be unimportant. Every one knows he may fail of this,
either by inaction, or by ill directed effort. ' He finds
himself led astray by his passions, and he looks in vain
for a safe guide, to the example of others. It is then the
dictate of wisdom, to inquire by what means these way-
ward propensities may be subdued, and the feet be guid-
ed in the paths of peace, Happy are they who are led
to make this iniquiry in their early years. Happier are
they, whom the hand of instruction, before they are able
to make the inquiry for themselves, has been guiding in
the path of knowledge and virtue.'* This is the appro-
priate work of the parent and the primary school teach-
er, But alas, how many parents wholly neglect it !
Hence a greater responsibility devolves on the teacher.
* Moral philosophy,' says Dr. Paley, ' is that science
which teaches men their duty, and the reasons of it.'
This then is the knowledge ' which the young most need,
and which the friendly instructer should sedulously im-
part.' It is this which * tends to recall us from low pur-
suits to fix our affections on better objects to form us
to such a character, and direct us to such a course of
conduct, as will secure the divine approbation, and be
most promotive of our own happiness, and that of the
community of which we are members. It teaches a
knowledge of ourselves, of human nature in general, of
our Creator, and of the relations we sustain to him, and
to our fellow creatures.' Can any one, then be proper-
ly qualified to train the infant mind, who has not some
acquaintance with this science I

The instructer ought to gain all the knowledge he can
of the nature of his business, in order to be qualified to

* Parkhurst.



42 LECTURES TO

commence his important labors. On this subject I
shall, however, remark in another place. I have only
to add, in conclusion of this lecture, that I have not pla-
ced the qualifications necessary for the school-master,
any higher than is requisite, in order to make it safe to
trust him with the care of young immortals, who are
forming characters for this world and the next.



LECTURE IV.



To the subjects mentioned in the preceding Lecture,
you have given attention, and have been, I trust, led to
make the inquiry whether you possess the requisite qual-
ifications for the important business to which you have
turned your attention. I shall now proceed to give you
some general directions, which I consider important both
to your success and usefulness. You will expect me
to use great plainness, for the subject requires it.

The first direction which I wish to give is Endeavor
to become acquainted with the nature of your employment.

This is important in order to secure your personal en-
joyment. We cannot be happy, when we do not know
what to do, or how to act. To engage in a business of
which you have no adequate idea, must, therefore, sub-
ject you to much unhappiness.

The situation of an instructer is very responsible. It
is exceedingly important that you should be acquainted
with the nature and amount of this responsibility, and of
the duties which will devolve on you when placed at the
head of a school. Without some knowledge of the du-
ties you have to perform, the perplexities and difficulties
that may arise, and the constant care that must press
upon you, you cannot but experience much inquietude
and uneasiness. The very different tempers of those
you have to teach and govern, and the wide difference of



SCHOOL-MASTERS. 43

treatment they have received from their parents at home,
will give you much trouble, if you awake to the reality
of your situation, only when a mountain of care presses
upon you.

Form not expectations that cannot be realized, for dis-
appointment will not only make you unhappy at the time,
but will unfit you for the duties of the moment. The
nature of your business should, as much as possible, be
learned beforehand. This is dictated by reason, and ex-
perience certainly confirms it. No one engages in any
department of manual labor, till he has gained some
knowledge of its details. No one commences a journey,
till he has learned the direction he is to go, and the prob-
able character of the road, and of the people he is to
find upon the way. No one proposes emigration to a
distant part of the country, till he has made diligent in-
quiry as to the conveniences and privileges, as well as
the privations and hardships, which will attend a remov-
al. * Who goes a warfare, till he has counted the cost,
or builds a temple, till he has considered whether he be
able to finish it ?' The reason is obvious. When we
expect hardship, we are prepared to endure it with pa-
tience ; when we look for trial, we can meet it with com-
parative composure. If I foresee that the journey, I am
to take, will be attended with great fatigue, I can bear it
without complaint. If I expect the road I am to travel
is one of exceeding roughness, I can endure its asperities
without a murmur.

