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 Making of a teacher : a contribution to 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029337767 
 
THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
THE MAKING 
 of a TEACHER 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO SOME PHASES OF 
 THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 BY 
 
 Martin G. Brumbaugh,- Ph.D., LL.D, 
 
 Professor of Pedagogy in the 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 (SECOND EDITION) 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES COMPANY 
 1905 
 
 T3 
 
A. 
 
 Copyright, 1905, by The Sunday School Times Company. 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, 1905. 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Parliament of Canada, 
 
 in the year 1905, by The Sunday School Times 
 
 Company at the Department 
 
 of Agriculture. 
 
 Nachdruck verboten, Uebersetzungs Recht vorbehalten. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The opening chapter of Genesis is a record of 
 transcendent things. It reveals God at work. He 
 is recorded as creating the physical universe and 
 all the life that subsists upon it. Among the in- 
 teresting phrases descriptive of his activity, none 
 is of greater moment than the phrase — " Let us 
 make man." So far as we know, this proposition 
 involved the production, out of crude material, 
 of a wholly new creature. Man is a new creation, 
 not a new combination. In a vastly more re- 
 stricted sense, but in harmony with the same cen- 
 tral idea, it has seemed to me wise to name this 
 volume — " The Making of a Teacher,'' instead 
 of " The Training of a Teacher." The training 
 of a teacher assumes that we have the teacher 
 at the beginning of the process and that our work 
 is to modify something already provided. This 
 does not describe accurately the process by which 
 we are to secure teachers. A teacher is some- 
 thing different from a man. To make a teacher 
 involves a new creation out of the raw materials 
 which constitute humanity at large. We must 
 create a new product. This new product is the 
 teacher. The teacher is more than a man trained 
 to be a different kind of a man. He is a new 
 
VI INTRODUCTION 
 
 product, the result of making over again in a 
 new order and with additional elements the primi- 
 tive material which God has placed fundamentally 
 in every human .being. To the extent that we 
 comprehend the vast difference between what 
 we are by native endowment and what we become 
 by specific training will we understand the signi- 
 ficance of the problem with which we have to do. 
 Education is more than a transforming process, 
 it is a creative process. By it we become 
 a new creature. Our problem then would seem 
 to be, in its broad aspects, a study of what our 
 native common endowments are, and a study of 
 what educational processes at work upon this na- 
 tive material may produce. The emphasis of 
 study should rest upon the second of these propo- 
 sitions. At the outset we shall believe in the 
 creative value of education. We are warranted 
 both by experience and by study in believing that 
 education is a far-reaching and momentous influ- 
 ence. To be a man, man must be educated. To 
 be a teacher, man must be made over again into 
 a new agency. No fixed and rigid laws can de- 
 termine what this making over implies, since the 
 teacher must from time to time be made into an 
 agency adequate to the needs of a changing and 
 growing Christian civilization. The accepted 
 teacher of yesterday is by no means the accepted 
 teacher of to-morrow. We shall understand our 
 
INTRODUCTION VU 
 
 problem best as we attach increased significance 
 to the function of the teacher in civilization and as 
 we interpret our standards of efficiency in the 
 light of to-morrow. 
 
 Teaching is always prophetic. It aims to de- 
 scribe the needs of the future, and to equip the 
 childhood of the present for the mature life that 
 is to be. Teaching must always proceed on the as- 
 sumption that its test is to be found not in the im- 
 mediate product which it sends out from the class 
 room, but in the wider circles of influence which 
 it will exert on the days and the activities that 
 are to be. A wise teacher concerns himself pri- 
 marily with the task of equipping human souls 
 for life's service. It lays the emphasis of its 
 concern not upon the scraps of knowledge which 
 it gives from day to day, but upon the fiber of 
 character which it builds for all the years to 
 come. 
 
 The Sunday-school is not an organization pri- 
 marily to acquaint children with biblical facts, 
 but to set the currents of the soul in the chan- 
 nels of truth, that they may flow out into wider 
 and wider reaches of power and steadier and 
 steadier sweeps of influence. It would indeed 
 be a thankless task if, as a result of our teaching, 
 the stream were to become more narrow, more un- 
 stable as it approaches the years of maturity, and 
 be lost in the sands and the swamps and the 
 
VIU INTRODUCTION 
 
 desert places. Life must be guided into ever 
 widening and deepening channels, and the initial 
 impulses that are given to it by the teacher must 
 persist until it flows at last into the great all- 
 embracing life that is hid with God. 
 
 This volume does not aim to present an ex- 
 haustive analysis of the factors involved in the 
 making of a teacher. It does, however, under- 
 take to lay before the minds of sincere students 
 many of the cardinal guidances to that end. In 
 the light of our needs to-day, it presents what 
 seem to be the most needed elements of guid- 
 ance. 
 
 The title of the volume is to be interpreted in 
 a restricted sense. Primarily the book is intended 
 for Sunday-school teachers ; they need and should 
 have all the assistance and guidance that ex- 
 perience and study can provide. No logical or- 
 ganization of the entire problem of the making 
 of a teacher has been undertaken. There are many 
 phases of the whole problem which would not 
 be at this stage of our development of sufficient 
 moment to teachers to warrant one in present- 
 ing them. Only those aspects of the problem 
 which seem to be paramount in the line of our 
 present conditions are here considered. If any 
 teacher is prepared for a more extended and de- 
 tailed study of the educational laws underlying 
 the processes of teaching, the author would com- 
 
INTRODUCTION IX 
 
 mend to him the standard treatises on education 
 which may be obtained anywhere. The purpose 
 here has been to vitalize certain educational prin- 
 ciples, to push their application home to the 
 conscience, and, if possible, to inspire in the heart 
 of the teacher a great desire to make the most 
 of the vital opportunities that are his. The 
 teacher of a secular school will find here the 
 same underlying guidance needed by him in his 
 work. The volume, therefore, will be of service 
 to any teacher who earnestly desires to accom- 
 plish the best results. 
 
 Much of this material appeared originally in a 
 series of twenty-five articles in The Sunday 
 School Times. Additional material was incor- 
 porated in the Leaflets of the Correspondence 
 Course of The Sunday School Times. Some of 
 it has not appeared heretofore. All the material 
 has been revised and molded into such form as 
 to make it in the judgment of the author most 
 helpful to teachers. 
 
 In submitting the articles in the form in which 
 they are cast the author finds himself open to two 
 criticisms : ( i ) From the scientific men who in- 
 sist that professional material shall be cast in 
 technical language. The assumption underlying 
 this position is that accurate thought can only 
 be portrayed in technical terms. For this point of 
 view the author has no sympathy. He has always 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 been of the opinion that if the truth is clearly 
 apprehended it may be expressed in simple lan- 
 guage, and he is grateful that his own experience 
 has been such as to enable him at least in part 
 to translate his technical training into the homely 
 and forceful phrases of common experiences. (2) 
 From the sincere friends who fear that the ma- 
 terial will be too difficult for the great masses of 
 teachers engaged in conscientious effort to do 
 some good somewhere in the great world of re- 
 ligious activity. A few friends have pointed out 
 the danger in this direction and have held that 
 the multitude of teachers are not yet prepared to 
 take up material as formal as this must neces- 
 sarily be. With this criticism the author has much 
 sympathy. It is his desire to help the humblest, 
 and he believes that any earnest individual who 
 will give himself steadily to the task will be 
 able to utilize the discussions of this volume in 
 his upbuilding. This latter class has been kept 
 steadily in mind. Unless the many can be helped 
 there is little need of undertaking the task of 
 helping. 
 
 The author has reason to believe that the em- 
 phasis of the discussion here presented rests 
 where it belongs. That the fundamental need of 
 the religious world to-day is a better under- 
 standing of the laws and materials of teaching ; 
 that, in short, a rich life is worth more to the 
 
INTRODUCTION XI 
 
 young learner than a rich curriculum. If thor- 
 oughly equipped and trained teachers can be 
 secured, all other needs incident to perfect prod- 
 ucts will follow. If the vital need is provided all 
 attendant conditions to right teaching will in- 
 evitably be secured. It seems manifestly foolish 
 to waste time and energy upon subordinate mat- 
 ters when the dominant question is unsettled and 
 even unnoted. The cry of childhood is for teach- 
 ers, teachers, teachers ; and we must not give 
 a stone when childhood calls for bread. What 
 does all the inanimate material of education 
 amount to if it is not quickened into life and 
 made an active thing by the spirit of a trained 
 teacher ! In the confident belief that the kingdom 
 of righteousness through the Sunday-school will 
 be advanced by an earnest study of these guiding 
 principles, this volume is given to those that love 
 children well enough to teach them wisely and 
 well. M. G. B. 
 
 Philadelphia, June i, 1905. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I 
 The General Problem Stated . 
 
 II 
 How Knowledge Reaches the Soul .... 1 1 
 
 III 
 How Attention May Be Secured 25 
 
 IV 
 Guiding Principles in Attention 38 
 
 V 
 Some Facts Concerning Memory 48 
 
 VI 
 Retention and Recollection 58 
 
 VII 
 The Building of Ideals 67 
 
 VIII 
 Feeling and Imagination 77 
 
 IX 
 
 Educational Principles of Moment .... 95 
 
 xiii 
 
XIV CONTENTS 
 
 X 
 
 The Use of Symbols . 106 
 
 XI 
 
 On Different Kinds of Knowledge . . . .125 
 
 XII 
 Facts About Judgment 136 
 
 XIII 
 Reason and Educational Ends 153 
 
 XIV 
 Some Laws of Teaching 164 
 
 XV 
 Train Up a Child 174 
 
 XVI 
 Soul-Activity Through Words and Questions, 191 
 
 XVII 
 The Teacher' s Personal Equipment .... 202 
 
 XVIII 
 
 Qualities that Make the Teacher a Good 
 
 Governor 213 
 
 XIX 
 
 Concerning the Course of Study 226 
 
CONTENTS XV 
 
 XX 
 Concerning the Recitation 237 
 
 XXI 
 Phases of Religious Training 250 
 
 XXII 
 Jesus the Ideal Teacher 262 
 
 XXIII 
 Educational Principles Used by Jesus . . . 273 
 
 XXIV 
 Educational Methods Used by Jesus . , . 288 
 
 XXV 
 Some Aspects of Religious Teaching .... 298 
 
 XXVI 
 
 Some Suggestions for the Sunday-School 
 
 Teacher 308 
 
 XXVII 
 Some Thoughts on Religious Education . . 320 
 
 XXVIII 
 The Scope of Religious Education . . . .331 
 
I 
 
 THE GENERAL PROBLEM STATED 
 
 HP HE kind of an education that human beings 
 are capable of receiving depends upon the 
 nature of their souls. All animals are capable 
 of being trained. They may by repeated exer- 
 cises of a given sort be led to do certain things 
 which they would not of themselves be capable 
 of doing. The doing of these things is the re- 
 sult of training. Animals thus acquire the abil- 
 ity to perform certain acts and so-called tricks. 
 They can do no more. They repeat only the 
 
 acts they are trained to perform. 
 T Educaul 0t The y cannot be educated.^ for 
 
 education implies the power in 
 the learner to originate thoughts and acts be- 
 yond those taught. This power of self-initiative 
 is the basis of education. The learner wisely 
 taught a few guiding facts and principles is 
 capable of adding additional facts and of estab- 
 lishing additional principles. Children have this 
 power. God set it in their souls. They can be 
 educated. Those that guide this activity are 
 educators. We usually refer to them as teachers. 
 Teachers must understand the nature of the 
 
2 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 human soul. They must also possess a knowl- 
 edge of the subject-matter which, under their 
 guidance, is the occasioner of thought, feeling, 
 and volition in the pupil. This knowledge of 
 the subject-matter is the scholarship of the 
 teacher. It should be clear, distinct, adequate, 
 and, in some aspects, exhaustive. These terms 
 will be more fully explained later on. But if 
 the teacher's sole equipment is a knowledge of 
 the materials of an education, he is helpless in 
 the emergencies of the teaching process, — those 
 rare but not infrequent moments when a young 
 soul needs specific guidance, a guidance that can 
 be given only by a teacher whose trained insight 
 is able to discover the specific 
 
 The Teacher's j j • i , 
 
 Equipment need > and 1S prepared to meet 
 it. It is this insight, this power 
 of vision, that the teacher needs more than he 
 needs the mastery of the subject-matter of the 
 lesson. In a few rare spirits this insight is in- 
 stinctive and innate. Happy the child whose 
 teacher is thus richly endowed ! To most of us, 
 this power is the product of study and of re- 
 flection. 
 
 Therefore this volume undertakes to outline 
 a course of study that will aid in acquiring this 
 power. There will be no attempt to phrase the 
 lessons in technical language. The plain, simple 
 English of our every-day life will best convey 
 
THE GENERAL PROBLEM STATED 3 
 
 to the student the data to be set forth. The im- 
 portant thing is not to say it in formal phrases, 
 but to see it as it is. 
 
 In addition to this knowledge of mental activ- 
 ity and of subject-matter, the teacher must pos- 
 sess a knowledge of educational principles and 
 of educational methods. Why things should be 
 presented in this or that order, 
 
 P,i ;X e, d r at this or that time > with this 
 or that emphasis, and with or 
 without illustration, — these are vital questions. 
 To this, if one adds the ability to manage a class, 
 to secure order, attention, and interest, one has 
 in effect compassed the scope of the problem of 
 making a teacher. 
 
 The exercise of this equipment within the 
 limits set by the nature of the soul, by methods 
 that are wise, and through a teacher whose love 
 for childhood and for truth exceeds his knowl- 
 edge of teaching, will accomplish the result we 
 hope for, — the training up of a soul into a knowl- 
 edge of the truth as it is in Him, a knowledge of 
 the truth that is glorified, not by its entertain- 
 ment, but by its use in a life of service. 
 
 Emerson once wrote his daughter that he 
 cared little concerning the name of school she 
 attended, but that he cared much concerning the 
 teachers with whom she studied. He understood 
 what we shall all have to understand, that the 
 
4 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 school is a living agency, a place where life 
 touches life; and that teaching is the conscious 
 act of the trained spirit of a teacher influencing 
 the less trained spirit of the pupil, to the end 
 that the pupil may come into 
 Emerson's idea possession of all the knowledge, 
 culture, and training he is 
 capable of receiving. The entire value of the 
 teaching process is to be found in the power 
 of the teacher to enrich the soul of the learner. 
 I once addressed a group of boys in a junior 
 church service, on the mission work in Porto 
 Rico. With some degree of enthusiasm it was 
 explained to the boys what the conditions really 
 are in this little "Pearl of the Antilles." It was 
 a story of work done, of people helped, of chil- 
 dren-made happy, of homes made clean, of life 
 made sweet. At the conclusion of the talk a 
 boy of fourteen arose and said : 
 a Boy's idea " I now know better than be- 
 fore the needs of these people. 
 I feel that we ought to help them. I move that 
 we send ten dollars to Porto Rico to help the 
 work." 
 
 It was a short speech. But it was a good one. 
 The boy scarcely realized that he had really 
 tabulated the order of mental activities. Note 
 his remark. "I know," "I feel," "I move." 
 Touched in his intellect, his sensibilities, and his 
 
THE GENERAL PROBLEM STATED 5 
 
 will, the whole round of mental action was ex- 
 ercised. 
 
 Teaching always must touch this entire circle. 
 
 To know is only to enrich the mind. To know, 
 
 to feel, to do, is to enrich the soul. The mind is 
 
 the intellectual function of the soul. To inform 
 
 the mind is one thing. To enrich the soul is 
 
 quite another thing. The teach- 
 
 soui Enrichment er in the Sunday-school above 
 
 all other teachers must know 
 
 how to enrich the soul, — to occasion right 
 
 thought, to secure keen feeling, and to ensure 
 
 right action. 
 
 Jesus was a teacher of human souls, not of 
 human intellects. The great teachers of Greece 
 rested their discourses upon an appeal to the in- 
 tellect. Their great orations conclude with an 
 appeal to reason — it is the summing up in logical 
 order of the principles an- 
 Greek and nounced in the discourse. The 
 
 Roman Plans 
 
 hearer was led to know. There 
 is a reason for this. Greek philosophy as formu- 
 lated by Socrates assumed that if one knew the 
 right he would surely do it. We have abundant 
 proof of the inadequacy of this teaching. The 
 great teachers of Rome rested their discourses 
 upon an appeal to the sensibilities. Their great 
 orations conclude with an appeal to the feelings 
 — it is the sweep of a lofty sentiment to a climax 
 
6 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 that swayed the auditors as the summer winds 
 move the ripening grain. Many of our Ameri- 
 can orators have followed these Roman models. 
 
 But the greatest teacher of all, Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, directed his appeal to the will. He was too 
 wise to be content with intellectual products as 
 were the Greeks, or with emotional products as 
 were the Romans. He understood that the soul 
 is cultured only when the will 
 
 jesus' Plan is moved to act. Notice how he 
 concludes that most wonderful 
 of all addresses, the Sermon on the Mount: 
 " Every one therefore that heareth these words 
 of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto 
 a wise man ; " and, again : "And every one that 
 heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, 
 shall be likened unto a foolish man." Note that 
 the difference is not in the understanding, but 
 in the doing, of the truths he uttered. Both 
 heard. The foolish man did not act. The wise 
 man acted. We want teaching like this, teaching 
 that appeals to the will, teaching that ends in 
 noble living. 
 
 Books, apparatus, maps, charts, — in short, all 
 the materials used in the teaching process, — are 
 but the scaffolding that a wise teacher uses to 
 build a human soul. But the soul itself is the 
 product the teacher must see from the beginning, 
 not merely the materials with which he works. 
 
THE GENERAL PROBLEM STATED "J 
 
 The choicest fruit earth holds up to its Creator 
 is a good, clean, vigorous man or woman. To 
 ripen, elevate, educate a man, a woman, that is 
 worth while. To the accomplishment of this we 
 may well devote our thought, our prayer, our 
 constructive effort. And as the task is most 
 worthy, the process is most difficult and delicate. 
 But it can be done, it must be done, if we are to 
 meet our responsibilities and prove equal to our 
 opportunities. 
 
 All good teaching is methodic. It follows some 
 plan that experience and research have approved. 
 To teach without method, or to teach unmindful . 
 of method, is to fail utterly. No 
 
 t ZmZ^t am ° unt ° f zeai > n ° weaith ° f en - 
 
 thusiasm, no acceptance of the 
 place of teaching from a sense of duty, valuable 
 as these may be, will in any appreciable degree 
 ensure results such as we pray for and long to 
 achieve. 
 
 Our methods of teaching find their sanction 
 in certain underlying laws. These laws are our 
 educational principles. These educational prin- 
 ciples, when rightly understood, will likewise be 
 found to rest upon another series of laws which 
 inhere in the mind itself. The teacher must know 
 (i) how the mind operates, (2) how these laws 
 of the mind express themselves in terms of 
 educational principles, and (3) how these 
 
8 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 educational principles determine methods of 
 
 teaching. 
 
 A complete recognition of this threefold aspect 
 
 of the problem of teacher-making is found in the 
 
 teaching of Jesus. It is said that he taught in 
 
 parables. That is, his method of teaching was 
 
 in the form of the parable. The 
 
 Extent P arable meth0d ° f teaChin S 
 
 rests upon the well-known ed- 
 ucational law that we should proceed from the 
 concrete to the abstract. He saw the kingdom 
 of heaven in a mustard seed ; in a man that is a 
 householder; in a man which sowed good seed 
 in his field ; in leaven, which a woman took, and 
 hid in three measures of meal ; in a treasure hid 
 in a field; in a merchantman seeking goodly 
 pearls; in a net which is cast into the sea; and 
 so on through the series. In each case it is to be 
 noted that he presents the concrete, the familiar, 
 easily understood experiences of the every-day 
 life of his hearers, and upon these he builds their 
 understanding of the abstract and new knowl- 
 edge of the kingdom. 
 
 It is becoming increasingly clear to educational 
 experts that no finer example of teaching is to 
 be found anywhere than that exemplified by the 
 Great Teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. We shall find 
 in the method of others many valuable applica- 
 tions of educational law. We shall learn from 
 
THE GENERAL PROBLEM STATED 9 
 
 the long array of educational reformers many 
 broken fragments of good teaching. But the 
 perfect ideal, the rounded model of all wise 
 teaching, is found only in the activities of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. 
 
 Our Sunday-school teaching is even now too 
 frequently simply the interpretation of a lesson. 
 It is, I fear, quite generally an attempt, success- 
 ful or otherwise, to explain the meanings of 
 terms ; to locate, geographically and historically, 
 the events of the lesson; to memorize some 
 Golden Text; to strain to the limit the language 
 of the Bible in an effort to find in each lesson 
 
 some all-comprehensive guid- 
 some Detects ance ; and to bring about these 
 
 results under conditions of in- 
 struction and of discipline that defeat whatever 
 of virtue such a process might have. It is not 
 the fault of the Sunday-school teachers that this 
 has been possible, it is the result of our system. 
 We have frequently given over to wholly un- 
 trained teachers the immature mind, the mind 
 that is not able to reject or to accept, but is 
 wholly without an experience against which to 
 measure the quality of its instruction. To teach 
 a mature mind the truth of God is a noble work. 
 To teach a child the truth of God is a nobler 
 work. For the Sunday-school teacher there 
 opens a splendid prospect, a glorious possibility. 
 
IO THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 To see a human soul open clear and sweet in 
 the light of His truth, and to be conscious, as 
 the gardener is, that it is your planting, your 
 watering, — that exalts teaching. 
 
II 
 
 HOW KNOWLEDGE REACHES THE SOUL 
 
 TZ"NOWLEDGE arises in the human soul 
 through the special senses. These senses 
 are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Some 
 object in the external world comes within the 
 range of the activity of one or more of these 
 senses. Instantly a nervous excitation is occa- 
 sioned. The nerves of the senses affected carry 
 the impression made upon them 
 
 How We Know to the brain. This impression 
 is a sensation. The body is lit- 
 erally packed with these sensation carriers. 
 Taken as a whole they are the nervous system. 
 This includes the brain, the spinal marrow, 
 ganglia, the nerves proper and the senses above 
 referred to. A critical study of this nervous 
 system in such a treatise as Carpenter's 1 would be 
 interesting and profitable, if one wished to un- 
 derstand the physical basis of the mental life; 
 only a few of its manifold aspects can here be 
 considered. 
 
 The relative value of these special senses in 
 
 1 Principles of Mental Physiology, by William Benjamin Car- 
 penter. 
 
 II 
 
12 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 education is in direct ratio to the range of their 
 activity. We see farther than we hear. Educa- 
 tion through the eye is perhaps better education 
 than any other. " Seeing is believing." It is 
 well, however, to consider how valuable are the 
 sensations of touch in the right 
 Value of education of the mind. If under 
 
 the Senses 
 
 touch we group the sensation of 
 temperature, this sense falls within the law an- 
 nounced. When these senses operate in con- 
 junction, the value of the sensation each conveys 
 is increased. For this reason illustrated ad- 
 dresses are effective. If a child handles an ob- 
 ject as he hears of it from his teacher, the value 
 of the instruction is enhanced. 
 
 The thing to bear in mind is that these special 
 senses complement one another. Note the highly 
 significant value of the sign at the railroad 
 crossing : " Stop, look, listen ! " Here, too, the 
 thoughtful teacher will see reasons for variety 
 in presentation of truth, and also for the value 
 of concrete illustration in teaching. It is well 
 to consider the value of these sense-organs, and 
 to note that each sensation must be a vivid one 
 if the mental result is to be educationally valu- 
 able. If you have children with defective vision 
 or impaired hearing, the problem of their educa- 
 tion becomes a special one. They should have 
 all the skill and patience and sympathy that a 
 
HOW KNOWLEDGE REACHES "THE SOUL 1 3 
 
 noble teacher can command. I would advise 
 teachers to read the story of Dr. Howe's work 
 with Laura Bridgman, and especially the almost 
 miraculous work of Miss Sullivan with Helen 
 Keller. 1 If to those to whom so much was de- 
 nied such splendid results have come, the teacher 
 has no reason for despair on the side of physi- 
 cal limitation in childhood. In a large Sunday- 
 school it would be manifestly wise to make 
 special provision along certain lines for the de- 
 fective pupils. 
 
 This nervous system is the sentinel of the soul. 
 It gathers in from all sources myriads of sensa- 
 tions. These sensations sweep with more than 
 lightning speed to the brain. In the brain they 
 undergo a change. At one instant they are phy- 
 sical forces, the phenomena of the physical realm ; 
 they may be measured, and in general treated as 
 are other things that are physical or material. 
 At the next instant they have un- 
 
 a nd n per'cepts dergone a transformation. They 
 shed their material qualities, and 
 take to themselves spiritual qualities. They are 
 no longer things of the brain and of the 
 nerves. They are now things of the soul. 
 They have passed from the field of the 
 physiologist to the realm of the psychologist. 
 
 1 Laura Bridgman, by Maud Howe and Florence Howe Hall. 
 The Storv of My Life, by Helen Keller. 
 
14 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 They are henceforth phenomena of the soul. 
 They are now percepts, not sensations, and 
 we say the soul perceives them. How this 
 transformation is wrought, I know not. It is the 
 mystery of knowledge. God has so organized 
 this complex of body and of soul that things of 
 the former may instantly become things of the 
 latter. Until this transformation occurs, the 
 thing presented to the senses is not an element of 
 knowledge. We cannot say that knowledge en- 
 ters the soul. It does not exist in the nerves, 
 nor in the brain, nor in our environment. Things 
 that do exist in these external agencies are only 
 the occasioners of knowledge. Knowledge dwells 
 only in the realm of the spirit. We have not 
 taught a thing when we have presented it to the 
 senses. It is not taught until it is the possession 
 of the spirit. Teachers should ponder well this 
 initial step in knowledge, until they see clearly 
 what really is meant by imparting knowledge to 
 the human soul. 
 
 The main question is this : How does the soul 
 gain knowledge and what does it do with this 
 knowledge? Do you see clearly why this is an 
 important inquiry? A fact exists somewhere in 
 God's realm. For you it exists only when it is 
 in your soul and your soul knows the fact as its 
 own possession. The problem then is to track 
 the fact from the realm of things to its resting- 
 
HOW KNOWLEDGE REACHES THE SOUL 1 5 
 
 place in the soul. Let us follow its trail. It 
 
 comes within the range of our special senses. 
 
 These special senses are the 
 
 Sensation , j- j, i mi 
 
 Explained scouts of the soul. 1 hey seize 
 upon the fact. They report it 
 through the nervous system to the brain. Think 
 of the innumerable multitude of these incoming 
 reports. Each one is called a sensation. The 
 brain may be likened to a central office in a tele- 
 phone system, the wires of which are the nerves 
 reaching to the body's surface and, in the power 
 to detect facts, far beyond the range of the body. 
 Make a rough chart of the range of their opera- 
 tions. Think of the many, many calls they make 
 upon the central office. Consider how busy the 
 central office is. At times the rush of calls is so 
 great that all the calls cannot be attended to. 
 Some of these sensations are in some manner 
 miraculously changed. The soul takes notice of 
 them. They appear in consciousness, the same 
 and yet not the same. Ponder well this process. 
 The sensation is suddenly transformed into a 
 fact in the soul. It is a percept. This is only a 
 name for the product of the soul's action upon 
 a sensation. What was simply a physical force is 
 now a spiritual thing, one simple element with 
 which the soul is enabled to work in rearing 
 within itself the temple of knowledge. The char- 
 acter of that temple is determined by these ele- 
 
1 6 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 ments. It cannot build with what it does not 
 have. Consider carefully what this temple of 
 knowledge should be like; ask and answer the 
 question : What does God want a human soul 
 to contain ? You will then understand the value 
 of placing the right things in the soul, and of 
 keeping out such things as will mar the temple. 
 Is it too much to say that what we most desire 
 that soul to become is achieved only by placing 
 in it the materials with which alone it is able to 
 make itself so? 
 
 For example : God evidently wants every hu- 
 man soul to be beautiful in his sight. How can 
 it become so? What perceptions will result in 
 
 such a soul-quality? We cannot 
 illustration attach too much importance to 
 
 an understanding of this point. 
 I urge you at this point to read Hawthorne's 
 " Great Stone Face." Read it carefully. See 
 how Ernest actually became the man he longed 
 to discover. He alone had for years received 
 the materials out of which by God's laws the soul 
 could grow to the ideal he longed for. The law 
 is : We grow upon what we feed. Choose then, 
 the right nutrition for a soul. " Evil communi- 
 cations corrupt good manners'' is as true to-day 
 in America as it was in the long ago in Judaea. 
 Do not lightly regard the significance of the 
 things you place in the soul of your pupil. 
 
HOW KNOWLEDGE REACHES THE SOUL 1 7 
 
 Pestalozzi was accustomed to point to a hole 
 in the wall of his dilapidated school-room at 
 Stanz, and say to his class, " What do you see? " 
 They answered, " We see a hole in the wall." 
 Then he would say, " But what do you see ? " 
 And they replied, " We see a large hole in the 
 wall." Then, with increased emphasis, " But 
 what do you see ? " They said, " We see a large 
 jagged hole in the wall." And thus he con- 
 tinued the process of stimulat- 
 Method m S their vision until he was as- 
 
 sured that they really saw the 
 object, until it became a clear percept in their 
 minds. I use the term percept as a name for the 
 mental product of a sensation. The power of the 
 soul to create these percepts from sensations is 
 called perception. Clear perception is, therefore, 
 the first step in clear knowing. 
 
