The child's first teacher is its mother. During the period of greatest susceptibility and most rapid development the little one's education is to a great degree in her hands. To her first is given opportunity to mold the character for good or for evil. She should understand the value of her opportunity, and, above every other teacher, should be qualified to use it to the best account. Yet the one whose influence in education is most potent and far-reaching is the one on whom the least systematic effort is focused.
Too often those to whom the care of the little child is committed are ignorant of its physical needs. They know little of the laws of health or the principles of development. Nor are they better fitted to care for its mental and spiritual growth. They may be qualified to conduct business or to shine in society, they may have made creditable attainments in literature and science, but of the training of a child they have little knowledge. Chiefly because of this lack, especially because of the early neglect of physical development, a large proportion of the human race die in infancy, and of those who reach maturity many find life but a burden.
On fathers as well as mothers rests a responsibility for the child's earlier as well as its later training. For both parents the demand for thorough preparation is most urgent. Men and women should become acquainted with the laws of physical development--with physiology and hygiene, with the bearing of prenatal influences, with the laws of heredity, sanitation, dress, exercise, and the treatment of disease. They should also understand the laws of mental development and moral training.
The Infinite One has counted this work of education so important that messengers from His throne have been sent to a mother-to-be to answer the question, "How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?" (Judges 13:12, KJV), and to instruct a father concerning the education of a promised son.
Training for Parenthood Needed
Never will education accomplish all that it might and should accomplish until the importance of the parents' work is fully recognized, and they receive a training for its sacred responsibilities.
The necessity of preparatory training for the teacher is universally admitted, but few recognize the character of the most essential preparation. Those who appreciate the responsibility involved in training children and youth will realize that instruction in scientific and literary lines alone cannot suffice. Teachers should have a more comprehensive education than can be gained by the study of books. They should possess not only strength but breadth of mind; they should be not only whole-souled but large-hearted.
Only He who created the mind and ordained its laws can perfectly understand its needs or direct its development. The principles of education that He has given are the only safe guide. A qualif ication essential for every teacher is a knowledge of these principles and such complete acceptance of them that they will be a controlling power in the life.
Experience in practical life is indispensable. Order, thoroughness, punctuality, self-control, evenness of disposition, self-sacrifice, integrity, and courtesy are essential qualifications.
Because there is so much cheapness of character, so much counterfeit today, it is more than ever necessary for the teachers' words, attitude, and deportment to represent the elevated and the true. Children are quick to detect affectation or any other weakness or defect. Teachers can gain the respect of their pupils in no other way than by revealing in their own characters the principles that they seek to teach. Only as they do this in their daily lives can they have a permanent influence for good on their students.
Health to Be Guarded
For almost every other qualification that contributes to success, teachers are in great degree dependent upon physical vigor. The better the health, the better will be the work accomplished.
So wearing are teachers' responsibilities that special effort on their part is required to preserve vigor and freshness. Often they become heartweary and brain-weary, with the almost irresistible tendency to depression, coldness, or irritability. It is their duty not merely to resist such moods but to avoid their cause. They need to keep the heart pure, sweet, trustful, and sympathetic. In order to be always firm, calm, and cheerful, they must preserve the strength of brain and nerve.
Since quality is more important than quantity, teachers should guard against overwork--against attempting too much in their own line of duty, against accepting other responsibilities that would unfit them for their work, and against engaging in amusements and social pleasures that are exhausting rather than recuperative.
Outdoor exercise, especially in useful labor, is one of the best means of recreation for body and mind, and the example of teachers will inspire students with interest in, and respect for, manual labor.
In every line, teachers should scrupulously observe the principles of health. They should do this not only because of its bearing upon their own usefulness, but also because of its influence on their pupils. They should be temperate in all things. In diet, dress, work, and recreation, they are to set an example.
Physical health and uprightness of character should be combined with high literary qualifications. The more of true knowledge teachers have, the better will be their work. The schoolroom is no place for surface work. No teacher who is satisfied with superficial knowledge will attain a high degree of efficiency.
