The teacher or parent, therefore, should endeavor to hold something
like the Divine relation to the child,--should show a superiority of
knowledge, an inflexible firmness, an unvarying love, and irresistible
attraction, ever endeavoring to win love, while enforcing the
supremacy of his will, so that obedience may be a pleasure. Thus may a
woman with a masculine strength of will, or a man with feminine
strength of love, develop that willing obedience which insures the
moral elevation of the pupil. But whenever the teacher fails to elicit
both respect and love, his power for good is lost. In this evolution
of good the power of the teacher is vastly enhanced by that of music,
especially in the form of song, when the pupil is made to sing songs
of exalted sentiment; and there are very few natures so depraved as to
resist long the combined power of exalted music and a superior
teacher, to which should be added the social influence of numbers
already elevated by such influences.
In such schools, the power of the third element, _imitation_, is very
great, for the pupil is generally more influenced by the example of
his numerous associates in the school and family, with whom he is
continually in contact, than by that of his teacher.
To get the full benefit of imitation requires not only the influence
of well-trained schoolmates, but systematic exercises in reading,
singing, declamation, and deportment, the teaching being given by
example.
When a boy or girl is taught by example to express a noble sentiment
in a natural manner, he is thereby compelled to feel the sentiment in
some degree with sincerity. When he is required to imitate and
practice certain forms of politeness which express the best
sentiments, those sentiments must gradually become a part of his
nature. The acts of respect, of kindness and courtesy to which he may
be naturally averse, cannot be daily practised without rousing in his
nature the sentiments to which they correspond.