 
 
 i. Had you the feeling of being specially favored? In what 
 
 respect? 
 j. Did this teacher visit the homes of the pupils? What were 
 
 this teacher's social activities with the children outside of 
 
 the school? 
 k. What was the highest ideal this teacher held up before you? 
 I. Has this teacher's influence been of real value to you in your 
 
 later life, if so in what way? 
 m. Have your methods and general teaching management been 
 
 influenced by (him or her) ? If you are going to teach, 
 
 do you think that they will ? 
 
 III. Please recall the worst teacher that you ever had. 
 
 a. Was this teacher a man or woman? 
 
 b. How old was this teacher? Give age as near as possible. 
 
 c. How old were you when you had this teacher? 
 
 d. Was it the personality or the methods employed that caused 
 
 you to dislike her or him? 
 
 e. If through teaching, in which subject or subjects? 
 
 IV. State in as few words as possible what you remember as to the 
 following: 
 
 a. This teacher's general appearance. 
 
 b. The quality of his or her voice. 
 
 c. Enthusiasm or optimism. 
 
 d. Serious or jovial or changeable in nature? 
 
 e. Was this teacher self-controlled? In what way was self- 
 
 control lacking? 
 
 f. Was this teacher "bookish," or did he bring you in touch 
 
 with life? 
 
 g. Was he or she strict in discipline? 
 
 h. What kind of punishments did this teacher use? 
 
 i. Had you the feeling of being specially misused, or what 
 
 was this teacher's sense of justice? 
 j. Did this teacher visit the homes of the pupils? 
 k. Did this teacher hold up any ideal for you? 
 1. Has this teacher's influence had any bearing on your later 
 
 life? If so, in what way? 
 m. Have your methods and general teaching management been 
 
 influenced by this teacher as a negative ideal? If you are 
 
 going to teach, what do you think will be the bearing of 
 
 this teacher? 
 
 Kindly send replies to Martin L. Reymert. 
 
 (Notice. Your paper will be read only by me. Your sex and age?) 
 Clark University, Worcester, Mass., December 21, 1916. 
 
 Seven hundred and fourteen returns in all were received, 
 370 on the good, and 344 on the bad teacher. I am greatly 
 indebted to the following institutions for taking a great 
 interest in, and helping this study along, by sending returns; 
 above all, the Massachusetts State Normal School (Worcester, 
 Mass.), from which the majority of returns were obtained; 
 
528 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 Ohio University, Boston University, Brown University, Rhode 
 Island; Alma College, Michigan; Bethel College, Kentucky; 
 Leland Stanford Junior University, California; State Teach- 
 ers College, Colorado ; Colorado College, Colorado Springs ; 
 Buena Vista College, Iowa; Baldwin-Wallace College, Ohio; 
 Alleghany College, Pennsylvania; University of Arkansas; 
 Texas Christian University. 
 
 The variety of places from which answers have been ob- 
 tained is a valuable factor in eliminating the possible 
 uniformity in training and experience of the young people 
 belonging to one special institution. The questionnaires were 
 given to the pupils to take home for careful consideration. 
 Afterwards the answers were delivered at school. In one case 
 the returns were given as regular composition work in school. 
 I have reasons to believe that the answers have not been read 
 by the collectors, so that the factor of full anonymity, which 
 for instance, Triiper has advocated over and over again for 
 questionnaire studies, has been complied with. The median 
 age for the young men and women, giving the returns, is 20, 
 so that one will have to take the psyche at this age into con- 
 sideration throughout the study. All answers give full evidence 
 of sincerity and interest from the side of the young, and they 
 all seem to have a vivid recollection of a good and a bad 
 teacher. Some have even portrayed their liked and disliked 
 teacher so minutely and extensively, that often one single 
 return, would make a small book. 
 
 By letting the questionnaire also have a bearing upon the 
 bad teacher, it was the intention to get returns by which we 
 could be able to check our results as to the good teacher, in 
 whom we naturally are primarily interested. 
 
 In going over the answers, it appeared that some of the 
 questions might have been given a better form. However, as 
 this study is meant to be chiefly suggestive and programatical, 
 this fact has not had very much practical significance. As 
 to the often mentioned source of error in such studies, viz., 
 that the questions in themselves suggest certain definite 
 answers, I have the general impression that all of the 20- 
 year-old people have given straightforward answers, omitting 
 answers on points where their actual memory was not clear. 
 All students have answered the particular question, in all cases, 
 where results are given in percent, and no remark to the 
 contrary is made. 
 
 The Sex of the Teacher 
 Much has been written about the relative proportion of 
 women and men teachers in this country, and warnings have 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 529 
 
 been given as to the constantly increasing number of female 
 teachers in the common schools. But as Dr. Strayer (64) 
 says : " Up to the present time no conclusive evidence has 
 been produced as to the relative efficiency of men and women 
 teachers." Our study here naturally does not intend to give 
 any definite results, but it is to be hoped that it will help 
 to shed some valuable light upon the question. 
 
 Dr. Elliot (21) gives the following proportions for 1910: 
 
 Women teachers 78.9% 
 
 Men teachers 21 . 1% 
 
 The statistician of the United States Bureau of Education 
 (World's Almanac, 1917) gives for 1914: 
 
 Women teachers 80 . 2% 
 
 Men teachers 19.8% 
 
 or an increase of 1.3% female teachers in 4 years.* 
 
 Let us take the statistics last mentioned as a basis for com- 
 parison with our own results: 
 
 Women Men 
 
 teachers teachers 
 
 U. S. Bur. of Ed. statistics, 1914 80.2% 19.8% 
 
 Distribution of the outstanding' good teachers, 
 designated by 370 20-vear-old people in their 
 
 recalling 71.5% 29.0% 
 
 In spite of the fact then that the young people have met 
 approximately 1 man teacher for every 4 women teachers, 
 they have nevertheless found 9% more good men teachers, 
 than we should have expected (if men and women teachers 
 were of equal value in the school system). 
 
 Women Men 
 
 Out of 370 good teachers 71.0% 29 . 0% 
 
 Out of .344 bad teachers 74. 1% 25 9% 
 
 We see the tendency : there are in proportion to the number 
 of teachers of both sexes more bad women teachers than men 
 and more good men teachers than women, which gives a due 
 confirmation to our previous conclusion as to the need of 
 more men. 
 
 ^ This increase has also gained the attention of eugenicists as a 
 problem of great significance for the future of the race. (Cf. 74, p. 
 259f-) Speaking of the American situation, the writer says: "Not 
 less than half a million women, therefore, are potentially affected by 
 the institution of pedagogical celibacy, — an institution which is to be 
 compared with that of sacerdotal celibacy in the amount of perma- 
 nent harm that it is capable of doing to the race." Certainly we are 
 facing an exceedingly complex problem whose solution cannot be 
 brought about by merely pedagogical investigations. 
 
530 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 If we look upon the High School Period separately, we 
 have: 
 
 Women Men 
 
 Out of 182 ?.ood teachers 65 . 4 % 34 . 6 % 
 
 Out of 168 terf teachers 67.3% 32.7% 
 
 Let us examine these results in the light of Thorndike's 
 findings (67) that: "The central tendency (in high schools) 
 is to have j out of 8 teachers men." " If the two sexes were 
 of equal value then our sex proportions for teachers in high 
 schools should have been: 
 
 Women Men 
 5 3 
 
 whereas we get 
 
 For good teachers 5.2 2.8 
 
 For bad teachers 5.4 2.6 
 
 which result although corresponding pretty closely to that of 
 Thorndike, shows in less marked degree the same tendency 
 that we found for teachers within the whole school system. 
 The question as to which sex of teachers suits the situation 
 best at different stages^ in the school system for boys and 
 girls will, it is to be hoped, be brought nearer a conclusive 
 solution when we get the standardized estimation blanks 
 mentioned before in cities and rural communities. However, 
 from the point of view of the teacher's general influence upon 
 the pupils, it will always be necessary to check the results from 
 official estimation blanks by supplementary investigations like 
 the different ones which will be suggested in the study here 
 presented. These ought to be carried on on as large a scale 
 as possible in every large city, and brought into correlative 
 comparison with the views of psycho-pedagogical experts. 
 