 Let us now consider another aspect of the pro- 
 cess by which a sensation becomes a percept. 
 The percept is in the soul. It is a fact of the 
 spiritual life. Every fact of the spiritual life is 
 known as such by the soul. The power of the 
 soul to know its own products is called con- 
 sciousness. The soul, not the body, creates the 
 elements of knowledge from the crudest percept 
 to the highest generalization of reason. It has 
 the power to know its own products. How it 
 does this is again a mystery. Let us be content 
 
1 8 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 to understand that it does know its products. 
 Consciousness is the revelator to the soul of its 
 own possessions. Facts of knowledge are facts 
 in consciousness. The soul, through conscious- 
 ness, has noted them. It has been said that con- 
 sciousness rings the rising bell in the dormitories 
 of the soul. Its powers are by 
 consciousness . awakened, or, better still, are 
 
 Defined ' 7 
 
 directed to the incoming sensa- 
 tions, and the soul sees them as they become in 
 it elements of spiritual activity. To understand 
 this is to understand a vital fact in the equipment 
 of the teacher. Knowledge must be so occa- 
 sioned in the learner that he is conscious of it, 
 that he knows it. Thus it is apparent that mere 
 telling is not teaching. It will be well at this 
 point in your study to read thoughtfully chapter 
 i, section 2, of Dr. H. Clay Trumbull's " Teach- 
 ing and Teachers." 1 
 
 No amount of preparation on the part of the 
 teacher, no amount of skill in presenting data 
 to the consciousness, no amount of exposition 
 on the part of the teacher, will answer here. 
 These are all good. They are all necessary. 
 But they must be used with that rare insight that 
 enables the teacher to know that the pupil is for 
 himself consciously entertaining the facts im- 
 
 J The price of this book is $1.25. It can be ordered from The 
 Sunday School Times Co., as can all others mentioned here. 
 
HOW KNOWLEDGE REACHES THE SOUL I9 
 
 parted. By participation in the lesson the pupil 
 
 reveals what is in his consciousness. All good 
 
 teaching seeks for expression 
 The^Pupirs from the pupil It is what the 
 
 pupil thinks, what he says, what 
 he gives expression to in words, in actions, in 
 deeds, that reveals what is really taught. Mechani- 
 cal repetition from memory of formulated an- 
 swers is not the result the true teacher seeks. I 
 once knew a teacher who was so much concerned 
 in having the exact text of the lesson repeated by 
 the pupil that it was said of him that he actually 
 cut the grade of a pupil for failure to insert a 
 comma at the place it occurred in the text-book. 
 This teacher, like some of those whom Jesus 
 knew, was more concerned for the technical de- 
 tails than for the weightier matters of the law. 
 Be sure that the emphasis of your teaching and 
 of your concern rests upon the essentials of the 
 teaching process. 
 
 If now it is reasonably clear to us how sen- 
 sations become percepts, and how the soul 
 through consciousness is aware of its own con- 
 tent, we may profitably ask under what conditions, 
 
 both physical and psychical, con- 
 condftions sciousness best entertains the 
 
 facts of knowledge. The physi- 
 cal conditions comprise all the agencies that sur- 
 round the child in learning, and the psychical 
 
20 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 conditions include all those states of the 
 soul that aid in producing vivid impressions in 
 consciousness. Of the physical environment of 
 the learner it is not necessary now to write. Let 
 us pass that by for a subsequent treatment, not 
 because it is unimportant, but because the psychi- 
 cal conditions are logically next in order of study. 
 
 Consciousness may be thought of as a lumi- 
 nous quality that fills all the recesses of the soul. 
 It has a focus and an outer field of less vivid 
 illumination. This focus is capable of endless 
 shifting. Thus at one moment one, and at a 
 second moment another, area of consciousness 
 is in the focus. We say the mind wanders. We 
 mean that the focus of consciousness is con- 
 stantly shifting. 
 
 We put pen to paper to write upon a given 
 
 theme. The focus of consciousness is unsteady. 
 
 We think of the theme and lo ! the tick of the 
 
 clock, the creaking of a chair, 
 
 The Focus of .1 r 11 .1 
 
 consciousness the Passing of a trolley car, the 
 rumble of an engine, the pres- 
 ence of a fly on our desk, the rustle of the leaves 
 in a tree near by, and countless other things, are 
 sufficient, each in turn, to change the focus and 
 compel the mind to consider other things. In 
 despair we drop the pen, fold our arms, and wait 
 the shifting of our focus to the matter of the 
 theme. I once saw a man in church, in the 
 
HOW KNOWLEDGE REACHES THE SOUL 21 
 
 presence of the congregation, go forward and 
 adjust a lamp that was not properly suspended. 
 He could not focus his mind upon the discourse 
 until the lamp ceased to control the focus. 
 
 Is there a power that will hold the focus stead- 
 ily upon one particular field of knowledge to the 
 exclusion of all others? There is such a power. 
 It is attention. Attention is the power of the 
 soul by which the focus of consciousness is held 
 steadily upon a given group of ideas in the soul. 
 When the soul takes notice of its perceptions 
 we say it is conscious of them. Thus conscious- 
 ness is the soul's power of knowing its own con- 
 tent. The perceptions in the soul seem to be in 
 constant motion. They flow now into, now out 
 of, the focus of consciousness ; that is, they are 
 constantly changing from the point of clear 
 knowing, — which is the center or focus of con- 
 sciousness, — to some, region or range in which 
 they are not so clearly known. They may even 
 pass wholly beyond the range of 
 The stream consciousness. Have you ever 
 
 of Sensations J 
 
 yielded to an attitude of mind 
 passive to this stream of sensations? It seems 
 as if one could stand aside and look passively 
 upon the passing procession of perceptions. Can 
 we arrest this procession, stop it, hold one per- 
 ception in the focus of consciousness, and deny 
 it the tendency it has to rush on? If so, we have 
 
22 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 in this power of arrest our first great educational 
 possibility; for if we can compel the soul to re- 
 gard one and disregard other perceptions, we 
 have in doing this the possibility of reorganizing 
 the content of the soul. The perception we ar- 
 rest and hold in consciousness is by that process 
 greatly changed. The soul becomes familiar 
 with it. The soul gains mastery over it. The 
 soul learns how to use it. The soul endows it 
 with new power, and with vital relations. Thus 
 the soul uses the enriched perception as it could 
 not use it before. Whatever power, then, can 
 hold one perception for a time in consciousness 
 is of the highest educational value. That power 
 is Attention. It has a negative aspect in that it 
 refuses to attend to such things as may clamor 
 
 for consideration. It has its 
 WI,at Does nt ' 0n Positive aspect in that it may 
 
 compel consciousness to rest 
 upon one thing to the exclusion of all others. 
 Thus attention is the power that makes possible 
 the instruction of the learner. Without atten- 
 tion there can be no true teaching. The teacher 
 must secure attention at the outset. To teach in 
 the hope that, by teaching, attention will finally 
 be secured, is hazardous and wasteful. It is to 
 be noted that the teacher cannot compel atten- 
 tion, but the teacher can secure attention. How 
 may this power of attention be secured? 
 
HOW KNOWLEDGE REACHES THE SOUL 23 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Does knowledge come into the human soul from with- 
 out? If so, how? 
 
 If the special senses were never to report sensations, 
 what would be the condition of the human soul? 
 
 Do you remember a thing better from hearing it or 
 from reading it? How does this bear upon the right 
 method of instruction? 
 
 Some people are said to be ear-minded ; others eye- 
 minded; what do you mean by this? 
 
 Jot down on a sheet of paper the different things 
 that come into the focus of consciousness in your own 
 mind in any given two minutes of time. Will the fact 
 that you jot them down have anything to do with the 
 character of the things which you note ? 
 
 Have you been telling your children, or have you been 
 teaching them, great fundamental spiritual truths ? 
 
 Why should the child give expression to his knowl- 
 edge? 
 
 Is your class so organized that the pupils are free to 
 say what they have in their minds? Do they keep to the 
 subject under study? 
 
 Do you deliberately cultivate freedom of expression 
 in your class? Should you do so? Why? 
 
 Have you ever seriously studied the way you know 
 the content of your own soul ? 
 
 Have you any definite method of preventing the minds 
 of your pupils from wandering? 
 
 Jot down in your note-book the things that you do in 
 order to keep the focus of consciousness upon the thing 
 which you most desire the pupil to consider. 
 
24 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Is it true that without attention there can be no true 
 teaching? If so, why? 
 
 Explain fully the function of consciousness. 
 
 What is the relation of attention to the stream of 
 sensations ? 
 
 What power of the soul brings percepts to the focus 
 of consciousness ? 
 
 Attention makes possible the enrichment of percepts. 
 Explain this statement. 
 
 In Milton's Comus the Lady, in a critical moment, ex- 
 claims, "I was all ear.'' What does Milton mean by 
 this sentence? 
 
 Why cannot a teacher compel attention? What fol- 
 lows? 
 
Ill 
 
 HOW ATTENTION MAY BE SECURED 
 
 "\X/ r E have now tracked our fact through sen- 
 sation, perception, and consciousness, to 
 attention. What will attention do with it? This 
 question cannot now be answered wisely. We 
 must first study this power of attention. It is 
 most significant. Is it always the same? Is it 
 easily controlled? Is it always active? You 
 should at this point make note of the power of 
 attention as it manifests itself while you study 
 these words. Do you focus on this line your en- 
 tire attention? Is it easy for some outside fact, 
 calling through the senses, to destroy your at- 
 tention? Can I readily shift your attention? 
 What peculiar quality in this discussion seems to 
 hold your attention most steadily? What can 
 you most readily give up, what do you find your- 
 self holding to most tenaciously? 
 
 In the preceding chapter the question was 
 raised : " How may attention be secured ? " The 
 answer to this is important, because, as we have 
 seen, without attention there is no fixedness in 
 thought. This will be apparent to anybody who 
 will for a moment consider the stream of thought 
 
 25 
 
26 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 that passes under the focus of consciousness. It 
 is one minute one thing and another minute an- 
 other thing, and so on through an almost end- 
 less series. 
 
 It is not to be understood that there is no 
 connection between the different percepts in the 
 stream of thought. There probably is, but the 
 connection is oftentimes so subtle that we fail to 
 recognize it, and in general it is of such a char- 
 acter as to make it practically useless for educa- 
 tional purposes. It is only when attention arrests 
 the stream of thought, and holds 
 
 Str^mTpe'rcepts the f ° CUS ° f Consciousness Upon 
 
 one distinct aspect of this stream 
 of thought, that anything like vivid, connected 
 thought arises in the soul. It is, therefore, of the 
 utmost importance to understand something of 
 the fundamental laws that control attention, and 
 something of the skill which a teacher needs to 
 possess in order to be sure to command the at- 
 tention of the pupil. 
 
 If now we ask what it is that causes attention 
 to fasten upon one and not another of the differ- 
 ent areas of thought in the mind, to hold the 
 
 focus of consciousness at this 
 
 What Guides • , , r ,, , 
 
 Attention? instead of some other place, we 
 
 have reached the fundamental 
 
 question. In each case it is some agency of 
 
 the soul that does it. We can secure it in no 
 
HOW ATTENTION MAY BE SECURED 2 1 ] 
 
 other way. No outside influence can do more 
 than to produce the conditions within the soul 
 that result in attention. Why does my mind in 
 any given moment rest upon this instead of some 
 other thing? What directs attention? The an- 
 swer to this question a teacher needs to consider 
 carefully. 
 
 The area of attention is not so great as that 
 of consciousness. Real education has to do not 
 with all that is in consciousness but only with 
 that part which lies within the area of attention. 
 There are three areas of possible knowledge in 
 the soul, (i) The widest area, 
 
 ™™ci™ s n which may be called the beyond- 
 conscious (sometimes referred 
 to as the sub-conscious area) ; (2) the area of 
 conscious knowledge; and (3) the limited area 
 within these which is the vivid area of attention. 
 Wundt likens the different areas to the whole 
 field of vision when one looks out upon a land- 
 scape. There is the vague fringe of practically 
 unnoted objects, the less extended circle of ob- 
 jects seen, and the specific object upon which 
 one focuses his attention. Everything in teach- 
 ing depends upon the skill of the teacher in fixing 
 attention upon the specific things the pupil should 
 consider. Our attention rests upon those things 
 which are for us objects of interest, and the de- 
 gree of our attention to any given thing is but 
 
28 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the expression in terms of mental activity of the 
 soul's interest in that thing. 
 
 Two of the three types of attention are here 
 to be distinguished. Voluntary attention is the 
 act of the will compelling attention to rest upon 
 the subject under consideration. It is usually, 
 and especially in children, a relatively weak form 
 of attention. The power of the will is not suffi- 
 ciently strong to fix attention for any consider- 
 able time upon a given theme or 
 
 A "o r n g rou P of facts - We sometimes 
 endeavor to secure this type of 
 attention by saying, " Now, children, give me 
 your attention." We cannot command attention. 
 Again, we resort to threats, to scolding, to abuse, 
 as if in these agencies we had found some effica- 
 cious control over the attention. It is needless 
 to say that all these are useless. 
 
 The second type of attention is usually called 
 involuntary or positive attention, by which we 
 simply indicate that it is not under the control 
 of the will. By what, then, is it controlled? Our 
 involuntary attention rests upon those things 
 which are for us objects of interest. Where there 
 is no interest, there is no posi- 
 Atte'nuon' ^ ve attention. Where there is no 
 positive attention, there is sel- 
 dom clear knowledge in consciousness. Where 
 there is no clear knowledge in consciousness, 
 
HOW ATTENTION MAY BE SECURED 20. 
 
 there is confusion and darkness, the vague 
 borderland of superstition and of doubt, and of 
 all the other ills which may break into the human 
 soul, and take possession of what ought to be a 
 steadfast and clear-minded spirit, if properly 
 taught. 
 
 Thus interest controls involuntary attention. 
 Through interest we give ourselves to the lesson 
 presented. We are interested in a thing when we 
 are affected by it. Whether the thing presented 
 is pleasurable or painful it matters not. What 
 
 Interest and a lar g e fidd ° f Stud y °P enS U P 
 
 involuntary at this point ! Voluntary atten- 
 
 Attentlon t j Qn j g always fl eet i ng . ft can . 
 
 not be prolonged. But interest is abiding, and 
 interest controls involuntary attention. Hence 
 involuntary attention is vastly more significant 
 as a requisite mental state for the learner than 
 is voluntary attention. 
 
 The teacher needs to note here how very diffi- 
 cult it is to teach the child in opposition to his 
 interests. It is of course true that through vol- 
 untary attention we may be able to do so, but it 
 is doubtful whether the result justifies the strug- 
 gle by which it is secured. How anxiously we 
 endeavor to secure in our pupils the fullest at- 
 tention to the great truths of religion. Think 
 of the punishments, the penalties, the exhorta- 
 tions, that have been employed to this end ! Per- 
 
30 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 haps you have a personal experience on this 
 point. How much of all this do you think is 
 justified by the results attained? May it be pos- 
 sible that over-solicitous parents 
 Difficulties h j b th j f a _ 
 
 Involved ' J 
 
 ure to understand this, actually 
 defeated the very purpose they had so much at 
 heart? I understand how difficult it is to say this 
 without opening the way for decided dissent ; but 
 let us be fair. What are the facts as they are 
 known to you? I once knew a child in school 
 to weep bitterly because she was reproved for 
 whispering. The teacher said, in giving the re- 
 proof, " You are a naughty girl." Inquiry re- 
 vealed the fact that the child wept because she 
 was in imminent fear of a visit from the devil. 
 Her mother has repeatedly said to her, " If you 
 are naughty, remember that the bad man will 
 be sure to catch you." 
 
 Note the struggle in your own soul between 
 what you will to attend to and the thing you 
 really do attend to. Your interest is in conflict 
 with your will. For a short time your will may 
 succeed in directing your attention, but sooner 
 or later interest wins the strug- 
 
 An illustration gle, and we follow its beckon- 
 
 ings. We go to church. We 
 
 resolve to listen to the sermon. We hear the text. 
 
 We follow the opening words of the discourse. 
 
HOW ATTENTION MAY BE SECURED 3 I 
 
 Our will is in control, and suddenly we find our 
 attention upon some topic wholly foreign to the 
 service. We exert our will; back comes our at- 
 tention ; we again hear the discourse, and presto ! 
 once more the attention has played truant to the 
 will, and is following again the overmastering 
 beckonings of our interest. 
 
 As a child I went frequently several miles 
 to Sunday-school. The way in summer led 
 through a beautiful bit of God's grand old forest. 
 The birds sang in the trees. The squirrels leaped 
 from bough to bough. The color and fragrance 
 of myriads of flowers enraptured me. The green 
 sward was checkered with sun and shadow. It 
 seemed to my young spirit as if God had rained 
 beauty in endless profusion all about me. How 
 I longed to stay and revel in this flower-scented, 
 sun-illumined, bird-choired spot! 
 
 In the Sunday-school a sincere teacher 
 wrought as best he knew to fix my attention upon 
 young Samuel, upon the kings of Israel, upon 
 the wise Solomon, upon Paul's exhortations ; but 
 ever and anon I found my attention drawn as by 
 a magnet to the scenes yonder in the forest. In- 
 terest was drawing me. My will was helpless to 
 resist. Teachers, you little know the army of 
 competitors against which you must struggle to 
 gain the attention of a soul. And yet, gain it 
 you must, if you are to enrich that soul. If it 
 
32 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 is difficult for the pupil to command attention, 
 how much more difficult is it for the teacher to 
 do so. The more excellent way is to ascertain 
 the interests of the pupil. 
 
 If my teacher had only known the things of 
 interest to me, how readily he could have made 
 them the occasion of securing my attention, of 
 building there the tabernacles of truth, into 
 which with joy my spirit would have entered to 
 find and to partake of His truth. How splendidly 
 
 Jesus understood this. To those 
 UseiTiiiterest whose interests clustered about 
 
 their flocks he was the Good 
 Shepherd. To the man whose flock had been 
 scattered, how readily would the search for the 
 one that was lost quicken interest, secure atten- 
 tion, arouse concern, and lead to an understand- 
 ing of his mission. To those whose physical ills 
 had saddened life, how tenderly helpful was the 
 statement, " They that are whole need not a phy- 
 sician, but they that are sick." How their in- 
 terest was thus aroused, and they were fitted to 
 understand, " I came not to call the righteous, 
 but sinners to repentance." 
 
 Interest is not some strange and foreign con- 
 dition of the spirit. Interest as such is but a 
 name to characterize the attitude of the soul to the 
 things which, by reason of its past experiences, it 
 cares to own. As it has come up through the 
 
HOW ATTENTION MAY BE SECURED 33 
 
 years of unfolding, the soul has gathered here 
 and there particular fields of thought, particular 
 
 answers to its inquiries, and 
 what interest is specific nourishment of its own, 
 
 and it has come at last to rela- 
 tively full and complete knowledge. Conscious- 
 ness of this begets interest, and holds the mind 
 with a hunger which can be satisfied only when 
 it comes into the possession of the fuller knowl- 
 edge in these several channels or avenues. 
 
 If, then, we wish to teach easily, we must teach 
 in harmony with the interests in the soul. It is 
 my abiding faith and conviction that God has set 
 in every human soul a hunger for himself. The 
 race craves a knowledge of him, and the wise 
 teacher will need to make no apology to secure 
 the interest on the part of the child in the 
 The Race Craves mat ters presented in the Sun- 
 a Knowledge day-school, — provided only the 
 
 teacher remembers the fact that 
 the new knowledge which the teacher yearns to 
 present to the hungry soul, and which the hun- 
 gry soul itself craves, must always be presented 
 in terms which will link the new knowledge with 
 the past experience of the child. The pupil must 
 see the new in the light of the old. His knowl- 
 edge must grow from a common center, other- 
 wise it is fragmentary, uninteresting, causes 
 dissatisfaction, and is substantially worthless. 
 
34 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 It is well to note that the secret of an abiding 
 love for the truths of religion is best secured 
 by creating pleasurable interest in the child's soul 
 for the things of the higher life. A pious old 
 minister, with a keen insight that we should 
 strive to imitate, was deeply concerned in the 
 welfare of a fatherless grandson. He took the 
 boy with him when visiting the poor of his rural 
 parish in the valleys of the Alps. The boy was 
 enraptured by the beauty so lavishly displayed 
 on mountain and glen. When they entered the 
 poverty-stricken houses of the poor, and the boy 
 saw how impossible it was for the children of 
 these homes to enjoy God's beautiful pictures, he 
 was led to say : " Grandpa, when 
 
 Pestalozzi's T T ^1^1 
 
 Example * am a man > * mean to take the 
 
 side of the poor." A noble reso- 
 lution this ! He kept it, and the world knows the 
 result. That boy was Henry Pestalozzi, a father 
 to orphans, the founder of universal elementary 
 education. He rightfully enjoys the high tribute 
 paid him by his biographer : " He lived like a 
 beggar that he might teach beggars to live like 
 men." By creating interest in the poor, the great 
 reformer never could turn from them. 
 
 I urge you to write the story of some girl or 
 boy, some young man or woman, whose life was 
 but the working out of some great resolution, 
 made in a moment when the soul was aglow with 
 
HOW ATTENTION MAY BE SECURED 35 
 
 interest. Compare your story with the incident 
 in the life of Ruth, the resolute-hearted and pure- 
 spirited daughter-in-law of Naomi. When 
 Naomi, widowed, broken in spirit, and absolute- 
 ly impoverished, set out for Bethlehem, she ad- 
 vised Orpah and Ruth to seek their own fortunes 
 in the land of their nativity. But Ruth embraced 
 her mother-in-law, and said : " Entreat me not to 
 leave thee, and to return from following after 
 thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and 
 where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; thy people shall 
 be my people, and thy God my God ; where thou 
 diest, will I die, and there will I be buried." 
 Here is a sublime surrender of 
 Ruth's Example a noble woman to a great pur- 
 pose. God sustained Ruth. She 
 became the great soul her resolution fitted her to 
 be. Read the sequel : "The book of the genera- 
 tions of Jesus Christ . . . And Boaz begat 
 Obed of Ruth ; and Obed begat Jesse ; and Jesse 
 begat David the king . . . And Jacob begat 
 Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born 
 Jesus, who is called Christ." It is a holy thing 
 to plant a high purpose in a human soul. God 
 will make it in his own time serve great ends. 
 It is worth while to work for the moment when 
 your pupil rises at his best, and makes declara- 
 tion for the Christian life. Not the many things, 
 but the decisive things, mold our lives. 
 
36 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 If you have carefully considered the phases of 
 attention so far discussed, you will readily un- 
 derstand that voluntary attention is of question- 
 able value in teaching young children, — that 
 involuntary attention is tremendously significant, 
 and that it is made so by the intimate relation it 
 sustains to interest. The Herbartians in Ger- 
 many and in America alike agree that the 
 doctrine of interest is the most valuable doctrine 
 announced to teachers in a half- 
 
 The intent 6 " century. Herbart's " Science of 
 
 Education" and De Garmo's 
 
 " Interest and Education" are typical treatises 
 
 upon this significant phase of teacher equipment. 
 
 " But," asks the teacher, " how am I to ascer- 
 tain the interests of childhood, and so secure 
 positive attention in my class ? " I wish I could 
 in a sentence answer that question. How I have 
 longed for the magic words ! They have not yet 
 been discovered ; but some thoughts may be sub- 
 mitted later that will in a way clarify the vague 
 longings of the sincere student. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Can you detect any connection between successive 
 stages of consciousness? 
 
 Try to stop the stream of consciousness by an act of 
 will. Is it an easy or a difficult task? 
 
 How would you define attention? 
 
HOW ATTENTION MAY BE SECURED 37 
 
 What is the value of the advice, " Pay no attention 
 to it?" 
 
 Two of the three types of attention are here presented, 
 — what are they, and can you anticipate a third? 
 
 Will punishment increase attention? Why? 
 
 Recall to your mind times in your own life when you 
 were all attention, and explain the reason for your rapt 
 concern. 
 
 Just what is interest? How does it war with the 
 will? 
 
 When children are not attentive is it evidence of de- 
 liberate hostility? If not, of what is it evidence? 
 
 Cite examples from the teachings of Jesus that clearly 
 indicate his recognition of the importance of interest. 
 
 Is the human soul innately clothed with interest in 
 God and things of his kingdom? 
 
 Here is the pupil, — here is the lesson. How may in- 
 terest in the former be aroused for the latter ? 
 
IV 
 
 GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ATTENTION 
 
 HP O UNDERTAKE an analysis of the inter- 
 ests in children that control attention is im- 
 possible. These interests are both varied and 
 subtle. They defy enumeration. They in a large 
 measure explain our differences and account for 
 our various careers. We act in response to our 
 feelings. Our feelings organize themselves about 
 our interests, hence our interests control our con- 
 duct. To live right one's interest must be quick- 
 ened for the right. In this field of interest, the 
 field of experience, the teacher must find what 
 Patterson Du Bois calls " the point of contact." 
 His excellent treatise under this title 1 every 
 teacher should read. 
 
 If parents and teachers of children in the pri- 
 mary school could be led to realize the signifi- 
 cance of creating right interests in young souls, 
 how joyous would become the 
 
 The Peelings and r, . . , 
 
 Attention after-processes in teaching, how 
 
 readily would growing souls 
 
 feed upon the truth, how splendid would be the 
 
 happy procession of eager footsteps upward into 
 
 1 The Point of Contact in Teaching. 
 38 
 
GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ATTENTION 39 
 
 holy living! I venture the assertion that our 
 weak spot in education is our neglect of the edu- 
 cation of the feeling-life of the child. When we 
 seek guidance upon this vitally significant phase 
 of mental growth we are met at the outset with 
 the fact that the theme has not been in any ade- 
 quate way considered. The great and potent 
 feeling-life of the child is practically unknown 
 and overlooked in our zeal to secure great issues 
 in the thought-life of the child. William James 
 points out the significant fact that the native in- 
 terests of children lie altogether in the sphere of 
 sensation. His discussion of this is most sug- 
 gestive. 1 
 
 We are interested in those things which in our 
 past have for some reason become significant to 
 us. If now a new truth is to be given, it is wise 
 to link it with what we already know. Thus we 
 compel the pupil's attention by appealing to his 
 interest. 
 
 A fine example of good teaching is recorded 
 in Acts 17 : 22-31. Paul was in a strange city. 
 It was the capital of culture. Its citizens were 
 devoutly interested in their religion. They had 
 gods innumerable. For these gods they enter- 
 tained the greatest reverence. Paul knew this. 
 He was quick to discover the basis of their in- 
 terest. He begins his discourse by a reference to 
 
 1 Talks on Psychology and Life's Ideals, chapter ix. 
 
40 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 an altar and its inscription. They knew that 
 altar. They knew that inscription. At once he 
 had their attention. By a most skilful use of 
 
 what they knew he led them to 
 HOW Auent?on Ured understand what they did not 
 
 know. The interest they had in 
 what they knew was splendidly carried over into 
 the region of truth which Paul wished them to 
 know. Read the discourse carefully. See how, 
 step by step, he led them from altar and inscrip- 
 tion to God, the earth-creator, the life-giver, the 
 brotherhood-builder, the omnipresent, the true 
 God, the Father of the resurrected Christ. How 
 simple his opening words, how skilful his lead- 
 ing to the one thing he always preached, the 
 Christ. 
 
 In the familiar parable of the sower the Great 
 Teacher begins his discourse with a plain recital 
 
 of an every-day event familiar 
 
 How Jesus Secured A i_- j- ■ i tti j ai 
 
 Attention to nis disciples. He leads them 
 by most skilful transition to the 
 race-wide work of his people. 
 
 When Socrates was an old man, he one day 
 walked the streets of Athens alone. His head 
 was bowed, his body was bent, his step was un- 
 steady, in his hand he carried a massive cane. 
 Under his shaggy eyebrows darted out the keen 
 eye of an observant man. 
 
 Coming up the street was a young man. He 
 
GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ATTENTION 41 
 
 walked erect, his head well poised, his step 
 
 elastic, his bearing worthy the Ephebi group to 
 
 which he belonged. Socrates saw all this. He 
 
 was pleased. As the young man 
 
 se"°rL S Atteiuon came near he stepped aside that 
 the old sage might pass. Quick as 
 a flash the heavy cane of the philosopher seemed 
 to slip and trip the young man. The latter in- 
 stantly recovered himself, and showed regret that 
 he might in any way have annoyed one so old 
 and so feeble. Suddenly Socrates turned, and, 
 looking the youth full in the face, said : 
 
 " My son, can you tell me where in this city I 
 may buy bread?" 
 
 The youth promptly replied, " Sire, up yonder 
 street and two doors to the left." 
 
 Pleased at the directness and politeness of the 
 youth, Socrates said : 
 
 "And, my son, can you tell me where in all 
 this city I may buy wisdom ? " 
 
 The youth replied regretfully, " Indeed, sire, I 
 know not." 
 
 " Then," said the sage, " follow me and learn." 
 That youth was Xenophon, the life-long friend 
 and follower of the great Attic philosopher. 
 
 Great teachers are these. Note how each 
 grasped the fundamental law of teaching through 
 the interest aroused in his hearers. 
 
 There is a third type of attention that is worthy 
 
42 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 of more than a passing notice. It is usually char- 
 acterized as expectant attention. The soul seems 
 at times to anticipate what is to occupy the focus 
 of consciousness, to be in a way 
 Att'entuTn aware of objects in conscious- 
 ness before they are really in 
 the focus. The soul at times seems to sense 
 facts in advance of their clear definition in con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 Sometimes just an instant before the clock 
 strikes or the bell rings we seem to be aware 
 of the coming experience. The nerves seem to 
 be set to catch a certain sensation, the sensation 
 we desire, and lo ! it comes. This expectancy is 
 at times very marked. It is as if we set atten- 
 tion to watch for a certain fact or series of facts 
 before they arise in consciousness. This is then 
 followed by the facts expected arising in the 
 focus of consciousness. Under this aspect of atten- 
 tion one may find a clew to the power of sugges- 
 tion, of hypnotism, of mind-reading, and perhaps 
 of so-called Christian Science. Of these phe- 
 nomena we need not now take special notice. 
 