But if, on the other hand, I reckon upon ten miles and
it proves fifteen ; if I expect a good road, and it proves
a bad one ; it will appear both longer and worse than it
really is ; and what I might have borne with composure,
I cannot endure without disquietude and pain. If I ex-
pect to arrive at home in an hour, and it takes two, the
last hour will seem longer than two, ordinarily, for I am
disappointed, and disappointment makes me unhappy.
It gives every thing around me an unpleasant aspect.

In the same way, disappointment in regard to the na-
ture of your business as schoolmasters, will have an im-
portant effect on your enjoyment. For, if you form on-
ly ideal notions if you expect, in spite of evidence to



44 LECTURES TO

the contrary, that every thing will be l perfectly pleas-
ant' if you suppose the labor to he performed is easy,
and without any thing to render it difficult and disagree-
able, you will be entirely unprepared to bear the trial*
invariably attendant upon it. When these trials come,
you will experience disappointment, which will make you
unhappy at the time, and of course unfit you for the du-
ties of the hour. In a discontented state, you are not
prepared to proceed with that, which, at another time,
would be perfectly easy. Nor, in this state, are you pre-
pared to enjoy what is pleasant and agreeable. It is
generally true, that we bear unexpected difficulties witli
far less composure, than those we had expected, and of
course made up our minds to bear them.

I do not assert, that you can learn every thing perfect-
ly in regard to the nature of your employment, without
experience. It is not possible in this or other callings.
The physician, attorney, and minister, do not expect it.
But they still use all the means within their reach, to be-
come acquainted with the nature of their several profes-
sions, as far as may be, before entering upon them. This
is as necessary for the teacher as for them.

Do you inquire, how this can be done 1 I answer,
first, read on this subject whatever has been written, to
which you can gain access. Several periodical publica-
tions have devoted more or less attention to it. The
Annals of Education has thrown much light upon it.
This should be found in the hands of every schoolmaster*
Though there is, it must be acknowledged, a great de-
ficiency in works on this subject, this cannot excuse you
from reading to the extent of your ability.

Again, you may learn something of your business^ by
observing the peculiar nature of children. They are
men in miniature. Like men they have their preposses-*
sions and aversions. Some, that will come under your
care, have been governed at home ; others have^ not*
Some are quick of apprehension, others, dull. Some
will love learning, and desire to make all the improve-
ment of which they are capable ; others will have no
taste for loam ing, and no desire to be improved. Some
will be easily governed ; others will require all your wis-



SCHOOL-MASTERS. 45

dorn, firmness and prudence, in order to restrain them
from what is wrong, and lead them in a right course.
Some have formed habits of application ; and others,
have been brought up in idleness. Some will be too
bashful ; others, too bold. Some will be benevolent and
affectionate ; others, selfish and unsocial. Some will be
found very nearly what you desire them to be ; others,
the opposite in every thing. Such are the diversities that
will be found in every school.

You may be equally benefitted, perhaps, in learning
the nature of your business, by reflecting on the great
variety in the character of parents.

Some will wish you to govern the school, others will
wish to govern you. One parent wishes you to be very
strict, another to be very lenient. Some will wish you
to whip your scholars, others dread nothing so much as
that their favorite children should feel ' the rod of cor-
rection.' Some will wish you to pursue a certain favor-
ite mode of teaching, others will be strong advocates for
a system entirely different. Some will wish you to close
early, others will fear that you will not keep your hours.
One man will admonish you to show no partiality, and
another will solicit very particular attention to his child-
ren. Mr. A. is willing to trust the school entirely to your
management, while Mr. B. is very jealous, lest you as-
sume more than your delegated power. Some will be
very anxious to have the school successful, others will be
entirely indifferent to the subject. Some will cheerfully
furnish all the necessary books, while others will think
it enough to send their children without any, or with
such as are entirely unfit for use. Some will be ready
to listen to every complaint of their children,. and others
will teach them to l tell no tales out of school.' The
wealthy may perhaps think their children entitled to
more attention than those of the poor, and the latter may
be ready to imagine such a distinction, even if none
really exist. In this enumeration I have not mentioned
a single difficulty which I have not had personal oppor-
tunity to observe, and in regard to many of them I have
noticed the same thing in many different places. This
diversity among children and among parents, renders it