 The general influence of the teacher in its relation to the 
 age of the pupil. — If we take the life period from which the 
 pupils have their most vivid recollections of their best and 
 their worst teacher as an indicator of children's general 
 susceptibility for good and evil influence from teachers, the 
 following diagram may give indications. All, both good and 
 bad teachers, are taken into account. 
 
 We see, then, the general influence of the teacher constantly 
 rising upward through the school system, reaching a quite 
 remarkable climax for the high school period. From the point 
 
 ^ A factor which may have some vahie for purposes of correlation 
 here is seen in the fact that in one of my Norwegian studies (51) 
 girls from 18-25 years of age had a man as their personal ideal in 
 56% of the cases, while only one man had chosen his ideal from the 
 other sex. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 531 
 
 A 
 
 The iNrLUENCE or thc Teacmcr Tmroucmoot 
 The 5chool 5ystem. (loTrtt Reiurn^ 714- ) 
 
 ■4a 
 
 35 
 
 30 
 Is 
 20 
 IS 
 
 3 
 
 of view of general psychology one may make the objection 
 here, that on the average the 20-year-old people, giving their 
 returns, have a better memory for more recent events (the 
 high school period) than for further removed ones (the grade 
 school). However the vivid colors in which the good and 
 the bad teachers in the grade schools are described in nearly 
 all returns dealing with that period, seem to indicate that 
 the factor mentioned has had very little significance. The 
 few returns for the college age forbid any even suggestive 
 results to be drawn for that period. 
 
 Let us now look in detail upon the relative influence of the 
 good teacher according to the age of the pupil. The curves 
 in Diagram B will give us some indications : 
 
 The first thing we notice is the considerable peak of the 
 woman teacher curve at 12*' years of age of the pupil. This 
 is in all probability due to the onset of puberty in girls, and 
 
 ^ Sanford Bell has the greatest good influence coming in girls of the 
 ages from 11-17, in boys from 12-19. 
 
532 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 19. 
 
 B 
 
 18 DlSTRIBUTlOM'or T«e INFLUENCC OF T«C GOOD 
 
 TEftCHER ACCCRDINC TO THE AGE OF THE PUPIL< 
 17 -^ 
 
 16 
 
 IS 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 It 
 
 14 
 
 o a 
 
 0.7 
 
 Women ----(27a " } 
 
 2 / 
 
 •- ^W f « IV IW CU fcl^< 
 
 oge: or Pupils 
 
 to their never forgetting having had a sympathetic woman 
 teacher personaHty at that highly susceptible age. The con- 
 siderable drop in the same curve at 14 years of age of the 
 pupil may be ventured to a large degree to be explained in 
 the change of school. This is generally the first year of high 
 school. The pupil is met with almost entirely new methods 
 of learning, new teachers, etc. ; in short, it is a year of 
 readjustment. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 533 
 
 C. 
 
 O 
 
 a. 8 
 
 
 e 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 3 , 
 a/ 
 
 CO 
 
 19 
 
 THE OISTBIBUTIOW OF THt IHFLUtHCE 
 
 '* OF THE BAD TEACMCR ACCORC1IM6 TO THE 
 
 ,^ A6E OF THE PUPIL5. 
 
 16 
 
 IS 
 
 Age of Pupils 
 
 Looking at the man teacher curve, we see the remarkable 
 influence of a good man teacher for the ages 15-18 i^rom 
 the girls' answers I have no doubt that the factor of the emo- 
 tional elements following the sexual development of the girl, 
 enters in here, as a very determining one. I take the explana- 
 tion to be a confusion between the " father miage and the 
 growing embryo of the forthcoming natural unconscious 
 inclination towards the other sex; a period then when a 
 
534 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 really trustworthy good man teacher for girls meets an un- 
 conscious but all important demand for their future develop- 
 ment, better than any other teacher, and a period, when a 
 tactless man teacher can do more harm than any other teacher. 
 (Chart C.) The following diagram C seems closely to check 
 up our suggestive results concerning the good teacher. 
 
 The curves have the same general shape, the climax of 
 the influence of the bad teacher (man or woman), however, 
 being shifted to 14 years of age of the pupil (from 16 for 
 the good). Taking both chart B and C into consideration 
 we reach this general conclusion for the 14th year of the 
 pupils : they report very fezv good teachers, and the greatest 
 nmnbcr of poor ones, both men and women. What can be 
 the explanation for this remarkable fact? On the one hand, 
 the 14th year may be marked by special determining psycho- 
 physical traits. I have, however, not been able to find satis- 
 factory evidence to this effect in the psychophysical investi- 
 gations dealing with the ages around puberty. On the other 
 hand, there seems to be an abundance of indications for our 
 seeking the explanation zvithin the scope of the school system. 
 As we pointed out before, the 14th year generally means the 
 first year of High School. Our result here then may be 
 taken as one more proof that there seems to be something 
 seriously wrong with this " transfer year," within the present 
 school system, and that the Junior High School may here 
 come in as a beneficial and highly necessary remedy. With 
 regard to the preparation and selection of teachers for this 
 new school, I should like to stress from the results obtained 
 in this study, that one can hardly he careful enough. If the 
 coming Junior High School is going to be a new school form 
 simply, then it will mean very little or nothing. H, however, 
 it is going to be built up on the broad background of all that 
 we know about the psychic, physical, moral, development 
 of the pupil, as pointed out in an excellent outlook over the 
 whole situation by Douglass (18), and if the teachers for 
 this new school be specially and broadly trained, then it may 
 mean nothing less than a real epoch in the history of American 
 pedagogy — furnishing thus also an ideal model for other 
 countries.'^ 
 
 ^ If the common complaint that boys in American schools are being 
 feminized on acount of too many woman teachers is true, the military 
 training which the country is now planning might to a large degree 
 compensate for this. The nation is in this matter facing a tremendous 
 problem from an educational point of view. What shall be the funda- 
 mental principles for "this school in the army" for youth of different 
 training and from different social milieu, and how are they to be 
 worked out in practice? It might be of interest to see how an utterly 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 535 
 
 The Age of the Teacher 
 
 While psychophysical measurements and mental tests are in 
 progress in nearly all countries determining gradually the 
 child's " physiological age " and " mental age " in their rela- 
 tion to chronological age, very little or nothing has been done 
 in this respect with adult individuals.® This is indeed a very 
 serious lack from the point of view of the right selection and 
 estimation of teachers. 
 
 With respect to the greatest benefit to the school child, as 
 well as the social-economic aspect of the question, the teacher's 
 age is of paramount importance. Here again future investi- 
 gations based on a large number of standardized estimations 
 of teachers, will be the only safe approach to our problem. 
 With such comparative studies in all countries, we should 
 before long have the necessary facts in hand. Until this can 
 be done, the results from our material may serve as rough 
 pioneer indications. Giving as they do the pupils' reaction 
 to teachers of different ages (witnessed by their recall of it 
 at a somewhat mature age), studies like ours here should 
 also in the future be made along with those mentioned above. 
 
 The following table A shows the age of the teachers from 
 which the greatest good influence came to the pupils. Each 
 ordinate represents the percentage of all good teachers occur- 
 ring at the ages indicated on the abscissa. 
 
