NORMAL.
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NORMAL.
—Things to be remembered by the teacher:
1. Remember that the child before you is neither a lump of clay, to be "moulded" into an image of your own personal self, nor a little demon, to be scourged or coaxed out of its diabolism by your skill as a saviour of souls. It is an immortal child of the infinite God, capable of indefinite development along the line of its own native capacity; doubtless stocked with natural depravity enough for all practical purposes, but open to all the blessed influences of wisdom, beauty and love.
2. Remember that each pupil in your school-room is unlike any other creature that ever was, is, or probably will be; made to fit some niche in the temple of humanity, and that your business is to find out that aptitude, and give the little one an initial push along the true path to his highest success.
3. Remember that the kind of man or woman needed by our country is a child developed into the best he or she can become, along the line of providential intention in its creation; and that such a citizen is a thousand times more desirable than the finest copy of a famous demagogue, or a machine fashioned to do any special work, however important.
4. Remember that character is the basis of all manhood and all scholarship, of success in every realm of American life. Your school must be, more than half, a school of character; and first and foremost, must be the object in yourself. You must be Bible, discipline, precept, example, illustration not to the neglect of all those aids, but the center of your whole system of moral training of the child; and all this training must bear on making the child a self-directing character, able to become a true man or woman, and a sovereign citizen of the United States.
5. Remember that mental training means first, the awakening of a desire for truth; second, the direction of the faculties to the observation and study of nature; third, the training of the soul to know what is in man, and to learn by intercourse with people; fourth, the instruction into the way to use books in connection with independent examination of the world without and within; and fifth, the discipline into that true humility of the intellect which comes from a reasonable confidence in what is really known, a mighty hunger and thirst after wisdom, and a reverent attitude before the infinite mystery that encircles us all.
6. Remember that good manners and refined habits of thought and feeling, are the atmosphere of life; and all things said or done in your school room, or in the school yard, will affect your children according to the true gentleness and courtesy in which they are seen.
These and many other things the true teacher must constantly keep in view, and work toward, if he wishes to do justice to himself, to his pupils, and also to do one thing more of which we have not yet spoken—place the profession where it belongs first among the foremost.
The Second of the semi-monthly lectures before the N. L. S., was delivered Friday, Oct. 26, by Prof. Robinson. The Professor handled Cicero and Caesar in their various phases to the entire satisfaction of all present. The third of this series will be delivered by Prof. Miller next Friday.