46 LECTURES TO

very necessary for you to reflect much on the manner of
securing that influence with both, which will enable you
to benefit your scholars in the greatest degree. You must
be prepared to govern your scholars at school, and may
often find it necessary to exert nearly as much influence
with parent* as with them.

You may also learn something of the nature of your
business, by frequent conversation with teachers. They
will be able to impart to you the results of their own ex-
perience. Be not disheartened if they tell you of ' strong
prejudice against every innovation which you may find
it necessary to make ; that, with some, reason is but a
name, and that every attempt to influence them by it, will
be as unsuccessful as that of Canute to rule the sea.
There is,' they will tell you, ' an almost universal dispo-
sition to believe, that books for study, methods of learn-
ing and teaching, common when we were young, must
be as good, at least, as any of the newest in use ; that
the spirit of inquiry, awakened within a few years past,
is entirely unknown to the great mass of the people ;
that most men read but little, and have had no opportu-
nity to investigate the character of proposed improve-
ments, or to witness the results of successful experiments.'
Listen not to such language of your brethren so far as to
be discouraged, but only for the purpose of knowing the
difficulties in your way, in order that you may be prepar-
ed to meet them.

After having gained all the knowledge within your
reach, on the subject already mentioned, it is of equal
importance for you to understand the nature of your
business, as it -regards the mode of teaching. Without
this you can hardly hope for success.

Many have appeared to imbibe the sentiment, that the
whole business consists in keeping order in the school-
room, and going through a daily round of exercises in
reading, spelling and writing, the teacher, meanwhile,
furnishing copies, making pens, and performing certain
operations in arithmetic, which the students may not be
able to perform themselves. But all this lias little better
claim to the name of teaching, than the chatter of the
has to be dignified with the title of language.



SCHOOL-MASTERS. 47

Such a course may be entirely destitute of intellectual
exercise ; and is like the operation of a machine.*

Let it be well fixed in your minds, that to teach is to
communicate ideas. To teach them it is indispensable
that you should be understood. The words of an experi-
enced teacherf are in point, ' Use language that your
scholars can understand. Let your illustrations be drawn
from topics within their knowledge. It is entirely out of
place in a common elementary school, to use the lan-
guage of a professor in the University, or to affect the use
of terms understood only by the more advanced student.
If you teach children, use the language of children. Let
it be pure and grammatical ; but you convey no instruc-
tion, if it be above their comprehension. When you com-
pare a thing unknown, with another thing equally un-
known, how can the child be the wiser for it ! In talking
with your scholars, use their own phraseology, and con-
descend to their capacities.' As I shall have occasion,
in another lecture, to enlarge on this subject, I shall only
add here, that you may leani something of the true sys-
tem, of teaching by recollecting the manner, in which
you have yourselves obtained ideas. The teacher should
put himself in the place of the child, and then inquire
what course, it would be necessary for him to take, to
gain a knowledge of any subject with which he was not
familiar.

No means within your reach, for learning the nature
of your business, should be left unemployed. If all which
are desirable be not accessible, those which are so should
be used with the greater fidelity.

A second direction is Consider the responsibility of the
station you are to occupy.

If in deciding to devote yourselves to the employment

*A writer in the Journal of Education, No. 19, has made some remarks
on this mode of teaching, which are worthy of particular attention. Speak-
ing of a school conducted in this manner, he says : ' There is something so
mechanical in the exercises of a school, that I can never contemplate it
without disgust. Even the very books with which our children are furnished,
instead of being used as a treasury of materials for mental exercise, are re-
garded as so many little machines, by which all the requisite operations of
the school are performed. And in the use of them on the present plan,
there is very little, if any more intellectual exercise than among the child-
ren in a cotton manufactory.

t Mr. Rand, Christian Mirror.



