Reveries of a Schoolmaster

Reveries of a Schoolmaster

Project Gutenberg's Reveries of a Schoolmaster, by Francis B. Pearson
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Reveries of a Schoolmaster
Author: Francis B. Pearson
Release Date: July 29, 2004 [EBook #13049]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVERIES
OF A SCHOOLMASTER ***

Produced by Al Haines

REVERIES OF A SCHOOLMASTER
BY
FRANCIS B. PEARSON
STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR

OHIO
AUTHOR OF "THE EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER," "THE
HIGH-SCHOOL PROBLEM," "THE VITALIZED SCHOOL."

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
IN MEDIAS RES II. RETROSPECT III. BROWN IV.
PSYCHOLOGICAL V. BALKING VI. LANTERNS VII. COMPLETE
LIVING VIII. MY SPEECH IX. SCHOOL-TEACHING X.
BEEFSTEAK XI. FREEDOM XII. THINGS XIII. TARGETS XIV.
SINNERS XV. HOEING POTATOES XVI. CHANGING THE MIND
XVII. THE POINT OF VIEW XVIII. PICNICS XIX.
MAKE-BELIEVE XX. BEHAVIOR XXI. FOREFINGERS XXII.
STORY-TELLING XXIII. GRANDMOTHER XXIV. MY WORLD
XXV. THIS OR THAT XXVI. RABBIT PEDAGOGY XXVII.
PERSPECTIVE XXVIII. PURELY PEDAGOGICAL XXIX.
LONGEVITY XXX. FOUR-LEAF CLOVER XXXI.
MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING

REVERIES OF A SCHOOLMASTER
CHAPTER I
IN MEDIAS RES
I am rather glad now that I took a little dip (one could scarce call it a
baptism) into the Latin, and especially into Horace, for that good soul
gave me the expression in medias res. That is a forceful expression,
right to the heart of things, and applies equally well to the writing of a
composition or the eating of a watermelon. Those who have crossed the
Channel, from Folkstone to Boulogne, know that the stanch little ship
Invicta had scarcely left dock when they were in medias res. They were
conscious of it, too, if indeed they were conscious of anything not
strictly personal to themselves. This expression admits us at once to the
light and warmth (if such there be) of the inner temple nor keeps us
shivering out in the vestibule.
Writers of biography are wont to keep us waiting too long for
happenings that are really worth our while. They tell us that some one
was born at such a time, as if that were really important. Why, anybody
can be born, but it requires some years to determine whether his being
born was a matter of importance either to himself or to others. When I
write my biographical sketch of William Shakespeare I shall say that in
a certain year he wrote "Hamlet," which fact clearly justified his being
born so many years earlier.
The good old lady said of her pastor: "He enters the pulpit, takes his
text, and then the dear man just goes everywhere preaching the
Gospel." That man had a special aptitude for the in medias res method
of procedure. Many children in school who are not versed in Latin
would be glad to have their teachers endowed with this aptitude. They
are impatient of preliminaries, both in the school and at the dinner-table.
And it is pretty difficult to discover just where childhood leaves off in
this respect.
So I am grateful to Horace for the expression. Having started right in
the midst of things, one can never get off the subject, and that is a great

comfort. Sometimes college graduates confess (or perhaps boast) that
they have forgotten their Latin. I fear to follow their example lest my
neighbor, who often drops in for a friendly chat, might get to
wondering whether I have not also forgotten much of the English I am
supposed to have acquired in college. He might regard my English as
quite as feeble when compared with Shakespeare or Milton as my Latin
when compared with Cicero or Virgil. So I take counsel with prudence
and keep silent on the subject of Latin.
When I am taking a stroll in the woods, as I delight to do in the
autumn-time, laundering my soul with the gorgeous colors, the music
of the rustling leaves, the majestic silences, and the sounds that are less
and more than sounds, I often wonder, when I take one bypath, what
experiences I might have had if I had taken the other. I'll never know,
of course, but I keep on wondering. So it is with this Latin. I wonder
how much worse matters could or would have been if I had never
studied it at all. As the old man said to the young fellow who consulted
him as to getting married: "You'll be sorry if you do, and sorry if you
don't." I used to feel a sort of