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Chapter IX is the additional chapter on "The First Day in School"
mentioned on the title page. There is no entry in the Table of Contents
for this chapter.
* * * * *
THE TEACHER:
Or Moral Influences Employed in the
Instruction and Government
of the Young.
New Stereotype Edition;
With an
Additional Chapter on "The First Day in School."
* * * * *
By JACOB ABBOTT,
Late Principal of the Mt. Vernon Female School, Boston, Mass.
* * * * *
BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY WHIPPLE AND DAMRELL,
No. 9 CORNHILL.
1839.
* * * * *
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by
JACOB ABBOTT,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court
of the District of Massachusetts.
* * * * *
POWER PRESS OF WILLIAM S. DAMRELL.
TO THE
TRUSTEES AND PATRONS
OF THE
MT. VERNON FEMALE SCHOOL, BOSTON.
GENTLEMEN:
It is to efforts which you have made in the cause of education, with
special regard to its moral and religious aspects, that I have been
indebted for the opportunity to test by experiment, under the most
pleasant and favorable circumstances, the principles which form the
basis of this work. To you, therefore, it is respectfully inscribed, as
one of the indirect results of your own exertions to promote the best
interests of the Young.
I am very sincerely and respectfully yours,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
This book is intended to detail, in a familiar and practical manner, a
system of arrangements for the organization and management of a school,
based on the employment, so far as is practicable, of _Moral
Influences_, as a means of effecting the objects in view. Its design is,
not to bring forward new theories or new plans, but to develope and
explain, and to carry out to their practical applications, such
principles as, among all skilful and experienced teachers, are generally
admitted and acted upon. Of course it is not designed for the skilful
and the experienced themselves; but it is intended to embody what they
already know, and to present it in a practical form, for the use of
those who are beginning the work and who wish to avail themselves of the
experience which others have acquired.
Although moral influences, are the chief foundations on which the power
of the teacher over the minds and hearts of his pupils is, according to
this treatise, to rest, still it must not be imagined that the system
here recommended is one of persuasion. It is a system of
authority,--supreme and unlimited authority, a point essential in all
plans for the supervision of the young. But it is authority secured and
maintained as far as possible by moral measures. There will be no
dispute about the propriety of making the most of this class of means.
Whatever difference of opinion there may be, on the question whether
physical force, is necessary at all, every one will agree that, if ever
employed, it must be only as a last resort, and that no teacher ought to
make war upon the body, unless it is proved that he cannot conquer
through the medium of the mind.
In regard to the anecdotes and narratives which are very freely
introduced to illustrate principles in this work, the writer ought to
state, that though they are all substantially true, that is, all except
those which are expressly introduced as mere suppositions, he has not
hesitated to alter very freely, for obvious reasons, the unimportant
circumstances connected with them. He has endeavored thus to destroy the
personality of the narratives, without injuring or altering their moral
effect.
From the very nature of our employment, and of the circumstances under
which the preparation for it must be made, it is plain that, of the many
thousands who are, in the United States, annually entering the work, a
very large majority must depend for all their knowledge of the art
except what they acquire from their own observation and experience, on
what they can obtain from books. It is desirable that the class of works
from which such knowledge can be obtained should be increased. Some
excellent and highly useful specimens have already appeared, and very
many more would be eagerly read by teachers, if properly prepared. It is
essential however that they should be written by experienced teachers,
who have for some years been actively engaged, and specially interested
in the work;--that they should be written in a very practical and
familiar style,--and that they should exhibit principles which are
unquestionably true, and generally admitted by good teachers, and not
the new theories peculiar to the writer himself. In a word, utility, and
practical effect, should be the only aim.
Boston, June 20, 1833.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.--INTEREST IN TEACHING.
Source of enjoyment in teaching. The boy and the steam engine. His
contrivance. His pleasure, and the source of it. Firing at the
mark. Plan of clearing the galleries in the British House Of
Commons. Pleasure of experimenting, and exercising intellectual and
moral power. The indifferent, and inactive teacher. His subsequent
experiments; means of awakening interest. Offences of pupils.
Different ways of regarding them.
Teaching really attended with peculiar trials and difficulties. 1.
Moral responsibility for the conduct of pupils. 2. Multiplicity of
the objects of attention. Page 11
CHAPTER II.--GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS.
Objects to be aimed at, in the General Arrangements. Systematising
the teacher's work. Necessity of having only one thing to attend to
at a time.
1. Whispering and leaving seats. An experiment. Method of
regulating this. Introduction of the new plan. Difficulties.
Dialogue with pupils. Study card. Construction and use.
2. Mending pens. Unnecessary trouble from this source. Degree of
importance to be attached to good pens. Plan for providing them.
3. Answering questions. Evils. Each pupil's fair proportion of
time. Questions about lessons. When the teacher should refuse to
answer them. Rendering assistance. When to be refused.
4. Hearing recitations. Regular arrangement of them. Punctuality.
Plan and schedule. General Exercises. Subjects to be attended to at
them.
General arrangements of Government. Power to be delegated to
pupils. Gardiner Lyceum. Its government. The trial. Real republican
government impracticable in schools. Delegated power. Experiment
with the writing books. Quarrel about the nail. Offices for pupils.