 The general impression we get is that teachers (whether 
 men or women) belozu 20 and above 40, are of less influence 
 than teachers between these ages. The most efficient man 
 teacher seems generally to be found from 25 to 35 years of 
 age. The best woman teacher seems to have a wider range 
 from 20 to 40 years ; with the climax between 30 and 35. 
 
 It would be interesting here to compare, if possible, our 
 results as to the age of the good teacher with the results in 
 this respect from the studies of Ruediger and Strayer, for 
 the grade school, and Boyce's for the high school, in which, 
 as we have mentioned, the superintendents and principals 
 
 democratic country like Norway has tried to solve this question in 
 practice in its own way, within its army made up by ?nnual conscription 
 of all men 21 years of age. I hope to give a little survey of the mili- 
 tary educational arrangements of France, Germany, Switzerland, with 
 special reference to Norway in this respect, in a separate article; 
 meanwhile I may refer to my outline of the Norwegian system (pp. 
 651-655). 
 
 ^The studies dealing wit!i "old age" may be mentioned. An excellent 
 outlook over the work done, as well as valuable original results, are 
 given in Sanger, W. T. (56) : A study of senescence. Unpub. Doc- 
 tor's Thesis. 1915. Clark University Library. 
 
536 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 judged and rated their teachers. Boyce (11) sums up the 
 results from both studies as follows : 
 
 " In the matter of experience there are some differences, 
 but the results tend to the same conclusion, that experience 
 is an important factor in teaching ability." 
 
 A 
 
 Ace DisTRitJUTiou or Teacher^ 
 
 35 
 ;30 
 25 
 ZQ 
 15 
 
 
 All Good Teacher^ 
 1 
 
 k - i 
 
 (Ien^ r- (106 cft^tj) 
 
 Wonw^n (2fc4- " ) 
 
 4'i 
 
 ^: 
 
 i7^ i'o i is 
 
 The average experience of elementary teachers for the first 
 and second classes was 13 years, for the corresponding groups 
 in the high school, 11.8 years. If we set the age at which 
 the coming teacher leaves Normal School or College arbi- 
 trarily at 22, then we get the best teacher age for the grade 
 school around 35, for the high school around 34, — a result 
 which, as will be seen from our material, corresponds, gen- 
 erally speaking, pretty closely to the outcome of this study, 
 although the woman teacher seems to us to be very good 
 already at 30, which, however, may be somewhat compensated 
 for by the fact that she generally starts teaching about 2 years 
 earlier than the man. 
 
 The Personality and the Methods of the Teacher 
 
 Our question here had the following form : " Was it the 
 personality or the methods (or both) employed by this teacher 
 that caused you to like him or her ? " As no noticeable differ- 
 ences between the grade school and the high school could be 
 found from working up the material, the following table 
 gives an orientating summary view of the answers, in per- 
 cents : 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 537 
 
 Women's Returns 
 
 Men's Returns 
 
 Good Teacher 
 
 Good Teacher 
 
 Personality 
 
 Methods 
 
 Both 
 
 PersonaUty 
 
 Methods 
 
 Both 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 78 
 
 22 
 
 12 
 
 67 
 
 Bad Teacher 
 
 Bad Teacher 
 
 33.3 
 
 12 54.7 
 
 26 
 
 5 
 
 69 
 
 Let us try to examine the women's returns. The first we 
 notice is that personality and methods in the good teacher 
 seem to be intmiately connected. The confusion of teacher 
 with subject matter (and vice versa) which children and 
 youth are very prone to, may here be an explanatory factor. 
 On the other hand, this very factor points to the equal impor- 
 tance of both the teacher's personality and the methods em- 
 ployed, — from the point of view of evaluation and selection 
 of teachers. 
 
 Educational quantitative psychology has touched this prob- 
 lem — as to learning — but very little light is yet shed upon it. 
 From his gigantic statistical study of elementary mathematics 
 Dr. Rice (66) draws the following conclusion: "The 
 facts here presented in my opinion will allow of only one 
 conclusion, viz., that the results are not determined by the 
 methods employed, but by the ability of those who use them. 
 In other words the first place must be given to the personal 
 equation of the teacher."^ Thorndike says that Dr. Rice's 
 material does not allow such a conclusion and points out 
 other devices by which we may get at facts in this question. 
 I have mentioned Rice's study because he is the first to try, 
 by measuring of the school work, also to take the important 
 question of the influence of the teacher into consideration. 
 By more direct methods (as advocated by Thorndike) we 
 may hope that educational quantitative psychology in the 
 future also will try to study the teacher. 
 
 " In his book of 1913 (52), Dr. Rice has abandoned the above view, 
 and regards the personaHty of the Superintendents (as that of their 
 staffs) as the chief controlHng factor for spirit and results in the 
 common schools. 
 
538 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 Turning again to our table, the remarkable fact stands out 
 that for one-third of all the poor teachers the disliked per- 
 sonality seems to have been the sole determining factor while 
 the personality of the good teacher is stressed by only about 
 one-fifth of all cases. 
 
 This proportion (3:5) gives food for thought. That the 
 bad teacher is described as using poor methods for a time 
 as often as the good one, is also significant in this connection. 
 It should be mentioned here that " the personality of the 
 teacher " is a tremendously broad term, and that in fact, in 
 the popular sense in which it is used here, it embraces a per- 
 son's whole " make up." In the myriads of elements which 
 make a personality, the emotional factors may well be said to 
 be of all importance, especially when we see a personality, 
 as we do here, reflected in the minds of (or in the memory of) 
 children and youth, who themselves have actually experienced 
 the effect it may have. In many of Dr. Hall's studies, and 
 those of his pupils, as also in several English and German 
 ones, valuable light has been shed upon the emotions in 
 children. A remarkable recent study by Watson and Morgan 
 (69) based upon experimental data takes us still further, and 
 is of special interest in our dealing with the teacher's per- 
 sonality. Leaving out the experimental background I quote 
 the following: 
 
 "So convinced are we of the possibilities of getting higher incentives 
 or drives from the use of these emotional factors, that we are sure our 
 selection of teachers would be greatly influenced by our views. We 
 think it would be a safe move now to provide in the early grades 
 men teachers for girls and women teachers for boys, these teachers 
 to be chosen for their pleasing personalities and for their abliities 
 to attach the pupils to themselves in strong but wise friendships." 
 
 Further, he says that few of our present teachers " have 
 the gift of controlling and using the pupil's emotional life." 
 I have given so much attention to this study because it is 
 my belief that through studies like that, as well as through 
 Krasnogorski's (36) and Dr. Mateer's (41), a clear way, and 
 perhaps the only one, is pointed out, for getting facts in the 
 extremely complex, but also extremely important emotional 
 relationship between child and grown-up, or, in our connection 
 here between pupil and teacher. If the studies on the con- 
 ditioned reflex can safely be brought over into the human 
 field (as Dr. Alateer's results especially seem to indicate), 
 then we shall have numerous possibilities before us for work 
 in the emotional field which has hitherto remained so obscure. 
 
 The ideal teacher personality has been portrayed over and 
 over again in different phrases of nearly every palladium 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 539 
 
 within the history of pedagogy. (3) All of them gave it 
 " ready made." The only trouble has been that their literary 
 ideal teachers (Lassal's is an elaborate example) never have 
 existed in reality, but have been and are a never-ending mem- 
 ory trouble to all students in education. Now should be the 
 time when we, carefully and slowly through investigations, 
 with the use of all available means and methods, should begin 
 trying, on an empirical basis, to build up this ideal, not as a 
 universal unicum, but on differential lines. 
 