 We do seem to get a more vivid impression 
 if we set the attention trap in advance to catch 
 the fact when it does enter the focus of con- 
 sciousness. If we enter the class-room to teach, 
 confidently expecting to succeed, we are thereby 
 predisposed to success. A wise teacher always 
 
GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ATTENTION 43 
 
 seeks to prepare the mind for the best 
 
 things of the lesson. Tactfully the discussion 
 
 leads to expectant attention on 
 
 USe Altent P io C n ant the P art 0f the P U P ils - and then 
 
 the best things are presented. 
 Sometimes a pause, a stress of voice, a kindling 
 eye, a pertinent question, or some kindred action, 
 is enough to arouse in advance the attention of 
 the pupils. Again it may require repeated ap- 
 proach by incident and illustration skilfully pre- 
 sented to accomplish the result. Instinctively a 
 good teacher will endeavor to predispose the soul 
 to receive the best things. 
 
 When once the teaching process has been car- 
 ried well along in this manner, it is frequently 
 possible for the pupil to run ahead in thought, 
 and predict for himself the issue of the narrative. 
 Here lies a law of teaching well worth our at- 
 tention. If we make our narrative so tedious, 
 so full of' petty details, so annoyingly full of 
 qualifications, the mind of the pupil in a burst of 
 impatience sweeps all this aside, and demands 
 the next vital step in the series of incidents that 
 lead to the final issue; or, what is worse, the 
 
 mind of the pupil may become 
 
 Value of Expect.nt j t jn the maze of detai l an d 
 Attention 
 
 fail utterly to come at last into 
 a clear understanding of the central truth ar- 
 rived at by the teacher. Hawley Smith, the au- 
 
44 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 thor of " The Evolution of Dodd," once told me 
 the hero of that story attended school one day, 
 and was absent the next. The parents of Dodd 
 sought the reason. Dodd explained that on the 
 first day the teacher taught dog to the class, and 
 that the following day dog was to be reviewed. 
 Dodd said he knew dog already, and he was sim- 
 ply out of school till the teacher on the follow- 
 ing day meant to take up the dog ; " then," said 
 Dodd, " I am going to go again." The teacher's 
 method did not keep pace with Dodd's unfolding, 
 and hence the difficulty. It is a good teacher 
 who knows how rapidly to move forward to the 
 new things. Too slow is as unwise as too fast. 
 
 It may be well to note that mere bodily atti- 
 tude is not a guarantee of attention. Pupils may 
 sit at attention, and yet their attention may be 
 far from the matter in hand. A young woman 
 once thanked me for the close attention I gave 
 to a paper she read at an educational meeting. 
 My eyes were fixed steadily upon her. I was 
 really not attending to the subject-matter of her 
 address, but I was absorbed by 
 
 An illustration an enormous comb stuck loosely 
 in her hair. Every movement 
 of her head threatened to cast the valuable adorn- 
 ment to the rostrum floor. I was absorbed in the 
 fate of her comb and not at all in the subject 
 she discussed. 
 
GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ATTENTION 45 
 
 Pause in the midst of your teaching and ask 
 some pupil to repeat the main points from the 
 beginning. When he is well begun, ask a second 
 one to continue the review, and you will be 
 amazed at the result unless you have real atten- 
 tion in your pupils. The captain of a steamer, 
 whose hearing is dimmed, was frequently in- 
 formed by his passengers : " It is a beautiful 
 day, Captain." One day a quiet-voiced lady said 
 to him : " What lighthouse is that, Captain ? " 
 To which he politely replied : " Yes, a very fine 
 day." 
 
 So far from what we really expect is the an- 
 swer we sometimes receive. The pupil is not 
 thinking our thoughts. We do not have his at- 
 tention. We are not teaching. 
 
 Right bodily conditions, however, have much 
 to do with securing attention. To attend stead- 
 ily to one thing for any considerable time is 
 physically exhausting. Young pupils should not 
 be expected to give steady attention for more 
 than a few minutes to one thing. If this is not 
 kept in mind by the teacher, confusion, restless- 
 ness, disorder, arise in the class. As the pupil 
 advances in years the time of 
 BOd lt C o°ru!r S the recitation may be length- 
 ened. With young pupils a 
 change to some new activity is necessary. With 
 older pupils a change in the order of thought 
 
46 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 may suffice. This is a matter of such significance • 
 that the widely-trained teacher will need to ob- 
 serve in her own pupils when attention yields 
 to fatigue. No arbitrary time can be set as a 
 limit to the recitation; and, perhaps, in the 
 Sunday-school this caution is not really pertinent. 
 The only guidance of value is this : Do not tax 
 the attention of the pupil beyond the limit of his 
 ability to give close attention to the exercise. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 How do you explain the variation in attention on the 
 part of the different members of your class ? 
 
 How do our feelings influence our actions? Do we 
 act as we think or as we feel? 
 
 Explain the relation between your acts and your in- 
 terest. 
 
 Why did Paul begin his address on Mars' Hill by a 
 reference " To the Unknown God ? " 
 
 How does expectant attention differ from voluntary 
 attention ? from involuntary attention ? 
 
 Discuss the phenomena of hypnotism in their relation 
 to expectant attention. 
 
 Are you familiar with the general doctrine of sugges- 
 tion as a teaching agency? 
 
 If the teacher takes up the lesson expecting to secure 
 attention, is his expectation likely to be the more 
 readily realized? Why? 
 
 In case you do not secure attention from your pupils, 
 
GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ATTENTION 47 
 
 •name some things that may result in securing atten- 
 tion? 
 
 What is the measure of the rate of progress in unfold- 
 ing the truths of the lesson? 
 
 Are you ever tedious in teaching? Are you ever too 
 hasty or too obscure in covering the salient points in 
 the lesson? 
 
 How will you distinguish between bodily attitude and 
 true attention? 
 
 Should a teacher know the dominant interests of his 
 pupils? Why? 
 
V 
 SOME FACTS CONCERNING MEMORY 
 
 T HAVE hinted that the mind has power to 
 enrich the facts of knowledge which it 
 holds in consciousness. Let us not forget this 
 statement while we consider an intermediate step 
 in the development of knowledge in the soul. 
 The report which the mind makes of the thing 
 it perceives is called a percept. This percept is 
 the mental result of a clear perception. It is by 
 some writers called an idea, by which they mean 
 that the mind has some sort of a picture of the 
 thing that exists outside the mind. We speak 
 of a real cat and of our idea of cat ; of cow and 
 of our idea of cow ; of things generally and of 
 
 our ideas of these things. These 
 Wh Are deaS ideas, then, are mental images 
 
 of things. Just what they are 
 like is not quite clear. But this is clear : By their 
 frequent reappearance in consciousness we come 
 to know them as the sign or image of the thing 
 itself. Given the idea, the appropriate object is 
 at once called by the idea into consideration. We 
 do not often get the wrong idea for a thing. The 
 mind is an accurate reporter. It seldom fails to 
 48 
 
SOME FACTS CONCERNING MEMORY 49 
 
 make true connection between a given object and 
 its appropriate idea. We may depend upon the 
 integrity of its processes and the correctness of 
 its results. 
 
 But these ideas are not always in the focus 
 of consciousness, not always the things of atten- 
 tion, not always the objects of interest. These 
 ideas seem to be fleeting. They elude conscious- 
 ness, and others take their place. They do this 
 in spite of volition and of interest. Where do 
 they go? Can they be recalled? They perhaps 
 do not pass wholly out of consciousness, but they 
 are no longer the things of at- 
 what Memory is tention. But they may be re- 
 called and again be made the 
 things of attention. The power by which the soul 
 retains and recalls its past experiences and makes 
 them again the things of attention is memory. 
 
 So important was memory held to be among 
 the ancient Greeks, that they not only deified her 
 as Mnemosyne, daughter of Uranus, but they 
 made her the mother of the sacred muses. These 
 nine muses were the guardian divinities whose 
 function it was to preside over the nine impor- 
 tant branches of knowledge. They lived on 
 Mount Helicon, and Gray thus refers to their 
 influence : 
 
 " From Helicon's harmonious springs 
 A thousand rills their mazy progress take.' - 
 
50 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Thus in the Greek mind all knowledge was sup- 
 posed to flow from this great fountain of mem- 
 ory. In all ages memory has 
 areek idea of ^^ re „ ar( i ec [ as f transcend- 
 
 Memory ° 
 
 ent value. We have often bur- 
 dened it unduly, and made it blindly bear burdens 
 of ideas which it should not bear ; and we have 
 regarded it not infrequently as the final resting- 
 place of ideas ; and, although in a vague way we 
 know what the abuse of memory is, yet we go 
 merrily on unloading upon it endless series of 
 facts, and complacently assuming that when a 
 fact is once in memory it is known. 
 
 I wish the teacher at this point to pause for a 
 moment and consider the miracle of memory. 
 Things learned in years agone are by it held in 
 the everlasting present. What we once learned 
 we always may know. What we now teach to 
 our pupils they may retain and recall as long as 
 their spirits are body-encased, and it is my con- 
 viction that they are recalled when, free from 
 the body, the spirit mounts to eternity. This is 
 God's method of dignifying the work of the 
 
 teacher. God has so planned 
 Memory 6 ° ^ iat wnat we plant in a human 
 
 soul may bloom perennially. We 
 have no right to plant carelessly, since we have 
 no power to reset our plantings. If what we 
 place by wise teaching in the soul of a child were 
 
SOME FACTS CONCERNING MEMORY $1 
 
 to fade and die in a fortnight, how very hopeless 
 and useless would our teaching be ! Thank God 
 that you teach for time and for eternity. Get up 
 on the heights. See the splendid prospect God 
 sets for those that teach in his name ! 
 
 Let us consider the significance of this power 
 by which we retain and recall knowledge. We 
 are at once face to face with a well-known fact, 
 namely, that much of all we teach to a child 
 seems to be speedily forgotten. One teacher in 
 despair declared that her pupils seemed to have 
 traded their memories for what she called "for- 
 getters." It is undoubtedly true that many 
 things once in consciousness seem to have passed, 
 and passed forever, into regions beyond recall. 
 One source Herein lies one explanation of 
 of Waste in the great waste in education. 
 
 Education Notice ^ j ^ ^ wQrd 
 
 "seem" to describe what happens. It is perhaps 
 true that they do not pass beyond recall, but we 
 have lost them because of one of two things : 
 either we have not endeavored to recall them, or 
 we have lost the string of association by which 
 we might readily have drawn them again into 
 consciousness as objects of attention. Both of 
 these causes operate to lessen the value of teach- 
 ing. 
 
 Every time an element of knowledge is re- 
 called and made an object of attention there is 
 
52 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 established an increasing tendency to make easy 
 its recall. The reverse is also true. Allow an 
 element of knowledge to lie unnoted in the dim 
 recesses of the mind, and there comes a time 
 when the power of recall seems to have been 
 lost. Hence the great importance of frequent 
 
 recalls of knowledge to the cen- 
 Vaiue of Recall ter of consciousness. If this is 
 
 done with the wise variety in 
 method that a good teacher knows how to use 
 the result is most important. If, however, it be- 
 comes the monotonous iteration of the same 
 things in the same way interest is destroyed and 
 the teaching process is useless. 
 
 The little girl, daily required to hear the 
 twenty-third Psalm, finally said, " Mamma, let's 
 not read about ' The Lord is my shepherd ' to- 
 day, I am tired of that." The same truth holds 
 concerning the lesson plan. If the teacher re- 
 peats with endless monotony one order of exer- 
 cises from Sunday to Sunday he will find at last 
 that it is increasingly difficult to secure attention. 
 Frequent and varied reviews of truth, if wisely 
 conducted, are not distasteful to the pupil. But 
 
 frequent and monotonous re- 
 shakespeare views, as Shakespeare says, 
 
 " clog the hungry edge of appe- 
 tite." We all know how apprehensively we ap- 
 proach the quarterly review. We are practically 
 
SOME FACTS CONCERNING MEMORY 53 
 
 defeated by our own state of mind when we enter 
 upon the exercise, and yet the review is a valu- 
 able, and may be made a delightfully interesting, 
 part of our teaching. 
 
 The longer we delay the recall of an image or 
 memory product the more difficult it is to recall 
 it. For this reason it is always wise to secure 
 a recall of the mental image as early as possible. 
 It is not the mere number of repetitions which 
 determines the final worth of an impression, but 
 the frequency of the repetitions. When a stone 
 is dropped into a pond of water the waves at 
 once begin to move outward from the center of 
 disturbance. The farther they move the less 
 distinct they become, until finally 
 Fre R U e e can y 0l the y are practically beyond the 
 range of visual recall. We 
 say we can no longer see them. This figures in 
 a way the career of impressions in the mind. 
 The longer they are left unnoted the more diffi- 
 cult is the power of recall. Finally we say they 
 are beyond recall. The thing to note is that 
 while they are relatively active in consciousness 
 they should be recalled again and again until the 
 mind becomes facile in the power of recall. 
 
 The training of the memory is not the whole 
 of an education; but it is a valuable part. To 
 know a thing implies the power to recall it. Of 
 what use is teaching if its results do not become 
 
54 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 permanent possessions of the soul ? It is my be- 
 lief that these memory images may be so taught 
 that they will outlive the body and remain with 
 us for all eternity. To hold this belief dignifies 
 the teaching process and honors the great Giver 
 of the soul. It also adds to the responsibility of 
 the teacher. We must not lightly 
 M E™u° c r a y t!on d regard our teaching processes 
 nor thoughtlessly select our 
 teaching materials. The memory is a splendid 
 auxiliary to the higher thought processes ; since 
 it is the memory that must give permanency to 
 their activities by holding the results clearly and 
 readily in consciousness for use. When once a 
 thing has been clearly taught, the teacher should 
 develop occasions for its frequent recall. This is 
 most important. It renders knowledge facile. It 
 flows readily, easily, freely, in the mind. It 
 makes knowledge usable. 
 
 In your Sunday-school class, follow clear in- 
 struction with judicious drill. Think how many 
 things that you once knew are gone beyond re- 
 call, because you did not have them drilled into 
 your memory by frequent repetition. There is 
 nothing so senseless as to drill upon trivial or 
 non-understood things. Avoid that if you love 
 a child's soul ; but consider how unjustifiable is 
 a teaching process that does not carry knowledge 
 to the point where it becomes permanently use- 
 
SOME FACTS CONCERNING MEMORY 55 
 
 ful. I ask you to give me the answer to the 
 question: "Seven times six are how many?" 
 
 You know instantly. You have 
 Memory and Drill been drilled on that. You know 
 
 it in a usable way. " Seven 
 times sixteen are how many ? " You are not so 
 sure of your answer. You may want pencil and 
 pad for that, or you may do as one of my pupils 
 did, say seven times eight are fifty-six, and two 
 times fifty-six are one hundred and twelve. Note 
 how he had to change the problem into forms 
 that were drilled into him before he could men- 
 tally assert a conclusion. We must deepen the 
 impression if we are to secure proper and prompt 
 expression. 
 
 You will not forget that good teaching also 
 requires that the new thought-image is to be as- 
 sociated with other thought-images. Thus the 
 binding force of association is utilized to enrich 
 knowledge. Knowledge is not literary hash. It 
 is an organic meal, each part of which is to com- 
 plement each other part, and the laws of associa- 
 tion are to bind them into a unit. 
 
 Every time a former impression, or mental 
 image, is recalled, it is brought into some new 
 relation to other images. Even as simple an 
 image as that of dog is made richer by recall. 
 This enrichment is secured not only by increased 
 vividness, but also by increased association with 
 
56 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 other images in the mind. Every time I recall 
 the figure of Jesus standing at dawn by the mist- 
 mantled shore of Galilee, the 
 
 MemorTlmaee's H & ht strikin g aCr0SS the h iH-top, 
 
 the small fire glowing in the 
 twilight, and illuminating the face of the Master, 
 — that splendid scene of a great life-light on a 
 background of night and darkness, — I can in- 
 creasingly comprehend his invitation to the night- 
 toilers: "Come and break your fast." I have 
 pondered this scene until it is so vivid that I al- 
 most discern the awe, the sacred hush, that over- 
 came the disciples ; and the glow of the fire seems 
 to me to illuminate a face that shines upon my 
 soul all through the day, all through the night. 
 I bless God for that picture of hope, of help, of 
 Him. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Note that the percept is also called an idea or an 
 image. Do you see why this is necessary? 
 
 Can you distinguish clearly the real cat, the picture 
 cat, the idea or image cat, and the word cat? In what 
 order should these be presented to the mind of the 
 pupil ? 
 
 If we reverse the true order, what is likely to result? 
 
 Name any instance known to you in which the idea 
 recalled did not agree with the thing it represented. 
 What explanation can you offer of this confused result? 
 
SOME FACTS CONCERNING MEMORY %"J 
 
 A child that had never before seen a fern called it 
 "a pot of green feathers." Do you see why? 
 
 If you have not thought of your primer for many 
 days, where was the knowledge of the primer since last 
 you thought of it until now? Could you have recalled 
 it at any moment of this intervening time? 
 
 Do we ever really forget? 
 
 Do we know a fact when we can repeat it from 
 memory ? 
 
 Consider the permanency of knowledge once set in the 
 human soul. 
 
 How do you proceed to make easy the power of the 
 child to recall what you have once taught? 
 
 What is the secret of interest in review work? 
 
 What is the relation of memory training to the whole 
 problem of education? 
 
 Consider what drill means in education. 
 
 What do the laws of association do with the facts in 
 memory ? 
 
VI 
 
 RETENTION AND RECOLLECTION 
 
 r T s WO important things for the teacher arise 
 at this point. If the impression is to be 
 deep and abiding it must be made when the at- 
 tention is aglow with interest. I. The fact we 
 wish to impress must be given with directness 
 and with emphasis. You have often noticed the 
 tendency of children to study aloud. It is due to 
 the fact that the sound of the 
 
 Dlr Ret"n«on' dS words hel P s dee P en the impres- 
 sion. I have known persons 
 who would nod the head, tap with their fingers, 
 or stamp their feet upon the floor that they might 
 in these ways deepen the impression. We do 
 know that a change in voice, a tension of muscles, 
 a momentary pause, the raising of the hand, the 
 repetition of the important words — all aid in 
 making vivid the impression in the mind of the 
 learner. We recall a place we have actually seen 
 better than one we have read about, because the 
 place seen is more vividly impressed, — its image 
 is more distinct, — than is that of the place we 
 have only seen indirectly through words. Teach- 
 ing through objects has a value that teaching 
 through words cannot possess, 
 58 
 
RETENTION AND RECOLLECTION 59 
 
 2. The impression must be given when the 
 mind is in right attitude to attend to it. If we are 
 to retain the impression long, we must acquire 
 it under conditions of interest. The boy who is 
 
 excited over a game of ball is 
 
 Interest Aids ui j: 1 1 •! i_ 11 
 
 Retention a ° le for a lon & while to recall 
 the details of the game. This 
 keen interest secures a fineness of detail that is 
 of tremendous significance. How futile it is to 
 try to secure right memory-products when the 
 mind of the pupil is attending to matters foreign 
 to the lesson in hand ! 
 
 3. The value of the impression is heightened 
 when it is accompanied by strong feeling. This 
 is the basis of our great orations, our great hu- 
 manitarian societies, and our impassioned litera- 
 ture. Men and women under 
 
 Retention 8 ^ e s t ress of great emotion were 
 
 so vividly impressed that they 
 
 could not remain quiet. The utterance of the 
 
 feeling was imperative. They spoke, they sang, 
 
 they wrought, because they felt keenly. 
 
 4. The value of the impression is also condi- 
 tioned by the state of the body. If we are 
 
 fatigued, if for any bodily or 
 
 Ph ofMe a n,or a y SiS mental CaUSe the vi S 0T ° f . the 
 
 mind is in any degree impaired, 
 the product in memory is weak. 
 
 This analysis may seem somewhat tedious, but 
 
60 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 if you will give it careful study you will see how 
 depth of impression is secured through attention. 
 
 Note in the next place that if the impression is 
 to be retained it must be frequently repeated. 
 The great bulk of our images answer to objects 
 that we have seen again and again. The more 
 frequently we recall an image to consciousness 
 the more enduring will be the image. This law 
 is so obvious that it has always been used by 
 teachers, and often to the abuse of the memory 
 instead of its training. Masses of unrelated and 
 non-understood things are drilled into the mem- 
 ory, as if the mere ability to re- 
 Repetition peat great sums of things were 
 in some way knowledge. Thus 
 arises that pernicious process of cramming, the 
 bane of healthy mental growth and the inevitable 
 retreat of poor teachers. Things thus forced 
 upon memory are so much dead wood. They 
 are not only useless, but they impair the memory 
 for its proper function, which is to hold for sub- 
 sequent use facts of knowledge already clearly 
 understood by the mind. 
 
 The function of memory is twofold, — to re- 
 tain and to recall knowledge. Let us now con- 
 sider the conditions under which knowledge is 
 most easily and surely recalled through an act 
 of memory. Note that there is a predisposition 
 to recall what has been vividly impressed. All 
 
RETENTION AND RECOLLECTION 6 1 
 
 that our study can do is to point out the condi- 
 tions under which this natural tendency will 
 best manifest itself. The answer to this inquiry 
 is found in the experience, common to us all, 
 
 by which we attach to each fact 
 R R!coHe°c n tion d of knowledge some other fact 
 
 of knowledge. The greater the 
 number of these attachments or relations, the 
 more readily is each fact recalled. Thus we en- 
 deavor to link our facts together. Every such 
 connection makes each fact in the series more 
 valuable, because it is thus more readily recalled, 
 it is more usable ; and because it is thus enriched, 
 it has a wider use. Isolation of facts in the mind 
 is as fatal to mental growth as is isolation of the 
 individual to social progress. The value of fre- 
 quent recall of memory images lies in the at- 
 tachments or the relations they thus establish. 
 It is a most interesting study to trace the subtle 
 connections' by which one memory image is re- 
 called by another. All these connections may 
 be grouped under general laws called the laws 
 of association. These association laws give us 
 the explanation of the power to recall memory 
 
 images. They are usually cata- 
 
 As L sociat"on lo g Ued aS the C 1 ) law ° f COn - 
 
 tiguity; (2) law of similarity or 
 resemblance; and (3) law of contrast. Others 
 are sometimes given. 
 
62 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 (i) By the first of these laws we find it rela- 
 tively easy to associate places, things, and events 
 that lie near to each other. Experiences which 
 occur together usually suggest each other. When 
 one is recalled, the other is likely also to arise 
 in consciousness. I was in Louisiana at the time 
 of the great flood in western Pennsylvania. 
 These two facts have seemingly no relation, and 
 yet I seldom, perhaps never, recall my trip from 
 Shreveport to Monroe that I do not also recall 
 the awful loss of life at Johnstown. The two 
 things came together, and the one recalls the 
 other. The association is fixed ; the images are 
 wedded. What God thus joins together, we can- 
 not put asunder. When I recall the Sunday after- 
 noons of my boyhood summers, there always 
 arises the fragrant memory of walks in the forest 
 with my father. But why 
 contiguity enumerate? The law is written 
 over all our experiences. The 
 thing to remember is that no unlovely memory 
 shall attach to the experiences of our youthful 
 years in the study of God's Word. Let all the as- 
 sociations of that study be wholesome and 
 sweet and helpful. Thus we shall permanently 
 predispose the soul of the child to a sincere love 
 for the better life and its lessons as we have 
 endeavored to impress them. 
 
 (2) Things that in some intrinsic manner re- 
 
RETENTION AND RECOLLECTION 63 
 
 semble one another are usually so grouped that 
 their images mutually aid one another in recall. 
 As I think of Christmas giving, I recall the ob- 
 servance of this act in the island of Porto Rico. 
 There the gift-giving occurs at the anniversary 
 of the coming of the wise men from the East, who 
 came with gifts to Him whose star they saw in 
 the east. I can yet in memory see the grass- 
 filled boxes outside the doors of the peasants, 
 
 and the simple faith of a child- 
 Resembiance hood that believes the wise men 
 
 will come on the backs of 
 donkeys. If a child has been naughty, the 
 donkeys eat the grass and leave the box empty. 
 If, on the contrary, the child has been good, the 
 fragrant grass becomes the depository of the 
 gifts that the wise men bear for those that are 
 worthy. While I write this, a flood of similar 
 observances in all parts of the world is recalled, 
 and while I ponder upon the world-wide custom, 
 my heart catches itself with a great joy as I re- 
 call the One in whose honor all this is done. 
 This is but a type of a form of association that 
 knits together in memory vast groups of related 
 images. A wise teacher always seeks to establish 
 association by resemblance. 
 
 (3) Things that in some manner suggest op- 
 position or contrast are generally so grouped in 
 memory that they mutually recall each other. 
 
64 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 How full our lives are of contradictory things 
 that thrust themselves forward in association. 
 Upon Thanksgiving Day, when we had our home 
 dinners, how common was the remark, " I wish 
 every family in the city might to-day have as 
 good a meal." It was our own comfort in asso- 
 ciation with the needs of others that caused us 
 
 thus to recall the two together. 
 contrast The fabric of our thought is 
 
 filled with these contrasted pic- 
 tures of sorrow and joy, of pleasure and pain, 
 of health and sickness, of right and wrong, of 
 life and death. The Bible itself is largely a rec- 
 ord of the conflict between two great opposing 
 forces, — good and evil, God and the evil one. 
 Good teaching notes this form of association, and 
 endeavors to impress truth by positive ideas of 
 what truth is, and by negative ideas of what it is 
 not. There is thus a basis in this law for positive 
 teaching and for negative teaching. We do what 
 is right by knowing what the right is, and also 
 by knowing what it is not. 
 
 One finds in these natural laws of association 
 most important guidance in teaching. The wise 
 teacher will use his materials of instruction in 
 such a way as to occasion in the mind large 
 groups of related truths, bound together by every 
 law of association through which the mind oper- 
 ates. In this way each new truth becomes a part 
 
RETENTION AND RECOLLECTION 65 
 
 of a system of thought. It is enriched, and it 
 enriches by every proper association thus es- 
 tablished. 
 
 There are schemes of association that are de- 
 vised to trick the memory into grouping things 
 that are not naturally related. They are called 
 memory systems. They employ some form of 
 mnemonics to take the place of a natural law. 
 From all these keep yourself free. If they have 
 merit, it is due to their use of natural laws, 
 which had better be used instead. If they are 
 opposed to these laws, they are in the end per- 
 nicious. Nothing can be devised that is quite 
 so useful as the laws God has set in the soul. 
 Let us discover these laws and follow them. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Consider the value of directness and of simple lan- 
 guage in teaching. 
 
 What things in your experience as a pupil in the 
 Sunday-school do you recall most vividly? What sug- 
 gestion does this offer to you? 
 
 If fatigue has something to do with memory results, 
 has it also something to do with teaching? What will 
 the amount of sleep you secure Saturday night have to 
 do with your usefulness as a teacher the next day ? 
 
 How do you secure repetition without at the same 
 time resorting to the cramming process in teaching? 
 
 Just what is the legitimate use of memory? 
 
66 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Study your own mind processes to verify the state- 
 ment that the mind naturally tends to recall former facts 
 of knowledge. Is this recall a pleasurable activity? 
 
 How do you enrich a fact of knowledge? 
 
 Outline the laws of association, and write a paragraph 
 based upon your own experience illustrating each law. 
 
 Write out at length the laws of teaching that a study 
 of the laws of association suggests. 
 
 What laws of association, not named here, are sug- 
 gested to you by a study of your own processes of re- 
 call? 
 
VII 
 THE BUILDING OF IDEALS 
 
 A/T EMORY is the soul's storehouse. In it is 
 treasured all our past. From it we draw 
 from time to time the elements of knowledge we 
 need for present use, in determining both what 
 to do with the new perceptions that are con- 
 stantly forming in the soul, and also what to 
 choose for guidance in conduct. Thus all that 
 we have known is of use in interpreting new 
 knowledge and in directing us to additional 
 knowledge. 
 
 A new object is presented to my senses. I 
 am not aware of having perceived it before. I am 
 
 surprised. " What is it? " I ask. 
 ^"3" At once all my remembered 
 
 knowledge that in any way re- 
 sembles it rushes to my aid. The soul is resolved 
 to subdue it, if it can. It can, if it is not entirely 
 new. But if it is entirely new I cannot answer 
 the inquiry. The boy that for the first time tasted 
 a new kind of candy, — called in the trade a sour- 
 ball, — found it at last sweet, then transparent, 
 then hard, and finally thought he had identified 
 it. He said : " It is sweet ice." This was the 
 best he could do with it. 
 
 67 
 
68 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 I recall a series of events. There is a break in 
 the series. Some additional element is needed 
 to complete it. Through this power of recall I 
 am made familiar with my present mental stock ; 
 I am also made aware of my lack. Knowing 
 what I need I am able to institute inquiries that 
 will secure it. Thus my knowledge becomes in- 
 creasingly complete. 
 
 Memory recall is exact recall. The thing 
 comes again just as it was. We recognize it not 
 only as a thing of the past, but the exact repro- 
 duction of the past. Is there 
 Exact Recall any other method of recall ? Do 
 we possess the power to separate 
 past knowledge and recall only chosen parts of it, 
 and combine them into an object of thought, 
 each part of which is a past experience, but 
 which, as a whole, is not at all like anything in 
 our past knowledge? We have such a power. 
 It is at once the most fertile and the most dan- 
 gerous power we possess. We call it Imagina- 
 tion, by which term we designate the power of 
 the soul to work up its past ex- 
 
 Imaginatlon • . , . 
 
 Defined penences into new forms of 
 
 thought. It seems as if the soul 
 wearies of exact recall, and decides to follow 
 its own caprice, its own order of procedure. I 
 have known boys, accompanying their father for 
 a walk, obey the restraints of good form until 
 
THE BUILDING OF IDEALS 69 
 
 the native woods were reached, when with a 
 shout and a leap all objective guidance was 
 thrown to the winds, and the boys ran and leaped 
 and shouted and reveled in the glorious freedom 
 of unrestrained activity. So it seems to me that 
 at times the soul breaks away from the routine 
 of memory recall, and virtually proclaims its 
 purpose to set in consciousness what it most en- 
 joys, regardless of the relation this may have or 
 not have to any real experience of the past. 
 