Cautions. Danger of insubordination. New plans to be introduced
gradually. 29
CHAPTER III.--INSTRUCTION.
The three important branches. The objects which are really most
important. Advanced scholars. Examination of school and scholars at
the outset. Acting on numbers. Extent to which it may be carried.
Recitation and Instruction.
1. Recitation. Its object. Importance of a thorough examination of
the class. Various modes. Perfect regularity and order necessary.
Example. Story of the pencils. Time wasted by too minute an
attention to individuals. Example. Answers given simultaneously to
save time. Excuses. Dangers in simultaneous recitation. Means of
avoiding them. Advantages of this mode. Examples. Written answers.
2. Instruction. Means of exciting interest. Variety. Examples.
Showing the connexion between the studies of school and the
business of life. Example, from the controversy between General and
State Governments. Mode of illustrating it. Proper way of meeting
difficulties. Leading pupils to surmount them. True way to
encourage the young to meet difficulties. The boy and the
wheelbarrow. Difficult examples in Arithmetic.
Proper way of rendering assistance. (1.) Simply analyzing intricate
subjects. Dialogue on longitude. (2.) Making previous truths
perfectly familiar. Experiment with the Multiplication table. Latin
Grammar lesson. Geometry.
3. General cautions. Doing work for the scholar. Dulness. Interest
in all the pupils. Making all alike. Faults of pupils. The
teacher's own mental habits. False pretensions. 64
CHAPTER IV.--MORAL DISCIPLINE.
First impressions. Story. Danger of devoting too much attention to
individual instances. The profane boy. Case described. Confession
of the boys. Success. The untidy desk. Measures in consequence.
Interesting the scholars in the good order of the school. Securing
a majority. Example. Reports about the desks. The new College
building. Modes of interesting the boys. The irregular class. Two
ways of remedying the evil. Boys' love of system and regularity.
Object of securing a majority, and particular means of doing it.
Making school pleasant. Discipline should generally be private. In
all cases that are brought before the school, public opinion in the
teacher's favor should be secured. Story of the rescue. Feelings of
displeasure against what is wrong. The teacher under moral
obligation, and governed, himself, by law. Description of the
_Moral Exercise_. Prejudice. The scholars' written remarks, and the
teacher's comments. The spider. List of subjects. Anonymous
writing. Specimens. Marks of a bad scholar. Consequences of being
behindhand. New scholars. A Satirical spirit. Variety.
Treatment of individual offenders. Ascertaining who they are.
Studying their characters. Securing their personal attachment.
Asking assistance. The whistle. Open, frank dealing. Example.
Dialogue with James. Communications in writing. 105
CHAPTER V.--RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE.
The American mechanic at Paris. A congregational teacher among
Quakers. Parents have the ultimate right to decide how their
children shall be educated.
Agreement in religious opinion, in this country. Principle which is to
guide the teacher on this subject. Limits and restrictions to religious
influence in school. Religious truths which are generally admitted in
this country. The existence of God. Human responsibility. Immortality of
the soul. A revelation. Nature of piety. Salvation by Christ. Teacher to
do nothing on this subject but what he may do by the common consent of
his employers. Reasons for explaining distinctly these limits.
Particular measures proposed. Opening exercises. Prayer. Singing.
Direct instruction. Mode of giving it. Example; arrangement of the
Epistles in the New Testament. Dialogue. Another example; scene in
the woods. Cautions. Affected simplicity of language. Evils of it.
Minute details. Example; motives to study. Dialogue. Mingling
religious influence with the direct discipline of the school.
Fallacious indications of piety. Sincerity of the Teacher. 152
CHAPTER VI.--MT. VERNON SCHOOL.
Reason for inserting the description. Advantage of visiting
schools; and of reading descriptions of them. Addressed to a new
scholar.
1. Her personal duty. Study card. Rule. But one rule. Cases when
this rule may be waived. 1. At the direction of teachers. 2. On
extraordinary emergencies. Reasons for the rule. Anecdote.
Punishments. Incident described. Confession.
2. Order of Daily Exercises. Opening of the school. Schedules.
Hours of study and recess. General Exercises. Business. Examples.
Sections.
3. Instruction and supervision of pupils. Classes. Organization.
Sections. Duties of superintendents.
4. Officers. Design in appointing them. Their names and duties.
Example of the operation of the system.
5. The Court. Its plan and design. A trial described.
6. Religious Instruction. Principles inculcated. Measures.
Religious exercises in school. Meeting on Saturday afternoon.
Concluding remarks. 181
CHAPTER VII.--SCHEMING.
Time lost upon fruitless schemes. Proper province of ingenuity and
enterprise. Cautions. Case supposed. The spelling class; an
experiment with it; its success and its consequences. System of
literary institutions in this country. Directions to a young
teacher on the subject of forming new plans. New institutions; new
school books. Ingenuity and enterprise very useful, within proper
limits. Ways of making known new plans. Periodicals. Family
newspapers. Teacher's meetings.
Rights of Committees, Trustees, or Patrons, in the control of the
school. Principle which ought to govern. Case supposed. Extent to
which the teacher is bound by the wishes of his employers. 221
CHAPTER VIII.--REPORTS OF CASES.