But the usefulness of teachers depends not so much on the actual amount of their acquirements as on the standard at which they aim. True teachers are not content with dull thoughts, an indolent mind, or a loose memory. They constantly seek higher attainments and better methods. In the work of true teachers there is a freshness, a quickening power, that awakens and inspires their pupils.
Teachers must have aptness for their work. They must have the wisdom and tact required to deal with minds. Teachers are needed who are quick to discern and improve every opportunity for doing good, teachers who combine enthusiasm with true dignity. Teachers are needed who are able to control, "apt to teach," teachers who can inspire thought, arouse energy, and impart courage and life.
Children and young people differ widely in disposition, habits, and training. Some have no definite purpose or fixed principles. They need to be awakened to their responsibilities and possibilities. Few children have been trained properly at home. Some have been household pets. Their whole training has been superficial. Allowed to follow inclination and to shun responsibility, they lack stability, perseverance, and self-denial. Often they regard all discipline as unnecessary. Others have been censured and discouraged, arbitrary restraint and harshness having developed in them obstinacy and defiance. If these deformed characters are to be reshaped, the work must, in most cases, be done by teachers.
To accomplish this successfully, they must have the sympathy and insight that will enable them to trace to their cause the faults and errors of their students. They also must have the tact, patience, and firmness that will enable them to impart to each the needed help. The vacillating and ease loving will need such encouragement and assistance to stimulate exertion. The discouraged will need sympathy and appreciation to create confidence and thus inspire effort.
Teachers often fail of coming sufficiently into social relation with their students. They manifest too little sympathy and tenderness, and too much of the dignity of the stern judge. While teachers must be firm and decided, they should not be exacting or dictatorial. Being harsh and censorious, standing aloof from their pupils or treating them indifferently, will close avenues to influence them for good.
Under no circumstances should teachers manifest partiality. To favor the bright, attractive pupil, and be critical, impatient, or unsympathetic toward those who most need encouragement and help, is to reveal a total misconception of the teacher's work. It is in dealing with faulty, trying ones that character is tested and it is proved whether teachers are really qualified for their work.
Great is the responsibility of those who take upon themselves the guidance of a human soul. True fathers and mothers count theirs a trust from which they can never be wholly released. Boys and girls from their earliest to their latest days feel the power of that tie which binds them to the parents' heart. The acts, the words, the very looks of the parents, continue to mold children for good or for evil. Teachers share this responsibility. They need constantly to realize its sacredness and to keep in view the purpose of their work. They are not merely to accomplish the daily tasks, to please their employers, and maintain the standing of the school, they also must consider the highest good of their students as individuals, the duties that life will lay on them, the service it requires, and the preparation demanded. The work that teachers do day by day will exert an influence on their pupils, and through them on others, that will extend and strengthen until time shall end. They must meet the fruits of this work in that great day when every word and deed shall be brought in review before God.
Teachers who realize this will not feel that their work is completed when they have finished the daily routine of recitations and their pupils go home. They will carry these children and youth on their hearts. How to secure for them the noblest standard of attainment will be their constant study and effort.
Aim High
Teachers who discern the opportunities and privileges of their work will allow nothing to stand in the way of earnest endeavor for self-improvement. They will spare no pains to reach the highest standard of excellence. All that they desire their students to become, they will themselves strive to be.
The deeper the sense of responsibility and the more earnest the effort for self- improvement, the more clearly will teachers perceive and the more keenly regret the defects that hinder their usefulness. As they see and feel the magnitude of the work, its difficulties and possibilities, often they will cry out, "Who is sufficient for these things?"
Dear teachers, as you consider your need of strength and guidance, I urge you to consider the promises of Him who is the wonderful Counselor: "Call to Me, and I will answer you." "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go: I will guide you with My eye." Jeremiah 33:3; Psalm 32:8.
As the highest preparation for your work, I point you to the words, the life, the methods, of the Prince of teachers. Here is your true ideal. Behold it, dwell upon it, until the Spirit of the divine Teacher takes possession of your heart and life.
"Reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord," you will be "transformed into the same image." 2 Corinthians 3:18. Reflect Him. This is the secret of power over your students.