Principles of Teaching | Page 7

Cov. 76:5-10.)
This constitutes a promissory note signed by our heavenly Father Himself. A blessing beyond compare--a dividend unfailing--and our only investment--devoted service! Companionship with the Spirit of the Lord! That is what it means, if we serve Him in faith and humility.
"Be thou humble, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers." (Doc. & Cov., Sec. 112:10.)
Like all other gifts and attainments, the Spirit of the Lord has to be cultivated. Teaching insures a cultivation as few other things in life can. An enriched spirit, then, is the first great reward of the teacher.
A second satisfaction is the guarantee of one's own growth and development. Teachers invariably declare that they have learned more, especially in the first year of teaching, than in any year at college. A consciousness of the fact that it is hard to teach that which is not well known incites that type of study which makes for growth. A good class is a great "pace-setter." Intellectually it has the pull of achievement. The real teacher always is the greatest student in the class. The "drive" of having a regular task to perform, especially when that task is checked up as it is by students, leads many a person to a development unknown to him who is free to slide. "Blessed is he who has to do things." Responsibility is the great force that builds character. Compare the relative development of the person who spends Tuesday evening at home with the evening paper, or at some other pastime, and of the person who, having accepted fully the call to teach, leads a class of truth-seekers through an hour's discussion of some vital subject. Follow the development through the Tuesday evenings of a lifetime.
How easy to understand that there are varying degrees of glory hereafter.
A third value of teaching lies in the fact that the position of teacher exercises a restraining influence for good on the moral life of the teacher. He is sustained by a consciousness that his conduct is his only evidence to his pupils that his practice is consistent with his theory. His class follows him in emulation or in criticism in all that he does. "Come, follow me," lifts the real teacher over the pitfalls of temptation. He cannot do forbidden work on the Sabbath, he cannot indulge in the use of tobacco, he cannot stoop to folly--his class stands between him and all these things. A teacher recently gave expression to the value of this restraining force when she said, "I urge my girls so vigorously not to go to the movies on Sunday that I find my conscience in rebellion if anyone asks me to go."
Many a man in attempting to convert another to the righteousness of a particular issue has found himself to be his own best convert. He comes to appreciate the fact that the trail he establishes is the path followed by those whom he influences. He hears the voice of the child as recorded in the little poem:
I STEPPED IN YOUR STEPS ALL THE WAY
"A father and his tiny son Crossed a rough street one stormy day, 'See papa!' cried the little one, 'I stepped in your steps all the way!'
"Ah, random, childish hands, that deal Quick thrusts no coat of proof could stay! It touched him with the touch of steel-- 'I stepped in your steps all the way!'
"If this man shirks his manhood's due And heeds what lying voices say, It is not one who falls, but two, 'I stepped in your steps all the way!'
"But they who thrust off greed and fear, Who love and watch, who toil and pray, How their hearts carol when they say, 'I stepped in your steps all the way!'"
Still another joy that attends teaching is the satisfaction of seeing pupils develop. The sculptor finds real happiness in watching his clay take on the form and expression of his model; the artist glories as his colors grow into life; the parent finds supreme joy in seeing himself "re-grow" in his child; so the teacher delights to see his pupils build their lives on the truths he has taught. The joy is doubly sweet if it is heightened by an expression of appreciation on the part of the pupils. Few experiences can bring the thrill of real happiness that comes to the teacher when a former student, once perhaps a little inclined to mischief or carelessness, takes him by the hand with a "God bless you for helping me find my better self."
An officer of the British army, in recounting those experiences which had come to him in the recent world war, and which he said he never could forget, referred to one which more than compensated him for all the