Plan of the Chapter. Hats and Bonnets. Injury to clothes. Mistakes
which are not censurable. Tardiness; plan for punishing it. Helen's
lesson. Firmness in measures united with mildness of manner.
Insincere confession: scene in a class. Court. Trial of a case.
Teacher's personal character. The way to elevate the character of
the employment. Six hours only to be devoted to school. The
Chestnut Burr. Scene in the wood. Dialogue in school. An
experiment. Series of Lessons in writing. The correspondence. Two
kinds of management. Plan of weekly reports. The shopping exercise.
Example. Artifices in Recitations. Keeping Resolutions; notes of
Teacher's Lecture. Topics. Plan and illustration of the exercise.
Introduction of music. Tabu. Mental Analysis. Scene in a class. 242
THE TEACHER.
CHAPTER I.
INTEREST IN TEACHING.
There is a most singular contrariety of opinion prevailing in the
community, in regard to the _pleasantness_ of the business of teaching.
Some teachers go to their daily task, merely upon compulsion: they
regard it as intolerable drudgery. Others love the work: they hover
around the school-room as long as they can, and never cease to think,
and seldom to talk, of their delightful labors.
Unfortunately there are too many of the former class, and the first
object, which, in this work, I shall attempt to accomplish, is to show
my readers, especially those who have been accustomed to look upon the
business of teaching as a weary and heartless toil, how it happens, that
it is, in any case, so pleasant. The human mind is always, essentially,
the same. That which is tedious and joyless to one, will be so to
another, if pursued in the same way, and under the same circumstances.
And teaching, if it is pleasant, animating, and exciting to one, may be
so to all.
I am met, however, at the outset, in my effort to show why it is that
teaching is ever a pleasant work, by the want of a name for a certain
faculty or capacity of the human mind, through which most of the
enjoyment of teaching finds its avenue. Every mind is so constituted as
to take a positive pleasure in the exercise of ingenuity in adapting
means to an end, and in watching their operation;--in accomplishing by
the intervention of instruments, what we could not accomplish
without;--in devising, (when we see an object to be effected, which is
too great for our _direct_ and _immediate_ power) and setting at work,
some _instrumentality_, which may be sufficient to accomplish it.
It is said, that, when the steam engine was first put into operation,
such was the imperfection of the machinery, that a boy was necessarily
stationed at it, to open and shut alternately the cock, by which the
steam was now admitted, and now shut out, from the cylinder. One such
boy, after patiently doing his work for many days, contrived to connect
this stop-cock with some of the moving parts of the engine, by a wire,
in such a manner, that the engine itself did the work which had been
entrusted to him; and after seeing that the whole business would go
regularly forward, he left the wire in charge, and went away to play.
Such is the story. Now if it is true, how much pleasure the boy must
have experienced, in devising and witnessing the successful operation of
his scheme; I do not mean the pleasure of relieving himself from a dull
and wearisome duty; I do not mean the pleasure of anticipated play; but
I mean the strong interest he must have taken in _contriving_ and
_executing_ his plan. When, wearied out with his dull, monotonous work,
he first noticed those movements of the machinery which he thought
adapted to his purpose, and the plan flashed into his mind, how must his
eye have brightened, and how quick must the weary listlessness of his
employment have vanished. While he was maturing his plan, and carrying
it into execution;--while adjusting his wires, fitting them to the exact
length, and to the exact position,--and especially, when, at last, he
watches the first successful operation of his contrivance,--he must have
enjoyed a pleasure, which very few, even of the joyous sports of
childhood, could have supplied.
It is not, however, exactly the pleasure of exercising _ingenuity in
contrivance_, that I refer to here; for the teacher has not, after all,
a great deal of absolute contriving to do,--or rather his _principal
business_ is not contriving. The greatest and most permanent source of
pleasure to the boy, in such a case as I have described, is his feeling
that he is accomplishing a great effect by a slight effort of his own;
the feeling of power; acting through the _intervention of
instrumentality_, so as to multiply his power. So great would be this
satisfaction, that he would almost wish to have some other similar work
assigned him, that he might have another opportunity to contrive some
plan for its easy accomplishment.
Looking at an object to be accomplished, or an evil to be remedied, then
studying its nature and extent, and devising and executing some means
for effecting the purpose desired, is, in all cases, a source of
pleasure; especially when, by the process, we bring to view or to
operation, new powers, or powers heretofore hidden, whether they are our
own powers, or those of objects upon which we act. Experimenting has a
sort of magical fascination for all. Some do not like the trouble of
making preparations, but all are eager to see the results. Contrive a
new machine, and every body will be interested to witness, or to hear of
its operation;--develope any heretofore unknown properties of matter, or
secure some new useful effect, from laws which men have not hitherto
employed for their purposes, and the interest of all around you will be
excited to observe your results;--and especially, you will yourself take
a deep and permanent pleasure, in guiding and controlling the power you
have thus obtained.