 Thus the soul builds only chosen elements, re- 
 jecting all that are broken or unlovely or unwor- 
 thy, into an ideal which it cherishes vastly more 
 than any real because it is the best combination 
 it can make from the best elements it can choose 
 out of its whole treasury of knowledge. The 
 function of this power of the soul is to create our 
 ideals. God wants us to enjoy not alone the 
 finest scenes that fall within our 
 
 Function of 1 1 , , .» 
 
 Imagination ken > he WantS US t0 en J°y the 
 
 finest things our souls can enter- 
 tain. Hence he has given us this power of re- 
 creation by which we may make for ourselves 
 a world after our own wish, peopled as we pre- 
 fer, and abounding in such life and incident as 
 we can invest with the fullest measure of feel- 
 ing, and is consequently to us most delightful. 
 We know these products to be distinct from 
 memory products after we have created them 
 
70 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 often enough to become familiar with the fact 
 that they cannot, as a whole, be referred to our 
 past experience for verification. 
 
 Thus by eliminating the things we care least 
 for, and by substituting others that we do care 
 for, we build, bit by bit, our beautiful ideals, — 
 the soul-images that so potentially influence our 
 lives. How full of feeling is this activity ! How 
 we revel in it because we are free from all limi- 
 tations ! Our minds are like the river that "glid- 
 eth at his own sweet will." Thus we make the 
 picture life of thought which at last we carve 
 into a life of deeds. Without 
 
 Power of ideals ideals there could be no progress, 
 — only endless and changeless, 
 dreary and hopeless monotony. Without ideals 
 our minds would become like the wayside pool, — 
 stagnant and deadly. With ideals they become 
 like mountain rills that leap from moss-rimmed 
 rocks in endless showers of silver spray, clothed 
 in rainbows, and bearing in their sweep life and 
 beauty and grandeur. Happy the child whose 
 unfettered spirit may build after its own plans 
 the terraced slopes, the sun-crowned spires, the 
 carved pillars, and the golden portals of the 
 temple of truth. Into it his spirit may pass to 
 find the sweetest communions, and to gather in- 
 spiration for the highest achievements. It is the 
 soul's most holy place. Here the divinity that 
 
THE BUILDING OF IDEALS 7 1 
 
 is in us is enshrined. Here we may worship and 
 
 adore. The soul is most joyous when most free. 
 
 The desire to build ideals is innate. We long to 
 
 become what our ideals figure. The struggle is 
 
 always from the thing we are 
 
 Lowell to the thing we wish to be. 
 
 Lowell well portrays this in his 
 
 poem entitled " Longing " : 
 
 Of all the myriad moods of mind 
 
 That through the soul come thronging, 
 Which one was e'er so dear, so kind, 
 
 So beautiful as Longing? 
 The thing we long for, that we are 
 
 For one transcendent moment, 
 Before the Present poor and bare 
 
 Can make its sneering comment. 
 
 Still, through our paltry stir and strife. 
 
 Glows down the wished Ideal, 
 And Longing moulds in clay what Life 
 
 Carves in the marble Real; 
 To let the new life in, we know, 
 
 Desire must ope the portal ; — 
 Perhaps the longing to be so 
 
 Helps make the soul immortal. 
 
 Longing is God's fresh heavenward will 
 
 With our poor earthward striving; 
 We quench it that we may be still 
 
 Content with merely living ; 
 But, would we learn that heart's full scope 
 
 Which we are hourly wronging, 
 Our lives must climb from hope to hope 
 
 And realize our longing. 
 
J2 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Ah ! let us hope that to our praise 
 
 Good God not only reckons 
 The moments when we tread his ways, 
 
 But when the spirit beckons, — 
 That some slight good is also wrought 
 
 Beyond self-satisfaction. 
 When we are simply good in thought, 
 
 Howe'er we fail in action. 
 
 It is to be noted that this power to create ideals 
 is an intentional power. It is different from 
 dream-life and from the air-castle life that some 
 associate with it. This association has been un- 
 fortunate. This association has led many to re- 
 gard the imagination as a sort of capricious, 
 dreamy, hazy, and useless power. It has even 
 
 led us to regard the man of 
 Power° na ideals as a rainbow-chaser, a 
 
 dreamer, an impracticable and 
 altogether unworthy person. This is neither 
 just nor reasonable. It is in fact a most valuable 
 power, one that we should love well enough to 
 give it adequate exercise, and understand well 
 enough to give it thoughtful consideration in a 
 study of the complex soul of a child. 
 
 Through this power we bring our rich feeling- 
 life into happy combination with our thought- 
 life. The imagination is the feeling-power of the 
 soul. By it we invest the barren facts of knowl- 
 edge with all the glow and ardor and fragrance 
 which fill the recesses of the soul. Note that the 
 
THE BUILDING OF IDEALS 73 
 
 imagination builds only concrete images. It 
 
 breaks up our abstract and general notions into 
 
 individual and concrete pictures. 
 
 ' ma F«Hn°g ° n<1 This is Wh y ^ HeS S0 near t0 the 
 
 feeling-life. I think of leader- 
 ship, and there arises in my soul an image of that 
 heroic leader who for years fed his father-in- 
 law's flocks, and for the same time fed upon the 
 thoughts that God gave him, until he became 
 wise enough and strong enough to speak for God 
 in Egypt, to act for God in the wilderness, and 
 to talk with God in the morning, alone, above 
 the mountain mists. In my imagination there 
 looms up the heroic-souled Moses. I think of 
 noble womanhood, and there comes to me an 
 image of that queenly-spirited and really noble 
 woman — Ruth : 
 
 "When sick for home, 
 She stood in tears, amid the alien corn." 
 
 I think of father-love, and there sweeps into my 
 vision the broken-voiced and heart-wrung king 
 crying in the agony of his soul, " O my son Ab- 
 salom, my son, my son Absalom ! " How infi- 
 nitely superior as teaching material are these 
 warm, concrete pictures in the imagination to 
 the cold abstractions of memory and of judg- 
 ment! How the imagination speaks in the val- 
 ley of the soul, and the dry bones of thought 
 
74 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 stand up, clothed with the flesh of feeling, and 
 thrilled with the warm pulse of life. Oh, my 
 teacher ! ponder well this power of the soul. Its 
 issues are so far-reaching and so fruitful. 
 
 Imitation is limited to our perceptions. We 
 cannot ideally create a world containing elements 
 wholly outside of our experience. The ideals of 
 the blind are colorless. The ideals of the deaf 
 are soundless. The ideals of the city child lack 
 the rich imagery of the country. The ideals of 
 the country boy lack the elements common to the 
 city boy. A girl educated in Ohio, where she 
 never saw a mountain, and her teacher had never 
 given her any notion of mountain beyond its ele- 
 vation, wept when she came east and drew near 
 to the great mountains of Pennsylvania. She 
 explained that she was frightened lest the train 
 should break asunder on the very crest of the 
 mountain. Upon inquiry, it was ascertained that 
 she thought the top of the mountain less than a 
 foot in width, with sharp slopes on either side. 
 
 The ideals of all of us are bound up with our 
 
 experience. If, then, we wish to build beautiful 
 
 and true images of the higher life, we must set 
 
 the elements of this life vividly 
 
 Experience and .1 < j j , , 1 
 
 ideals in the soul > an " endeavor, by all 
 
 the skill at our command, to 
 
 help the pupil to erect right ideals of the life he 
 
 should live. The most elusive power of soul is 
 
THE BUILDING OF IDEALS 75 
 
 the power of feeling. To capture the feelings is 
 to control the soul's citadel. Study carefully the 
 Bible references to the heart, the figurative foun- 
 tain of feeling. You will then begin to under- 
 stand why the Psalmist writes, "Thy word have 
 I hid in my heart." You will know with new 
 meaning the value of the wise man's injunction: 
 " Keep thy heart with all diligence." You will 
 also begin to comprehend the great beatitude : 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart." If this power 
 of feeling is so potent, let us ask ourselves prayer- 
 fully, "How may the feeling-life be trained?" 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 How do you distinguish between a product of the 
 memory and a product of the imagination? 
 
 What do the following words suggest to you : Carrara, 
 Miniver, Rococo, Vedas? If you cannot answer the 
 question "What is it?" in each case, what do you do? 
 What does this suggest to you as a teacher? 
 
 Recall any related group of ideas, as the Presidents 
 of the United States in order, the kings of Israel in 
 order, the cities Paul visited on his way to Rome. If 
 you fail to recall all of the series, what do you do? 
 
 Do you see any reason for calling imagination a 
 dangerous power? Ponder this thoughtfully. 
 
 In what way is our ideal related to the real? Which 
 is the more potential? Discuss the way we know an 
 imagination product from a memory product. What 
 
?6 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 is meant by the imagination's power to create ideals 
 being an intentional power? 
 
 Put your idea of goodness, of kindness, of helpful- 
 ness, and of faith, into a concrete image. Study what you 
 did in each case. 
 
 Are you trying Sunday by Sunday to give your pupils 
 the materials of thought with which they may through 
 imagination build a beautiful life? 
 
VIII 
 
 FEELING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 T N THE preceding chapter the question is 
 raised, How may the feeling-life be utilized 
 in the education of a soul? The answer to this 
 inquiry is as difficult as it is important. We all 
 agree that education must influence the whole 
 life of the soul. It must not be addressed to the 
 thought-life alone, but must also touch the feel- 
 ing-life and the will-life. Our educational litera- 
 ture is filled with elaborate discussions of the 
 thought-life, and some discussions of the will- 
 life, but really no clear discus- 
 
 K»;i« sion of the feeling-life. When 
 we considered interest in its 
 relation to attention, the feelings thrust them- 
 selves into the discussion. Here, again, in a discus- 
 sion of the imagination these feeling elements 
 claim our thought. In fact, every time we 
 drop the plummet to the inner depths of our 
 discussion we shall invariably touch some aspect 
 of feeling. 
 
 Dr. Holland characterizes the atmosphere in 
 the Garden of Eden as " uneasy with its burden 
 of vitality." I have been in a tropical forest, 
 
 77 
 
78 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 deep in a valley of Porto Rico, where the atmos- 
 phere seemed surcharged with the plastic ele- 
 ments of life. Light and warmth and moisture 
 were so beautifully blended that it seemed only 
 necessary to disturb, by a wave of the hand, the 
 delicate poise of elements, and there would burst 
 forth a wealth of bloom, a pro- 
 
 F Tho n u e g ht d fusion of life ' t0 thri11 the be " 
 holder. One felt instinctively 
 
 that life, nascent but real, was in the very ele- 
 ments about him. So, it seems to me, it is in the 
 soul. Everywhere, brooding like an over-soul 
 upon the thought-life, is this marvelous mystery 
 of feeling. One can feel the tension, one can al- 
 most vision the sweep of its power, as it surges 
 like a fragrant tide of life over the ranges of our 
 thoughts. There is a strangely solemn pause. 
 We await the issue. This feeling is gathering 
 strength. At last it breaks over all barriers, and 
 sweeps upward into thought. The tension is re- 
 lieved. The vague sweep of our feeling is crys- 
 tallized into thought, and rests in consciousness 
 as an element of knowledge. 
 
 "All thought begins in feeling, — wide 
 In the great mass its base is hid, 
 And, narrowing up to thought, stands glorified, 
 A moveless pyramid." 
 
 Thought that is born of feeling, and is "un- 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 79 
 
 easy with its burden of vitality," is thought en- 
 ergized for the will. It issues in action. We 
 feel keenly, know clearly, and 
 "ww"" act promptly. The act is con- 
 ditioned more by our feeling 
 than it is by our thinking. We act because we 
 feel, and as we feel. Hence to capture the citadel 
 of action, the cohorts of conduct, we must re- 
 gard the feelings. When our feelings are crys- 
 tallized into thought elements they naturally seek 
 the imagination as their channel of expression. 
 The imagination lies midway between feeling and 
 thinking. On the one side it shades into the 
 indefinable elements of feeling ; on the other side, 
 into the definable limits of thought. The imagi- 
 nation may be figured as the bridge that spans 
 the valley between the ranges of feeling and of 
 thought. Over this bridge our feelings sweep to 
 be organized into thoughts. Their passing is 
 most interesting. The result is 
 Th pfei'ine e °' most perplexing. In the vistas 
 of thought we arrange our ideas 
 deliberately for some selected service. Over the 
 bridge swarm our feelings, and lo ! the ordered 
 array of ideas is broken, the unexpected has hap- 
 pened. The issue is action wholly unlike what we 
 planned, and frequently wholly beyond our con- 
 trol. We say we are carried away by our feel- 
 ings, swept from our thought moorings by the 
 
80 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 tide of emotion. Let us ponder this mysterious 
 process. 
 
 If we can figure imagination as a bridge over 
 which our emotions sweep into our thought-life 
 and thence to our volitional-life, a number of in- 
 teresting things arise for our study. Thought 
 may solicit feeling, may beckon to it to come over 
 and join in the complex of our ordered life of 
 thought. This is especially true after experience 
 has demonstrated the enrichment of our thought 
 by the addition of feeling. Our thoughts may 
 be enriched in various ways. We note now only 
 one way, — by the addition of feeling. I heard a 
 good man say that when, at thirteen, he left home 
 for college, his father said to him : " My son, 
 if, when you are away from 
 illustrations home, any of your comrades in- 
 vite you to touch even one drop 
 of liquor, I have only one thing to say, ' Remem- 
 ber your mother.' " The sweep of feeling from 
 a heart full of mother-love kept his hand from 
 the withering curse. As I write these words 
 there comes to me a picture of our old village 
 doctor, standing in my father's store waiting to 
 receive from me his daily mail. As the pack- 
 age was passed to him, he looked me kindly but 
 earnestly in the eye, and said : " Martin, I have 
 known your family in this valley for three gen- 
 erations. I never knew one of them to be in- 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION SI 
 
 toxicated. See to it that you do not break the 
 family record." It was the best temperance ser- 
 mon I ever heard. 
 
 Feeling may be weaker than thought, and the 
 mingling of the two leaves thought in control; 
 or it may be stronger, and place feeling in con- 
 trol; or they may be so evenly matched as to 
 leave the will without a motive strong enough 
 to afford guidance. We all pass under the as- 
 pects of the struggle between feeling and thought, 
 between emotion and reflection, between passion 
 and purpose. Sometimes the thought-power 
 seems to have strength to lift the draw of the 
 bridge, to close the avenue of approach, and to 
 compel the feelings to wait and wither and waste. 
 In the meantime, with cold, calculating intellect 
 we allow no emotion to tinge the colorless sky 
 of our thought. Against such a stolid and resist- 
 ing mind, " To-day, if ye will hear his voice, 
 harden not your heart." There is no justification 
 for the idea, so widely prevalent, that good 
 thinking must be thinking devoid of feeling. The 
 
 wise teacher will allow the feel- 
 a False View ing-life of the child to fuse with 
 
 his thoughts, will encourage all 
 that rich imagery that results, will be careful only 
 that the emotions which are at first crude and 
 untrained become at last refined and controlled. 
 The child that is being taught about the loving 
 
82 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Father has a perfect right to " come before his 
 presence with singing," to " enter into his gates 
 with thanksgiving " and with gladness, " and into 
 his courts with praise" and with rejoicing. To 
 deny him this need of his soul is to allow his 
 rich feeling-life at the first opportune moment to 
 run into riotous rebellion against the very things 
 we most desire him to accept. His emotions are 
 not to be driven with flaming sword and wrathful 
 menace from the fragrant fields of religious truth. 
 If only we knew how much better it is to be 
 kindly stern and sternly kind, than simply to be 
 sternly stern in dealing with our children in the 
 Sunday-school ! 
 
 If we do banish the child's emotions from our 
 teaching processes, remember that these same 
 emotions will crowd the bridge, will pass the 
 gate, and sooner or later break down all barriers, 
 overthrow all thought restraint, and sweep the 
 child on to his doom. I've known parents and 
 teachers who unwisely undertook to do this very 
 thing. " Crucify all pleasurable activity," was 
 the cry. Alas ! they learned, at last, that God 
 gave us these emotions that we might train them 
 for service, that we might marshal them like an 
 army for the victories of the soul. 
 
 It is better to allow the normal flow of feeling 
 over into the region of thought. In this way 
 both thought and feeling become organized, and 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 83 
 
 pass under the control of the will. Note, too, 
 that when thought is stimulated by feeling there 
 is at once a mental result that demands expres- 
 sion. We do not always act as we think. Our 
 lives might be ideally moral if we did so. There 
 is a great gulf at times between the way we think 
 duty and the way we act it. The closing of this 
 gulf is the work of the teacher whose interest is 
 moral or religious. Conscience is the revealer 
 of this gulf. By conscience we are made aware 
 of the difference between our 
 
 What D°oef enCe ideal life in thought and our 
 real life in action. Conscience 
 seems to me to be really the measure of this dif- 
 ference. When the difference is great, the ten- 
 sion is great. We say conscience is aroused. What 
 really happens is that there is a sense of pain, 
 due to the tension by which we realize how far our 
 conduct falls below our ideal. When we do 
 our best, when our conduct rises to the plane of 
 our ideal, we relieve the tension. Conscience is 
 quiescent. We feel no pain. We have acted up to 
 our thought-standard. We have for the time 
 lived ideally. Feeling aids conduct to reach this 
 high plane. It is, therefore, of tremendous value 
 in molding our lives on the ideal side. It follows 
 also that the power of the soul that builds our 
 ideals is a power most intimately identified with 
 the phenomena of conscience. 
 
84 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 The ideal is the standard set in the soul up to 
 which conscience strives to draw our conduct. 
 If we are living below our best, it is perhaps due 
 to the fact that we lack a clear ideal of that best, 
 or it may be that we have so 
 ""oefi'ned 1 ^ on S ignored the beckonings of 
 our ideal that it is no longer po- 
 tent as guidance to us. We may live so long 
 below our best as to lose the power to reach it. 
 This may figure the state of mind possessed by 
 the habitually base man or woman. In that event, 
 the only human relief lies in building a new ideal 
 that may be reached. This may suggest the 
 problem of social reform in a score of direc- 
 tions. 
 
 But the child may be saved the awful struggle 
 with an offended ideal, provided wise teaching 
 makes easy and constant the realization of its 
 ideal. Let us call up again our bridge between 
 thought and feeling. If the feelings sweep over 
 the bridge, and, unchecked by thought, rush on 
 to action, we have a most dangerous condition. 
 The soul is in the thrall of unrestrained passion. 
 We have actions that are frenzied, intemperate, 
 and riotously excessive. We have the quality of 
 the mob. We are crazed by passion. This is 
 sometimes seen in children who give way to wild 
 bursts of anger and other base emotions that out- 
 rage all thought-ideals, and that seriously menace 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 85 
 
 the well-being of the child. The will is under 
 control of blind passion. The thing to remem- 
 ber is that feeling must be tempered by thought 
 before it is a wise guide to the will. On the other 
 hand, thought uninfluenced by feeling is at times 
 a dangerous guide to the will. Shakespeare 
 figures such a character in Iago, who may be 
 characterized as a sort of intellectual devil. Evi- 
 dently it is the judicious blending of all the quali- 
 ties of soul that makes for sanity, — sanity of 
 thought, sanity of feeling, sanity of conduct. 
 
 The flow of feeling over the bridge in child- 
 hood is more steady and less checked than when 
 later in life there is an organized thought-life to 
 Children's intercept it. Children are im- 
 Conduct pulsive. Feeling flows unre- 
 
 strained to conduct. Conduct is 
 not wisely regulated. No thought ideal has as 
 yet been set up. We must not, however, con- 
 clude that their feelings are not keen. To them 
 pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, are not only 
 very real, but very acute. Many are the trage- 
 dies of childhood that to mature minds seem 
 trivial. We teach wisely only as we keep close 
 to the realities of the child. We must become as 
 little children if we are to lead them. Remem- 
 ber that the concrete, living, acting qualities of 
 things are the ones from which the child most 
 fully secures nutrition. Press your lessons into 
 
86 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 such forms, and the question of interest is set- 
 tled. 
 
 The teacher must distinguish carefully be- 
 tween true imagination and those wild and sud- 
 den bursts of fancy which most children manifest 
 at some time or other in the development of their 
 minds. This latter phase of the subject is some- 
 times treated of as fantasy, by which word we 
 are to understand the power of the soul to weave 
 our experiences into forms that are absolutely 
 unreal and unattainable. These grotesque and 
 fantastic products are sometimes spoken of as 
 phantasms, and the tendency of the child mind 
 to build these is so common that we have a whole 
 literature developed in harmony with this activ- 
 ity. It is the literature of fable and fairy tale 
 
 and all that sort of thing, the 
 Fantasy purpose of which seems to be to 
 
 give nutrition to the feelings 
 and to enable this power to work itself off in the 
 least harmful way. There is no law of the mind 
 to govern this act. We seem to have really no 
 part in it, but look upon the act as if it were 
 something going on independent of us. The 
 amount of attention is small and the products are 
 generally valueless. Unless the child indulges in 
 this activity at times when he ought to be en- 
 gaged in some serious matters, — that is, in mat- 
 ters that are specifically self-directed, — the pro- 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 87 
 
 cess is not to be seriously regarded. The child 
 comes through the period without apparent in- 
 jury, and seems to be aware all the while that 
 there is no reality in this act. The process con- 
 tinues even when we are asleep, because the soul 
 never ceases to act. Memory itself is active only 
 in a suggestive way ; that is to say, there seems 
 to be a willingness on the part of the memory to 
 allow these products to be worked up without any 
 regard to the result. The phenomena of this 
 phase of imagination need only to be recognized, 
 but not studied by the Sunday-school teacher. 
 His work is not with these side activities, save 
 only in so far as he recognizes what they are, 
 and makes proper note of their appearance. 
 
 The imagination proper, on the other hand, 
 is a very real power, and its products are perma- 
 nent. It is in one aspect a dangerous power. 
 Let us understand what that means. Any power 
 which reports the feeling-life intimately must be 
 trained with great delicacy and care, because 
 these feelings will assert themselves, no matter 
 what we may do to prevent it. If the feelings 
 themselves are unlovely and immoral, they are 
 very likely to occasion images that are of the 
 same character, and the child may be building in 
 his soul, even without our knowing it, images 
 that will interfere with anything like high and 
 helpful educational processes. It is the problem 
 
88 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 of the teacher at this point to nourish the feel- 
 ings of the child with materials that will weave 
 themselves into pure and help- 
 
 A Caution d ful ima g es - Let us not be afraid 
 to take note of the feelings of the 
 
 child as they become molded into thought forms 
 
 by the imagination. Let us encourage the child 
 
 to give expression to his images, because in this 
 
 way he is most likely to create only the kind of 
 
 images that are pure and clean. Social Purity 
 
 Leagues are doing a great deal of work in this 
 
 direction. They try to keep the fountains of 
 
 feeling sweet, and as a result the whole thought 
 
 of the child is wholesome. I wish to commend to 
 
 you a thoughtful reading of Dr. Josiah Gilbert 
 
 Holland's chapter on " Vices of Imagination," in 
 
 his volume entitled " Gold-Foil." You will find 
 
 it one of the most helpful ser- 
 Dr Q" o °"j nd mons in this direction. He points 
 
 out among other things that 
 many people toy with sin and they harbor these 
 unclean images sometimes for years. There 
 seems to be no act to indicate that they are pres- 
 ent when suddenly the crash comes. Dr. Hol- 
 land is of the opinion that these crises are not 
 sudden, but are due to the fact that the mind has 
 harbored unlovely images for years, and that 
 gradually the whole moral fiber was broken down 
 and finally could no longer restrain expression. 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 89 
 
 His description of the world of sense built by 
 the imagination seems to me to be so strikingly 
 effective that I quote for your study the para- 
 graph entire: 
 
 " How fair and foul it is ! Like a fairy island 
 in the sea of life, it smiles in sunlight and sleeps 
 in green, known of the world not by communion 
 of knowledge, but by personal, secret discovery ! 
 The waves of every ocean kiss its feet. The airs 
 of every clime play among its trees, and tire 
 with the voluptuous music which they bear. 
 Flowers bend idly to the fall of fountains, and 
 beautiful forms are wreathing their white arms, 
 and calling for companionship. Out toward this 
 charmed island, by day and by night, a million 
 shallops push unseen of each other, and of the 
 world of real life left behind, for revelry and 
 reward! The single sailors never meet each 
 other; they tread the same paths unknown of 
 each other; they come back, and no one knows, 
 and no one asks where they have been. Again 
 and again is the visit repeated, with no abso- 
 lutely vicious intention, yet not without gathering 
 the taint of vice. If God's light could shine upon 
 this crowded sea, and discover the secrets of the 
 island which it invests, what shameful retreats 
 and encounters should we witness — fathers, 
 mothers, maidens, men — children even, whom 
 we had deemed as pure as snow, flying with 
 
90 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 guilty eyes and white lips to hide themselves from 
 a great disgrace ! " 
 
 It seems to me that we have here an excep- 
 tional opportunity for the Sunday-school, be- 
 cause, in a negative way, it protects the child, at 
 least for a time, from any nutrition of his feel- 
 ings which might lead to such dire results ; and, 
 again, the Sunday-school does give the teacher 
 an opportunity to put into the mind of the child 
 through his feeling-life such a 
 
 A o U p n po^t y u"nit h y 00, ^oup of rich concrete materials 
 as will compel his mind to or- 
 ganize pictures through the imagination of 
 things that are pure and clean and lovely alto- 
 gether. Sometimes we are not satisfied because 
 we do not obtain the results in thought which 
 we desire. Even if thought is not secured and 
 expression is not obtained, some good has been 
 done by giving to the child the necessary mate- 
 rials out of which in due course of time he will 
 build bit by bit in his soul images that will guide 
 him in right lines of wholesome thought. The 
 feelings are the quickeners of conduct, and if the 
 feelings are of the right sort the issue in con- 
 duct will always be worthy. 
 
 If one's feelings are molded into thought- 
 images by the imagination, and the teaching pro- 
 cess stops there, we are in very great danger 
 of giving the child the wrong materials for his 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 9 1 
 
 final religious education. He must look beyond 
 these images, look through these images, and see 
 the reality of religion which these images merely 
 shadow forth and define. Back of the imagery 
 must be insight — an insight which recognizes that 
 the images themselves are not the final things, 
 but merely guides to the great unseen realities 
 which are, after all, the proper possessions of the 
 
 soul. If the mind of the child 
 ^maees" rests in its images, it will come 
 
 at last to worship these, and 
 there results not true religion, but idolatry. 
 When the child worships the images of gods and 
 of other religious conceptions his intellectual life 
 corresponds to that of nations that have never 
 gone beyond the stage of idolatry. Image wor- 
 ship is almost a universal worship at a certain 
 stage, both in the development of the race and 
 of the individual. When the Israelites in the 
 wilderness were left to themselves, or seemed to 
 be left to themselves, they created some image, 
 as of a golden calf, and before it prostrated them- 
 selves in worship. But the true Christian 
 education pushes beyond imagery and seeks to 
 worship only real things of the spiritual life, and 
 understands that all this imagery is but an 
 attempt of the human spirit to give form and 
 definition to the unseen but very real things of 
 the kingdom of heaven. 
 
92 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Be sure, while you teach, to make clear to the 
 mind of the child the great distinction between 
 an image and the reality which it represents, and 
 to impress upon the mind of the child that wor- 
 ship belongs not to the thing made by hand, but 
 to the things which these hand- wrought objects 
 in a crude way merely typify. You will see, of 
 course, that these images are the concrete ma- 
 terials up through which the soul of the child 
 climbs to his final and triumphant understanding 
 of religious things. You will use in your teach- 
 ing beautiful poems, beautiful 
 '""aim*"' 1 songs, beautiful pictures, and 
 other art materials. See ' to it 
 that the child understands that all of these are 
 but the products — the broken products — of lim- 
 ited mental action, and that they are not the eter- 
 nal and enduring realities. Happy the teacher 
 that has skill and insight to lead the child out 
 of the things of the senses up into the things of 
 the spirit. 
 
 Thought is organized feeling. It is feeling 
 
 molded into permanent forms, and stored in 
 
 memory for use. The mold is the imagination. 
 
 Imagination is the power by 
 
 Thought Defined which the soul defines feeling, 
 
 molds it, gives to it limits and 
 
 bounds. All great virtues are objectified as 
 
 images. This is the picture-making power of the 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 93 
 
 soul. Faith, hope, and charity become the three 
 graces ; the three graces become three young 
 women, in whose faces the artist sets the quali- 
 ties that God, through him, seeks to reveal. We 
 need to define our religious feelings in these 
 images. This makes more real our understand- 
 ing of them. Our painters, architects, sculptors, 
 poets, musicians, all use this power to convey by 
 images the great passions or emotions of the hu- 
 man soul. All the great produc- 
 T mTco::LT tions of art are crystallized 
 feelings, caught in color or form 
 or sound or language, to be enjoyed forever. Take 
 up your favorite poems, musical productions, 
 and other rich art materials, and study them as 
 the definitions of religious feelings. It is not 
 necessary to cite examples. The world is full 
 of material. Note, too, how full of symbolism 
 is our religious environment. Ask yourself what 
 all this objective symbolism is worth as teach- 
 ing data, and consider, too, how empty all these 
 forms are if the informing soul is not trained 
 to give them adequate interpretations. How bar- 
 ren is the soul that sees only the form in art or 
 nature. 
 
 "A primrose by a river's brim 
 A yellow primrose was to him, 
 And it was nothing more." 
 
94 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Have you carefully considered the great need of a 
 better understanding of the feelings of a child ? 
 
 Are these feelings to be suppressed, ignored, or 
 trained? Why? 
 
 Recall an instance in your own life when you ex- 
 perienced a vivid rush of emotion into your thought-life. 
 Do you see any significance in such an experience to the 
 value of Decision Day? 
 
 Write or narrate an instance in which your thought- 
 plans were broken up by your feelings. 
 
 Discuss with others the balancing of thought and of 
 feeling in your own experiences. 
 
 Does feeling necessarily interfere with right thinking? 
 When, if at all, does it do so? 
 