48 LECTURES TO

of teaching you have been excited by the hope that it
will be less arduous, than other employments in which
you have engaed, you have altogether mistaken the na-
ture of its duties and cares. The very first day of your
trial will dissipate the delusion. The sight of a company
of blooming children and youth, 'awed by your presence,
waiting for your directions, and turning their inquiring
eyes on you, to guide them in acquiring knowledge and
forming habits,' will tell you at once, in language more
forcible than any I can use, that on you devolves an ar-
duous task to you, parents are confiding an important
trust to you, your country is assigning a solemn charge.
The responsiblity of your situation may be realized in
some measure, by considering that these children have
minds naturally dark, which are to be enlightened. They
are ignorant of that which they most need to know, and
must be instructed. They are tender twigs, ready to re-
ceive any direction that may be given them. They are
miniature men, who are destined to occupy the places of
those who are now active on the stage of life. Yes, in
the little community with which you are surrounded, there
may be a Franklin, or a Washington ; or, on the other
hand, a Robespierre or a Bonaparte, according to the
cast of character which they take from your efforts.
In a country like ours, where character is the passport to
the most important stations in society, and where offices
are open to every one who shows himself worthy of the
confidence of the people, the responsibility of the teach-
er is even higher, than in those countries where estate?
and offices are hereditary. He who is selected to edu
cate a prince, even in the first rudiments of science, con-
siders his station as highly responsible. But in a country
like our own, every instructor should consider his re-
sponsibility equally great, or greater. Yes, you at the
same moment, may be educating a president, a governor, a
general, a judge, a minister, physician, lawyer, senator,
and counsellor. Who can tell what results may be produc-
ed by the influence you may exert on either of these 1
But, suppose no one of your scholars is to fill such im-
portant stations, yet the station of every one, who becomes
a voter and sustains simply the character of citizen, isim-



SCHOOL-MASTERS. 49

portant. Such you certainly will have. Over these your
influence must be great.

Hence, you may learn your responsibility by consider-
ing the influence which you may exert, over your youthful
charge.

If you succeed in gaining their love, your influence
will be greater in some respects, than that of parents
themselves. It will be in your power, to direct them in
almost any path you choose. You may lead them to
form habits of application and industry, or by neglect,
permit them to form those of idleness and indiffer-
ence. You may win them either to a love of learning
and a respect for virtue, or by your negligence and un-
faithfulness, may suffer them to become regardless
of both. You have power to lead them to a cultivation
of the social affections, to make them kind, benevolent
and humane, or, by your neglect, they may become the
reverse of every thing that is lovely, amiable and gener-
ous. It will be in your power, greatly to assist them in
learning to make nice distinctions in the examination of
moral condnct ; and to govern their own actions accord-
ingly ; or you may, by your unfaithfulness, suffer them
to contract the habit of pursuing, regardless of conse-
quences, every thing they desire, and opposing with tem-
per, every thing that counteracts their wishes. You may
teach them the duty of yielding submission to proper au-
thority, and to equitable law, or by suffering them to
disregard authority and trample on laws with impunity,
teach them to oppose all restraint, and consider all law
as unnecessary and oppressive. You may do something
towards leading them to cultivate that public spirit,
which is so essential to the well being of a free country,
or you may train them in those habits of selfishness,
which will unfit them to be citizens of a republic.

