The Teacher

The Teacher

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Title: The Teacher
Author: Jacob Abbott
Release Date: May 7, 2004 [EBook #12291]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
TEACHER ***

Produced by Curtis Weyant, Sjaani

THE TEACHER.
* * * * *
MORAL INFLUENCES
EMPLOYED IN

THE INSTRUCTION AND GOVERNMENT
OF
THE YOUNG.
A NEW AND REVISED EDITION.
BY JACOB ABBOTT.
With Engravings.
1873.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of
New York.

PREFACE.
This book is intended to detail, in a familiar and practical manner, a
system of arrangements for the organization and management of a
school, based on the employment, so far as is practicable, of _Moral
Influences_, as a means of effecting the objects in view. Its design is,
not to bring forward new theories or new plans, but to develop and
explain, and to carry out to their practical applications such principles
as, among all skillful and experienced teachers, are generally admitted
and acted upon. Of course it is not designed for the skillful and
experienced themselves, but it is intended to embody what they already
know, and to present it in a practical form for the use of those who are
beginning the work, and who wish to avail themselves of the
experience which others have acquired.

Although moral influences are the chief foundations on which the
power of the teacher over the minds and hearts of his pupils is,
according to this treatise, to rest, still it must not be imagined that the
system here recommended is one of persuasion. It is a system of
authority--supreme and unlimited authority--a point essential in all
plans for the supervision of the young; but it is authority secured and
maintained as far as possible by moral measures. There will be no
dispute about the propriety of making the most of this class of means.
Whatever difference of opinion there may be on the question whether
physical force is necessary at all, every one will agree that, if ever
employed, it must be only as a last resort, and that no teacher ought to
make war upon the body, unless it is proved that he can not conquer
through the medium of the mind.
In regard to the anecdotes and narratives which are very freely
introduced to illustrate principles in this work, the writer ought to state
that, though they are all substantially true--that is, all except those
which are expressly introduced as mere suppositions, he has not
hesitated to alter very freely, for obvious reasons, the unimportant
circumstances connected with them. He has endeavored thus to destroy
the personality of the narratives without injuring or altering their moral
effect.
From the very nature of our employment, and of the circumstances
under which the preparation for it must be made, it is plain that, of the
many thousands who are in the United States annually entering the
work, a very large majority must depend for all their knowledge of the
art, except what they acquire from their own observation and
experience, on what they can obtain from books. It is desirable that the
class of works from which such knowledge can be obtained should be
increased. Some excellent and highly useful specimens have already
appeared, and very many more would be eagerly read by teachers, if
properly prepared. It is essential, however, that they should be written
by experienced teachers, who have for some years been actively
engaged and specially interested in the work; that they should be
written in a very practical and familiar style, and that they should
exhibit principles which are unquestionably true, and generally

admitted by good teachers, and not the new theories peculiar to the
writer himself. In a word, utility and practical effect should be the only
aim.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTEREST IN TEACHING. Source of enjoyment in teaching.--The
boy and the steam-engine.--His contrivance.--His pleasure, and the
source of it.--Firing at the mark.--Plan of clearing the galleries in the
British House of Commons.--Pleasure of experimenting, and exercising
intellectual and moral power.--The indifferent and inactive
teacher.--His subsequent experiments; means of awakening
interest.--Offenses of pupils. --Different ways of regarding them.
Teaching really attended with peculiar trials and difficulties.--1. Moral
responsibility for the conduct of pupils.--2. Multiplicity of the objects
of attention.
CHAPTER II.
GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS. Objects to be aimed at in the