 Will an habitual feeling of hatred, jealousy, or kindred 
 passion, color one's thought upon a given subject? 
 
 Apply this to your opinion of some one who may have 
 done you an injustice. 
 
 Is the Sunday-school a place for the free activity of 
 the feeling-life? 
 
 Suppose you ignore the feelings in your teaching, what 
 becomes of interest in your class? 
 
 Study carefully the meaning and function of con- 
 science in this discussion. 
 
 Study " The Angelus," " Nearer, my God, to Thee," 
 Whittier's " Trinitas," Gray's " Elegy," " The Sistine 
 Madonna,'' and in general all great art products, to see 
 how great souls define feelings — in color, sound, form, 
 and language. 
 
IX 
 
 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF MOMENT 
 
 HP HE powers of the human soul are all pres- 
 ent at birth. They are given with the soul. 
 No new power is subsequently created. But 
 these powers do not all reach their maximum de- 
 velopment at the same time. Some develop 
 rapidly, some slowly. Those that develop most 
 rapidly provide by their activities the materials 
 upon which the more slowly developing ones 
 must act for their fullest growth. One does not 
 become active, and then another ; 
 
 Trowth" 1 like b °y s in a foot race > the y a11 
 
 begin to move at the same time, 
 but they do not travel at the same rate. Thus 
 they reach their culmination at different periods 
 in the life of the child. 
 
 There is an educational law that grows out of 
 this order of growth of soul powers. Direct 
 your teaching activities to the nutrition of those 
 powers that are at the time most active. The or- 
 der of their culmination is the 
 Two vital Laws order followed in this discussion. 
 Knowledge must be adapted to 
 the capacity of the learner. This law, like the 
 former one, is worth much more than a passing 
 
 95 
 
g6 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 notice. It is not enough to have good material 
 with which to teach ; we must also know how to 
 adapt this material to the stage of development 
 attained by the learner. Teachers too often for- 
 get this fact. Sometimes they remember it, but 
 are helpless to conform to it. A few may be 
 wholly ignorant of its significance. 
 
 Sometimes we think that adapting the mate- 
 rials of instruction to the learner is accomplished 
 by the length of the exercise. For young pupils 
 we give short lessons. For older ones we in- 
 crease the dose ; as if in some way our teaching 
 materials, were to be administered as we give a 
 medicine, — increasing the dose with the age of 
 the pupil. This is not the sort of adaptation the 
 true teacher has in mind. It is a difference in 
 quality, not in quantity. This change in quality 
 is not, again, to be thought of as a thing to be 
 secured by diluting the lesson with irrelevant 
 and useless things. It is a change in the quality 
 of thought in which the material of the lesson is 
 cast in the mind of the teacher, and in the lan- 
 guage with which it is conveyed to the mind of 
 the learner. Both in thought and in expression 
 
 it must be adapted to the mind 
 a Third Law of the pupil. The fact that one 
 
 can teach is not proof that one 
 can teach in every grade of the Sunday-school. 
 There are many details of method that make the, 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF MOMENT QJ 
 
 problem for each grade a specific and' somewhat 
 distinct one. Some are most successful in pri- 
 mary work ; some in the advanced work. In gen- 
 eral, it is increasingly difficult to secure good 
 teaching as one moves downward through the 
 grades. It is also true that many teachers prefer 
 the younger groups under the mistaken notion 
 that here their mistakes are not so easily detected. 
 It is not a question of being found out ; it is a 
 question of doing genuinely effective teaching. 
 Thoughtful persons, realizing the greater diffi- 
 culty in securing good primary teachers and 
 knowing also the great importance of right be- 
 ginnings, have claimed, with much show of rea- 
 son, that the teacher of a primary grade has the 
 most responsible position. I do not wish to deny 
 this statement, but I do wish to plead for fine 
 teaching in every grade. 
 
 We are prayerfully asking how to keep the 
 large boys and girls in the Sunday-school. Let 
 one answer be this : put them in charge of su- 
 perior teachers. These older pupils know good 
 teaching. They grow weary in its absence. For 
 these we must make vastly better provision than 
 heretofore, or continue to deplore their all too 
 frequent withdrawal from the Sunday-school. A. 
 superintendent should see to it that each teacher 
 is at work in the grade in which that one is most 
 likely to do the best work. 
 
98 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 The primary teacher is not to assume that 
 
 his pupils know nothing when they enter his 
 
 class. The teacher never begins the education of 
 
 the child. Much has already 
 
 a Fourth Law been learned. The home and the 
 environment of the child, save 
 in exceptional cases, give the child much valuable 
 experience long before constructive processes 
 under competent guidance begin. Thus the 
 teacher is not the initial teaching agency. He 
 may be, often is, the first to comprehend what 
 the home and the environment have given, and 
 organize it into its highest utility in the soul. 
 For reasons here given, I wish to guard the pri- 
 mary teacher against a rather common miscon- 
 ception of his function. To adapt the subject- 
 matter of the lesson to his youthful learners, he 
 may make his instruction silly. Concrete teach- 
 ing at this stage is, of course, vital. But there 
 is no valid reason for introducing long and tedi- 
 ous and foolish stories about common objects 
 until the whole purpose of the illustration is lost 
 in its own over-wrought details. There is noth- 
 ing quite so pitiful as a teacher who has under- 
 estimated the capacity of his pupils, and who 
 flounders around in a desperate effort to accom- 
 plish something with nothing. 
 
 Some primary teachers have the idea that they 
 need only some objects like woolly sheep, dolls, 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF MOMENT 99 
 
 rotten potatoes, and penny candles, in order to 
 be sure of a successful exercise. They push the 
 woolly sheep around on the table, they exhibit 
 the dolls, they cut open the potatoes, they light 
 the candles, and they talk, talk, talk, and lol it 
 
 is a lesson. The pupil follows 
 A fl vi S ew keD this stran g e exhibition and is 
 
 pleased. So is the teacher. But 
 not one sane lesson, not one clear idea, is fixed 
 in consciousness. The teacher has evidently pro- 
 ceeded upon the theory that the more remote and 
 mysterious the connection between the object and 
 the moral to be drawn the better, evidently for- 
 getting that the child gets only the play side of 
 the game and not at all the moral. As a play it is 
 not even justifiable, since the child should handle 
 the objects of the game to make it worth while 
 to him. When will we learn to use objects like 
 these as educational agencies, and not merely as 
 things with which to tickle the fancy and catch 
 the interest of the child? It would add nothing 
 to the constructive value of these remarks to de- 
 scribe some such lessons that I have witnessed. 
 I have only sympathy for the teacher and for the 
 pupils. Let us not censure. Let us rather aid 
 in pointing the better way. I believe, with Dr. 
 Schaeffer, that " to a faithful teacher a tenth of a 
 grain of helpful suggestion is worth many tons 
 of destructive criticism." 
 
IOO THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 The kindergartner knows well that play is not 
 of itself educational. It is the constructive phase 
 of play, the phase that the child cares least about, 
 that alone is educationally significant. With an 
 insight that is born of rare native qualities, re- 
 inforced by a critical study of educational pro- 
 cesses, the kindergartner skilfully shifts the 
 interest of the pupil to the aspect of the activity 
 that is constructive; from an activity in which 
 the emphasis of interest in the learner passes from 
 the process to the end sought by 
 
 Play and Work the process ; from play to work. 
 In play, the interest rests in the 
 process ; the result is not significantly regarded. 
 In work, the interest rests in the result ; the pro- 
 cess is not significantly regarded. In the 
 Sunday-school, the emphasis must rest upon the 
 result, not upon the process. Use objects to lift 
 the child to a religious thought. Do not trifle with 
 the pupil's interest, and so secure no abiding 
 product of value to the learner. 
 
 We have so far considered the stages of soul- 
 unfolding usually described as the powers through 
 which we gain presentative and representative 
 knowledge. We have yet to con- 
 
 Additionai Laws sider the powers through which 
 
 we gain thought-knowledge. The 
 
 function of presentative knowledge is to afford 
 
 nutrition of feeling. The function of representa- 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF MOMENT IOI 
 
 tive knowledge is to afford nutrition of defini- 
 tion. The function of thought-knowledge is to 
 afford nutrition of insight. In general, this 
 analysis indicates the proper organization of the 
 Sunday-school. There should be three depart- 
 ments. They may be designated the primary 
 department, covering, say, four years ; the inter- 
 mediate department, covering also about four 
 years ; and finally the Bible-class department, 
 covering the remainder of the life in the Sun- 
 day-school. Teachers should be prepared to en- 
 ter one or another of these departments. Their 
 study should center in the powers of soul, with 
 the training of which they shall be directly con- 
 cerned. My own judgment is that there should 
 be in a large Sunday-school a superintendent for 
 each department, with a general superintendent 
 over all. None of these should teach classes. 
 They should be steadily engaged in the observa- 
 tion of the work done in their 
 *%££%£ departments. They should never 
 criticise the teachers in the pres- 
 ence of their pupils. The teachers'-meeting held 
 weekly should first meet in separate sections. 
 Each superintendent should point out frankly 
 both the good and the bad teaching witnessed 
 by him or her. At the end of a half-hour, the 
 sections should meet together, and the general 
 superintendent should take up the questions relat- 
 
102 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 ing to the unification of the entire work. This 
 will solve the question of proper supervision. 
 
 Have you ever seriously considered the value 
 of language to the human soul ? Of course, you 
 have often been glad that the power of speech 
 is yours, and that you have learned the great 
 art of reading. But just what 
 uTn'su^ge does the language symbol mean 
 to you as you use it in teach- 
 ing? The most primitive nations have theories 
 for its origin. In general, these theories point 
 to a divine or supernatural origin. This indi- 
 cates the high estimate in which it is held. The 
 Oriaba Indians believe that language is the direct 
 gift of the Great Spirit, that their medicine man 
 and his son journeyed many moons to the east, 
 and received language in two separate sacred 
 bags. On the way home the son's curiosity led 
 him to take a peep, and some language escaped. 
 Later on the white man, com- 
 indian Legend ing that way, found these frag- 
 ments, but the medicine man 
 carried most of it in safety to his people, who 
 therefore speak almost the perfect language of 
 the Great Spirit. 
 
 Our own old North Europe ancestors had a 
 legend that man was born speechless ; that the 
 Divine Spirit in pity sent the goddess of sacred 
 song to earth. The goddess appeared in an en- 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF MOMENT IO3 
 
 chanted grove, and sang the most ravishing 
 music her spirit ever knew. The dogs heard it, 
 and began to bark. The birds heard it, and began 
 to twitter. The frogs heard it, and began to croak. 
 The ducks heard it, and began to quack. The 
 
 fishes, agitated by the commo- 
 Norse Legend tion, thrust their eyes above the 
 
 water, but not their ears. They 
 saw, but heard not, and are mute to this day. 
 The brook heard it, and began to murmur as it 
 slipped over the shining shingle. The trees 
 heard it, and began to rustle their thousand leaves. 
 But man, of all created things, standing in the 
 midst of the grove, drank in the full song, and 
 sang it back again to the goddess. Thus from 
 heaven came speech to man. 
 
 The Bible, too, seems to indicate that God 
 aided Adam to acquire speech. Enough has been 
 given to indicate the priceless value of language. 
 Words at first are to us only the names for par- 
 ticular objects: man is papa; horse is the old 
 family friend ; dog is the family pet ; cat is the 
 child's companion. Slowly he begins to under- 
 stand that the word he uses is applicable to many, 
 finally to all of a group. The word broadens in 
 meaning, and comes at last to denote objects uni- 
 versally. What a widening of the horizon this 
 is ! How the soul universalizes itself when it no 
 longer thinks in things, but in symbols ! Thus 
 
104 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 language is the soul's shorthand, by means of 
 which, with a few symbols, it comprehends myri- 
 ads of particulars. Think what 
 
 Language the th words star cow wind, tree, 
 Souls Shorthand 
 
 water, baby, now mean to you. 
 The power of the soul that builds these general 
 notions is called conception. Let us consider it 
 as the initial process in thought knowledge ; as 
 the first of a series of activities through which 
 we rise to general ideas, to laws, to principles, to 
 the final forms of thought in the soul. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 What is meant by the nutrition of a mental power ? 
 
 Explain how you would proceed to adapt the next 
 lesson in the International series to the pupils of your 
 grade. What is your standard of adaptation? 
 
 What has the language of the teacher to do with the 
 teacher's success? 
 
 Is it true that a teacher successful anywhere will be 
 successful everywhere in the grades? 
 
 Discuss with other teachers what you can do to retain 
 the young men and women in the Sunday-school. 
 
 What is your experience concerning the use of toys 
 in teaching a primary grade? 
 
 Do you know the difference between a device and a 
 method of teaching? Illustrate each. Is the use of a 
 doll or a sheep a method or a device? 
 
 Just what value can be placed upon teaching activities 
 that are like play? 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF MOMENT 105 
 
 Point out the reason for a three department organiza- 
 tion of the Sunday-school. Should each department have 
 a superintendent ? 
 
 What is the value of close supervision of teaching? 
 
 Should superintendents be trained for their work? 
 What are the leading qualifications of a good superinten- 
 dent? 
 
 Why should you consider the value of language as part 
 of your equipment to teach ? 
 
 What is the true origin of language? 
 How do you account for the first words used by a 
 child? 
 
X 
 
 THE USE OF SYMBOLS 
 
 A If Y FIRST notion of a chair is a picture of 
 J '* A an old armchair in my father's house. 
 The chair I sat upon at the table was a high- 
 chair. This name kept it separate and apart 
 from the armchair, but bit by bit my mind began 
 to discern the relations of similarity in many 
 objects that at first seemed wholly separate and 
 distinct. I discerned seat, back, and legs. These 
 essential parts rightly joined make my idea of 
 chair. All objects having these marks I call 
 
 chair. Many accidental quali- 
 First Notions ties are found in the different 
 
 objects. The seat is of wood, 
 or of cane, or of plush, or of iron. The 
 back is square, or round, or long, or short, 
 or braced, or free from braces. The chair is 
 painted, or oiled, or plain. The quality of wood 
 is oak, or pine, or poplar, or mahogany. But in 
 all this varying detail my mind fastens upon 
 legs, seat, and back. These essential parts must 
 be present. Remove one or more of these, and 
 it is not chair. Thus by seeing the similarity in 
 essential parts I am able to group all such objects 
 106 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS IO7 
 
 into one general notion, and that notion I call 
 chair. 
 
 The soul sees (perceives) objects through the 
 senses. Ideas of these arise in consciousness. 
 In this way the soul obtains a report for itself of 
 the objective world. It comes into the posses- 
 sion of possible knowledge. This possible knowl- 
 edge is made into actual knowledge by the act 
 of the soul upon it in consciousness. Attention, 
 as interest or will, holds this possible knowledge 
 in consciousness until the soul knows it. Mem- 
 ory retains knowledge. Imagination, aided by 
 feeling, combines the products of memory into 
 ideal forms, and then the soul is prepared to in- 
 vestigate these experiences and organize them 
 into the highest utility. 
 
 The powers by which it does this are called 
 the cognitive powers. These powers discover 
 the essential relations existing between the var- 
 ious facts of knowledge gathered in the soul. 
 They group these facts into appropriate classes 
 on the basis of these discerned relations, and 
 thus enable the soul with a few symbols, or 
 names, to carry large groups of related facts of 
 knowledge. Our individual experiences are so 
 numerous and so varied that it would be impos- 
 sible to carry them in memory, or make any sub- 
 stantial progress in thought, if we were obliged 
 to have as many different names or symbols in 
 
108 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the soul as we have had experiences through the 
 
 senses. These are the powers then that 
 
 economize effort by building 
 
 cognitive Powers away from concrete, individual 
 
 experiences, into symbols, laws 
 
 and principles, or, in other words, they are the 
 
 powers through which the spirit universalizes 
 
 itself. They are the last development of the soul 
 
 on the intellectual side. All previous acts in the 
 
 education of the intellect should point to the final 
 
 development of these powers at their best. 
 
 These cognitive powers are three : conception, 
 judgment, reason. They develop in the order 
 named, each using the material furnished by the 
 preceding one, and thus producing an order of 
 development of the greatest significance in teach- 
 ing. These powers do not immediately report 
 sense experiences, but they do produce immediate 
 knowledge, since all these relations which they 
 discover to exist are themselves objects of 
 knowledge. We have then to keep in mind two 
 different groups of objects of knowledge: (i) 
 that large and rich and concrete group of ma- 
 terials or objects of knowledge which arethe 
 soul's report of its experiences with the objec- 
 tive world; (2) that equally important, sugges- 
 tive, and abstract group of objects of knowledge 
 which the soul itself creates. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that these powers 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS IO9 
 
 deal absolutely with relations. They increase 
 the sum of knowledge in the mind. Inasmuch 
 as relations constitute the materials upon which 
 these powers act, they are usually called abstract 
 powers, and, because they work out into groups 
 cognitive Power. a11 concrete material of our pre- 
 Deai sentative powers, they are some- 
 
 wi e a ons times ca n e( } the elaborative 
 powers of the soul. The soul names these rela- 
 tions in the same way that it names its percep- 
 tions of things; thus we have words, or signs, 
 or symbols, or marks, which denote products of 
 these, and it is these products, these names, that 
 become the basis of our organic thought; in 
 other words, these products organize the con- 
 crete facts into laws and principles of wide and 
 far-reaching application. We are very much fet- 
 tered when we are dependent upon concrete data 
 derived from the senses. We are unfettered and 
 free when we have these powers to build our 
 thoughts into principles and laws. 
 
 The power of the soul that builds these gen- 
 eral notions on the basis of similarity is concep- 
 tion. This process is unending. 
 conception There is never a time when a 
 word is so full of meaning that 
 wider meaning may not attach to it. Our first 
 notion of God is often simple and vague. We 
 never cease to attach new meaning to the divine 
 
IIO THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 personality. Education is largely a matter of 
 giving meaning to symbols. 
 
 The thought powers deal wholly with symbols. 
 These symbols are words, mathematical symbols, 
 and other general signs that represent many con- 
 crete experiences in one term, sign, or symbol. 
 For the purposes of the Sunday-school, the lan- 
 guage symbol is, of course, the potential one. 
 The soul has the power to group many similar 
 ideas into one, and name this one. We can think 
 individual notions into class notions. To do this 
 we must discern the relations existing between 
 these individual notions, as I did with the parts of 
 the chair. 
 
 Let us consider with care the value of giving 
 proper exercise to this significant activity. Its 
 function is to build general ideas, to group an 
 infinite number of individual perceptions under 
 one general notion, and to give to this general 
 notion a name. This name becomes its symbol, 
 its sign, or its mark. This name may be a word, 
 a figure, or any other abstract character. When 
 this name is given it is sometimes called a gen- 
 eral notion, sometimes a concept. We will use the 
 word concept. Conception is the power that 
 builds concepts out of percepts. How does it do 
 it? It holds in consciousness two or more ob- 
 jects of thought which have come at different 
 times into the soul, and which have remained in 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS III 
 
 memory until a given moment. A new process 
 occurs. The soul seeks to find the essential attri- 
 butes which exist in the different 
 concept Defined objects of thought considered. 
 If the same attributes are 
 found to exist in two or more of these objects, 
 this power groups into one the different objects 
 that contain these essential marks or attributes. 
 All the objects of knowledge possessing these 
 essential marks or attributes are then grouped 
 also into the same class, and a name is given to 
 this group or class. For illustration, I find in my 
 idea of chair the essential attributes, back, seat, 
 legs. When I find these three attributes or 
 marks in the same relation in different objects, 
 it becomes easy to disregard all other attributes 
 or marks, and to consider only these essential 
 ones, thus enabling me to place into one group 
 all the different objects which have these essen- 
 tial marks. I name this group with the word 
 chair, and thereafter I apply my notion of chair 
 to all the different objects that fall within this 
 group. 
 
 You see, then, why these may be called general 
 notions or concepts. They are the units of the 
 higher thought, just as bricks are the units of a 
 building, or as sand grains are the units of the 
 seashore. We use these concepts in the build- 
 ing of thought. The vital thing here is to see that 
 
112 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 no individual notion is allowed to pass into a 
 class which does not possess the vital or essential 
 attribute or mark that belongs to that group. 
 Here is the place for the teacher to make time 
 by taking time. Here the teacher will go fast by 
 going slow, for work badly done at this point 
 will vitiate all subsequent thought process. Un- 
 less the concepts are clear the thinking cannot be 
 clear. From the point of view of a grammar- 
 ian these concepts are called common nouns, that 
 
 is to say, they are names com- 
 "conceptg*" mon to all the objects of the 
 
 same kind or class. To teach 
 the exact meaning of a concept is of the utmost 
 importance. Here the teacher will find himself 
 embarrassed, and the mind of the pupil con- 
 fused, if he allow all accidental attributes or 
 marks to become the basis of classification. The 
 different varieties of chairs, the different shapes 
 of backs, the seat, the legs, the different mate- 
 rials of construction, different prices at which 
 they are bought, the different uses to which they 
 are applied, are all accidental attributes which 
 in an unguarded moment may enter the mind 
 of the child as a basis of classification and of 
 grouping. Lay them aside. Distinguish between 
 what is essential and what is not essential. 
 Fasten the activities of the child upon the essen- 
 tial things. Avoid laying emphasis upon the 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS II3 
 
 non-essential things. In this way some clear 
 notion of the concept and its content may be 
 arrived at. 
 
 Children pick up words at random, they learn 
 them from one another, they bring, them from 
 every conceivable source, and unless the teacher 
 goes through this list of materials and gives 
 them definite meaning, the child will be ham- 
 pered and hindered in arriving at clear thought. 
 In the fourth chapter of John we have the inter- 
 esting narrative of Jesus at Jacob's Well. We 
 are told by competent authorities that this inci- 
 dent occurred some time in the month of De- 
 cember. Jesus says to his disciples : " Say not 
 ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh 
 the harvest? behold, I say unto 
 illustration you, Lift up your eyes, and look 
 on the fields, that they are white 
 already unto harvest." When I asked a boy the 
 time of the incident, he said, " March." I said, 
 " How do you arrive at that conclusion ? " He 
 said, " Because it was four months before har- 
 vest." I said to the boy, " When is harvest in 
 Palestine ? " " Oh ! " said he, " in Palestine ! I 
 hadn't thought of that." 
 
 The child's concept harvest meant that it was 
 a certain time on the calendar, — a time which 
 he arrived at by his limited observation in the 
 fields of Pennsylvania. Read Dr. Trumbull's 
 
114 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 " Studies in Oriental Social Life," 1 for a clear 
 interpretation of the meaning Jesus here intended 
 to be conveyed. The boy had taken an acci- 
 dental attribute or mark of the concept harvest 
 for the essential one. The fact of the matter is 
 that somewhere on this broad earth God ripens 
 the harvest every day in the calendar year. 
 Somewhere the ripening grain bends in the 
 
 golden sun. Somewhere the 
 Th Ha^vest Pt reaper is forever bending to his 
 
 toil. Somewhere the gleaner is 
 forever treading in the footsteps of Ruth. If, 
 then, our notion of harvest is not clear, how can 
 we understand the time set for the incident at 
 Jacob's Well? How difficult it would be to un- 
 derstand the quotation above in which the ripen- 
 ing souls of men, like the ripening grain, are 
 everywhere and always waiting for the reaper, 
 if harvest meant a restricted time. Let us learn 
 at this point that one clear thought, well set in 
 the soul of a child, is worth a multitude of con- 
 fused and conflicting ideas set in haste under 
 the impression that unless we teach much we 
 have not taught well. Here make haste slowly, 
 do your work well. 
 
 Remember that whatever is put into the mind 
 of a child under a term or word which ought not 
 to be put there under that term or word is likely 
 
 1 Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $3. 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS 1 1 5 
 
 to remain there to color all his subsequent 
 thought, and pervert all his subsequent thinking. 
 I have known children who were made to feel 
 that God himself was a cruel and exacting 
 Master, whose special function seemed to be to 
 follow after them, and to watch for their mis- 
 deeds and punish them for these misdeeds. Thus 
 
 the children put into their no- 
 " caution" ^ on °^ G°cl an element which 
 
 made it impossible for them for 
 years to come to reconcile the teachings of the 
 Sunday-school as to just what God is with these 
 early and false interpretations of his attributes. 
 A little child who was told by her mother that 
 God was always watching her and awaiting an 
 opportunity to punish her for her misdeeds, be- 
 came so wrought up over the matter that in her 
 mind God was simply a cruel and persistent force 
 dogging her life. One day, when she was about 
 to go from one room to another, her pet dog in- 
 sisted upon accompanying her. She pushed the 
 dog back as she tried to open the door, but the 
 dog insisted on passing through with her. After 
 two or three efforts, she turned on the dog and 
 said savagely, " Go away ; it is bad enough to 
 have God tagging after me wherever I go, with- 
 out being bothered with you." 
 
 I suppose that we all get these false notions, — 
 that is to say, we read meanings into terms which 
 
Il6 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 do not rightly belong there. The accidental 
 qualities and the false qualities of our terms over- 
 shadow the essential qualities, and our life-actions 
 are colored and perverted thereby. I think we 
 are safe in saying that much of the wrong that 
 is done in this world is due to the fact that some 
 quality in our notions which should not be there 
 gives color and warrant to our deeds. It seems, 
 therefore, that in the Sunday-school especially 
 the greatest care should be exercised to attach 
 to a new word only the things which legitimately 
 belong to it, so that when the child thinks with 
 this new word and analyzes it, his data will 
 enable him to attain conclusions in harmony with 
 the facts of the case, and not conclusions that 
 are wholly at variance with the real meaning of 
 the term. 
 
 This is all the more important as one remem- 
 bers that when these words are joined together 
 they become the basis of our judgment, and 
 later on of our reason; and that we cannot judge 
 
 words Become nor reason correctly unless we 
 Basis of hold right meanings for the 
 
 terms or words which lie at the 
 basis of our higher thought organization and 
 activity. Take the word " Sunday-school " itself. 
 I suspect that if we were to ask the children 
 what meaning they attach to that term it would 
 surprise us to find that most of them have vague 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS WJ 
 
 and perhaps false impressions. They do not 
 have under this term the notions or ideas which 
 ought to be placed there. In a vague way they 
 know that the Sunday-school is a place where 
 they ought to be, and they may perhaps under- 
 stand that it is a place where they are to learn 
 about God or about Jesus, or a place where they 
 are to study the Bible, or a place where they are 
 sent to be made good, or a place where they are 
 to be kept from mischief, or a place where they 
 are to appear in their best clothes ; but I doubt 
 very much whether we have stopped in our 
 teaching activity to make definitely clear to the 
 mind of the child just what the Sunday-school 
 is, and what should come into the mind of the 
 child as its purpose when the word " Sunday- 
 school " is present in consciousness. 
 
 We are very likely to assume that familiar 
 
 terms like these that are on our lips constantly 
 
 are sufficiently understood by the children to be 
 
 of use to them. A good teacher 
 
 M "ar" in8: wil1 watch the ful1 significance 
 of the most common words, and 
 see to it that these are built up with the right 
 significations attached to them, so that their use 
 will always give to the child clear knowledge and 
 true interpretation. 
 
 As a matter of experiment, I should like to 
 have you test your children on the meaning of a 
 
Il8 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 few common words; for instance, what they 
 mean by kindness, what they mean by religion, 
 what they mean by church, what they mean by 
 truthfulness, or some such equally familiar 
 words. A test of this kind will 
 
 An Experiment reveal to you how unsafe it is 
 to assume that the child knows 
 the meanings of these terms as we wish them 
 to be known, and as they need to be known, in 
 order to use them properly in constructive 
 thought. 
 
 Words are only the symbols of thought. They 
 are the objective expressions for what we image 
 in thought. They have no life, no power, no 
 value in and of themselves. They are of value 
 only as they are used to call up in the mind 
 thought-images. Under the words are the 
 thoughts. It is of no use to ask pupils to mem- 
 orize the words when these words mean nothing 
 to the pupils. We have no right to burden the 
 memory with useless categories of symbols. I 
 write now for you a word — " miniver " — and, 
 after you have spelled it and pronounced it, I 
 ask you to think with it. Think hard! Think 
 long ! Think well ! Think ? Ah ! no, you cannot. 
 It is a good word. What does it mean to you? 
 You often put the minds of your pupils into this 
 same vacuous condition. I wish I could make 
 you feel this as keenly as you may have made 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS 1 1 9 
 
 some of your pupils feel it in days gone by. 
 Think now of the utter waste of time and of op- 
 portunity resulting from the foolish burdening 
 of the child mind with such meaningless symbols. 
 
 Write a list of words the meanings of which 
 you are confident the pupils in your class under- 
 stand. What words will you write? Do you 
 know any such list? You cannot convey knowl- 
 edge in any other words. You cannot teach, 
 actually cannot, until you put 
 voJbuiary thought into known symbols. 
 Where will you turn to get your 
 words? There is only one place — you must 
 gather the words from your pupils. Find the 
 words in their vocabulary ; that is, the words they 
 use unconsciously in conveying thought, and you 
 will then know within what language limits you 
 must labor to teach your class. 
 
 Put the truth of God into the symbols of the 
 child's soul, and he will understand, he will know, 
 he will grow. If you find, in the lesson you wish 
 to teach, any necessary symbols that are not 
 used by your pupils, teach these necessary words 
 before you undertake to convey truth by means 
 of them. Remember that it may be as vital to 
 the child to learn the full meaning of a new 
 word as it is to master a new fact of knowledge. 
 Do not wait for your pupils to tell you what lan- 
 guage difficulties lie in their way. Be yourself 
 
120 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 on the watch for them. Let each child know 
 that you appreciate his possible difficulties and 
 are anxious to aid him to the best issues in his 
 study. 
 
