The Teacher's Three Graces
The teacher's manner must be heart-born. It must not become mannerism,
which is head-born, and never reaches hearts. "Manner maketh the man,"
and also the teacher,--half-way, at least. If we suspect, however, that
our manner is defective, the manner itself is the last thing to look at;
we must look at our heart. That is the place to get the change.
Three heart qualities produce the ideal teacher's manner. One of these
is _earnestness_. If you would make on your scholars an impression
that will last beyond the hour, you yourself must be deeply impressed
with the eternal years. To move their life, keep before you their
death. That is hard to do, when confronted by such abounding youthful
vigor and vitality. Become an advocate, a pleader, with eternal life
as the stake. Learn to know deeply the great central truths of sin,
atonement, sanctification. Aim at radical and positive results in
confession, testimony, spirituality, character, and conduct, and press
toward these as the genuine verdict on your teaching.
The second quality is _cheeriness_. We are prophets of awful
alternatives, but we are also ministers of the most blessed joy.
Happiness is the best recommendation of Christianity. In it center all
the Christian evidences. Learn by heart all the promises; they are
better teaching weapons than the prohibitions and warnings. Keep a
smile very close to the surface, and improve every fair chance to
laugh. The teacher that is in earnest, need never be afraid to be
merry. Permit no exaggeration of the facts of wickedness, either in
them or in others. The more stormy the day and the fewer in
attendance, the cheerier be you.
The third quality is _sympathy_. The true teacher has, or gets, the
poet's ability to project himself into the lives of others. He keeps
invisible, tactful antennae playing in all directions, feeling this
one's coming embarrassment before it arrives, conscious of that one's
eager assent before it lights his eyes, exploring homes and
occupations and character in order to adapt question to scholar.
Without argument or plan, but by instinctive appreciation of differing
personality, the true teacher assumes dignity with this pupil,
_bonhomie_ with that. So far is he from treating all alike, that he
never treats even the same person in the same way two days in
succession, knowing, by feeling rather than theory, that no
one--especially no child--is the same person two days in succession.
These are the teacher's three graces: earnestness, born of faith and
unsatisfied until it has inspired an equal faith; cheeriness, born of
hope, and hope-creating; and sympathy, born of love, which is the
greatest of all. These in the heart blossom outwardly into the perfect
teaching manner,--earnestness to arrest, cheeriness to attract, and
sympathy to hold. "Covet earnestly the _best_ gifts."