 What sort of personality is most suitable as a teacher for 
 girls of certain ages? What for boys at the different stages 
 in their development? What sex of teacher for boys, for 
 girls, of certain ages? What age correlation between teacher 
 and pupils? etc. 
 
 These and many other highly important questions relating 
 to the teacher, are now of great significance. Someone has 
 said that the history of philosophy is " the history of human 
 errors." The same may be true of the history of pedagogy, 
 but we pedagogues are at least now in the fortunate circum- 
 stance of gradually getting means by which to correct the 
 errors. 
 
 The main school subject (or subjects) through which the 
 good and bad teacher's influence ivas particularly felt by the 
 pupils. Two hundred and one pupils answered the above ques- 
 tion for the good teacher, 120 for the bad teacher. The remain- 
 ing part of the pupils say " all " subjects, which statement, in- 
 definite as it is, well goes to show that strong personal attach- 
 ment to a good teacher gives an interest on the part of the 
 pupil, so to speak, in whatever subject she or he teaches. 
 Still more markedly (according to our figures) is the reverse 
 true in the case of the disliked teacher. The personal dislike 
 then seems to be for a great many pupils a determining factor 
 in diminishing their interest in whatever subject he or she 
 presents to them. The following typical examples may be 
 cited : 
 
 "She made me tremendously interested in History — a subject which 
 always had been a bore to me. Through her winning ways and personal 
 talks I got so fond of her, that I began to look forward with joy 
 to her lessons. Before I got her, I used to dread every hour in His- 
 tory." (College girl in recalling a high school teacher.) 
 
 "His personality and ways were such that you could not avoid 
 listening with interest to whatever he taught." (College boy recalling 
 a high school English teacher.) 
 
 "I think we all felt so repulsive against her, on account of her 
 general manners and all, that we paid very little attention to all that 
 she said." (Bad high school teacher.) 
 
 In the now so numerous and elaborate mathematically 
 
540 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 worked out international studies of children's interests in the 
 different school subjects, the important teacher-factor here 
 brought to light has hitherto been totally left out of question. 
 This is indeed a very grave objection against them. Such 
 studies in the future may possibly be made in this general 
 way : Expert evaluation based on long and thorough observa- 
 tion of the different teacher personalities in the particular 
 school, then the results of this, brought into correlation, with 
 the children's returns. I have no doubt that we in this way 
 would find a high correlation coefficient. The emotional life 
 of the child and youth (we may take it out of almost every 
 chapter in Dr. Hall's "Adolescence ") is the very basis of their 
 mental " make-up." Pure logical or intellectual judgments 
 are indeed very rare. Hence then we have the confusion of 
 teacher with subject matter, and vice-versa, not only generally 
 speaking, but also in cases, for instance, where the pupil has 
 outspoken personal ability or inability in a certain subject, or 
 subjects. In reading, for instance, a statement like this (there 
 are many like it) : 
 
 "I simply could not stand her (her shrieky voice still rings in my 
 ears!) and I firmly believe that was the main reason why I lost all 
 my interest in mathematics for about two years." (College girl on 
 Freshman teacher in high school.) 
 
 we get a clear impression of the all-importance of our begin- 
 ning to realize the significance of the dynamic-emotional abili- 
 ties in the teacher's personality, and especially " the sympa- 
 thetic touch," without which many a child may be given a 
 transferring help even in a purely intellectual school subject, 
 like mathematics. Some people are children their whole lives, 
 in this respect, as bibliographies, especially of artists, furnish 
 abundant proofs. Sympathy and consideration, however, are 
 not the only emotional reactions towards which the teacher 
 should strive. We would also emphasize the importance of 
 righteous anger and indignation, within normal limits to be 
 sure, through which the pupil may learn how to meet these 
 emotions in others, and to transfer them into valuable incen- 
 tives for personal effort. 
 
 Here, it seems to the writer, we are up against a great 
 problem in modern pedagogy. The Herbartian doctrine of 
 interest is often misunderstood. " Froebelianism," and " Mon- 
 tessorianism," " Lighthardianism," and all other valuable points 
 of view, especially for primary education, are taking too great 
 a place in secondary education. Life is not play; it is very 
 rarely that life means an opportunity for the individual to 
 follow his interests, etc. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 541 
 
 Turning again to our material, the following distribution 
 table of the main subjects through which the pupils have met 
 their best teachers gives us some interesting indications. 
 
 C-t>'C.^y.^C<xl^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^i-C-cx-'w<.a_ 
 
 f^Jdy^—lCo-^^ 
 
 ^35>-v. ^£2i2^if2^ 
 
 Trjjjt.ci^ 
 
 J'^A^ 
 
 3.S 
 
 z.s 
 
 1-5 
 
 lo.b 
 
 X^-a<X^rt. JfC,ff^^ 
 
 7.0 
 
 5.5 
 
 li.5 
 
 2.5 
 
 13.0 
 
 '^S. 
 
 Z?.o 
 
 If. 5 
 
 i.O 
 
 13.5 
 
 /C.^ 
 
 HlHH OCHOOL. 
 
 ZQ.5 
 
 The striking fact in regard to science was that it over- 
 balanced English throughout the school system, especially so 
 in the grade school, and a little less markedly in the high 
 school — as to number of disliked teachers. From the returns 
 the following reasons may be given as typical : 
 
 1. "He knew his subject very well (physics) but he did not seem to 
 understand that he talked over our heads the whole year. Some told 
 him so, but he went on as before." (Higli; school.) 
 
 2. "She seemed to think that there was nothing else in the world than 
 mathematics. If you were not very clever in that, she would not have 
 anything to do with you." 
 
 3. " She taught Home Economics out of a book " 10 
 
 An overwhelming majority of bad science teachers are char- 
 acterized as specialists, lacking a broader outlook, using bad 
 methods, taking interest only in the clever pupils, not interested 
 in the subject, etc. The English teacher comes in second as 
 to number of bad teachers. With a summary view over both 
 our tables we may stress this : 
 
 The English teacher (as also English as a subject) has the 
 greatest good influence and may have a considerable bad one, 
 especially in high schools. 
 
 The science teacher (and the sciences as subjects) may 
 have a relatively great influence ; in this study, however, the 
 
 ^°We may quote here an amusing and instructive experience of Dr. 
 Seashore (58, pp. 79) : "As a child I had the advantage of learning 
 arithmetic under a teacher who did not know the subject. She had 
 difficulty with fractions, but had the good grace to leave us to our own 
 devices. We discovered that after reading the introductory statement 
 for each new section and performing the required operations with con- 
 fidence in our efforts, we had but little need of :;he teacher .... The 
 impetus thus gained was a permanent asset. Although I later had good 
 teachers, I preceded by the same method with algebra, geometry, trigo- 
 nometry, and conic sections . . . ." Although this observation con- 
 tains valuable suggestions, it would be rash to generalize on it ! 
 
542 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 bad influence from them seems almost twice as great as the 
 good. 
 
 Foreign language has the smallest number of bad teachers, 
 and on the positive side seems to rank high in the high school. 
 
 The final suggestive results may be that they all deserve 
 special attention — as to fundamental training, as well as 
 through practical supervisory measures in schools. As it is 
 at the present time, a large number of high school teachers 
 seem to be getting their material and indirectly their methods 
 from the colleges, a state of affairs anything but sympathetic 
 toward the high school mind. On the other hand a majority 
 of the teachers from the normal schools may have a large 
 amount of the theory of teaching, with little subject matter. 
 Taking all different factors from the entire study here pre- 
 sented into consideration, the general impression remains that 
 some fundamental changes in the high school teachers' prepa- 
 rations seem to be an urgent need of the time. The problem 
 is at present under discussion and consideration also in most 
 of the European countries.^^ As to the role of Educational 
 Psychology in this matter, it is high time to turn more to a 
 differential psychology of the adolescent years on the one 
 hand, and try all possible means of getting at the influence of 
 the teacher for these plastic years, on the other. The day must 
 come when no teacher is allowed to enter into teaching in a 
 secondary school without having had a thorough course in 
 Educational Psychology — arranged with special reference to 
 the subjects he is going to teach (35), as well as the sex 
 and age of his coming pupils. By international comparative 
 studies and views we may hope for a reformation of the 
 present situation in the near future. 
 