 Words are the symbols with which we think 
 the many into the one. All the separate objects 
 in nature that are in an essential way related by 
 similarity are grouped into one general term. 
 The word names this general term. When once 
 the general term is clearly comprehended through 
 the power of conception, the natural tendency of 
 the mind is to put the new fact as it comes into 
 consciousness into relation with the general term 
 that denotes objects of that sort or kind. The 
 soul is uneasy with the new fact until it is identi- 
 fied as belonging to the proper group, and is ac- 
 cepted as one additional indi- 
 concept Building vidual element of knowledge in 
 some general notion. The ques- 
 tion is, " What is it ? " The answer to the ques- 
 tion comes when we identify it as one of the 
 many named by the general term. This general 
 term is the product of the power of conception, 
 and is called a concept. The grammarian calls 
 some concepts common nouns. The definition of 
 a common noun is also a descriptive statement of 
 what a concept is. 
 
 All the individual elements of knowledge that 
 we can group under one word are in some essen- 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS 121 
 
 tial way related one to the other. Good teaching 
 implies the power to put many single elements 
 of knowledge, that is, many products of percep- 
 tion, under one symbol or word. To do this re- 
 quires the rarest insight. It compels the teacher 
 to present not merely new things 
 
 TeTchfng Del to the soul > but to P^ent those 
 that are related to things already 
 in the soul, in order that the new may be identi- 
 fied readily and classified under some symbol 
 already present and only partly filled with mean- 
 ing. Do not for a moment think that teaching 
 is giving new symbols for new experiences in 
 thought. If this were so there would be demand 
 for as many separate symbols as there are dis- 
 tinct percepts in the soul. This would mean 
 that the power to form concepts is ignored, and 
 the soul would never rise above its most ele- 
 mentary stage of development. A good teacher 
 will aim to group the widest possible range of 
 related ideas under one term or word. An en- 
 riched mind is one that holds many details of 
 knowledge under the fewest terms. To do other- 
 wise is to encumber the meaning with empty 
 words, and to impair the ability of the pupil to 
 think readily. It results in a mental condition 
 that is best described by the word scrappy. 
 Beware of scrappy teaching. Make your efforts 
 count for organic thought. 
 
122 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 There is a law of teaching that is of great 
 value to you : Teach the new fact in its relation 
 
 to what is already known by the 
 Relate unknown pupil. The new fact may be 
 
 wholly new, and hence unknown. 
 Interpret it in the light of the related known facts 
 already organically set in the powers of the soul. 
 All truth is essentially related. Each element is 
 best understood in its relation to each other ele- 
 ment. Link all your facts together. Let the 
 learner understand that all you teach is related 
 to all that you ever will teach ; that, in short, he 
 is building his separate bits of knowledge Sun- 
 day by Sunday into one great, compact, related, 
 and organized system of truth. The pupil does 
 not know the new fact you teach to-day until he 
 knows it as part of all that he is to know. He 
 must not merely see the new fact. He must see 
 it in its relation to other facts already in his soul. 
 This power of knowing each fact in its relation 
 
 to what is already known is 
 Apperception sometimes called the power of 
 
 apperception. It is really the 
 identification of new knowledge by the knowl- 
 edge already in consciousness. It is thinking 
 separate facts into their appropriate classes. To 
 enrich the soul's content is to establish friendly 
 relations between all the separate elements of 
 knowledge held by the soul. 
 
THE USE OF SYMBOLS 1 23 
 
 The teacher as well as the pupil must not only 
 know the new knowledge clearly, but also dis- 
 tinctly. By knowing it clearly, I mean knowing 
 it, and not something else instead of it. Clear 
 knowing stands opposed to all guessing, all vague 
 inference, all accidental attainment of right 
 results. By knowing it distinctly, I mean know- 
 ing it in its relation to other 
 lear De"ined edge ~ knowledge; that is, knowing it 
 in its class or group, knowing it 
 through apperception. The pupil's knowledge 
 is of little value unless it is both clear and dis- 
 tinct. It follows that the teacher must likewise 
 possess clear and distinct knowledge. The pupil 
 will not attain what the teacher does not possess. 
 Even with this equipment the teacher is but 
 poorly prepared to do good work. No one 
 teaches well until his knowledge is not only all 
 that the pupils' should be, but also something 
 more. There is need of a reserve power in the 
 teacher. This reserve power gives confidence 
 and commands respect. It makes for all that is 
 best in the great work of furnishing the soul 
 with the necessary thoughts by means of which 
 it may weave its way steadily through mazes of 
 doubt and entangling dangers up at last to the 
 goal, — full reconciliation with God, and an un- 
 derstanding of the life of consecrated service 
 that he loves. What, then, may we regard as 
 
124 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 this additional form of knowledge that the 
 teacher should possess ? 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Clearly define in your own mind what a symbol really 
 is. 
 
 How do class notions differ from individual ones ? 
 
 Note clearly the distinction between essential and acci- 
 dental qualities of related objects. 
 
 Beginning with your first idea of a tree, how did you 
 arrive at the general concept tree? 
 
 How, if at all, has your concept of God changed in the 
 year just closed? 
 
 How can you enrich your pupil's soul? 
 
 What is the best means of enriching the thought pro- 
 cesses? 
 
 What is the significance of the phrase " Well begun 
 is half done " ? 
 
 Symbols make the soul free — explain this statement. 
 
 What is the danger of putting new ideas into the soul 
 already containing general terms that you have not 
 tested? 
 
 What is the test of good teaching, — many words, or 
 many ideas with few words? Why? 
 
 Point out the difference between clear knowing and 
 distinct knowing. 
 
 General terms (concepts) are farther removed from 
 reality than particular terms (percepts). Explain this 
 clearly. 
 
XI 
 ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 TFI SAY that Ruth, a Moabite woman, the 
 daughter-in-law of Naomi and Elimelech, the 
 widow of Mahlon, was the support of her 
 widowed mother-in-law, my knowledge is clear. 
 I know Ruth, and not some other person in her 
 stead. My facts are, so far as they go, correct. 
 My statement is lucid. This is the simplest form 
 of knowing with which the soul should concern 
 itself. 
 
 If, now, I wish to add to this clear knowledge, 
 the second form of knowing, I must see Ruth 
 in relation to other facts of knowledge. I must 
 put my clear knowledge into its appropriate class. 
 I must find Ruth as the support of Naomi, the 
 faithful gleaner in the fields of Boaz, the wife 
 of Boaz, the mother of Obed, and thus in the 
 ancestry of the Christ of the world. I must see 
 her steadfast, kindly considerate, devout, humble, 
 and possessed with an almighty 
 
 Knowing loVe f ° r a11 that is beSt in the 
 
 womanhood of Israel. Thus my 
 knowledge of Ruth becomes not only clear, but 
 also distinct. Ruth is seen in her relation to other 
 
 125 
 
126 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 persons and events in the sacred narrative. She 
 is no longer an isolated element of knowledge. 
 She forms part of the larger system of truth 
 with which she has to do. Thus I indicate the 
 kind of knowing the teacher should impart to 
 his pupils. To do this well, the teacher's knowl- 
 edge should rise above clearness and distinctness. 
 It should become adequate, by which I mean see- 
 ing the thing in its elements, in its parts, in its 
 analysis. 
 
 Take again this illustration. To know Ruth 
 adequately I must study her in her home- 
 land, in her sorrow at the loss of her husband, 
 in her firm resolve to follow Naomi, in her 
 willingly assuming the role of gleaner-beggar 
 under the law of Israel, in her glorious self- 
 surrender that she might care for an old and 
 helpless woman, in her daily industry in the har- 
 vest field, in her subsequent discovery by Boaz, 
 in her splendid exaltation, in her new home, in 
 her piety, her perfectness, her motherhood. Thus 
 by an analytic treatment of the theme I am made 
 familiar with details of great 
 Knowing value to me as I teach, and even 
 if I do not attempt to lift my 
 pupils to adequate knowledge, my own mastery 
 of this form of knowledge is the best guarantee 
 on the intellectual side that I am fitted to give to 
 my pupils clear and distinct knowledge. This 
 
ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE 1 27 
 
 additional form of knowledge is analytic beyond 
 the ability of the pupil below the Bible-class 
 grade. But it is, in my mind, the absolute pre- 
 requisite of successful teaching. Master the sub- 
 ject in detail, if you would teach well. Then, too, 
 you will find in this added increment of power 
 the secret of control. It is relatively an easy 
 task to control a class if the teacher's knowledge 
 is at once so clear, so distinct, and so adequate as 
 to challenge the respect and the admiration of 
 the pupils. 
 
 Never use notes in your teaching, either 
 printed notes or written notes. Master all these 
 aids before you go to the class. Face to face, 
 take up the lesson and develop it. Fix its funda- 
 mental elements clearly in mind, and so teach. 
 You will find that it is a travesty on teaching to 
 ask printed questions from a 
 Preparation lesson-leaf, and expect to secure 
 prepared answers, and at the 
 same time secure the attention and interest of 
 your pupils. They soon detect the insincerity 
 of an incompetent teacher, and are likely to make 
 for such a teacher the lesson hour a time of sore 
 trial and useless effort. I wonder what our 
 honest opinion is in respect to all this. Do you 
 honestly feel just right before your class if you 
 know you have slighted the preparation of the 
 work? Can we truly commend our efforts to' 
 
128 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 God for his blessing, when, forsooth, our efforts 
 have been practically nothing ? Here is a respon- 
 sibility, an opportunity, an obligation to be met. 
 We can ill afford to pass this by unnoted. 
 
 There is only one other form of knowing, — 
 knowing the thing in its causes. This is exhaus- 
 tive knowledge, and belongs only to the expert. 
 But it is an ideal worth keeping in mind, a goal 
 worthy our efforts. It is a great thing to know 
 some one fact of knowledge exhaustively, to be an 
 authority upon it, to master it 
 
 knowing 8 3S 0therS d0 n0t > and SO Stand 
 
 in some authoritative relation to 
 that thing. We all respect expert knowledge. 
 It is the final guidance. To cite the opinions of 
 others is well, but to create opinions for oneself 
 — that is best. Jesus was supremely great as a 
 teacher. He taught as one having authority. 
 His knowledge was exhaustive. It touched the 
 remotest causes. He left nothing to be said. 
 
 Luke 4 : 18-27 i s a nne example of good teach- 
 ing. Jesus read a Scripture that was well-known 
 to his hearers. He read it from a familiar place, 
 — the reading-place in the synagogue. He used 
 a familiar scroll. He stood to read, as did every 
 priest. He was known perhaps by all those who- 
 gathered that day to worship. Everything was 
 familiar, save only one thing. He read the lesson 
 with a new emphasis. " The Spirit of the Lord 
 
ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE 1 29 
 
 is upon me, he hath anointed me, he hath sent 
 me." It was this designation of himself as the 
 fulfilment of the prophecy that stirred his hearers. 
 There is always something unique, strong, 
 original, in a great teacher. Be sure to find this 
 element. Fasten upon it. Follow its guidance. 
 Thus will you catch in your own spirit some 
 of the power and majesty and dignity of great 
 teaching. You will also note that the distinguish- 
 ing quality of fine teaching is not in the fact that 
 it is radically and wholly unlike other teaching. 
 
 Good Teaching lt is Usin S the Same data ' but in 
 
 versus a way unknown to blundering 
 
 Poor Teaching and untrained teac h e rs. I have 
 
 seen thousands of teachers at work with tens 
 of thousands of pupils. I have but rarely 
 found wholly and absolutely worthless teaching. 
 Almost as rarely have I found absolutely fault- 
 less teaching. Most of it contained at least some 
 elements of worth. Much of it was really com- 
 mendable. But I wish I could clearly char- 
 acterize the stupendous gain to the pupil whose 
 teacher is superbly equipped, over and above the 
 worth to the pupil of that teacher whose work 
 is only fairly good. It is a question largely of 
 margins. The difference between the way we do 
 our teaching and the way we might do it is not 
 great measured in terms of effort on our part ; 
 it is great measured in results upon the souls of 
 
130 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 our pupils. Ponder well what this means to you. 
 Let us endeavor to reduce the margin. 
 
 A teacher writes me that she has always been 
 doing her best; but she has not had the success 
 she longed for. She frankly confesses that she 
 has studied her commentaries and lesson helps 
 in the desperation of her desire to do her best. 
 She also says that her pupils are to her more of 
 a mystery than is her lesson. This is the very 
 crux of the whole matter. Ad- 
 A DiHicuity S mirably fitted with knowledge 
 of the subject-matter of the 
 lessons, she is confessedly ignorant of the ability 
 to fit this knowledge to the needs of her pupils. 
 They do not share in her splendid scholarship 
 because she does not know their capabilities, nor 
 do they know how to utilize what she has for 
 them. Knowledge must be transmuted into spir- 
 itual elements of a kind suited to the hearer, or 
 all splendid equipment fails to accomplish the 
 prayed-for results. 
 
 1 should like to commend to the teacher at this 
 point a careful re-reading of these chapters from 
 the first. Get the general outline of soul pro- 
 cesses definitely fixed, and then measure every 
 pupil in your class by this standard. Are you 
 aware that few of our pupils are wholly normal 
 in their unfolding ? Do you note and know their 
 differences and variations from your normal 
 
ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE I3I 
 
 standard? When these variations are noted, do 
 you aim by all the energy and skill you possess 
 to win each pupil over to the ideal you have set ? 
 We have already found how, by the power of 
 conception, the soul bunches many concrete ele- 
 ments of knowledge into one general class, — on 
 the basis of similarity, — and names this general 
 class. This name is a concept. Thus I come to 
 the use of the term apple ; so also I come to other 
 general terms, as peach, pear, plum, grape, 
 orange, lemon, banana, apricot, and aguacate. 
 Again, by the same power, on the basis of the 
 same general quality, I can build all these into a 
 still more general term, fruit. This widening o.f 
 the series goes on indefinitely. Each generaliza- 
 tion becomes wider; that is, it 
 Generalization includes more and more separate 
 objects of knowledge under one 
 general term. Perhaps if we knew all, we could 
 group all at last under one word that would 
 name all. Note that the wider the generaliza- 
 tion the farther the elements are removed from 
 reality. This is only another way of saying that 
 we drop increasing numbers of qualities that are 
 in each individual object, in order to bring it 
 within the compass of the general term. If now 
 we use these general terms of symbols as instru- 
 ments of thought, we find ourselves relatively 
 free to erect great systems of truth without paus- 
 
132 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 ing at each new term to ascertain how many of 
 the original concrete elements we retain. While 
 this is going on, as it is in every soul, we are 
 also constantly receiving new concrete elements 
 of knowledge through the wide-open avenues of 
 perception. 
 
 Thus at any instant we find the soul furnished 
 both with percepts and concepts, with new knowl- 
 edge still in the concrete, as well as with old 
 knowledge in every stage of advance to the most 
 comprehensive symbols. The orange my friend 
 just gave me, fresh from his favorite tree in 
 Coamo, Porto Rico, is side by side with the more 
 general term orange, and also with the still wider 
 symbol, fruit. Now the soul naturally assumes 
 a very important function with reference to this 
 medley of knowledge elements. It endeavors for- 
 mally to find where the new belongs in the sys- 
 tem of old knowledge carried in memory from 
 
 former experiences. The soul 
 Mating ideas seems to be fascinated with 
 
 this game of mating ideas, as a 
 child is pleased to put together a dissected toy. 
 It endeavors to set relations that are discerned 
 in two objects of thought over against each other, 
 and affirm their agreement or their disagreement. 
 This power of the soul is called judgment. This 
 affirmation is a sentence. As a product of an 
 act of judgment, it is called a judgment. If the 
 
ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE 1 33 
 
 agreement is affirmed, it is called a positive 
 judgment. If the agreement is denied, it is 
 
 called a negative judgment. 
 Judgment Judgment builds our percepts 
 
 and our concepts into higher 
 forms of thought. 
 
 A boy who for the first time saw an island, 
 and was told the name, finally remarked, " Why, 
 an island is a piece of shore out in the water." 
 He had compared island and land, and this was 
 his judgment. When I compare snow and 
 whiteness I announce the judgment, " Snow is 
 white." I also know at once that " Snow is not 
 black." Thus I affirm a positive as well as a 
 negative judgment concerning snow and white- 
 ness. Seeing these relations between the different 
 objects in thought is of the highest educa- 
 tional utility. To explain God is to lead the 
 child to identify him with the attributes of love 
 and mercy and power and majesty and glory. 
 
 Thus we bring him within our 
 Judgment comprehension. It is perhaps 
 
 true that we do not begin to ex- 
 haust the relations existing between separate 
 objects of thought. We carry great series of dis- 
 connected data that should be joined and wedded 
 in the soul. We do not often enough exercise 
 this splendid power of judgment. Every word 
 is the symbol of some more or less important 
 
134 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 fact of knowledge. It is the business of the soul 
 tc establish relations between these symbols. 
 God has given us this power of judgment for 
 that purpose. Let us endeavor to find the subtle 
 but essential ties that connect what may at first 
 seem separate and distinct facts of knowledge. 
 Thus we amass a healthy, a vigorous, a vital 
 activity in the soul. To join words into sentences, 
 to erect concepts and percepts into judgments, 
 is to give the soul the freer sweep, the wider view, 
 the more Godlike power. How may this power 
 of judgment be cultivated? 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 What four forms of knowledge are denned in this 
 article? Define each. 
 
 Take a subject, say, Gettysburg, Valley Forge, Moses, 
 or Paul, and discuss it, first clearly, then distinctly, then 
 adequately, and, if you can, exhaustively. 
 
 In what ways should the pupil know a subject? 
 Why should the teacher's knowledge be different in 
 kind from that of the pupil ? 
 
 Discuss the value of analytic knowledge for the 
 teacher, of distinct knowledge for the pupil. 
 
 Which form of knowing corresponds to apperception? 
 Why? 
 
 What aids should the teacher use in the -class ? 
 
 How does good teaching differ from ordinary teach- 
 ing? 
 
ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE 1 35 
 
 Discuss the value of margins in equipment. 
 
 Why is it proper to say that our pupils are not all 
 normal in their unfolding? 
 
 What is judgment? Form a group of judgments re- 
 lating to the words sheep, shepherd, love, kindness, John, 
 John Baptist, and teaching. 
 
 How does a negative judgment arise? 
 
 How does a positive judgment arise? 
 
 Write ten of each kind. 
 
XII 
 
 FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT 
 
 JESUS declares to his followers that "with 
 what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." 
 This is an eminently fair proposition. We have 
 no right to demand, or even to expect, from 
 others, what we are not willing to accord to 
 them. The same central idea is in the proverb, 
 " People that live in glass houses should not 
 throw stones." It is also found in the saying, 
 " Chickens come home to roost." It is a gen- 
 eral judgment, universally accepted, that in the 
 game of life we should " play fair." We are all 
 too willing to form opinions; 
 Prop-fsmon that is > t0 formulate judgment 
 upon almost every matter of 
 moment that arises. This is especially true of 
 matters of education and of religion. In some 
 range of knowledge we like to think our judg- 
 ment best. We usually select the ranges in which 
 exact determinations are least likely to be thrust 
 forward. 
 
 I saw a teacher once take a group of children 
 out for an afternoon of what she called nature 
 study. She made the children walk behind her 
 136 
 
FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT 1 37 
 
 with their hands behind their backs, quietly, in 
 perfect line, and occasionally she would stop and 
 pick up a flower, or a leaf, or a bug, and, beckon- 
 ing to the children, say, " Form a circle around 
 me." Then she would say, " Children, here is a 
 flower which I have just discovered growing 
 
 amidst the grass. Notice its 
 One way color, notice its odor, notice the 
 
 shape of the petals. Now, come 
 on." And so, again and again, this monotonous 
 thing was repeated until every child was sick of 
 the so-called lesson in nature study. 
 
 I saw another teacher with a group of children 
 on a similar mission. The teacher walked behind, 
 and the children ran in every direction, happy, 
 free, active, unrestrained ; and the moment their 
 bright eyes lighted upon a flower, or a leaf, or a 
 bug, or any other object that interested them and 
 caught their attention, they ran with their find to 
 the teacher. The teacher smilingly said, " Tell 
 me about it. Where did you find it ? What was 
 it doing ? " And some one would start with a 
 most interesting and enthusiastic statement of all 
 
 the facts which they were able 
 W 3 er to gather concerning the object. 
 
 Then the teacher, with wise 
 questions and helpful suggestions and prudent 
 guidance, led the child, step by step, to discover 
 all that in its haste and immaturity it had failed 
 
138 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 at first to note. I felt in my soul concerning this 
 latter teacher that " of such are the kingdom of 
 heaven." 
 
 Let us apply this to the Sunday-school lesson. 
 Some teachers come before the class with every- 
 thing ready, as they should, and then, following 
 a command that they be quiet, or sit just so, 
 their feet just at a certain place, their shoulders 
 thrown back, their little hands folded in their 
 laps, and their eyes glued on the teacher, the 
 children await the mysterious and marvelous 
 utterances which the teacher alone voices. How 
 tired the children are when the lesson is over, 
 and how glad that they can shake themselves and 
 forget ! I have seen other classes in which the 
 children are crowded respectfully around the 
 teacher, but not military in attitude ; not dis- 
 orderly, but not statuesque; and 
 The Application the children are telling the 
 teacher out of the depths of their 
 own souls how the language of the lesson has 
 impressed them. The teacher, pleased but re- 
 served, guides the minds of the children, point 
 by point, to the great issues, and helps them to 
 discover the great truths. Nobody is tired, no- 
 body wearied, everybody surprised, when the 
 tap of the superintendent's bell hints to them 
 that time has been consumed in a most interest- 
 ing, helpful, inspiring way. 
 
FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT 1 39 
 
 We talk too much to the child, as if somehow 
 it were our duty to establish in his mind an 
 impression of our great resources, our marvelous 
 skill, and our profound knowledge. Let the 
 teacher understand that it is his function to 
 bring into class the concepts which he desires 
 to have compared, and then trust the child to act 
 upon these, to discover their relations, and to an- 
 nounce their agreements in fitting language. 
 
 I have no patience with that teacher who 
 wants things done just so, who marks it down 
 against a child every time the child shows the 
 least inclination to put original thought into his 
 statements, and who seems in some mysterious 
 way to feel congratulated when the children 
 grind out replies in language memorized from 
 books and from their teacher. What are we try- 
 ing to accomplish? Are we seeking to educate 
 machine-made products, or are we endeavoring 
 to develop a machine which, under God's guid- 
 ance, will be able by its own inherent powers to 
 build truth and enjoy truth? The activity occa- 
 sioned is worth more than the product, and the 
 training of a soul is of more moment than the 
 correct language of the answer to a question. 
 
 When these judgments are once set forth as a 
 result of the pupils' own discernment of essential 
 relations existing between objects of thought, 
 these judgments themselves become the funda- 
 
I4O THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 mental element upon which a higher power of 
 
 the soul operates. This higher power is reason. 
 
 Reason puts two of these judg- 
 
 judgments used { relation, and undertakes 
 
 by Reason 
 
 to set forth their agreement 
 or disagreement, dealing with judgments in 
 the same way that the power of judgment 
 deals with concepts. We call the products of 
 reason reasons. Reason is the crowning act. Its 
 product stands as the last and culminating act 
 of the intellectual life. Everything that goes 
 before should be tipped and pointed for reason, 
 and when we have taught the soul of a child to 
 reason correctly we have given it the finest in- 
 tellectual power that it can acquire. 
 
 Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd. Why 
 is he a shepherd? Why is he a good shepherd? 
 What must we set in the soul as objects of com- 
 parison in order to answer these questions? 
 David says, " The Lord is my shepherd." Why 
 is the Lord David's shepherd? Again, Jesus 
 says, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life." 
 What do these sayings mean ? Let us work them 
 out for ourselves with the same care that we 
 would work out a problem in arithmetic. Let us 
 not be satisfied with the vague and somewhat 
 comforting feeling that because these things are 
 said in the Book that we love, they must be true 
 whether we understand them or not. Help the 
 
FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT I4I 
 
 child to analyze judgments and reasons and see 
 the bases upon which they rest ; thus as he deals 
 with other judgments he will instinctively ac- 
 quire the means of forming similar ones for 
 himself. 
 
 Almost any man or woman will venture to 
 settle finally great questions in religion and in 
 education. They do not seem to realize that here 
 above all other places there is need of great 
 caution and accurate judgment. To form correct 
 judgments in these momentous matters really 
 demands the finest training, the keenest insight, 
 the greatest skill, the most comprehensive knowl- 
 edge. A dear friend the other day remarked to 
 me : " I really do not see what need there is 
 for extended training of the 
 One view Sunday-school teacher in rural 
 communities. Tell the children 
 what they should do and what they should not 
 do, and you have it. Any person can do this." 
 If this opinion be correct, it is of course useless 
 to have a prayerful concern about the matter. 
 If, however, we think that the best teaching is 
 none too good for His little ones, we must hold 
 to a different standard. In setting this different 
 standard, the question of training the judgment 
 assumes commanding proportions. It is not a 
 question of creating the power of judgment in 
 the soul. God has set it there. It will act. 
 
142 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 The question is one of training this power, to 
 the end that it may put forth its acts under 
 proper guidance and upon right materials. 
 
 What does the soul do with concepts? It 
 turns them over to the next cognitive power, 
 called judgment. Judgment uses them in her 
 process to build higher forms of thought. Judg- 
 ment deals with two concepts present in con- 
 sciousness at the same time, and discovers their 
 relations, asserting either their agreement or dis- 
 agreement, and announcing its 
 
 A Question 1 • ■ *_ 1 • 1 
 
 Answered conclusion in a sentence, which 
 sentence is either positive or 
 negative in form as the judgment is positive or 
 negative. Here again I may use an illustration 
 found in a previous chapter. I say snow is white. 
 I have compared the concepts snow and white- 
 ness, and asserted a relation which I discover to 
 exist in both. I say snow is not green, and here 
 I assert an absence of relation between the no- 
 tions snow and greenness. 
 
 We are all the while forming these judgments. 
 They constitute a most important part of the 
 materials of thought. Instinctively, the soul 
 pushes these various concepts into consciousness, 
 and compares them to determine whether they 
 contain any essential marks in common ; and 
 instinctively, also, the soul seeks to set forth in 
 words their agreement as thus discerned. It is 
 
FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT 143 
 
 better that the child should be led to discover 
 these relations for himself, and set them forth 
 in appropriate language, than to have the pro- 
 cess performed for him by the teacher. You will 
 notice the great difference be- 
 
 Mechanlcal , j* • ±1 1 
 
 Teaching tween discovering these rela- 
 
 tions for ourselves and having 
 these relations discovered for us. Beware of 
 mechanical teaching here, — of formal, cut-and- 
 dried, juiceless, useless teaching. Every time the 
 occasion arises to do so, give the soul of the 
 child an opportunity to act for itself, to launch 
 out into its myriad possessions, and discover in- 
 herent and essential and vital relations existing 
 there. Some guidance will be necessary, a wise 
 question, a thoughtful suggestion, a little in- 
 telligent guidance, these are perhaps all that the 
 teacher needs to provide. 
 
 In conception the soul comprehends the sev- 
 eral parts as together comprising one thing. The 
 process is ended when the union of these parts 
 into one is effected, and this one is named. But 
 in judgment the soul comprehends two objects 
 of thought as two. These two are set over 
 against one another, and by a 
 judgments process of comparison their 
 agreement or disagreement is 
 set forth in a statement which is called a judg- 
 ment. The fourth chapter of John discovers Jesus 
 
144 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 at Jacob's Well. Was he thirsty? To answer 
 this question is to form a judgment. This judg- 
 ment requires that we hold in mind two facts, — 
 the fact of Jesus and the fact of thirst. The re- 
 lation between these facts must be discovered, 
 and the conclusion set forth. We say, " Jesus was 
 thirsty," or we say, " Jesus was not thirsty." It 
 is evident that this is a difficult mental process. 
 The process is complex. Each element must be 
 clearly discerned. We must not let one slip. 
 We must not affirm or deny the fact till we have 
 discovered the relation between two apparently 
 separate facts of knowledge. 
 
 Here is matter for thought. The tendency in 
 children is to form hasty judgments, to guess at 
 the conclusion, to follow instantly the leadings 
 of the feelings. This power of judgment requires 
 an attitude of deliberation and of caution. This 
 attitude is not natural to the child or the youth. 
 Experience has not yet wrought upon them. 
 They are not fully aware of the danger in hasty 
 processes. Then, too, when once the act has been 
 carried to an issue and a conclusion announced, 
 the whole stock of knowledge in the soul rushes 
 to sustain the conclusion an- 
 
 *XZ££ ™ unced - There is a p rfde of 
 
 judgment that renders difficult 
 any attempt to revise the conclusion. Hence it is 
 of the utmost importance that the first judgment 
 
FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT I 45 
 
 upon the facts be the best judgment. Here the 
 wise teacher will pause and formulate an educa- 
 tional law : Arrive at conclusions in judgment 
 deliberately. 
 
 One has to guard against the tendency, all too 
 common in teaching, of demanding instant re- 
 plies to questions, and hasty responses to state- 
 ments of facts. We do not seem to realize that 
 a soul caught in the meshes of a great thought is 
 a soul struggling and strengthening. It will arise 
 at last free, joyous, and glorified. The struggle 
 is the vital thing. This gives 
 
 "Z%XT culture to the power, and value 
 to the conclusion. I • count it 
 good teaching when the judgment of the pupil 
 is for a time in suspense. It is a good practise 
 to put before the pupils a story full of concrete 
 data, and allow the pupils to find themselves in 
 the story, — that is, to consider all the elements, 
 and finally to arrive at a conclusion. The story 
 is all the more valuable as teaching material if 
 it contain concrete facts that appeal to the feel- 
 ings and solicit from them a response which clear 
 judgment may modify. You put the struggle be- 
 tween feeling and judgment before them and 
 only trained power will enable them to find their 
 way to the right conclusion. 
 