This is peculiarly the case with experiments upon mind, or experiments
for producing effects through the medium of voluntary acts of the human
mind, so that the contriver must take into consideration the laws of
mind in forming his plans. To illustrate this by rather a childish case:
I once knew a boy who was employed by his father to remove all the loose
small stones, which, from the peculiar nature of the ground, had
accumulated in the road before the house. He was to take them up, and
throw them over into the pasture, across the way. He soon got tired of
picking them up one by one, and sat down upon the bank, to try to devise
some better means of accomplishing his work. He at length conceived and
adopted the following plan. He set up, in the pasture, a narrow board,
for a target, or as boys would call it, a mark,--and then, collecting
all the boys of the neighborhood, he proposed to them an amusement,
which boys are always ready for,--firing at a mark. I need not say that
the stores of ammunition in the street were soon exhausted; the boys
working for their leader, when they supposed they were only finding
amusement for themselves.
Here now, is experimenting upon the mind;--the production of useful
effect with rapidity and ease, by the intervention of proper
instrumentality;--the conversion, by means of a little knowledge of
human nature, of that which would have otherwise been dull and fatiguing
labor, into a most animating sport, giving pleasure to twenty, instead
of tedious labor to one. Now the contrivance and execution of such plans
is a source of positive pleasure; it is always pleasant to bring the
properties and powers of matter into requisition to promote our
designs,--but there is a far higher pleasure in controlling, and
guiding, and moulding to our purpose the movements of mind.
It is this which gives interest to the plans and operation of human
governments. They can do little by actual force. Nearly all the power
that is held, even by the most despotic executive, must be based on an
adroit management of the principles of human nature, so as to lead men
voluntarily to cooperate with the ruler, in his plans. Even an army
could not be got into battle, in many cases, without a most ingenious
arrangement, by means of which half a dozen men can drive, literally
drive, as many thousands, into the very face of danger and death. The
difficulty of leading men to battle must have been for a long time a
very perplexing one to generals. It was at last removed by the very
simple expedient of creating a greater danger behind than there is
before. Without ingenuity of contrivance like this,--turning one
principle of human nature against another, and making it for the
momentary interest of men to act in a given way, no government could
stand a year.
I know of nothing which illustrates more perfectly the way by which a
knowledge of human nature is to be turned to account in managing human
minds, than a plan which was adopted for clearing the galleries of the
British House of Commons, as it was described to me by a gentleman who
had visited London. It is well known that the gallery is appropriated to
spectators, and that it sometimes becomes necessary to order them to
retire, when a vote is to be taken, or private business is to be
transacted. When the officer in attendance was ordered to clear the
gallery, it was sometimes found to be a very troublesome and slow
operation; for those who first went out, remained obstinately as close
to the doors as possible, so as to secure the opportunity to come in
again first, when the doors should be re-opened. The consequence was,
there was so great an accumulation around the doors outside, that it was
almost impossible for the crowd to get out. The whole difficulty arose
from the eager desire of every one to remain as near as possible to the
door, _through which they were to come back again_. I have been told,
that, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of the officers, fifteen
minutes were sometimes consumed in effecting the object, when the order
was given that the spectators should retire.
The whole difficulty was removed by a very simple plan. One door only
was opened when the crowd was to retire, and they were then admitted
through the other. The consequence was, that as soon as the order was
given to clear the galleries, every one fled as fast as possible through
the open door around to the one which was closed, so as to be ready to
enter first, when that, in its turn, should be opened; this was usually
in a few minutes, as the purpose for which the spectators were ordered
to retire was usually simply to allow time for taking a vote. Here it
will be seen that by the operation of a very simple plan, the very
eagerness of the crowd to get back as soon as possible, which had been
the _sole cause of the difficulty_, was turned to account most
effectually to remove it. Before, they were so eager to return, that
they crowded around the door so as to prevent others going out. But by
this simple plan of ejecting them by one door, and admitting them by
another, that very circumstance made them clear the passage at once, and
hurried every one away into the lobby, the moment the command was given.
The planner of this scheme must have taken great pleasure in seeing its
successful operation; though the officer who should go steadily on,
endeavoring to remove the reluctant throng by dint of mere driving,
might well have found his task unpleasant. But the exercise of ingenuity
in studying the nature of the difficulty with which a man has to
contend, and bringing in some antagonist principle of human nature to
remove it, or if not an antagonist principle, a similar principle,
operating, by a peculiar arrangement of circumstances, in an antagonist
manner, is always pleasant. From this source a large share of the
enjoyment which men find in the active pursuits of life, has its origin.
The teacher has the whole field, which this subject opens, fully before
him. He has human nature to deal with, most directly. His whole work is
experimenting upon mind; and the mind which is before him to be the
subject of his operation, is exactly in the state to be most easily and
pleasantly operated upon. The reason now why some teachers find their
work delightful, and some find it wearisomeness and tedium itself, is
that some do, and some do not take this view of their work. One
instructer is like the engine-boy, turning without cessation or change,
his everlasting stop-cock, in the same ceaseless, mechanical, and
monotonous routine. Another is like the little workman in his brighter
moments, fixing his invention and watching with delight its successful
and easy accomplishment of his wishes. One is like the officer, driving
by vociferations and threats, and demonstrations of violence, the
spectators from the galleries. The other, like the shrewd contriver, who
converts the very cause which was the whole ground of the difficulty, to
a most successful and efficient means of its removal.
