You are about to assume the charge of a class in the school under my
care. Allow me, in a spirit of frankness, to make to you a brief
statement of some of the aims of the institution, and of the principles
by which we are guided in their prosecution.
1. "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it."
I have no professional conviction more fixed and abiding than this, that
no persons more need the direct, special, continual guidance of the Holy
Spirit than those who undertake to mould and discipline the youthful
mind. No preparation for this office is complete which does not include
devout prayer for that wisdom which cometh from above. If any one
possession, more than another, is the direct gift of the Almighty, it
would seem to be that of knowledge. The teacher, therefore, of all men,
is called upon to look upwards to a source that is higher than himself.
He needs light in his own mind; he should not count it misspent labor to
ask for light to be given to the minds of his scholars. There is a
Teacher infinitely wiser and more skilful than any human teacher. The
instructor must be strangely blind to the resources of his profession,
who fails to resort habitually to that great, plenary, unbounded source
of light and knowledge. While, therefore, we aim in this school to
profit by all subsidiary and subordinate methods and improvements in the
art of teaching, we first of all seek the aid of our Heavenly Father; we
ask wisdom of Him who "giveth liberally and upbraideth not." This, then,
is the first principle that governs us in the work here assigned us. The
fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. We who are teachers endeavor
to show that we ourselves fear God, and we inculcate the fear of Him as
the first and highest duty of our scholars; and in every plan and effort
to guide the young minds committed to us, we ourselves look for guidance
to the only unerring source of light.
2. In proportion to the implicitness with which we rely upon divine aid,
should be the diligence with which we use all the human means within our
reach. It should therefore, in the second place, be the aim of the
teachers of this school to acquaint themselves diligently with the most
approved methods of teaching. No teachers will be retained who do not
keep themselves well posted in the literature of their profession, and
who are not found continually aiming at self-improvement. In whatever
school of whatever country, any branch is taught by better methods than
those practised here, it should be the duty of a teacher in this school
to search it out, and to profit by the discovery. Improvement comes by
comparison. The man, or the institution, that fails to profit by the
experience of others, is not wise. I hold it to be the duty of every
teacher of this school to be habitually conversant with the educational
journals of the day, and with the standard works on the theory of
teaching, and to lose no opportunity for personal observation of the
methods of others. I have often noticed, with equal pain and
commiseration, that young teachers, after having once finished their
preliminary studies and obtained a situation, are thereupon apparently
quite content, making no further effort at improvement, but settling
down for life in an inglorious mediocrity. The best teachers in this
school are expected to be better teachers next year than they are
now,--with ampler stores of knowledge, and a happier faculty for
communicating it. This, then, is our second aim in this school. We aim
to have teachers thoroughly posted in regard to the theory and the
methods of teaching, prepared to ride upon the advance wave of every
real improvement in the art.
3. I should, however, fail entirely to convey my meaning, were I to lead
you to suppose that we expect to accomplish our ends mainly by fine-spun
theories. I have no faith in any theory of education, which does not
include, as one of its leading elements, _hard work_. The teachers of
this school expect to work hard, and we expect the scholars to work
hard. We have no royal road to learning. Any knowledge, the acquisition
of which costs nothing, is usually worth nothing. The mind, equally with
the body, grows by labor. If some stuffing process could be invented, by
which knowledge could be forced into a mind perfectly passive, the
knowledge so acquired would be worthless to its possessor, and would
soon pass away, leaving the mind as blank as it was before. Knowledge,
to be of any value, must be assimilated, as bodily food is. Teaching is
essentially a co-operative act. The mind of the teacher and the mind of
the scholar must both act, and must act together, in intellectual
co-operation and sympathy, if there is to be any true mental growth.
Teaching is not merely hearing lessons. It is not mere talking. It is
something more than mere telling. It is causing a child to know. It is
awakening attention, and then satisfying it. It is an out-and-out live
process. The moment the mind of the teacher or the mind of the scholar
flags, real teaching ceases. This, then, is our third aim. We aim in
this school to accomplish results, not by fanciful theories, but by
_bona fide_ hard work,--by keeping teachers and scholars, while at their
studies, wide awake and full of life; not by exhausting drudgery, nor by
fitful, irregular, spasmodic exertions, but by steady, persevering,
animated, straight-forward work.