 The Physical Appearance of the Teacher 
 
 According to common opinion among school authorities, the 
 physical appearance of the teacher, and his personal " mag- 
 netism," are very great factors in the teacher's personality, 
 and have great effects upon the children. We have up to the 
 present time very few objective data upon this question. What 
 our returns may show on this subject may serve to point 
 out the necessity of investigations here, and give some indica- 
 tive results. It may be that the coming standardized teachers 
 estimation blanks will give material enough for correlations 
 
 11 In Germany: "Bund fur Schulreform." (Berlin, Founded 1911.) 
 In England : "The civic and moral education league." London. 
 In France : "La league d'education morale." Paris. 
 All three have publications. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 543 
 
 on a large scale. However, it will always be a problem 
 besides to get the children's reactions, and this we think can 
 no better be done, than (as in our study here), by obtaining 
 returns from somewhat mature people, who are (as is the 
 case here) not too far removed from the experience in time, 
 and who on the other hand are able, on account of their 
 training, to look calmly back over former vivid experiences 
 in this matter. 
 
 Let us first see what our returns say about: 
 
 The General Appearance of the Teacher 
 
 
 
 Good 
 
 Bad 
 
 
 Men 
 
 Women 
 
 Men 
 
 Women 
 
 Good looking 
 
 60% 
 
 25 
 
 15 
 
 74% 
 17 
 9 
 
 14% 
 
 50 
 
 36 
 
 12% 
 
 Attractive 
 
 Not good looking 
 
 Ugly 
 
 21 
 51 
 16 
 
 It should be taken into consideration here that by far the 
 greatest number of the returns are from young women. What 
 we get then, is that 85^0 of all good men teachers and 91% 
 good women teachers are designated as good looking or at least 
 as having had a pleasing appearance (attractive) ; while the 
 bad man teacher was not good looking or ugly in 86% of 
 the cases, the bad women teachers in 67%. Even if we take 
 these numbers on their face value, our result seems to indicate 
 clearly that there is a high correlation between personal 
 pulchritude and a good teacher, in the common schools — a 
 fact which naturally does not exclude the good exceptions, 
 as we for instance have them in our study here. The 36% 
 bad men teachers designated as ugly corresponds largely with 
 the ages in the recalling young women of 14-15-16. Their 
 appearances are pictured in such minute details as to back 
 up fully what we have mentioned before as to the high degree 
 of sensitivity for outer personal attributes of a man teacher 
 for those girls' ages. We are told here of the color of his 
 hair, the way he wore it, the color of his eyes, the nature of 
 his looks, his features, the way he used to smile or grin, his 
 complexion, whether he shaved often enough or not, to what 
 extent he manicured, to what degree his shoes were polished, 
 etc. ! Here are some terms used in regard to the bad teacher : 
 " Sour looking," " stern looking," " awkward looking," " large 
 
544 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 bulging eyes," " effeminate face," " stiff face," " shiny face," 
 " sharp features," " hard face," " hair down in his eyes," 
 " dried up face," " stubby hair, and long moustaches, always 
 wet,' " black nails," " awful smelling breath," " never smiling 
 face," " ever smiling face," etc. One young girl tells a whole 
 story about her former teacher in the following words : " He 
 looked like ' Ichabod Crane.' " 
 
 Some general outstanding characteristics of the good woman 
 teacher may be noted : " Motherly looking," " sweet face," 
 " cheerful face," " rosy face," " intelligent looking," " delicate 
 skin," " striking carriage," " stately," " quick in movements," 
 " graceful walk," " old type of beauty," " she was one at whom 
 you would like to look a second time," " she appeared like a 
 queen, yet was not lofty," etc. 
 
 The following table gives us some indications as to some 
 physical attributes of the teacher : 
 
 
 Good 
 
 Bad 
 
 
 Men 
 
 Women 
 
 Men 
 
 Women 
 
 Fieure: 
 
 Stout 
 
 Medium 
 
 7% 
 32 
 61 
 
 55 
 13 
 32 
 
 6 
 
 94 
 
 11 
 89 
 
 18% 
 
 48 
 
 34 
 
 86 
 
 U 
 
 43 
 57 
 
 16 
 68 
 
 25% 
 
 17 
 
 58 
 
 61 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 7 
 93 
 
 33% 
 14 
 
 Slender (slim) 
 
 53 
 
 Height: 
 
 Tall 
 
 46 
 
 Medium 
 
 26 
 
 Short 
 
 28 
 
 Complexion: 
 
 Lig'ht 
 
 28 
 
 Dark (including brown hair) .... 
 Health: 
 
 Poor ('nervousness) 
 
 42 
 25 
 
 Good 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 Leaving these numbers for the present we will first stress 
 the apparent difference in health between male and female 
 teachers. The percentages, 11% of male and 16% of female 
 teachers, characterized as not healthy, have been compiled by 
 carefully going over the returns and marking the bad teachers 
 and those good teachers who clearly are designated as having 
 been nervous, so that the pupils in their recalling remember 
 that they actually suffered, although they in the eyes of the 
 pupil seemed generally to control it wonderfully. The greatest 
 part of all nervous teachers (78% of them) are more than 35 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 545 
 
 years of age. We can of course place very little significance 
 upon so little material as we have here ; it is an interesting 
 fact, however, that this last finding seems to correspond 
 pretty closely with the results of the latest German study. (53) 
 Ninety-five teachers under treatment for nervous diseases in 
 the psychiatrical clinic in Jena had entered in the following 
 years of their age : 
 
 From 20 to 25 vears old 7.4% 
 
 From 2.5 to 35 years old 20.0% 
 
 From 35 to 45 years old 44.2% 
 
 After 45 years old 28.4% 
 
 As we see, most of the patients had broken down between 
 35 and 45 years of age, and Rohde finds that the nervousness 
 is of diflferent sort before and after the 35th year of the 
 teacher. Before, it has very little to do with the vocation, is 
 not "Berufsnervositat;" after the 35th year, it is decidedly 
 so. This result seems in direct opposition to earlier investi- 
 gations, for instance, Wichmann's ; and the conclusion Terman 
 draws from studies up to 1912, in his excellent book. (65)^^ 
 " The investigations prove that it is the beginning teacher who 
 runs the greatest risk of pathological nervous exhaustion," 
 may not be finally established. Dr. Rohde's table is of interest 
 also in connection with the good teacher's age, as we have 
 brought out in this study, the middle age of them all not 
 exceeding 35 years. 
 
 As to the influence of the teacher's health upon the pupils 
 Dr. Burnham says (13): "With the emphasis now placed 
 upon school hygiene teachers suffering from tuberculosis, 
 nervous disorders, and the like, will not long be permitted in 
 the schoolroom." " Teachers who can set an example of 
 healthful living and normal mental activity will more and 
 more be demanded for the public schools." It seems from 
 this study that there is a definite positive correlation between 
 excellence of the teacher in the common school and his or her 
 health. " She was so nervous, that she could shriek over the 
 smallest thing now and then, and frighten us almost to death," 
 writes, for instance, a college girl in recalling her 8th grade 
 teacher (aged 41-2). 
 