These principles show how teaching may, in some cases, be a delightful
employment, while in others, its tasteless dulness is interrupted by
nothing but its perplexities and cares. The school-room is in reality, a
little empire of mind. If the one who presides in it, sees it in its
true light; studies the nature and tendency of the minds which he has to
control; adapts his plans and his measures to the laws of human nature,
and endeavors to accomplish his purposes for them, not by mere labor
and force, but by ingenuity and enterprise; he will take pleasure in
administering his little government. He will watch, with care and
interest, the operation of the moral and intellectual causes which he
sets in operation; and find, as he accomplishes his various objects with
increasing facility and power, that he will derive a greater and greater
pleasure from his work.
Now when a teacher thus looks upon his school as a field in which he is
to exercise skill and ingenuity and enterprise; when he studies the laws
of human nature, and the character of those minds upon which he has to
act; when he explores deliberately the nature of the field which he has
to cultivate, and of the objects which he wishes to accomplish; and
applies means, judiciously and skilfully adapted to the object; he must
necessarily take a strong interest in his work. But when, on the other
hand, he goes to his employment, only to perform a certain regular round
of daily work, undertaking nothing, and anticipating nothing but this
dull and unchangeable routine; and when he looks upon his pupils merely
as passive objects of his labors, whom he is to treat with simple
indifference while they obey his commands, and to whom he is only to
apply reproaches and punishment when they disobey; such a teacher never
can take pleasure in the school. Weariness and dulness must reign in
both master and scholars, when things, as he imagines, are going right;
and mutual anger and crimination, when they go wrong.
Scholars never can be instructed by the power of any dull mechanical
routine; nor can they be governed by the blind, naked strength of the
master; such means must fail of the accomplishment of the purposes
designed, and consequently the teacher who tries such a course must have
constantly upon his mind the discouraging, disheartening burden of
unsuccessful and almost useless labor. He is continually uneasy,
dissatisfied and filled with anxious cares; and sources of vexation and
perplexity continually arise. He attempts to remove evils by waging
against them a useless and most vexatious warfare of threatening and
punishment; and he is trying continually _to drive_, when he might know
that neither the intellect nor the heart are capable of being driven.
I will simply state one case, to illustrate what I mean by the
difference between blind force, and active ingenuity and enterprise, in
the management of school. I once knew the teacher of a school, who made
it his custom to have writing attended to in the afternoon. The boys
were accustomed to take their places, at the appointed hour, and each
one would stick up his pen in the front of his desk for the teacher to
pass around and mend them. The teacher would accordingly pass around,
mending the pens from desk to desk, thus enabling the boys, in
succession, to begin their task. Of course each boy before he came to
his desk was necessarily idle, and, almost necessarily, in mischief. Day
after day the teacher went through this regular routine. He sauntered
slowly and listlessly through the aisles, and among the benches of the
room, wherever he saw the signal of a pen. He paid of course very little
attention to the writing, now and then reproving, with an impatient
tone, some extraordinary instance of carelessness, or leaving his work
to suppress some rising disorder. Ordinarily, however, he seemed to be
lost in vacancy of thought,--dreaming perhaps of other scenes, or
inwardly repining at the eternal monotony and tedium of a teacher's
life. His boys took no interest in their work, and of course made no
progress. They were sometimes unnecessarily idle, and sometimes
mischievous, but never usefully or pleasantly employed; for the whole
hour was past before the pens could all be brought down. Wasted time,
blotted books, and fretted tempers, were all the results which the
system produced.
The same teacher afterwards acted on a very different principle. He
looked over the field and said to himself, what are the objects I wish
to accomplish in this writing exercise, and how can I best accomplish
them? I wish to obtain the greatest possible amount of industrious and
careful practice in writing. The first thing evidently is, to save the
wasted time. He accordingly made preparation for mending the pens at a
previous hour, so that all should be ready, at the appointed time, to
commence the work together. This could be done quite as conveniently
when the boys were engaged in studying, by requesting them to put out
their pens at an appointed and _previous_ time. He sat at his table, and
the pens of a whole bench were brought to him, and, after being
carefully mended, were returned, to be in readiness for the writing
hour. Thus the first difficulty, the loss of time, was obviated.
"I must make them _industrious_ while they write," was his next thought.
After thinking of a variety of methods, he determined to try the
following. He required all to begin together at the top of the page and
write the same line, in a hand of the same size. They were all required
to begin together, he himself beginning at the same time, and writing
about as fast as he thought they ought to write, in order to secure the
highest improvement. When he had finished his line, he ascertained how
many had preceded him, and how many were behind. He requested the first
to write slower, and the others faster, and by this means, after a few
trials, he secured uniform, regular, systematic and industrious
employment, throughout the school. Probably there were, at first,
difficulties in the operation of the plan, which he had to devise ways
and means to surmount: but what I mean to present particularly to the
reader is, that he was _interested in his experiments_. While sitting in
his desk, giving his command to _begin_ line after line, and noticing
the unbroken silence, and attention, and interest, which prevailed, (for
each boy was interested to see how nearly with the master he could
finish his work,) while presiding over such a scene, he must have been
interested. He must have been pleased with the exercise of his almost
military command, and to witness how effectually order and industry, and
excited and pleased attention, had taken the place of listless idleness
and mutual dissatisfaction.
