begun the study of interest, and Dan knew nothing concerning the borrowing of money, the giving of notes, and pay for the use of the money. For this teacher was of the kind who teach just what they find in the text-book, nothing more and nothing less. Dan said to the teacher, "I don't understand this example, and don't know how to work it." The teacher looked her annoyance as she answered, "O Dan! can't you understand anything? Didn't I tell you that the principal times the rate times the time equals the interest?"—pause. Dan sulkily

Influence of the strong teacher

nods his head. The teacher's face shows relief. She concludes her explanation: "Well, that's all there is to it; the principal times the rate times the time equals the interest. Now you see!" Poor Dan! The blind was leading the blind and both were falling into the ditchDan, into the ditch of despondency and dislike for school; the teacher into the ditch of inefficiency and uselessness. The teacher who is able to enter fully into the lives of his pupils becomes a very potent influence in their development. Most of us can now look back to our own school-days and recall one or more teachers who stand out in our memory as a great source of inspiration and helpfulness. This ideal teacher was a sort of hero or heroine in our eyes, partly idealized in our imagination, it is true, and yet a very real and powerful factor in our growth. Perhaps the greatest secret of this teacher's power over us was his complete understanding of us. He knew where our benighted minds would be puzzled in our studies, he entered into our childish interests and enthusiasms, he remembered that we were dust, and therefore could not be paragons of perfection.

Happy is the teacher who thus understands the secret

springs of ambition in the heart of youth. Professor James tells us that there is a moment in the life of every normal boy which, if seized on when the time is ripe, can be utilized to make out of him poet, philosopher, artist, artisan, or whatever it is his to be. But if this moment is let go by, if the smoldering spark of ambition is not fanned into flame, the occasion is lost and ambition and aspiration may die. An eminent statesman and brilliant lawyer was recently asked what was the secret of his success. He answered: "A school-teacher who understood the hunger in the heart of a boy. One day he found me, a bitter and discontented youth with scanty education and no prospects, following a rude plow across a stony and exhausted field. He sat down beside me on the old wooden plow beam, and found his way into my life. He read me like a book, for he understood me. After he had gone I was astonished at the strange fire of ambition that was burning in my soul. That was all I needed; time and work have accomplished the rest. But I do not like to think what might have been the outcome of my life if that teacher had not understood me, and talked to me there by the plow."

FOR TEACHERS' DISCUSSION AND STUDY

1. Have you observed teachers whose knowledge of subject-matter seemed sufficient, but who failed because of not understanding how to teach it to others?

2. Do you think a teacher is morally justified in learning to teach through "experience" gained by experimenting on children, when opportunities are at hand for professional study, practise teaching and observation work in normal schools?

3. We are at present much concerned over securing

but one-half the crop our soil is capable of producing. Apply this same principle to our schools in the light of the estimate that double the progress could be made by the children if they were taught by correct methods. What are your conclusions?

4. We occasionally hear it said that any one who knows a subject well can teach it. Is this true? It is also rather commonly assumed that almost any one can teach young children. Why should young children have the choicest and best prepared teachers?

5. Outline what you think the necessary education, both academic and professional, for one about to take up teaching in the rural schools.

6. Does professional training pay financially? (Make a comparison of the salaries of teachers in your county who have had professional training and those who have not. Also, take into account the better opportunities for promotion.)

7. Have you known teachers to fail because of failure to understand children? Were such teachers usually lacking in sympathy for people in general? Can you recommend a remedy? (Study of psychology and cultivation of interest in others.)

8. Are children more or less sensitive than adults? Are they usually treated with as much consideration as to their real rights as are adults? Does treating a child with consideration mean weakness or lack of control?

CHAPTER X

TEACHER AND COMMUNITY

The teacher, like all other employees of the state, is in some sense a public personage. His duties and relations do not terminate with the school, but extend to every individual and home in the community. The teacher can not say, I am employed by the district only for the time from nine o'clock until four on five days each week; and it is no one's business what I do outside of this time. No public servant can take this position, much less can the teacher. Having employed a teacher, the rural community feels a species of general proprietorship in him and all his affairs. He is freely discussed, and openly blamed or praised. Nothing he does escapes notice and judgment. His conduct, his speech, or his clothing, is equally a subject for comment or criticism.

full service

Nor should the teacher blame the community or feel any resentment over what at first thought may seem an The teacher owes unwarranted assumption of the right to appropriate him completely, once the community has paid for a fraction of his time. For one in a public position such as teaching can not sell a certain portion of his time, or powers, or influence. It is true the teacher may not be compelled to work in the schoolroom seven days a week instead of five, or ten hours a day in place of six. But his interests, his thought

and plans, his sympathy and cooperation, his uprightness and good example are placed wholly under tribute to the community when the contract is entered into. There can be no reservations, no withholding of service or influence, no feeling that the teacher belongs to the community during the school hours but not outside of school hours. For however true this may be in a legal sense, from a higher point of view such an attitude is impossible for the true teacher; it contradicts the very idea of wholehearted service, and shows the teacher lacking in the spirit necessary to the highest success.

Knowledge of community essen

tial

But even the willingness to give himself wholly to his work does not insure the teacher's success. Many teachers fail, not because they withhold their effort, but because they do not know their communities, and hence do not understand their needs, standards and attitudes. They look on the school as a thing in itself, apart from the community, and finally discover that the school is but one part of the larger community life, and can be understood and successfully carried on only in connection with this larger whole.

One such teacher had recently completed a very successful term in a community which she knew well. She took a new school in a distant part of the same county in a community wholly unknown to her. On the Saturday preceding the opening of the new term she arrived in the neighborhood, not knowing where she was to board. Some one suggested the home of Samuel Dwight. She became a member of the Dwight family, attending church with them on the following day, and being introduced to many of the neighbors as the "new teacher." On Monday the new teacher noticed that she