 Turning now to the dress of the teacher, we may first note 
 that all good teachers are recalled as having been " very neat " 
 or "neat" in dress. In my Norwegian study (50) I was 
 able to draw the conclusion that children between 7 and 11 
 
 12 An excellent little monograph, which should be in every teacher's 
 library, not in the ordinary sense of ihat term, but it should be looked 
 over frequently as a memorandum for the teacher on how daily to 
 invest his best capital — the physical and mental health. 
 
546 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 years especially lay great stress upon the appearance of their 
 acquaintances. From this study it turns out that a similar 
 conclusion seems to hold still more true for the ages of 12 
 and 18 in girls, and that dress generally speaking plays a 
 great role in children's estimation of their teachers. 
 
 The teacher's general manners seem also to be an important 
 point in the make-up of his personality: 
 
 "For example he would slouch way down in his chair and practically 
 sit on the back of his neck. The following is horrible to tell, but it 
 illustrates clearly what I mean. He used to clear his nose in his 
 throat and then use the open window in place of a handerchief or 
 spittoon. We were usually working at the board during these occur- 
 rences and he probably thought we didn't notice him, but I believe 
 that some few always knew, and the rest soon heard about it." (Col- 
 lege girl in recalling a high school teacher.) 
 
 Similar statements are not rare. To sum up the indicative 
 results as to the good teacher's general physical appearance 
 it appears from this study that the ideal American woman 
 teacher should be: Good looking (or at least attractive) with 
 a general cheerful expression, dark or light complexioned, 
 rather tall, blue or brown eyed, of a median figure, healthy, 
 neat, well dressed, stylishly or in subdued colors, have refined 
 manners, a good carriage, be " quick in movements," have " a 
 graceful walk," etc. 
 
 The ideal American man teacher is indicated as : Dark 
 complexioned, tall, slender, physically strong, healthy, well 
 dressed and with good manners. 
 
 The bad woman teacher is recalled as follows : In 86% 
 of all cases not good looking (or ugly), slender, tall; in one- 
 sixth of all cases, in bad health (nervous), in one-fifth of all 
 cases designated as untidy in dress and person and very often 
 with careless manners. 
 
 The bad man teacher: Slender, of medium height, dark 
 complexioned (94%), in 7 out of 8 cases unattractive or 
 actually ugly, while every other one of them are designated 
 as untidy in dress, and many noted for bad manners. 
 
 It should be noted that these traits mentioned (on account 
 of the fact that most of our returns represent the recollection 
 of young women), should belong especially to the ideal Ameri- 
 can teacher of girls. Future investigations ought to bring 
 out the physical ideal teacher for boys, of different ages, and 
 also try to designate whether there are outstanding differences 
 in preferences at different stages of age, within the school 
 system, for boys and girls. 
 
 What seems, generally speaking, to have been brought to 
 light in this study is that physical appearance, dress, manners. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 547 
 
 etc., are essential factors in the teacher's personaHty, which 
 an account of the great suggestibiHty and the lack of broader 
 judgments in children, may, at least temporarily, increase or 
 decrease the influence of the teacher. 
 
 The Teacher and Discipline 
 
 There is no noticeable difference between the grades and 
 the high school here. The answers allowed the three definite 
 groups — strict, moderate, lenient. The following table gives 
 opportunity for numerous comparisons, not only for the dif- 
 ferences between the sexes, but also for those within them. 
 To see whether the specially young teachers would show any 
 definite difference from the older, they are divided in the 
 table into two groups. " Young " means below 30 (or 30) 
 years of age ; " Old," over 30. 
 
 Nature 
 
 OF Discipline 
 
 — Degre 
 
 -E OF Strictness 
 
 
 
 Good Teacher 
 
 Bad Teacher 
 
 
 Men 
 
 Women 
 
 Men 
 
 Women 
 
 
 Below 
 30 
 
 Over 
 30 
 
 Below 
 30 
 
 Over 
 30 
 
 Below 
 30 
 
 Over 
 30 
 
 Below 
 30 
 
 Over 
 30 
 
 Strict 
 
 Moderate 
 
 Lenient 
 
 47.8 
 52.2 
 
 52.2 
 
 43.4 
 
 4.4 
 
 61.7 
 21.4 
 16.6 
 
 49.88 
 36.25 
 13.06 
 
 18.9 
 81 !l 
 
 36.8 
 
 5.3 
 
 57.9 
 
 51 
 
 3.4 
 
 45.6 
 
 71.2 
 
 3.4 
 
 25.4 
 
 We shall point out a few of the facts and leave the rest for 
 the reader's consideration. 
 
 The good teacher. In the larger percent of cases the " old " 
 man, according to our results, is stricter than the young, 
 while the " young " good woman teacher is much stricter than 
 the old. 
 
 Explanatory factors here may be that the good old man 
 teacher relies upon his experience, knowing where the bound- 
 ary limits of his discipline are, while the good young man is not 
 settled as to the nature of his discipline, and is also possibly 
 unconsciously relying upon his physical and mental vivacity. 
 He may also purposely have adopted the more modern ideal 
 of discipline, and have had the personality to handle it. The 
 good young woman teacher, perhaps determined by her sex, 
 may feel that she must assert herself and hold the upper 
 hand of the situation. 
 
548 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 The had teacher. Neither the young man and old bad man 
 teacher appears to be very strict, especially is this true of 
 the young bad man, who is exceedingly lenient. Typical 
 answer: (young man). "No, he was not at all strict, most 
 of the time he simply did not care."^^ 
 
 Both the young and the old woman teacher are strict, with 
 the old woman much more strict than the young, and stricter 
 than any other group! A number of sex and age factors 
 probably enter in here. 
 
 General results are that all good teachers are " strict in 
 discipline to a certain degree " — which from the returns appears 
 to be apparent to the pupils, from their ruling the class, 
 through their personalities and from a certain few fixed prin- 
 ciples, which the children often seem to have generally " felt " 
 more than they have been actually conscious of them, and 
 which have been silently accepted by them as natural. " I 
 would say she was strict in discipline. She never said much 
 about attention, however. Her manner simply commanded 
 respect, and so she obtained involuntary attention " (high 
 school). 
 
 We may give the following general results : It is the bad 
 teacher who resorts to the largest degree of physical punish- 
 ments, and the old bad woman teacher uses it more than 
 any other group, while the old man leads in " ordinary cor- 
 poral punishment." 
 
 All good teachers, here recalled, used corporal punishment 
 in rare cases — which fact seems to be in agreement with Dr. 
 Hall's statement that " there are certain child natures, for 
 which physical punishments cannot be entirely dropped."^* 
 
 i^One fact seems to stand out throughout this study, namely that 
 there is a t>'pe of bad young men teachers within the school system of 
 the United States, who seem to use the teaching profession as "a 
 stepping stone," and whose influence upon their pupils, we may learn 
 from our material, has been anything but beneficial. One may offer the 
 suggestion that it be made obligatory* for him to stay a certain num- 
 ber of years, as a secondary solution, until the wages are raised so 
 that a teacher will find himself satisfied wherever he is placed in 
 the system. 
 
 1* It may be interesting in this connection to relate Dr. Hall's first 
 "disciplinary case," which occurred when he, 17 years old, started teach- 
 ing in a country school in Massachusetts. Some of his pupils were 
 much larger than himself, and especially two of them had all the 
 time before been used to being "their own masters." The first day 
 Dr. Hall had the class, these two fellows were chewing tobacco in 
 the schoolroom. He spoke to them about it, but they did not care. 
 Before he left school that day, he hid a strong rod among the wood 
 at the fireplace. The next morning, when the boys behaved as usual, 
 he asked them to stop the chewing. They gave some obstinate re- 
 marks. A regular fight followed. Thanks to the rod Dr. Hall got the 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 549 
 
 As to general disciplinary measures used, the good teachers 
 seem to resort to self government and the honor system, 
 friendly private talks ;^^ in these ways relying upon the pupils' 
 personalities and his own, while after school sessions, seem 
 to mark their principal form of punishment. No good teacher 
 sent a pupil to the office. 
 