 A group of boys were hungry for apples. In 
 an orchard near by the trees were bending with 
 
I46 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 ripe red fruit. The owner they knew had gone 
 to town for his mail. There were so many apples 
 that the farmer would not miss just a few. The 
 boys debated for a time between desire and duty. 
 Finally one boy said, " Let's get some." Another 
 boy said, " I will watch down the road while you 
 run to the trees." A third said, " I won't take 
 these apples without asking the owner." What 
 do you think of each boy? Study your mental 
 process as you are formulating your reply. You 
 will then arrive at some understanding of the 
 process of forming judgments. 
 Two illustrations A mother said that her son was 
 often wilful and perverse. He 
 insisted upon doing things she asked him not to 
 do. He refused to obey her commands. She 
 was often on the point of punishing him, but she 
 said, " He is my only son. How can I ? " Her 
 judgment was at variance with her mother-love. 
 It was difficult, it was painful, to act. A man 
 who lived in a city hoarded his money. He was 
 a hard master. He drove sharp bargains. He 
 insisted upon the last penny. He lived in a small 
 house. He wore poor clothes. He ate cheap 
 foods. His money increased greatly. He refused 
 to give to any charity. He had few friends. He 
 lived a lonely life. He died. People said, " It 
 is a good riddance." But in his will it was found 
 that all his savings were given to care for poor 
 
FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT 147 
 
 boys. He suffered for years that he might make 
 it possible to save others from a life of poverty. 
 Was he justified? Was his life a success? See 
 again in this incident how the judgment is held in 
 suspense. The conflict is between feeling and 
 judgment. Jesus, in a number of parables, sets 
 forth the same struggle. He realized that it is 
 a good discipline for the judgment to struggle 
 against the beckonings of our feelings. To judge 
 wisely is to announce a deliberate conclusion, no 
 matter how the feelings may protest. Judgment 
 is a feelingless power. It is the act of the soul 
 in which the facts are coolly examined and a 
 verdict rendered as judicially as a judge an- 
 nounces a decree. Judgment, like justice, is 
 blindfolded that the solicitations of feeling may 
 not color the conclusion. 
 
 The motto of the ancient Greek was, " Let us 
 
 follow the argument whithersoever it leads." It 
 
 takes a brave and fearless intel- 
 
 a Greek Motto lect to do this. One can see him 
 on the track of truth, following 
 patiently, heroically on, from one conclusion to 
 another. Refusing to be turned aside by any 
 emotion or concern, he pursues his quest in 
 harmony with the fixed laws of thought. See him 
 as he moves forward. What if his quest is vain, 
 still it is his to follow on, until hopeless, relief- 
 less, endless, he comes at last face to face with 
 
I48 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 blind, sickening, dying despair. He has lost, not 
 because he was turned aside, but because he had 
 no goal. A disciple said, " Lo, we have left all, 
 and have followed thee." Jesus was the great 
 argument. Brave and fearless men followed 
 him throughout all Galilee and Judaea ; down the 
 valley of the Jordan ; out into the wilderness ; up 
 into the mountain; through the boisterous and 
 buffeting multitude, into the solitude of the star- 
 less night; by the brook Kidron 
 
 a Holy Quest and the garden of Gethsemane ; 
 to the cross, the tomb, the gates 
 of death, and the portals of life eternal. They 
 came at last to see him as God sees him, and to 
 know him as he knew them. They found him ever, 
 because they followed him steadfastly. Thus in 
 our quest for truth, step by step, invoking the 
 guidance of trained judgment, we shall come at 
 last to the author of all truth. Happy the teacher 
 whose purpose is steadfast; whose path of pur- 
 suit is never clouded by doubt nor crossed by 
 unbelief, and whose unwavering resolution car- 
 ries courage and comfort and conviction to his 
 pupils. To be fair, to be accurate, to be cautious, 
 is to inspire respect and to win confidence from 
 your pupils. 
 
 If we examine still more clearly an act of judg- 
 ment we shall find that it is accompanied by a 
 state of mind called belief. When I announce a 
 
FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT I49 
 
 judgment, based upon definite facts, my soul 
 assents to this judgment. I believe the conclu- 
 sion is true. When I assert that 
 ■"""TeHef " nd snow is crystalline, I believe the 
 assertion. When I assert that 
 God is love, I believe he is love. The very fabric 
 of my judgment is belief. When I cannot be- 
 lieve, I have not clearly judged. " Lord, I be- 
 lieve." This is the final word. To set belief in 
 the soul, we must train our pupils to formulate 
 true judgments. The attitude of belief rests 
 upon clearness in judgment. Thus judgment, 
 rightly trained, becomes the strong-sided cham- 
 pion of conviction. 
 
 Over against belief stands doubt. We have so 
 far assumed that the soul in judging either 
 accepts or rejects a statement. We have said 
 that judgment affirms or denies agreement be- 
 tween two objects of thought. We have a third 
 state of soul to consider. We may waver be- 
 tween acceptance and rejection, 
 H °Arises bt an( ^ sus P en d our judgment. This 
 is a state of doubt. When the 
 relation between the objects of thought is not 
 discerned, the soul cannot formulate a decision. 
 We are in doubt. When we believe a thing the 
 mind is at rest. We are ready to act. When 
 we doubt a thing the mind is in unrest. We are 
 not ready to act. We must resolve the doubt, 
 
150 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 establish belief, and so free the soul to move on 
 to action. On Monday Mary's mother took her 
 for a walk. Yesterday Mary's mother did not 
 do so. What will Mary's mother do to-day? 
 Last Sunday the teacher of William's class was 
 not present, nor was he present the Sunday be- 
 fore. What of next Sunday? Twice in succes- 
 sion James was late at breakfast, then he was 
 on time for three successive mornings. How 
 about the sixth ? 
 
 Doubt moves the mind away from the act of 
 judgment. The judgment is suspended until the 
 doubt is removed. Belief stands at one end, and 
 doubt at the other end, of a long series of mental 
 states. At one end is perfect confidence. Doubt 
 is wholly excluded. At another point doubt and 
 belief are exactly equal. The mind is deadlocked. 
 Farther on in the descending series all belief may 
 vanish, and the lowest level, that of absolute re- 
 jection, is reached. I make bold to say that 
 teachers do not ponder the issues of this para- 
 graph as they should. The teacher is himself at 
 the point of belief. His judgment is made up. 
 He assumes that he has secured the same mental 
 state of belief in his pupils. But has he? How 
 does he know? Surely he should know. The 
 Sunday-school class is not a forum in which the 
 teacher is to be confirmed in his judgment ; it is, 
 in fact, the training-ground for young souls. 
 
FACTS ABOUT JUDGMENT I 5 I 
 
 The vital thing is, what do they believe? Upon 
 what judgments do they climb to clear convic- 
 tion ? What can the teacher do to give discipline 
 
 and nutrition to their struggling 
 How Doubt souIs tQ the end that at ]agt they 
 
 shall live in the clear air and 
 the serene heights whence they may confidently 
 proclaim, " Lord, I believe" ? 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Ciasses. 
 
 Why should religious and educational problems re- 
 quire the clearest judgment? 
 
 Criticize my friend's opinion of the functions of the 
 rural Sunday-school. 
 
 Illustrate the difference between conception and judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Build carefully at least a dozen judgments, noting all 
 the while the action of the soul in the progress. 
 
 What constitutes mechanical teaching? 
 
 What would you do to avoid mechanical processes in 
 your class? 
 
 What are the leading characteristics of the judgments 
 of children? What do they need? 
 
 Is there any danger in " lightning processes " in teach- 
 ing? 
 
 Write or narrate two or three stories in which feeling 
 and judgment are in conflict. 
 
 How is belief related to judgment? 
 
 Can you figure in your own mind the conflict between 
 doubt and belief? 
 
1 52 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 This conflict may be represented by a figure in which 
 the range of doubt gradually yields to the range of be- 
 lief. Draw such a figure. 
 
 Is the teacher doing all that is necessary when he 
 himself forms clear judgments and arrives at stable 
 belief? 
 
 In belief the soul is at rest. In doubt it is not. Ex- 
 plain. 
 
XIII 
 
 REASON AND EDUCATIONAL ENDS 
 
 \X^HEN I was a barefoot boy in the days that 
 never lose their fragrant memories, I fre- 
 quently accompanied my mother and other 
 women of blessed memory to the near-by moun- 
 tains to gather huckleberries. The long walks up 
 the mountainside in the cool of the morning, the 
 frequent rests by the mossy rocks, the refreshing 
 drink from the clear spring under the trees, the 
 chirp of birds, the flash of a squirrel leaping 
 among the leafy branches, the luncheon at the 
 noon hour, the tedious task of picking the blue 
 globules that filled my bucket all too slowly, the 
 
 weary journey home, — all these 
 Memortei incidents now flood my memory 
 
 and moisten my eyes. The very 
 hand that is commanded to write trembles to 
 record what seems almost too sacred for the 
 many to share. 
 
 I recall now my mother's remark, " My son, 
 you have some ripe berries, some green ones, 
 some leaves, and some twigs. You must keep 
 your eye on the ripe berries only if you would 
 save me the task of going over your work again." 
 
 iS3 
 
154 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 The boy was anxious to fill his bucket. He was 
 not at all concerned as to the quality of the con- 
 tents. Is this not likewise a picture of our efforts 
 to gather facts of knowledge? 
 
 We snatch greedily any and all things that will 
 " fill up " our quota of information. There is no 
 order, no unity, no harmony, in the things we 
 gather. If, however, we would gain at last a 
 harmonious group of similar or related facts, we 
 must fasten our mind's eye, attention, upon the 
 kind of facts we most need. We must gather 
 related facts of knowledge, or 
 BaS JudgmeDT 16 P atient processes by teacher and 
 parent alike will be required to 
 sort our mental wares and fit them for organic 
 relations. Accurate judgment presupposes wide 
 experience with the facts involved. Avoid hasty 
 generalizations. Do not speedily leap to con- 
 clusions. 
 
 A teacher in a public school in an eastern city 
 one afternoon found one of her pupils fast 
 asleep. She wakened him rather roughly, and 
 bade him attend to his lessons. The next day 
 she found him asleep again. She gave him a 
 sound shaking, and said, " If this happens again, 
 you go to the principal for punishment." It did 
 happen again and the boy was sent to 
 the principal with a note from the teacher 
 explaining his conduct, and declaring that the 
 
REASON AND EDUCATIONAL ENDS 15$ 
 
 boy was too stupid to remain in school. The 
 
 principal, after reading the note, looked at 
 
 the boy, and said, " My lad, 
 
 schoo" " ^ e ^ me w hy y° u s l ee P i n school." 
 The boy hung his head and 
 made no reply. The principal called the boy to 
 his side and said, " I am sure there is a reason 
 for this. Surely no boy would sleep in school 
 unless he had good cause to do so, and I assure 
 you that I will be glad to aid you if I can. Come, 
 tell me all about it." Assured by this kindly 
 treatment the boy said, " Well, if I must tell you, 
 I will. I have no father. My mother washes 
 every day to earn bread for us, and to pay the 
 rent. My little sister is sick now, and mother 
 can't go out to wash. So, to help her, I get up 
 at four o'clock and carry the morning papers to 
 the houses in our end of the city. I get home 
 late in the morning, cold and hungry. We 
 haven't much to eat. Then I come to school, and 
 along in the afternoon I get so sleepy I just can't 
 keep awake. The teacher scolded me and sent 
 me up here. That's all there is about it." The 
 principal put his hand on the boy's head, and 
 said, " You're a brave fellow. I do understand, 
 my boy, and if I can I mean to help you. Help 
 your mother, come to school, never mind what 
 the teacher said. She didn't know." What the 
 principal said to that teacher you may conjecture. 
 
I 56 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Be assured it was good pedagogy. If we knew 
 the facts we would not so harshly and so hastily 
 judge. 
 
 When we discover truth-relations we announce 
 
 a judgment. When we discover cause-relations 
 
 we announce a reason. Reason is the product 
 
 of a mental process in which we compare two 
 
 judgments and set forth in a 
 
 Reason Defined third judgment the cause-rela- 
 tion that may exist between 
 them. Judgment uses the products of percep- 
 tion and of conception. Reason uses the products 
 of judgment. The highest thought activity 
 exercised by the soul is reason. 
 
 Since relations are only mental phenomena it 
 follows that reason is an abstract activity. Its 
 materials and its products are alike removed 
 from the realm of the concrete. The broader 
 the generalization, the more comprehensive the 
 law formulated by reason, the less easily may we 
 verify its conclusions by referring the result to 
 sense experiences. The things of reason are not 
 the things of sense. The final development of 
 the soul on the intellectual side is the develop- 
 ment of reason. Reason, both as a power and 
 as a product, is exclusively the activity of the 
 human soul. No other animal reasons, no matter 
 what other mental traits it may possess. To say 
 that a man possesses good reason is to pay him 
 
REASON AND EDUCATIONAL ENDS I 57 
 
 the highest compliment possible in the domain of 
 the intellect. It follows that the teacher must 
 
 have in mind such a develop- 
 Reason" 6 rnent of the pupil as will at last 
 
 culminate in the exercise of this 
 highest power of the soul on the intellectual 
 side. 
 
 While it is necessary to keep in mind that 
 reason is different from judgment and is a 
 higher power, it is, perhaps, wise to remember 
 that a complete analysis of these higher powers 
 would show such a blending of judgment and of 
 reason that we may with no violence of our pur- 
 pose think of them jointly as the comparative 
 or cognitive or thinking power of the soul. 
 
 We have now discussed the perceptive powers, 
 the representative powers, and the cognitive 
 powers. There are no more to trace. We have 
 concluded the cycle of the intellectual powers. 
 There remains a consideration of the feelings 
 and of the will to cover the whole range of soul 
 activity. All the laws of the soul, all the data 
 of pure psychology fall within the outline here 
 presented. Upon these laws of the soul, as a 
 
 basis, rest the principles of 
 Ped Basis' Ca ' pedagogy; upon the principles 
 
 of pedagogy rest the general 
 methods of teaching; and upon the general 
 methods of teaching rest the special methods of 
 
158 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 teaching the several branches of knowledge. Thus 
 a special method is justified by some general 
 method, which is in turn justified by some 
 pedagogic principle, and this general principle is 
 justified by some law of the soul. You will see 
 from this why the pedagogue is concerned with 
 the laws of the soul. 
 
 Teacher-training for the Sunday-school is 
 thus seen to be the same as teacher-training for 
 all schools, until we reach the special method 
 that relates to the subject we aim to teach. In 
 the case of the Sunday-school teacher, the subject 
 is, of course, religious truth. The problem is to 
 comprehend the general principles of the process, 
 common to all good teaching, and then to turn 
 all this broad training to use in the domain of 
 religious truth. The fact is that this broader 
 view of the problem is the most important phase 
 of our study. How can we do consistently the 
 daily tasks if we do not understand to what end 
 it all is to trend ? The ability to teach each lesson 
 as part of the whole truth, to make each fact 
 not only clear, but to relate it widely to other 
 facts, to establish innumerable thought relations, 
 this is to teach wisely. Let us consider some of 
 the general educational principles that naturally 
 are related to the more fundamental laws of soul- 
 growth. 
 
 What is the end to be visioned by the teacher 
 
REASON AND EDUCATIONAL ENDS 159 
 
 and ultimately realized by the pupil? Here is a 
 far-reaching question. It is also' a necessary 
 question, because we can never do the wisest 
 work in the least time, and with a minimum of 
 
 effort, unless we know from the 
 End" 8 Ca ver y beginning what the final 
 
 issue is to be. Here is the child 
 just opening its wonder-eyes in the primary 
 class : 
 
 "Just a-peeping 
 Through the sleeping 
 
 Month of infanthood; 
 Into wonder, 
 Into yonder 
 
 Life's infinitude. 
 
 "Just awaking, 
 Just a-taking 
 
 Everything for truth; 
 Never dreaming 
 Of the teeming 
 
 Fallacies of youth. 
 
 "Just a-walking, 
 Just a-talking, 
 
 Little butter-ball; 
 Just a yearning 
 To be learning 
 Anything at all." 
 
 What of this one? Whither shall our teach- 
 ing and our training lead its footsteps, its heart- 
 
160 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 beats, its thought-processes? The wise man 
 admonishes us to " train up " this child, — up to 
 what? What is the goal? Over what track shall 
 its life-race be run? Where are the laurel- 
 wreaths set and the victory won? We all have 
 an answer to these questions. But is our answer 
 a usable one? Does it give us guidance in our 
 daily teaching? Let us consider this end up to 
 which the child is to be led. 
 
 What marks the progress of mankind from 
 savagery to> civilization ? How do we differ from 
 the savage? The answer to this query will for- 
 mulate the gifts of civilization. We are only 
 the savage plus the endowments of civilization. 
 These endowments are the great 
 
 Institutions • ... .. r ,, , 
 
 Defined institutions of the human race. 
 
 These institutions may be 
 grouped into six, — home, industry, society, state, 
 school, and church. These six contain all that 
 makes civilization. Cut these away, and we 
 remain only savages. The stage of our civiliza- 
 tion is determined by the degree in which we 
 honor all these and recognize their relative value 
 as ends in the up-bringing of a human soul. Of 
 these, religion, the function of the church, is the 
 most vital, and its relation to the others is, next 
 to its own observance, the most important prob- 
 lem to be worked out in the education of each 
 child. The end, then, is to train the child to live 
 
REASON AND EDUCATIONAL ENDS l6l 
 
 completely. To live completely is to live in active 
 sympathy with these great institutions of our 
 civilization. To " train up " means to train the 
 child to an understanding of these great institu- 
 tions and to a cheerful and cordial acceptance of 
 their worth as personal possessions of his own 
 soul. The first five named are the institutions 
 usually honored in the secular school. The last 
 and the greatest is peculiarly the one whose sig- 
 nificance is unfolded in the Sunday-school. To 
 train up a child to a religious life, a life of ser- 
 vice, patterned after the perfect life of the Son 
 of God, is, then, the end we have in mind. This 
 implies that religious life must also be under- 
 stood as a vital equipment for right interpreta- 
 tion of these other great institutions. To live 
 completely means not only to live religiously, but 
 it also means to live in a home sanctified by 
 religion, to apply the principles of religion to 
 one's daily toil, to cultivate only religious asso- 
 ciations, to labor for a religious government, and 
 to promote only such education as comprehends 
 the words of Jesus : "And this is life eternal, 
 that they should know thee the only true God, 
 and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 Here let us pause and formulate the end of 
 education that the Sunday-school should foster. 
 See clearly what it means to train a soul up into 
 
1 62 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 high and holy service. Fix this end firmly in 
 your mind. It is only by doing this that we shall 
 
 The End for the know how to interpret the les- 
 sunday-schooi sons and quicken the activities 
 
 Teacher Qf the pup j ls Note a j s0 that a 
 
 clear comprehension of a definite end to a large 
 degree determines the process by which it is 
 attained. Longfellow, in an eloquent plea for 
 the birds, calls their habitations in the tree tops 
 " half-way houses on the road to heaven." Let 
 us see that each lesson we teach becomes for our 
 pupils a distinct advance to the same ultimate 
 goal. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 What makes one fact of knowledge more valuable than 
 another ? 
 
 Point out the danger of hasty generalizations. 
 
 Had you been the principal in the case cited what 
 would you have said to the teacher? 
 
 Just what do you understand to be the function of 
 the soul's power called reason? 
 
 Is the test of reason the final test of truth? Why? 
 
 Construct a diagram showing the relation of psycho- 
 logic law to educational principle, to general method, 
 and to special method. 
 
 How does teacher-training for the Sunday-school dif- 
 fer from the training of the teacher of the secular school ? 
 In what aspects do they agree? 
 
REASON AND EDUCATIONAL ENDS 1 63 
 
 What is the end of education generally? Of religious 
 education ? 
 
 What is the meaning of the command, " Train up a 
 child?" 
 
 Define civilization, and enumerate its gifts to the 
 human race. 
 
 How does religion relate itself to the other great insti- 
 tutions of civilization? 
 
 When the pupils are ours to educate, what is the end 
 we should keep constantly in mind ? 
 
 Does every lesson you teach count mightily for the 
 final purposes of life? 
 
 In what way does the aim of the Sunday-school differ 
 from the aim of the secular school? 
 
 Does the secular school give a complete education? 
 
XIV 
 SOME LAWS OF TEACHING 
 
 \ MIEL tells us " Never to tire, never to 
 "^^ grow cold; to be patient, sympathetic, 
 tender; to look for the budding flower and the 
 opening heart ; to hope always, like God ; to love 
 always, — this is duty." It is also a figuring of 
 the process of teaching. 
 
 I commend his words as a wise guidance for 
 the teacher. This process of teaching is con- 
 ditioned by the end set in the soul of the teacher. 
 If that end be the training of the individual to 
 right relations to the great institution of our 
 civilization, the individual may then be said to 
 live completely. To the achievement of this end 
 we must seek to give intellectual, moral, and 
 physical training to the pupil. Yet even in the 
 Sunday-school our training is 
 
 i^euicfuaHzed over-intellectualized. We seem 
 to be more zealous in developing 
 the intellect than we are in developing the moral 
 or religious life. We have a craving for results 
 that may be measured. We have learned how 
 to measure knowledge. We have not so fully 
 learned how to measure the products of the emo- 
 164 
 
SOME LAWS OF TEACHING 165 
 
 tional and of the volitional life, and where we 
 cannot measure we do not try so carefully to 
 build. The necessary soul equipment includes 
 not only knowledge, but also skill and power. 
 Our emphasis is placed upon what the content 
 of the soul is, rather than upon what the soul 
 becomes under the training of the teacher. 
 
 There was a time when the pedagogic thought 
 of the day was colored by the philosophy of John 
 Locke. Then the test of service was the answer 
 to the question, What do you know? We then 
 passed to a conception of teaching that demanded 
 an answer to the question, What can you do? 
 Now, we must exact as the standard an answer 
 to the question, What are you? For we teach 
 more by what we are, than by what we know 
 or do. Each advance has been a valued one. 
 We shall at last come to the standard set by 
 Jesus, " Be ye." When we are what we would 
 have our pupils become we can best teach others. 
 
 In education culture is worth more than knowl- 
 edge. Not what we know, but what we are 
 capable of knowing, is of first importance in the 
 process. True teaching never fails to recognize 
 that the culture acquired in 
 
 Value of Culture learning anything is worth more 
 
 than the knowledge of the thing. 
 
 A fact as knowledge is frequently of small value ; 
 
 but as the developer of skill and power its value 
 
1 66 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 may be great. There is an abundance of religious 
 knowledge fashioned by skilled workmen and 
 ready at hand. The fountains of religious cul- 
 ture are running low. The soul craves drink as 
 well as food. We really need a culture of the 
 religious spirit, — a culture that will give grace, 
 dignity, and humility to all our deeds. 
 
 The fine art of teaching aims to develop in the 
 human soul knowledge, power, and skill. To the 
 attainment of these ends it is essential that the 
 mind of the teacher be organized in harmony 
 with fundamental educational laws, and that the 
 
 teaching process be conducted 
 Thr Aims reat in harmony with the enlightened 
 
 methods that have gained cur- 
 rent use because of their intrinsic worth. 
 
 Paul, in writing to the Hebrew brethren, points 
 out the fact that strong meat belongeth to them 
 that are of full age. He also says that babes, 
 unskilled in the word of righteousness, must use 
 milk. Here is a recognition of the fact that the 
 food of the soul varies in kind with the age of 
 the pupil; that, in fact, the capability of the 
 
 pupil to grasp truth varies in the 
 Capacity" successive stages of his advance. 
 
 To what may we attribute this 
 constantly varying capability ? 
 
 i. Evidently not to the varying energy of 
 the soul as a whole ; for if this were so, primary 
 
SOME LAWS OF TEACHING 1 67 
 
 pupils and Bible-class pupils could be taught the 
 same kind of knowledge by the same method. 
 The only variation in the grades would be in the 
 amount of knowledge taught. Small doses for 
 small pupils, large doses for adults, would be 
 the formula. But there is a difference in kind 
 and in method as well as in amount. The teacher 
 has thus a threefold change to provide for. 
 
 2. Evidently not to the absence or non- 
 activity of some of the powers of the soul in 
 young pupils, and their presence or activity in 
 older pupils. If this were the true theory of soul 
 growth, we would have the theory of successive 
 creation of new powers for the soul through the 
 years of educational advance. We cannot think 
 of this theory of soul creation and retain our idea 
 that God makes each soul complete from the 
 beginning. 
 
 3. It follows then that all the powers are 
 present at the beginning, but that there is marked 
 change in the relative activity of these powers as 
 the child moves through the successive stages of 
 
 his educational advance. This 
 Trheory" change in the relative activity 
 
 explains the fundamental quality 
 of instruction in the different grades. Early in 
 life it is for the most part the presentative powers 
 that are active. Later on, the representative 
 powers dominate, and after adolescence, the 
 
1 68 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 cognitive powers. Thus in the primary grade 
 the process is teaching through objects; in the 
 intermediate grades the process is teaching 
 through symbols; and in the advanced grades 
 the process is teaching through elaboration ; that 
 is, through the discerning of thought relations 
 by means of analysis and synthesis. It follows 
 that both in the materials of instruction and in 
 the method of instruction the teacher must adapt 
 himself to the capacity of the pupil. 
 
 At one pole of our educational world are 
 grouped the concrete data immediately reported 
 by the senses. At the other pole are grouped the 
 abstract data, elaborated by conception, judg- 
 ment, and reason, and the order of growth is 
 from one to the other of these intellectual poles. 
 Sensation reports facts about things. Reason 
 reports facts about relations as discerned in 
 symbols. The general law, then, of all teaching 
 is: From the concrete to the abstract, from the 
 particular to the general, from the simple to the 
 complex, — in short, from things 
 r °Reasra e ° to symbols and relations. When 
 once this whole range of process 
 has been covered, it is often wise and easy to 
 pass at once from the most simple to the most 
 complex, from the concrete to the abstract. This 
 is a method frequently used by Jesus. The rich 
 elements of feeling cling close to the concrete 
 
SOME LAWS OF TEACHING 1 69 
 
 and particular facts in the soul. The keen ele- 
 ment of thought naturally clusters around the 
 abstract and general facts in the soul. 
 
 Teacher A says, " Children, it is noble, good, 
 and grand to be kind and helpful to those in need. 
 This is all the more true when the person in need 
 is a cripple. I want you to remember this, and 
 
 try always to be on the lookout 
 Two illustrations for chances to render such aid." 
 
 Teacher B says, "Children, one 
 cold Sunday morning in December, when the 
 pavements were icy and dangerous, an old man 
 was slowly making his way to church. He was 
 a cripple. He trembled as he leaned on his 
 crutch and his cane. At the steps to his church 
 he set his crutch and cane upon the icy stone and 
 endeavored to lift his weak and trembling body 
 to the next step. His crutch slipped on the ice. 
 He almost fell. Thus several times he did his 
 best to enter his church. Each time he slipped 
 and with pain recovered himself. Just then a 
 college boy came that way. He saw the old man 
 in his struggle, and, hurrying forward, put his 
 arms gently around the poor cripple, lifted him 
 carefully to the vestibule, opened the door, set 
 the old man down, and walked hastily away. 
 Tell me, children, what you think of the college 
 boy. Tell me also, if you care to, what you 
 would have done had you been there." 
 
I70 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Which of these teachers did the thing more 
 nearly in harmony with the educational law here 
 announced? How are you teaching? Are you 
 like A, or like B? Do you give facts first, or 
 definitions first? 
 
 A certain lawyer came one day to test a great 
 teacher. The lawyer asked a question. The 
 teacher answered it by quoting words the lawyer 
 well knew. But the lawyer was not satisfied. He 
 wanted to test the teacher still more — to ascer- 
 tain, if he could, whether the teacher knew only 
 the words of the law or whether he really was a 
 teacher of power and skill. The second question 
 could not be answered by quoting words known 
 to the lawyer. It could be answered only by 
 original statement on the part of the teacher. 
 
 Let us study the method of the Great Teacher. 
 
 Had he been like A, he would have said, 
 
 " Lawyer, your neighbor is your helper in time 
 
 of need." But the Great 
 
 H °TaughT Teacher said, "A certain man 
 
 went down from Jerusalem to 
 
 Jericho. He fell among thieves. They tore from 
 
 him his garments. They beat him with clubs and 
 
 stones. They threw him into the bushes by the 
 
 roadside, thinking him half dead, and ran away. 
 
 Soon a priest came down the road. He saw the 
 
 wounded and dying man. He turned from the 
 
 middle path to the farther side of the road, and, 
 
SOME LAWS OF TEACHING 171 
 
 scarcely looking around, hurried on. Then a 
 Levite came down the road. He saw the 
 wounded and dying man. He stopped for a mo- 
 ment, looked at the man, looked up and down 
 the road, and then hurried on. Then a poor 
 Samaritan came riding by on his donkey. He 
 saw the wounded and dying man. He leaped from 
 his donkey, ran to the man, bound up his bleed- 
 ing wounds, poured soothing oil and wine upon 
 his cuts and bruises, spoke words of sympathy 
 and cheer, lifted him tenderly upon the donkey's 
 back, and brought him to an inn or hotel. Here 
 the Samaritan cared for the man all through the 
 night, and the next day before leaving gave 
 money to the inn-keeper, and said, ' Care for this 
 man until he is well. If the cost is more than I 
 have paid you in advance, I will settle on my 
 return.' Tell me, Lawyer, which of the three, 
 priest, Levite or Samaritan, was neighbor to the 
 man that fell among thieves?" 
 
 The lawyer needed no more information. He 
 was now able to answer his own question. He 
 had met a real teacher, who knew how to teach, 
 and how, also, in teaching to lay bare the insin- 
 cerity and the quibbling of a foolish questioner. 
 This is great teaching. He that did it is your 
 model. 
 
 The child speedily reaches a stage in his devel- 
 opment in which knowledge may be presented in 
 
172 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 symbols, especially in the symbols we call words. 
 Thus things are by no means so widely valuable 
 as instruments of instruction as is language. A 
 wise teacher will be on the alert to detect the 
 moment when concrete teaching with objects may 
 
 be supplanted by teaching with 
 TreVa^aMe language. Of course reference to 
 
 objects will continue all through 
 the grades, both in teaching a new idea, and in 
 making vivid what may have been in part or in- 
 adequately understood. But freedom to teach 
 as one should teach comes only where the pro- 
 cess may go on profitably in language. The 
 question is, then, to determine under what condi- 
 tions instruction through language may be profit- 
 ably carried on. The answer is most important : 
 Only when the words used in the teaching pro- 
 cess represent known ideas. We cannot teach 
 with the words that are not understood by the 
 child any more than we can move the mill with 
 the water that has run by. 
 
