The Teacher | Page 9

be obtained, and then are
disappointed and vexed at the failure. It is as if a carpenter should
attempt to support an entablature by pillars of wood too small and weak
for the weight, and then go on, from week to week, suffering anxiety
and irritation as he sees them swelling and splitting under the burden,
and finding fault with the wood instead of taking it to himself; or as if a
plowman were to attempt to work a hard and stony piece of ground
with a poor team and a small plow, and then, when overcome by the
difficulties of the task, should vent his vexation and anger in laying the
blame on the ground instead of on the inadequate and insufficient

instrumentality which he had provided for subduing it.
[Illustration]
It is, of course, one essential part of a man's duty, in engaging in any
undertaking, whether it will lead him to act upon matter or upon mind,
to become first well acquainted with the circumstances of the case, the
materials he is to act upon, and the means which he may reasonably
expect to have at his command. If he underrates his difficulties, or
overrates the power of his means of overcoming them, it is his
mistake--a mistake for which he is fully responsible. Whatever may be
the nature of the effect which he aims at accomplishing, he ought fully
to understand it, and to appreciate justly the difficulties which lie in the
way.
Teachers, however, very often overlook this. A man comes home from
his school at night perplexed and irritated by the petty misconduct
which he has witnessed, and been trying to check. He does not,
however, look forward and endeavor to prevent the occasions of such
misconduct, adapting his measures to the nature of the material upon
which he has to operate, but he stands, like the carpenter at his columns,
making himself miserable in looking at it after it occurs, and wondering
what to do.
"Sir," we might say to him, "what is the matter?"
"Why, I have such boys I can do nothing with them. Were it not for
their misconduct, I might have a very good school."
"Were it not for their misconduct? Why, is there any peculiar depravity
in them which you could not have foreseen?"
"No; I suppose they are pretty much like all other boys," he replies,
despairingly; "they are all hair-brained and unmanageable. The plans I
have formed for my school would be excellent if my boys would only
behave properly."
"Excellent plans," might we not reply, "and yet not adapted to the

materials upon which they are to operate! No. It is your business to
know what sort of beings boys are, and to make your calculations
accordingly."
Two teachers may therefore manage their schools in totally different
ways, so that one of them may necessarily find the business a dull,
mechanical routine, except as it is occasionally varied by perplexity and
irritation, and the other a prosperous and happy employment. The one
goes on mechanically the same, and depends for his power on violence,
or on threats and demonstrations of violence. The other brings all his
ingenuity and enterprise into the field to accomplish a steady purpose
by means ever varying, and depends for his power on his knowledge of
human nature, and on the adroit adaptation of plans to her fixed and
uniform tendencies.
I am very sorry, however, to be obliged to say that probably the latter
class of teachers are decidedly in the minority. To practice the art in
such a way as to make it an agreeable employment is difficult, and it
requires much knowledge of human nature, much attention and skill.
And, after all, there are some circumstances necessarily attending the
work which constitute a heavy drawback on the pleasures which it
might otherwise afford. The almost universal impression that the
business of teaching is attended with peculiar trials and difficulties
proves this.
There must be some cause for an impression so general. It is not right
to call it a prejudice, for, although a single individual may conceive a
prejudice, whole communities very seldom do, unless in some case
which is presented at once to the whole, so that, looking at it through a
common medium, all judge wrong together. But the general opinion in
regard to teaching is composed of a vast number of separate and
independent judgments, and there must be some good ground for the
universal result.
It is best, therefore, if there are any real and peculiar sources of trial
and difficulty in this pursuit, that they should be distinctly known and
acknowledged at the outset. Count the cost before going to war. It is
even better policy to overrate than to underrate it. Let us see,