After a few days, he appointed one of the older and more judicious
scholars, to give the word for beginning and ending the lines, and he
sat surveying the scene, or walking from desk to desk, noticing faults,
and considering what plans he could form for securing, more and more
fully, the end he had in view. He found that the great object of
interest and attention among the boys was, to come out right, and that
less pains were taken with the formation of the letters, than there
ought to be, to secure the most rapid improvement.
But how shall he secure greater pains? By stern commands and threats? By
going from desk to desk, scolding one, rapping the knuckles of another,
and holding up to ridicule a third, making examples of such individuals
as may chance to attract his special attention? No; he has learned that
he is operating upon a little empire of mind, and that he is not to
endeavor to drive them as a man drives a herd, by mere peremptory
command or half angry blows. He must study the nature of the effect he
is to produce, and of the materials upon which he is to work, and adopt,
after mature deliberation, a plan to accomplish his purpose, founded
upon the principles which ought always to regulate the action of mind
upon mind, and adapted to produce the _intellectual effect_, which he
wishes to accomplish.
In the case supposed, the teacher concluded to appeal to emulation.
While I describe the measure he adopted, let it be remembered that I am
now only approving of the resort to ingenuity and invention, and the
employment of moral and intellectual means, for the accomplishment of
his purposes, and not of the measures themselves. I do not think the
plan I am going to describe a wise one; but I do think that the teacher,
while trying it, must _have been interested in his intellectual
experiment_. His business, while pursued in such a way, could not have
been a mere dull and uninteresting routine.
He purchased, for three cents apiece, two long lead-pencils, an article
of great value, in the opinion of the boys of country schools; and he
offered them, as prizes, to the boy who would write most carefully; not
to the one who should write _best_, but to the one whose book should
exhibit most appearance of _effort_ and _care_ for a week. After
announcing his plan, he watched, with strong interest its operation. He
walked round the room while the writing was in progress, to observe the
effect of his measure. He did not reprove those who were writing
carelessly; he simply noticed who and how many they were. He did not
commend those who were evidently making effort; he noticed who and how
many they were, that he might understand how far, and upon what sort of
minds, his experiment was successful, and where it failed. He was taking
a lesson in human nature,--human nature as it exhibits itself in boys,
and was preparing to operate more and more powerfully by future plans.
The lesson which he learned by the experiment was this, that one or two
prizes will not influence the majority of a large school. A few seemed
to think that the pencils were possibly within their reach, and _they_
made vigorous efforts to secure them; but the rest wrote on as before.
Thinking it certain that they should be surpassed by the others, they
gave up the contest, at once, in despair.
The obvious remedy was to multiply his prizes, so as to bring one within
the reach of all. He reflected too that the real prize, in such a case,
is not the value of the pencil, but the _honor of the victory_; and as
the honor of the victory might as well be coupled with an object of
less, as well as with one of greater value, the next week he divided his
two pencils into quarters, and offered to his pupils eight prizes
instead of two. He offered one to every five scholars, as they sat on
their benches, and every boy then saw, that a reward would certainly
come within five of him. His chance, accordingly, instead of being one
in twenty, became one in five.
Now is it possible for a teacher, after having philosophized upon the
nature of the minds upon which he is operating, and surveyed the field,
and ingeniously formed a plan, which plan he hopes will, through his own
intrinsic power, produce certain effects,--is it possible for him when
he comes, for the first day, to witness its operations, to come without
feeling a strong interest in the result? It is impossible. After having
formed such a plan, and made such arrangements, he will look forward,
almost with impatience, to the next writing hour. He wishes to see
whether he has estimated the mental capacities and tendencies of his
little community aright; and when the time comes, and he surveys the
scene, and observes the operation of his measure, and sees many more
are reached by it, than were influenced before, he feels a strong
gratification; and it is a gratification which is founded upon the
noblest principles of our nature. He is tracing on a most interesting
field, the operation of cause and effect. From being the mere drudge,
who drives, without intellect or thought, a score or two of boys to
their daily tasks, he rises to the rank of an intellectual philosopher,
exploring the laws and successfully controlling the tendencies of mind.
It will be observed too, that all the time this teacher was performing
these experiments, and watching, with intense interest, the results, his
pupils were going on undisturbed in their pursuits. The exercises in
writing were not interrupted or deranged. This is a point of fundamental
importance; for, if what I should say on the subject of exercising
ingenuity and contrivance in teaching, should be the means, in any case,
of leading a teacher to break in upon the regular duties of his school,
and destroy the steady uniformity with which the great objects of such
an institution should be pursued, my remarks had better never have been
written. There may be variety in methods and plan; but through all this
variety, the school, and every individual pupil of it, must go steadily
forward in the acquisition of that knowledge which is of greatest
importance in the business of future life. In other words, the
variations and changes, admitted by the teacher, ought to be mainly
confined to the modes of accomplishing those permanent objects to which
all the exercises and arrangements of the school ought steadily to aim.
More on this subject however in another chapter.