If the consequences of your influence over them were
to cease in this world, your responsibility would be less,
far less, than it actually is. But, no. Revelation as-
sures us, that our future condition will be decided by
the character formed here, -that man will be re-
warded in the world to come, according to the deeds
done in this. The formation of character is not then a
5



50 LECTURES TO

matter important in relation to this life only. The chil-
dren with whom you are to be associated, are all the
children of one great Creator. They are a part of His
extensive kingdom. They are the subjects of His gov-
ernment, and are under the highest obligation to obey
His wise and holy laws. He has given them such laws,
and made such requirements of them, as are necessary
for their happiness. He has enjoined upon them to
* Remember their Creator in the days of their youth,'
'to love their neighbors as themselves,' and to honor
their parents. He has prohibited profaneness and false-
hood. He has enjoined the duty of gratitude to the
Saviour, and of repentance for sin. Each individual
committed to your care is liable, every day, to be sum-
moned away from this world, to render up an account of
the ' deeds done in the body.' Nor is it improbable, that
the influence you will exert over them by your example
and instructions, may deeply affect them in regard to
these solemn considerations. As their happiness, pre-
sent and eternal, depends on the temper they exhibit in
regard to the character and laws of God, your responsi-
bility is indiscribably great. If you are so happy as to
lead them to love Him who has said, < suffer little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not,' how great the
benefit you may confer upon them. But if by your ex-
ample and instruction you should lead them away from
the paths of wisdom, how great is the injury ! They
will be more likely to listen to counsel and advice, from
a beloved teacher, than from almost any other person.
They will generally be more disposed to regard what you
say to them on the subject of their moral obligation, than
what is said to them by their parents or their minister.
This talent which you are permitted to occupy, is one for
the improvement of which, you are accountable to God.
And how much does it increase the interest of your call-
ing ! Hence I should be guilty of unfaithfulness, if I
should neglect to direct your attention to your own moral
obligation. You, as well as the youth committed to your
charge, have an account to render to Him who gave
you existence. If you are put in possession of an
influence, which, if properly exerted, may greatly aug-



SCHOOL-MASTERS. 51

ment individual happiness, as well as that of the nation,
or, on the other hand, if not properly exerted, may, in
the same ratio, increase the amount of human misery ;
fail not to ponder well the subject, which is to throw up-
on you, so important a responsibility. And fail not to
ask wisdom of Him, ' who gives liberally and upbraids
not.' He only is able to guide you right and keep you
from error.



LECTURE V.



The next direction which I shall give, is Endeavor to
ascertain by what means you are to gain that ascendency
over your pupils^ which is necessary, in order to confer on
them the highest degree of benefit.

You well know that there is a great diversity in the
influence exerted by different individuals in the same cir-
cumstances. If you investigate the subject, you will find
various degrees of influence exerted by ministers of the
gospel. While the congregation of one are ready to
pluck out their eyes and give him, that of another are
hardly willing to render him that which is his due. Both
however, sustain the character of God's ambassadors.
If you observe the influence of two military commanders,
to the orders of the one, you will see the utmost atten-
tion paid, while to those of the other, very little obedience
is shown. The same will be observed in two schools.
To all that is said by one instructer, the highest defer-
ence is paid, while in another school we witness the re-
verse. Now it is certain that there must be some reason
for this difference. Ineach of these instances, and many
more to which I might allude, the same individuals sus-
tain the same office or trust. It does not therefore con-
sist in the office itself.

If you look back to the characters of the different in-



52 LECTURES T6

stmcters, under whom you were placed, you will proba-
bly find that to some of them, you listened with great
deference, that you were anxious to please them, and de-
sirous of gaining their good opinion, while to the esteem
of others, you were indifferent, and regardless whether
you gained their good will or not. To meet with some
of them now, affords you pleasure, while to meet with
others is a source of no satisfaction. And what is
the reason ? You will answer, that these men had
very different characters ; that they showed very differ-
ent degrees of interest in their business ; that they pos-
sessed very different qualifications and evinced une-
qual solicitude for your welfare. . Let me ask, far-
ther, wlu'ch were those traits, that pleased you, and
pleased the school generally ? Was the master pleasant
and obliging, or was he morose and ill-humored 1 and with
which was the school better pleased ? Was he affable
and condescending, or was he mute and regardless of
everything but his own ease ? and on which account did
you like him ? Was he punctual to his time, to his prom-