 The bad teacher seemed to use after school sessions, send- 
 ing the pupil very frequently out of the room or to the office, 
 expulsion, punishing by grading, and to be very prone to sar- 
 casm, scolding and threats. 
 
 To all that we hitherto have learned about the bad old 
 woman teacher, it may be interesting to add here, that she is 
 quite alone in regard to such disciplinary measures as : Put- 
 ting the child in the closet, tying it to the chair, depriving it 
 of personal adornments, etc. 
 
 That the kind of punishments used seems (from this study) 
 to be a good indicator, may be of interest to supervisors and 
 to those scientists who are trying to build up standardized 
 estimation blanks for teachers. 
 
 The Teacher's Sense of Justice 
 
 Were the children specially favored or specially misusedf 
 The good woman teacher seems, from the returns, to have 
 taken a personal interest in all the pupils and to have treated 
 everybody on equal terms in 75% of all cases. A typical 
 answer follows : " She took equal interest in the dullard and 
 the dux." 
 
 In 25% of the cases the pupil had, to a more or less degree, 
 the feeling of being specially favored. In by far the most 
 cases, however, this was not accompanied by any discredit 
 
 upper hand, and succeeded in getting both out, shut the door and con- 
 tinued the lesson. The next morning they were not let in. Finally 
 after some days they were let in on promising to behave. In short, 
 there was discipline in that room thereafter, and the significant thmg 
 about it all is that whenever he in later life met these two men, who 
 are now old people, they always reminded him of the event, and 
 never failed to thank him heartily, for the beating they had gotten at 
 the right time in their " Schliingel-periode." (Kirdly related to the 
 writer by Dr. Hall.) 
 
 15 Sarcasm is a trait, developing very late. For young children it 
 ought thus to be totally banished. For the upper grade of high school 
 it might well be rarely used, as an art, by a broad teacher personality 
 and may thus be made a stimulus and an incentive for the pupil. 
 
 We think Dr. G. H. Palmer, (47) clearly has shown the dangers 
 which may be implied in these measures, viz., that the teacher in 
 executing it must not cheapen himself through "a slap on the back 
 acquaintance." 
 
550 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 given to the rest of the class, and was explained in terms 
 like these: 
 
 "I was specially favored with her companionship outside of school 
 hours." 
 
 "I felt that she thought I was her special charge (and a most trouble- 
 some one)." 
 
 "She complimented my work especially." 
 
 "I had the feeling of being given special help." 
 
 "She let me ring the bell and do other small duties." 
 
 One can take from the returns here, that the good woman 
 teacher seems to have some peculiar womanly way of com- 
 municating her special satisfaction in, and her good-will toward, 
 the most worthy pupils, so that it reaches its proper destina- 
 tion without giving it undue publicity to the class in general. 
 This special gift, which may have its basis in the woman-nature, 
 seems to be a most beneficial one as a real but perhaps half- 
 unconscious stimulus to the best work of the individual of the 
 class. The probability of this statement is shown in replies 
 like the following: 
 
 " Sometimes I thought I was favored, but it may be because 
 we understood each other, and I tried my very best to please 
 her." (High school.) 
 
 The good man teacher seems to lack this peculiar subtle 
 means of "wireless" communication, as only 15% of the 
 pupils here report having been conscious of special favoritism. 
 His manner of showing favoritism publishes his intentions 
 broadcast to the world. This is evident from about all the 
 returns which claim special favoritism on the part of the 
 instructor. The following examples may be given : 
 
 "He would go hunting with some of the boys but never with others." 
 (High school.) 
 "He always put me up as an example to the others." (High school.) 
 "He favored me by giving me too high marks." 
 "He was a special friend to me as man to man." (College boy.) 
 
 In 85% (a little more than the good woman teacher) the 
 good man teacher treated all alike — showing a fair personal 
 interest in all. 
 
 "The blow was as likely to strike me as anybody." 
 
 "He favored only those who worked." 
 
 "He gave a square deal to everyone." Etc., etc., etc. 
 
 The bad zvoman teacher. Seventy per cent (70%) report 
 that they were not especially misused or mistreated them- 
 selves, but more than 15% of these had special favorites. 
 Some had such strong repugnance for the personality of the 
 teacher or for the methods used that these factors overbal- 
 anced the fact that they were merely not misused. They say: 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 551 
 
 "She had strong likes and dislikes." (High school.) 
 
 "I was not misused, but I simply did not care for her." (High 
 school.) 
 
 "She was rather good to me, in fact, but I think she was the most 
 partial teacher I ever saw." (High school, reported in four cases.) 
 
 "Everybody was afraid of her, although not specially misused." 
 
 Thirty per cent (30%) however, were definitely misused: 
 
 "I was misused because she did not take care in discerning the 
 real offender in any misconduct." 
 
 ".She did not take into consideration that I was a lively and active 
 child. She wanted the old-fashioned docile child, which I was not." 
 
 "I always felt a stranger to her." (High school.) 
 
 "She did not understand me." (High school boy.) 
 
 Leaving the number given to speak for themselves, I should 
 like to stress my general impressions upon the reading of the 
 returns : the lack of personal rapport between teacher and 
 pupil — the large factor of partiality — the lack of understand- 
 ing of the child's character — and the overwhelming use of 
 formal discipline. 
 
 The bad man teacher seems, from the returns, to differ in 
 one special respect from the bad woman teacher. The latter 
 seems at least by formal discipline, etc., to show some interest 
 in the welfare of the pupils (although she very often fails 
 in her intentions) but the bad man teacher seems to be almost 
 apathetic even in this respect. Ninety per cent (90%) report 
 that they were not misused (although one-fifth of these had 
 special favorites) but they gave reasons as follows: 
 
 "He was too mentally lazy to misuse anyone." 
 
 "We couldn't find out his sense of justice because he was perfectly 
 disinterested in anything but his salary." 
 
 The remaining minority of 10% tell of being misused in 
 some special manner: 
 
 "He had his 'black sheep' when he was angry." 
 "At least he was not partial, for he misused us all." 
 " He took the most handy one to scold." (We probably have here 
 the man who uses the teaching profession as a mere stepping stone.) 
 
 "I know that this teacher was disliked even more by other students 
 than by me. I know of two concrete cases where a girl quit school, 
 because of his crabbedness. One girl eloped with an aviator, and it 
 came out in the papers that she had left school 'because a certain 
 teacher made life miserable for her.' The other gi.l went to work as 
 maid in a private family. She said that her work was hard, but her 
 employer 'treated her as if she were human, and did not 'continually 
 nag' at her." 
 
 "This teacher was discharged from the school which I attended; 
 at which the first incident occurred. He obtained a position in another 
 school, at which the second incident occurred, abouf) four years later. 
 He was let out of the second school, but is, at the present time, teach- 
 ing in another high school in the same city." (High school.) 
 
552 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 Using a little psychoanalysis on the returns here, one prac- 
 tical fact stands out very clearly, that every mistreatment 
 and misuse may be a great inhibitory factor in the general 
 school life, and also in the after school life of the child. It 
 may be that if we could trace this factor (and associated 
 factors) we could illuminate in another light the statement of 
 Dewey (17): "Hardly 1% of the entire school population 
 even attain to what we call higher education; only 5% to 
 the grade of our high school, while much more than half 
 leave on or before the fifth year of the elementary grade." 
 