I will mention one other circumstance, which will help to explain the
difference in interest and pleasure with which teachers engage in their
work. I mean the different views they take _of the offences of their
pupils_. One class of teachers seem never to make it a part of their
calculation that their pupils will do wrong, and when any misconduct
occurs, they are disconcerted and irritated, and look and act as if some
unexpected occurrence had broken in upon their plans. Others understand
and consider all this beforehand. They seem to think a little, before
they go into their school, what sort of beings boys and girls are, and
any ordinary case of youthful delinquency or dulness does not surprise
them. I do not mean that they treat such cases with indifference or
neglect, but that they _expect_ them, and _are prepared for them_. Such
a teacher knows that boys and girls, are the _materials_ he has to work
upon, and he takes care to make himself acquainted with these materials,
_just as they are_. The other class however, do not seem to know at all,
what sort of beings they have to deal with, or if they know, do not
_consider_. They expect from them what is not to be obtained, and then
are disappointed and vexed at the failure. It is as if a carpenter
should attempt to support an entablature by pillars of wood too small
and weak for the weight, and then go on, from week to week, suffering
anxiety and irritation, as he sees them swelling and splitting under the
burden, and finding fault _with the wood_, instead of taking it to
himself.
It is, of course, one essential part of a man's duty in engaging in any
undertaking, whether it will lead him to act upon matter or upon mind,
to become first well acquainted with the circumstances of the case,--the
materials he is to act upon, and the means which he may reasonably
expect to have at his command. If he underrates his difficulties, or
overrates the power of his means of overcoming them, it is his mistake;
a mistake for which _he_ is fully responsible. Whatever may be the
nature of the effect which he aims at accomplishing, he ought fully to
understand it, and to appreciate justly the difficulties which lie in
the way.
Teachers however very often overlook this. A man comes home from his
school at night, perplexed and irritated by the petty misconduct which
he has witnessed, and been trying to check. He does not however, look
forward and try to prevent the occasions of it, adapting his measures to
the nature of the material upon which he has to operate; but he stands
like the carpenter at his columns, making himself miserable in looking
at it, after it occurs, and wondering what to do.
"Sir," we might say to him, "what is the matter?"
"Why, I have such boys, I can do nothing with them. Were it not for
_their misconduct_, I might have a very good school."
"Were it not for the boys? Why, is there any peculiar depravity in them
which you could not have foreseen?"
"No; I suppose they are pretty much like all other boys," he replies
despairingly; "they are all hair-brained and unmanageable. The plans I
have formed for my school, would be excellent if my boys would only
behave properly."
"Excellent plans," might we not reply, "and yet not adapted to the
materials upon which they are to operate! No. It is your business to
know what sort of beings boys are, and to make your calculations
accordingly."
* * * * *
Two teachers may therefore manage their schools in totally different
ways: so that one of them, may necessarily find the business a dull,
mechanical routine, except as it is occasionally varied by perplexity
and irritation; and the other, a prosperous and happy employment. The
one goes on mechanically the same, and depends for his power on
violence, or on threats and demonstrations of violence. The other brings
all his ingenuity and enterprise into the field, to accomplish a steady
purpose, by means ever varying, and depends for his power, on his
knowledge of human nature, and on the adroit adaptation of plans to her
fixed and uniform tendencies.
I am very sorry however to be obliged to say, that probably the latter
class of teachers are decidedly in the minority. To practice the art in
such a way as to make it an agreeable employment, is difficult, and it
requires much knowledge of human nature, much attention and skill. And,
after all, there are some circumstances necessarily attending the work
which constitute a heavy drawback on the pleasures which it might
otherwise afford. The almost universal impression that the business of
teaching is attended with peculiar trials and difficulties, proves this.
There must be some cause for an impression so general. It is not right
to call it a prejudice, for, although a single individual may conceive
a prejudice, whole communities very seldom do, unless in some case,
which is presented at once to the whole, so that looking at it, through
a common medium, all judge wrong together. But the general opinion in
regard to teaching is composed of a vast number of _separate_ and
_independent_ judgments, and there must be some good ground for the
universal result.
It is best therefore, if there are any real and peculiar sources of
trial and difficulty in this pursuit, that they should be distinctly
known and acknowledged at the outset. Count the cost before going to
war. It is even better policy to overrate, than to underrate it. Let us
see then what the real difficulties of teaching are.
It is not however, as is generally supposed, _the confinement_. A
teacher is confined, it is true, but not more than men of other
professions and employments; not more than a merchant, and probably not
as much. A physician is confined in a different way, but more closely
than a teacher: he can never leave home: he knows generally no vacation,
and nothing but accidental rest.
The lawyer is confined as much. It is true, there are not throughout the
year, exact hours which he must keep, but considering the imperious
demands of his business, his personal liberty is probably restrained as
much by it, as that of the teacher. So with all the other professions.
Although the nature of the confinement may vary, it amounts to about the
same in all. On the other hand the teacher enjoys, in reference to this
subject of confinement, an advantage, which scarcely any other class of
men does or can enjoy. I mean vacations. A man in any other business may
_force_ himself away from it, for a time, but the cares and anxieties of
his business will follow him wherever he goes, and it seems to be
reserved for the teacher, to enjoy alone the periodical luxury of a
_real and entire release from business and care_. On the whole, as to
confinement, it seems to me that the teacher has but little ground of
complaint.