4. A fourth aim which we have steadily before us, is to make _thorough_
work of whatever acquisition we attempt. A little knowledge, well
learned and truly digested, and made a part of the pupil's own
intellectual stores, is worth more to him than any amount of facts
loosely and indiscriminately brought together. In intellectual, as in
other tillage, the true secret of thrift is to plough deep, not to skim
over a large surface. The prevailing tendency at this time, in systems
of education, is unduly to multiply studies. So many new sciences are
being brought within the pale of popular knowledge, that it is no longer
possible, in a school like this, to embrace within its course of study
all the subjects which it is practicable and desirable for people
generally to know. Through the whole encyclopaedia of arts and sciences,
there is hardly one which has not its advocates, and which has not
strong claims to recognition. The teacher is simply infatuated who
attempts to embrace them all in his curriculum. He thereby puts himself
under an absolute necessity of being superficial, and he generates in
his scholars pretension and conceit. Old James Ross, the grammarian,
famous as a teacher in Philadelphia more than half a century ago, had on
his sign simply these words, "Greek and Latin taught here." Assuredly I
would not advocate quite so rigid an exclusion as that, nor, if limited
to only two studies, would it be those. But I have often thought Mr.
Ross's advertisement suggestive. Better even that extreme than the
encyclopaedic system which figures so largely on some circulars. Mr. Ross
indeed taught nothing but Latin and Greek. But he taught these languages
better probably than they have ever been taught on this continent; and
any two branches thoroughly mastered are of more service to the pupil
than twenty branches known imperfectly and superficially. A limited
field, then, and thorough work. This is our fourth aim.
5. As a fifth aim, we endeavor, in the selection of subjects of study,
not to allow the common English branches, as they are called, to be
shoved aside. To read well, to write a good hand, to be expert in
arithmetic, to have such a knowledge of geography and history as to read
intelligently what is going on and the world, to have such a knowledge
of one's own language as to use it correctly and purely in speaking and
composition,--these are attainments to be postponed to no others. These
are points of primary importance, to be aimed at by every one, whatever
else he may omit.
6. We aim, in the sixth place, to mark the successive parts of the
course of study by well defined limits. There are in the course of study
successive stages of progress, and these stages are made as clear and
precise as it is possible to make them; and no pupil is allowed to go
forward until the ground behind is thoroughly mastered. At the same
time, these stages in study should be kept all the while before the
minds of the pupils as goals to be aimed at. There are, for this
purpose, at briefly recurring intervals, examinations for promotion.
While no pupil is permitted to go forward, except as the result of a
rigorous examination, the idea of an advance should, if possible, never
be allowed to be absent from his thoughts. That scholar should be
counted worthy of highest honor, not who stands highest in a particular
room, but who by successful examinations can pass most rapidly from room
to room. That teacher is considered most successful, not who retains
most pupils, but who in a given time pushes most pupils forward into a
higher room. We want no scholar to stand still for a single week.
Motion, progress, definite achievement, must be the order of the day.
7. We aim, in the seventh place, to cultivate in every pupil a habit of
attention and observation. Youth is the time when the senses should be
most assiduously trained. The young should be taught to see for
themselves, to ascertain the qualities of objects by the use of their
own eyes and hands, to notice whether a thing is distant and how far
distant it is, whether it is heavy and how heavy, whether it has color
and what color, whether it has form and what form. They should learn to
study real things by actually noticing them with their own senses, and
then learning to apply the right words to the knowledge so acquired. We
aim to apply this habit of observation in all the branches of study, so
that in every stage of progress the scholar shall know, not merely the
names of things, but the things themselves. In other words, we would
cultivate real, as well as verbal knowledge, and aim to awaken in every
pupil an active, inquiring, observant state of mind.
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