 Dewey maintains that this remarkable fact is due to the 
 fact that the intellectual interest does not become dominant, 
 but that the practical impulse or disposition is in the fore- 
 ground. However, from our returns we should like to have 
 an answer to the question: How many are driven from the 
 school through the influence of the bad teacher ?^^ 
 
 Similar studies were made of the returns from our question- 
 naire in regard to the teacher's voice, the characteristics of 
 enthusiasm and optimism, the temperament of the teacher, 
 the teacher in relation to literature and life, the teacher's 
 social activities and the teacher's influence upon the pupil's 
 later life. The most important results of these studies are 
 presented briefly in the following summary of the outcome 
 of the whole investigation. 
 
 Summary — General Conclusions 
 
 1. A review of the present paidological situation of the 
 problem of the teacher reveals : The study of the teacher has, 
 with the exception of a very few experimental attacks, on 
 the whole hitherto been neglected out of all proportion to its 
 significance. 
 
 2. Our study here, confirming all earlier investigations in 
 regard to suggestion and imitation in childhood, seems to 
 prove beyond doubt that the " teacher factor " is of paramount 
 importance, — in fact a condition sine qua non, for all studies 
 dealing with the school child. 
 
 3. Thus all mass investigations, for instance, in regard to 
 children's ideals, their interest in the different school subjects, 
 measuring of the schoolwork, etc., will need to be checked 
 
 K'Compare the study of Book (lo) ; gy pupils actually left high school 
 for the main reason that they could not stand a certain teacher. 
 
 See also the studies of Stableton : "He thinks that the small per- 
 centage of male graduates from our high schools is due to 'the 
 inability of the average grammar grade or high school teacher to deal 
 rightly with boys in this critical period of their school life.'" Quoted 
 from (27, Vol. 2, p. 285.) 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 553 
 
 Up with special studies, bearing as directly as possible on this 
 teacher factor. The whole field of child study in schools 
 will need to be worked slowly and carefully over again, with 
 this in view. Nothing less will give us reliable psycho-peda- 
 gogical data. 
 
 Our special results, which we present as m large part merely 
 
 indicative are : 
 
 I. Judging from the relative percentages of the outstanding 
 good and bad teachers whom the recalling students have met 
 and comparing these with the actual number of teachers of 
 both sexes within the school system, our results seem to 
 justify the general demand for more men teachers. 
 
 II. The general influence of the teacher is constantly rising 
 upwards through the school system, reaching a quite remark- 
 able climax for the high school period. 
 
 a. The woman teacher's good influence on girls is greatest 
 at 12 years of age of the pupil ; the had influence from them 
 reaches its climax at 14 years of age of the pupil. 
 
 b. The man teacher has the greatest good influence upon 
 girls at the ages 15 to 18, his bad influence upon them is 
 highest at 14 years of their age. 
 
 c. At 14 years of age of the pupil (freshman year in high 
 school) we find: Very few good teachers, and the very great- 
 est number of had both men and zvomen teachers, which result 
 may point to the necessity of the Junior High School, with 
 broadly and specially trained and well selected teachers. 
 
 Ill a The most efficient man teacher seems generally to 
 be found from 25 to 35 years of age. For girls his median 
 age is 35. 
 
 b. The best woman teacher seems to have a wider range, 
 from 20-40. The relative discriminating point for good and 
 bad woman teachers seems to be 30 years of age. 
 
 c. The good teacher is, throughout this study, generally rela- 
 tively younger than the bad. 
 
 d The age of the good teacher seems to vary very little with 
 the rising age of the pupils up through the school system. 
 (See tables.) 
 
 IV. We get a clear impression of the significance of the 
 dynamic-emotional abilities in the teacher's personality. " Jhe 
 sympathetic touch " may give a transferring help even in a 
 purely intellectual subject like mathematics. 
 
 a. The English teacher (as also English as subject) has 
 the greatest good influence in mental character training, and 
 may have a considerable bad influence (especially in high 
 school). 
 
554 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 
 
 b. The science teachers may have a relatively great good 
 influence ; in this study, however, the bad influence from them 
 seems almost doubly as big as the good. 
 
 c. Foreign language teachers seem to rank high in the high 
 school, while teachers of history, in this study (as in my Nor- 
 wegian one), seem to have a low standard from the point of 
 view of character building. 
 
 V. Personal pulchritude, neatness in dress and good man- 
 ners are essential factors in the teacher's personality, and 
 correlate very high with excellence of the teacher in the public 
 schools. 
 
 VI. The good teacher's voice is given as: Medium in pitch, 
 smooth in quality, and moderate in volume. 
 
 The had female voice is designated above all as nervous, 
 the had male voice as feminine. The teacher's voice has been 
 a very essential factor to all recalling students. 
 
 VII. Enthusiasm and optimism (as we have defined these 
 traits, seem to be absolute attributes of a good teacher, being 
 present to a more or less degree in all recalled good teachers. 
 
 VIII. In all cases covered by our data the good teacher 
 seems to be of flexible nature, able to suit different situations, 
 however, with a predominance of joviality, and sense of humor, 
 as a general background. The good grade teacher must 
 possess the ability " to let himself go " occasionally in unre- 
 strained " fun " with the children. 
 
 IX. All good teachers recalled are designated as self-con- 
 trolled, a trait apparent to the pupils in various ways. 
 
 X. Eighty-nine per cent of all recalled good teachers were 
 listed as bringing the pupils in touch with actual life in 
 various ways. Formal teaching, and little or no attempt at 
 education, characterizes the bad teacher. 
 
 XI. The good man teacher over 30 years of age seems to 
 be more strict in discipline than the young; while the good 
 young woman teacher is much more strict than the old. The 
 old bad woman teacher is more strict than any other group, 
 and uses physical punishment in 3 cases out of 8. All good 
 teachers here recalled used corporal punishments in rare cases. 
 The art of punishment used by the teacher is a good indicator 
 for judging thus the general good and bad influence from 
 him. 
 
 XII. The teacher's sense of justice is a trait apparent to 
 the pupils in various ways. Mistreatment and misuse from 
 the side of the teacher may be of determining influence not 
 only on the child's school life, but also on its whole future. 
 
 XIII. Approximately every second good teacher visits the 
 'home, of the pupils. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TEACHER 555 
 
 XIV. There seems to be a high correlation between all good 
 teachers and their social activities with the pupils. Men seem 
 to be more active than women, in this respect. 
 
 a. Athletics and sport ranks highest. 
 
 b. High school woman teachers' informal walks (whenever 
 the pupils were allowed "free talk") are stressed as having 
 been of very great value to girls of 14 to 18. 
 
 XV. Every good teacher has been associated more or less 
 clearly with a life ideal, which stands out for the recalling 
 students, as one intimately incorporated in the teacher's per- 
 sonality. In 40% of all cases also orally stressed " maxims " 
 had been taken to heart by the pupils and had been guiding 
 principles at work for from 1-12 years! This fact supports 
 the plea for systematic " moral training " like the French 
 (combined with the right teacher personality) for the grade 
 and high school. 
 
 XVI. As to the lasting effect from good and bad teachers 
 on the pupil's later life, this seems to be of vital importance 
 in to the pupil's choice of vocation in leading their interest 
 in a certain good direction, in helping them to overcome innate 
 character difficulties, etc., etc. 
 
 XVII. The influence from good and bad teachers reaches 
 far beyond their own activities — in the positive and negative 
 effect they may have on the coming generation of teachers. 
 This points to the necessity of good teachers in Normal Schools 
 and in all other training schools for teachers. 
 
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