There are however some real and serious difficulties which always have,
and it is to be feared, always will, cluster around this employment; and
which must, for a long time, at least, lead most men to desire some
other employment for the business of life. There may perhaps be some,
who by their peculiar skill, can overcome, or avoid them, and perhaps
the science may, at some future day, be so far improved, that all may
avoid them. As I describe them however now, most of the teachers into
whose hands this treatise may fall, will probably find that their own
experience corresponds, in this respect, with mine.
1. The first great difficulty which the teacher feels, is a sort of
_moral responsibility for the conduct of others_. If his pupils do
wrong, he feels almost personal responsibility for it. As he walks out,
some afternoon, weary with his labors, and endeavoring to forget, for a
little time, all his cares, he comes upon a group of boys, in rude and
noisy quarrels, or engaged in mischief of some sort, and his heart sinks
within him. It is hard enough for any one to witness their bad conduct,
with a spirit unruffled and undisturbed, but for their teacher, it is
perhaps impossible. He feels _responsible_; in fact he is responsible.
If his scholars are disorderly, or negligent, or idle, or quarrelsome,
he feels _condemned himself_, almost as if he were, himself, the actual
transgressor.
This difficulty is in a great degree, peculiar to a teacher. A physician
is called upon to prescribe for a patient; he examines the case, and
writes his prescription. When this is done, his duty is ended, and
whether the patient obeys the prescription and lives, or neglects it and
dies, the physician feels exonerated from all responsibility. He may,
and in some cases does feel _anxious concern_, and may regret the
infatuation by which, in some unhappy case, a valuable life may be
hazarded or destroyed. But he feels no _moral responsibility_ for
another's guilt.
It is so with all the other employments in life. They do indeed often
bring men into collision with other men. But though sometimes vexed, and
irritated by the conduct of a neighbor, a client, or a patient, they
feel not half the bitterness of the solicitude and anxiety which come to
the teacher through the criminality of his pupil. In ordinary cases he
not only feels responsible for efforts, but for their results; and when,
notwithstanding all his efforts, his pupils will do wrong, his spirit
sinks, with an intensity of anxious despondency, which none but a
teacher can understand.
This feeling of almost _moral accountability for the guilt of other
persons_, is a continual burden. The teacher in the presence of the
pupil never is free from it. It links him to them by a bond, which,
perhaps, he ought not to sunder, and which he cannot sunder if he would.
And sometimes, when those committed to his charge are idle, or
faithless, or unprincipled, it wears away his spirits and his health
together. I think there is nothing analogous to this moral connexion
between teacher and pupil, unless it be in the case of a parent and
child. And here on account of the comparative smallness of the number
under the parent's care, the evil is so much diminished that it is
easily borne.
2. The second great difficulty of the teacher's employments, is _the
immense multiplicity of the objects of his attention and care_, during
the time he is employed in his business. His scholars are individuals,
and notwithstanding all that the most systematic can do, in the way of
classification, they must be attended to in a great measure, as
individuals. A merchant keeps his commodities together, and looks upon a
cargo composed of ten thousand articles, and worth 100,000 dollars as
one: he speaks of it as one: and there is, in many cases, no more
perplexity in planning its destination, than if it were a single box of
raisins. A lawyer may have a great many important cases, but he has only
one at a time; that is, he _attends_ to but one at a time. That one may
be intricate,--involving many facts and requiring to be examined in many
aspects and relations. But he looks at but few of these facts and
regards but few of these relations at a time. The points which demand
his attention come, one after another, in regular succession. His mind
may thus be kept calm. He avoids confusion and perplexity. But no skill
or classification will turn the poor teacher's hundred scholars into
one, or enable him, except to a very limited extent, and for a very
limited purpose, to regard them as one. He has a distinct, and, in many
respects, a different work to do for every one of the crowd before him.
Difficulties must be explained in detail; questions must be answered one
by one; and each scholar's own conduct and character must be considered
by itself. His work is thus made up of a thousand minute particulars,
which are all crowding upon his attention at once, and which he cannot
group together, or combine, or simplify. He must by some means or other
attend to them in all their distracting individuality. And in a large
and complicated school, the endless multiplicity and variety of objects
of attention and care, impose a task under which few intellects can long
stand.
I have said that this endless multiplicity and variety cannot be reduced
and simplified by classification. I mean, of course, that this can be
done only to a very limited extent, compared with what may be effected
in the other pursuits of mankind. Were it not for the art of
classification and system, no school could have more than ten scholars,
as I intend hereafter to show. The great reliance of the teacher is upon
this art, to reduce to some tolerable order, what would otherwise be the
inextricable confusion of his business. He _must be systematic_. He must
classify and arrange; but after he has done all that he can, he must
still expect that his daily business will continue to consist of a vast
multitude of minute particulars, from one to another of which the mind
must turn with a rapidity, which, few of the other employments of life
ever demand.
These are the essential sources of difficulty with which the teacher has
to contend; but, as I shall endeavor to show in succeeding chapters,
though they cannot be entirely removed, they can be so far mitigated by
the appropriate means, as to render the employment a happy one. I have
thought it best however, as this work will doubtless be read by many,
who, when they read it, are yet to begin their labors, to describe
frankly and fully to them the difficulties which beset the path they are
about to enter. "The wisdom of the prudent is, to understand his way. It
is often wisdom to understand it beforehand."