 When, as I suspect we frequently do, we use 
 language that is void of meaning to the learner, 
 one of two things results, — the learner either be- 
 comes discouraged or is overawed, and there 
 arises in his soul a vague feeling that there is 
 some hidden and mysterious implication in the 
 matter presented into which he is supposed to 
 be unable as yet to penetrate. This latter frame 
 
SOME LAWS OF TEACHING 1 73 
 
 of mind is all too common. Perhaps some of us 
 even foster it. But it has no justification. Strive 
 by all the power you possess to occasion clear 
 knowledge in the soul of the learner. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Put in language of your own the purpose or end of 
 education as you understand it. 
 
 What is the relative value of knowledge and skill? 
 of knowledge and power? of skill and power? 
 
 Define culture and skill. 
 
 Just why is culture worth more than knowledge? 
 
 What is a good test of the value of a method? 
 
 In what way do you account for the varying capability 
 of the pupil? 
 
 Point out three theories of soul growth, and discuss 
 the result of accepting each of them in turn. 
 
 What determines the capacity of the pupil to know? 
 
 How does knowledge of things differ in quality from 
 knowledge of symbols? 
 
 Explain fully the vital distinction between teacher 
 A and teacher B. 
 
 How much concrete material did Jesus use in the 
 story of the Good Samaritan? Why? 
 
 When may we pass from teaching in things to teach- 
 ing in words ? 
 
 Describe clearly the value of words as teaching ma- 
 terial. 
 
 How does vague knowledge become clear knowledge 
 in the soul? 
 
 Write five educational laws based upon this chapter. 
 
XV 
 TRAIN UP A CHILD 
 
 'T'HE equipment of the teacher embraces 
 -*■ three distinct processes. First, the teacher 
 must understand the activities of the growing 
 soul. Second, the teacher must understand the 
 subject-matter which constitutes the nutrition 
 upon which the soul grows. This is the general 
 scholastic equipment of the teacher. Third, the 
 teacher must understand how to interpret this 
 subject-matter from time to time under the most 
 favorable conditions and in the right order to the 
 growing soul. This is the professional or peda- 
 gogical equipment of the teacher. It is this third 
 aspect of the problem that the teacher must heed 
 most carefully. Let us understand how impor- 
 tant it is to regard the teacher as the interpreter 
 of objective truth to the growing soul of a child. 
 The soul may be hungry, and the subject-matter 
 
 lying beyond it may be excellent, 
 Equipment* but 'f there is no intermediate 
 
 agency to bring the two things 
 
 together there can be no growth, no development, 
 
 no education. The teacher therefore is the vital 
 
 connecting link between objective truth and sub- 
 
 i74 
 
TRAIN UP A CHILD 1 75 
 
 jective development. What the teacher does 
 becomes significant. How the teacher does it is 
 the professional problem. 
 
 It is necessary at the outset to understand the 
 importance of the mastery by the teacher of cer- 
 tain fundamental laws of the teaching process. 
 These laws rest, of course, upon the needs of the 
 soul as these needs arise in its unfolding. To 
 become a fine teacher one must give attention to 
 the best laws of teaching. The purpose of these 
 laws is to accomplish in each individual pupil 
 some definite educational end. These principles 
 become the guidance to that end. They also 
 form a means of measuring the progress and 
 determining what each step of the process shall 
 
 be. The first question then is 
 PrmYiX Do t0 determine the end. What do 
 
 we want the child to become as 
 a result of our teaching activity? Bear in mind 
 that this question must be answered within the 
 limits of the child's possibilities. We might want 
 him to fly, but we cannot teach him to do that. 
 We must remember what he can become, and 
 then ascertain how to achieve that result. In 
 general it may be said that the purpose of edu- 
 cation is to train the child to live completely, 
 which means that he must be equipped with 
 knowledge, mental power, and skill. Not one of 
 these, nor two of these, but all of these must be 
 
I76 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 secured in order that the pupil may live com- 
 pletely. 
 
 Let us now ask ourselves more in detail what 
 it means to live completely. Solomon admonishes 
 us to train up a child. Up to what shall we train 
 him? What are the ends or goals to which the 
 child is to be led? The answer to that must 
 be found in the quality of our civilization, which 
 civilization is more Christian than it is anything 
 else. The child must be trained 
 A'dtoTmon «P to a right understanding of 
 the great institutions of our 
 Christian civilization. He must be shown what 
 these institutions are, what they stand for, and 
 what part he is to play under them in working 
 out the destiny of the human race under God. 
 For he will best work out his own destiny when 
 he sees himself as part of the great human 
 family. 
 
 These institutions of our civilization are the 
 home, the state, the school, the social life, the 
 industrial life, and the church. To live completely 
 one must live in complete understanding of the 
 significance of these great institutions, and in har- 
 mony with their highest ideals. It will be well 
 to work out these ideals with great care. Every 
 prominent question before our present civiliza- 
 tion rests upon the right relation of the individual 
 to these great institutions of our Christian civili- 
 
TRAIN UP A CHILD 1 77 
 
 zation. The child must be taught his relations to 
 the home; the facts of fatherhood and mother- 
 hood, of childhood and brother- 
 c S iviiiz'a°t™on hood. Here the letters of Paul 
 afford splendid guidance. How 
 strongly he urged right relations in the home, 
 and how much of all that he counted vital in the 
 organization of the church depends upon what 
 is done in the home, and how life is lived there ! 
 Take the Temperance question, the Mormon 
 question, the Child Labor question, and other 
 great movements that stir our thought to-day, 
 and see how important it is to understand that 
 no solution of these problems is possible except- 
 ing in so far as we have a clearly defined home 
 life which is menaced by the conditions that give 
 rise to these questions. We fight for the integrity 
 and the purity of the home institution, and we 
 array ourselves naturally and properly against 
 every influence that strikes at 
 Tue^onT right home conditions. Let the 
 child understand that here is one 
 of the aspects of his education of vital concern 
 to the home and to the race. He can not live 
 completely unless he lives in proper relation and 
 subordination to the law of the home. Note also 
 what we think of any one who interferes with 
 the home. Point out the significance of societies 
 for the prevention of cruelty to children, of laws 
 
1^8 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 for the punishment of wife-beaters, and all those 
 things which menace the integrity of our ideal of 
 a Christian home. 
 
 Consider the state as another of the great in- 
 stitutions of our modern civilization, and see how 
 conformity to its laws, devotion to its ideals, and 
 service in its welfare are regarded. See the 
 significance of punishment for the violation of 
 law, of public censure of the criminal, of appre- 
 ciation of the hero who serves his state, of con- 
 demnation for him who refuses 
 The state to cherish the ideals of his state, 
 and you begin to see the signi- 
 ficance of the institution of the state as a part 
 of the equipment of the child to live completely. 
 Notice the concern of the public when the wel- 
 fare of the state is menaced. Consider how trea- 
 son is regarded as shown in the case of Arnold, 
 and in the case of Judas, and others who were 
 false to their leaders, and through their leaders 
 to great institutions like the state and the church. 
 It is the same with the school. Every influ- 
 ence that menaces the school menaces our civili- 
 zation. And the child should be taught to respect 
 the school, to take advantage of 
 The school its opportunities, to live always 
 in sympathy with its purpose, 
 and, in general, to promote educational institu- 
 tions as a part of his training for complete living. 
 
TRAIN UP A CHILD 1 79 
 
 Social life also has its ideals, and it is a part 
 of the complete training of each individual to 
 understand his place in the social order, and to 
 discharge his obligations, and to live his life in 
 harmony with the best guidance that he can find, 
 to the end that he may so order his life that it 
 may harmonize with the community life of which 
 he is a part. Point out, too, at 
 social Life this stage the false conceptions 
 of what true social life is, and 
 how these should be avoided. The difference 
 between artificial and sincere living, between 
 playing a part as a clown or a zany, and the 
 true, sincere appreciation of, and participation in, 
 social things, should be clearly comprehended. 
 No man liveth to himself alone. He is, as God 
 taught in the beginning, his brother's keeper, and 
 complete living involves right social relations. 
 
 Point out also the importance of training up 
 the child to an understanding of the industrial 
 life of our modern civilization. He should be 
 taught to produce more than he consumes, and 
 thus add to the sum of our material welfare. 
 Let him see the significance of strikes, of labor 
 unions, of trusts, of corporate 
 industry activities as they affect the indus- 
 trial welfare of the whole peo- 
 ple, and help him, if possible, to seek the true 
 solution of these vexatious problems, and thus 
 
ISO THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 come to a proper understanding of all the prob- 
 lems that underlie a stable industrial community. 
 
 Finally, teach the child that complete living 
 implies living in harmony with the ideals of the 
 Christian religion. This means that he must 
 identify himself with some church organization, 
 and through it work out the salvation of the 
 human race before God, and thus in the most 
 definite way work out his own 
 The church salvation. He must lose his life 
 if he is to find it. He must serve 
 now if he is to be served hereafter, which is 
 only another way of saying that he must save now 
 if he is to be saved hereafter, — for service is 
 saving. Whatever, then, the church opposes, 
 the individual must avoid. Whatever the church 
 cherishes as the true doctrine of righteous liv- 
 ing, he must cultivate. Thus the individual, 
 working out his destiny in harmony with this 
 great institution of civilization, comes to live 
 completely. This is the end which the teacher 
 is constantly striving to achieve. 
 
 Some guidance to this end must be kept in 
 mind. Study the significance of such educational 
 maxims as the following: Develop in each pupil 
 knowledge, power, and skill. Knowledge is the 
 content of the mind. Power is the strength of 
 faculty in using knowledge, and skill is facility 
 in the use of knowledge. In education, culture 
 
TRAIN UP A CHILD 181 
 
 is worth more than knowledge. Prove this 
 proposition to yourself, especially as it relates to 
 religious culture. See what it means to have 
 depth of knowledge, strength of spirit, courage 
 of conviction, integrity of purpose, resoluteness 
 of will. Work out a justification for the saying 
 that the capability of the pupil to grasp truth 
 varies in the successive stages of his advance. 
 See what can be done with the child in the begin- 
 ning of his education, at the middle stage of his 
 education, at the end of his edu- 
 
 Problems for ■ ■ _« • ■ . tx 
 
 the Teacher cation, explaining to yourself 
 what teaching through objects 
 means, likewise teaching through symbols, and 
 teaching through elaboration, and see whether 
 at last you can come to the formulation of the 
 doctrine that both in the material of instruction 
 and in the method of instruction the teacher 
 must always adapt himself to the capacity of the 
 pupil. 
 
 This will explain to you a great educational 
 law : From things through symbols to relations ; 
 from the concrete to the abstract ; from the 
 simple to the complex. Turn now to the par- 
 ables, and see with what consummate skill Jesus 
 embodied this doctrine as the basis of much of 
 his teaching. Note with what simple things he 
 begins and with what broad generalizations he 
 ends. See how every apparently unimportant 
 
1 82 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 object in nature becomes the hint and the 
 approach to the great truths of the kingdom. 
 When you have clearly discussed this quality in 
 his own teaching, ask yourself the question, Am 
 I following his method? You will see in the 
 
 answer to that question the sig- 
 The Parables nificance of the story, with its 
 
 rich, concrete data, appealing, as 
 it always does, to the interest of the child, and 
 predisposing him to organize clear thought and 
 formulate definite conviction. Note, too, the 
 value in this connection of indirect teaching as 
 opposed to direct teaching. By direct teaching 
 I mean telling the child; by indirect teaching I 
 mean leading the child to find out for himself 
 the truth under the guidance of the teacher. The 
 finest example of indirect teaching known to me 
 is recorded in Luke 10 : 29-37. Study this with 
 the utmost concern. It is so fruitful as guidance 
 that one will inevitably teach better after master- 
 ing its message. 
 
 When the child is able to think in symbols, 
 he has made a great advance. Consider how long 
 it took the human race to pass through the stage 
 
 of development in which picto- 
 Things First rial writing alone was used. The 
 
 abstract symbol came only when 
 the mind was sufficiently developed to think in 
 the abstract. The child, like the race, must think 
 
TRAIN UP A CHILD 1 83 
 
 in things until he is able to think in symbols. But 
 the child of to-day, more rapidly than the race, 
 rises to symbolic thought. This is due to the 
 fact that the more mature life about him thinks 
 in symbols. He has an example. The early race 
 had not. 
 
 Thus speedily the time will come when the 
 symbol may be used as the instrument of thought. 
 The mind no longer needs the immediate stim- 
 ulus of sensations. This is only another way 
 of saying education must unsense the mind. Of 
 course, all new experiences must come, as did 
 the first ones, in the concrete, but when the 
 mind is once familiar with the concrete, and has 
 the power to use its symbol, there is no longer 
 need for tedious reference to concrete things. 
 The mind becomes free. The symbol is the in- 
 strument of universal thought. See to it that 
 the symbols or words with which the child thinks 
 are clearly understood. No word should be 
 used in the thought processes whose meaning 
 is not clearly understood. To make its meaning 
 
 understood the word must be 
 DrfirttioL referred to the thing it names, 
 
 or it must be interpreted into 
 ideas already known to the mind. The latter is 
 usually the step to be taken. It is the method 
 of definition. It lies at the basis of the dictionary. 
 The thought products will be no clearer than 
 
1 84 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 are the meanings of the symbols with which 
 these products are secured. Do not take the 
 meanings of symbols for granted. Test each 
 word. See that its meaning is clear to the child. 
 You must think, not of your ability to use the 
 word, but of the pupil's. The teaching of the 
 exact meaning of the words that carry our reli- 
 gious ideals is necessary and wise teaching. 
 
 The most fruitful way to fasten the right 
 meanings of symbols in the consciousness of the 
 learner is to furnish occasions for their use by 
 the pupil in giving expression to his own 
 thoughts. This is valuable not alone as a means 
 of securing clear thinking, but also as a means 
 of exercising his own soul powers. Thus to the 
 power of clear thought he will add mental dis- 
 cipline, which is culture. It is 
 symb'olf this self-activity that is to be 
 guarded and guided always by 
 the teacher. As the pupil gradually acquires the 
 power to think for himself the work of the 
 teacher gradually lessens. Thus it becomes true 
 that the function of a true teacher is to render 
 himself useless to the pupil. Ponder the full 
 significance of this saying. The end is self- 
 guidance and self-control. The teacher hinders 
 the attainment of this end when he continues 
 those processes that keep the pupil under guid- 
 ance and control which the pupil is able to fur- 
 
TRAIN UP A CHILD 1 85 
 
 nish for the regulation of his own thought-life 
 and act-life. 
 
 The process of instruction may be so conducted 
 as to leave the mind of the pupil passive and 
 receptive, or it may be so conducted as to 
 make the mind of the pupil active and 
 acquisitive. The latter is the better form of 
 teaching. The teacher is at fault when the think- 
 ing is all done for the pupil. The class exercise 
 is not an activity in which the pupil has little, 
 the teacher much, to do. The reverse is really 
 the condition that should prevail. Hence, avoid 
 as far as may be the habit of doing for the pupils 
 what they can do for themselves. To> talk much, 
 to recite or explain at length, to monopolize the 
 time, is a weakness against which you must con- 
 stantly struggle. The really im- 
 T t"°T«ch S portant matter is to force 
 activity upon the pupil. Thus any • 
 form of teaching that compels the pupil to do 
 original thinking, to weigh the facts, and to an- 
 nounce a conclusion, is of value. For that reason 
 the question becomes a fruitful agency in the 
 teaching process. I cannot here present at length 
 the importance of the question in the teaching 
 process. May I ask you to do a piece of research 
 work on your own account? 
 
 Take the words of Jesus, as found in the 
 Gospel of John or of Matthew. Make a list of 
 
1 86 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the questions he propounded. Classify them 
 upon some basis, as those that demanded imme- 
 diate reply and those that demanded only assent 
 or dissent in thought, or as those that were 
 addressed to his disciples, those that were ad- 
 dressed to the multitude, those that were 
 addressed to some one person, and those that 
 were addressed to any other persons, as the 
 Scribes, etc. Then ask yourself what each ques- 
 tion was intended to accomplish, and decide 
 
 whether it did accomplish its 
 Questions purpose. You will find in some 
 
 such study much that will help 
 you to teach well. Notice the clear, concise, 
 comprehensive character of Jesus' questions. 
 Formulate a dozen questions upon the next lesson 
 in the Sunday-school series. Test your ques- 
 tions. Are they clear? Are they concise? Are 
 they comprehensive ? Do they lead logically from 
 the simple aspects of the lesson to the more com- 
 plex aspects ? Do the questions as a series cover 
 the vital points in the lesson? Does each ques- 
 tion help all the others ? You will not master the 
 teaching process until you have learned how to 
 put your own processes to the test. 
 
 To build a teacher, one must first have as mate- 
 rial the fine stuff from which is molded a Chris- 
 tian man, a Christian woman. It is no use to 
 veneer poor character with polished pedagogy. 
 
TRAIN UP A CHILD 1 87 
 
 Back of the way we do things is the doer of the 
 
 things. The discerning spirit of childhood looks 
 
 beneath the surface, sees under 
 
 a Prerequisite the acquired knowledge, power, 
 and skill, and demands a person- 
 ality with God's stamp upon it, — the stamp of 
 Christian character. The life that carries itself 
 clean and pure and strong always predisposes 
 other life to become like it. I say this because 
 I wish to have you understand most clearly that 
 no amount of professional skill can compensate 
 for the absence of the virtues that God wants 
 in every soul, and that God's children must find 
 there or be grievously disappointed. We 
 can make teachers by building professionally 
 upon good native qualities of soul. But we 
 cannot veneer a corrupt spirit into respec- 
 tability and efficiency. Teacher, be sincere, be 
 honest, be true, be clean, be humble, and you will 
 then be able to add all the qualities that give 
 efficiency to your work. 
 
 There is much to learn yet concerning the 
 qualities of spirit that a teacher should cultivate. 
 Let us ask what we need as equipments to teach. 
 What would you write as the necessary qualities ? 
 Suppose you make this your problem. It will 
 not be important that you answer the question 
 as others would. But it is important that you 
 set forth in order the qualities that you think 
 
1 88 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 should be possessed by you as a teacher. Let us 
 begin the series. What shall go down first? 
 Shall we put down scholarship first ? If so, why ? 
 If not, why not ? Put the test to everything you 
 set down. Then, when the list is at last com- 
 pleted, ask this question: Do I possess these 
 
 qualities? Read the life of any 
 HO a W Teach t e U r dy S reat teacher ; make a list of the 
 
 qualities that made him a great 
 teacher. I name a few. Choose any one, — 
 Comenius, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Arnold, Fenelon, 
 Mann. Then turn to the life of Jesus and see 
 how all that was greatest in these men was but 
 an echo of that great voice, and all that was 
 found in them of good, conjoined with weakness 
 and limitation, was in him combined with 
 strength and freedom. You will not at first ap- 
 preciate the commanding worth of Jesus' teach- 
 ing. You must approach him gradually, attribute 
 by attribute. As the eye of one in the valley of 
 Lauterbrunnen climbs from valley to cascade, 
 from cascade to table-land, from table-land to 
 mountainside, and finally to the Jungfrau, lifting 
 her virgin brow clear and sparkling to the regal 
 sun, so the human spirit climbs from man to 
 man, from excellence to excellence, from 
 achievement to achievement, until at last it comes 
 to grasp something of the overmastering glory 
 and grandeur and greatness of that Teacher 
 
TRAIN UP A CHILD 1 89 
 
 whose heart beats lovingly for childhood, and 
 whose spirit is suffused with the transcendent 
 glory of the Eternal Father. Jesus is the ideal 
 for all teachers. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Which is more important, what the teacher does or 
 how the teacher does it? 
 
 What is the basis upon which the laws of teaching 
 ultimately rise? 
 
 Under what limitations must the teacher work? 
 
 Write a list of additional limitations under which 
 you do, but should not, teach. 
 
 In what way does the phrase, "Train up a child," 
 stand related to the broad ends in education? 
 
 Why does Solomon indicate that training is of perma- 
 nent value? 
 
 What are the great institutions of our civilization? 
 What makes them great institutions ? 
 
 Write a list of current questions growing out of the 
 proper relation of the individual to the home, to the 
 state, to the school, to social life, to industry, and to 
 the church. 
 
 Are the questions of one of these institutions always 
 independent of the questions of the other? For example, 
 is the temperance question solely a home problem? 
 
 Notice how almost every great question is six-sided 
 and must be studied in its relation to each of these great 
 institutions. Thus you have an outline for the study of 
 a great question. 
 
I9O THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 What would you consider conclusive evidence of the 
 growth of culture in the soul of a child ? Apply the law, 
 "From sense to symbol," to each of the parables. 
 
 Does the child follow the order of race develop- 
 ment in his intellectual unfolding? What follows from 
 an affirmative answer to this question? 
 
 How do I know when a child uses a symbol properly? 
 
 As the pupil advances should the work of the teacher 
 lessen or increase? Why? 
 
 What would you consider as the necessary pre- 
 requisite to the making of => teacher? 
 
 How would you proceed to study a teacher, and what 
 significance would you attach to the different qualities 
 which you consider necessary? 
 
XVI 
 
 SOUL-ACTIVITY THROUGH WORDS AND 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 XT70RDS stand for ideas. Ideas stand for 
 " things. These things may be objects in 
 nature or they may be relations discerned in the 
 soul. We need not raise the question whether 
 or not we can think without symbols. The im- 
 portant fact to keep in mind is that we think 
 with these words. Hence it is of great signifi- 
 cance that we know what content the word car- 
 ries, what it means to the child. We all know 
 
 the ludicrous blunders made by 
 Thought children when they use words 
 
 whose meanings are not clear. 
 It is not necessary to specify. Since words are 
 the tools of thought, it is of first moment that 
 the exact use of each tool be understood by the 
 user. 
 
 When I was a youth, I became in some way 
 confused over cemetery and seminary. I was not 
 quite sure which word named the institution to 
 which young ladies were sent to be educated. It 
 is my opinion that somewhere I had poor teach- 
 ing on this point. As a result, I have been forced 
 
 191 
 
I92 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 to eliminate both words from my vocabulary. 
 I use instead grave-yard and boarding-school. 
 How long I used these words interchangeably 
 before I became aware of my blunder I do not 
 know. There is only one way to be certain that 
 the word signifies what it should, 
 
 The Real Test — that is by furnishing occasions 
 for its use by the pupil in giving 
 expression to his own thoughts. Do not over- 
 look the fact that the word is to be used in ex- 
 pressing his own thoughts. Many words are 
 used by pupils in quotations from the Bible, and 
 from the sayings of the teacher, that are entirely 
 void of meaning to the pupil. Children are rather 
 fond of picking up words and using them in 
 fantastic ways. They are not yet aware of the 
 vital worth of exact meaning. The teacher must 
 understand the need, and seek to give the word 
 its right content. 
 
 We have heretofore considered how difficult 
 it is to secure right conditions for study, right 
 attitude of soul in the teaching process. For this 
 added reason we should be careful that the word 
 as a tool of thought is clearly comprehended. I 
 have placed emphasis upon this phase of teaching 
 in order to make meaningful an educational law : 
 The powers of the soul are developed and trained 
 only by occasioning their right activity. It is the 
 act of the soul upon the fact of knowledge that 
 
STIMULATING SOUL-ACTIVITY 1 93 
 
 is most significant. Ponder this well. We see 
 
 again how impossible it is to be content to tell 
 
 facts to pupils, no matter how 
 
 Talking Not .. ,, • . , , 
 
 Teaching receptive their minds may be. 
 We talk too much to our pupils. 
 We do not encourage them to talk. It is what 
 they say to you, what they think before they say 
 it, and what they think it with, that is most im- 
 portant. 
 
 The teacher will at every point aim to occasion 
 a maximum of mental activity by the pupil. He 
 will so put his points, so arrange his statements, 
 that the pupil will from pure interest exercise the 
 powers of the soul to the limit. This means that 
 the teacher will exclude all irrel- 
 Teachlng evant matter and include all 
 pertinent matter. It also means 
 that the teacher will so master the theme, so 
 organize the subject-matter of the lesson, so for- 
 mulate his method, that the pupil's attention will 
 inevitably be secured. Cut out all discussion that 
 is irrelevant. I have known teachers whose inade- 
 quate preparation unfitted them to teach the 
 lesson. As a makeshift they digressed into sub- 
 jects that were wholly without relation to the 
 purpose of the recitation, and subjects that were 
 in themselves practically useless. The fault here 
 is obvious. The teacher did not comprehend the 
 significance of a great opportunity. Better not 
 
194 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 teach than to teach error. Better not teach than 
 to teach fragmentarily. Better not teach than to 
 teach flippantly. Best of all, teach well. You 
 can, if you will. It may cost effort, but anything 
 we do that is worth doing is done at the price 
 of effort. To illuminate a soul is worth the 
 effort. To enthrone God, sacred and secure, in 
 a child's spirit is not a task, but a privilege. All 
 teaching is opportunity. 
 
 In presenting the lesson the teacher will bear 
 in mind that the wise use of questions is a potent 
 process in securing soul activity. Do* you under- 
 stand the fine art of questioning? When the 
 teacher presents all the data of the lesson in 
 narrative form, that is, in the 
 
 Que'sttonlng foI " m ° f a StOI T> the mind ° f the 
 
 pupil is frequently in a passive 
 or receptive condition. The pupil feels much like 
 a passenger on a train, — the thing to do is to 
 settle down comfortably, trust to the officials to 
 attend to every detail of the journey, and wait 
 patiently and submissively until the conductor 
 calls out the destination. The passenger has been 
 carried along without effort on his part. So it 
 may be in your class. The pupils resign them- 
 selves to your tender care, trust your ability to 
 see them safely through the lesson, and them- 
 selves take no active part in the process. But is 
 this teaching? 
 
STIMULATING SOUL-ACTIVITY I95 
 
 What, then, is the value of the question as a 
 teaching agency? The question has always been 
 regarded as a most important means of stimu- 
 lating thought, and of creating knowledge in the 
 soul. Direct teaching is too frequently telling, 
 and telling is always poor teaching. Indirect 
 teaching is usually good teaching. It aims to 
 stimulate inquiry in the soul of the learner. It 
 leads him to discover truth for himself. He has, 
 as a result, the joy of discovery, the added power 
 of increased thought-ability due to the exercise 
 of his powers, and the fuller inter-relation of his 
 facts of knowledge one with another. 
 
 The soul is so constituted that its own 
 
 products, the products of its own activity, yield 
 
 for it the longest measure of 
 
 st"°r« e o d f 8 Joy J°y- The student in botany who 
 finds in some sequestered nook 
 a rare and early blossom is overjoyed. He has 
 made a discovery so delightfully surprising that 
 for the time he thinks and talks only of the thing 
 that has so enraptured him. I recall a pupil of 
 mine, dull and listless in his work for a year, 
 who was finally persuaded to study botany. He 
 did his text-book work indifferently, but early in 
 June, upon a rainy afternoon, he accompanied 
 his classmates to a secret haunt of the orchid 
 family. Here the boy unexpectedly discovered 
 a rare white orchid, and, throwing himself upon 
 
I96 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the wet ground beside the beautiful flower, wept 
 for joy. In his moment of supreme exaltation 
 he called alternately upon his teacher and his 
 God. He found the thing he loved. It opened 
 his soul to these exquisite thoughts of God and 
 he became a botanist of note. So always is the 
 feeling in the pupil when in answer to a wise 
 questioner he finds new truth full-born in his 
 soul. 
 
 When the narrative of facts is, at a prudently- 
 considered interval, broken to ask a question, the 
 whole mental complex is changed. The passive 
 and receptive quality of soul is changed to an 
 active and expressive quality. The tension of 
 actual thought is felt. The powers of the soul 
 are in action. They are thus quickened to act 
 by the use of the question. Do you see how this 
 really occurs now in your own thought processes ? 
 This power of the question to 
 
 The Law stated compel active states of soul 
 results in the strengthening of 
 the powers thus exercised. They obey the well- 
 known law, development by exercise. 
 
 The most significant gain to the learner, under 
 wise questioning, is due to the fact that when 
 a question is unanswered in the soul, it stands 
 as a menace and as a challenge to all knowledge 
 in the soul. Instantly all that we know is mar- 
 shaled in review before the new and unrecognized 
 
STIMULATING SOUL-ACTIVITY 1 97 
 
 thing in consciousness. This calling upon all 
 that we know to identify what is new is of far- 
 reaching value. It gives us many- 
 The Que™ red sided relational knowledge. 
 Each relation set up is an 
 enrichment of the soul. Each relation discovered 
 is a new fact of knowledge in the soul. Each 
 answer formulated and pronounced is a strength- 
 ening and significant influence in giving quality 
 and character to the whole mental complex. 
 
 There are three types of questions that may 
 be regarded as of sufficient value to be considered 
 in this discussion, — the direct question, the 
 Socratic question, and the Master's question. 
 
 The direct question asks for specific data 
 possessed by the pupil as a result of his study. 
 It is a common and useful form of teaching. 
 " What is the lesson for the day ? " " What is 
 the Golden Text ? " " What persons are pre- 
 sented in this lesson ? " These 
 ^uestJon* are tyP es °f tne direct question. 
 In its use the teacher assumes 
 that the pupil has had time and data for study. 
 The question is a means of testing the fidelity 
 of the pupil to his assigned task. Then the 
 direct question is necessarily limited as a teach- 
 ing agency to that aspect of the instructional pro- 
 cess usually regarded as the test, the review, or 
 the examination. It is of use also in revealing 
 
198 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 to the teacher the inadequacy or inequality of the 
 learner's preparation. Thus the teacher has a 
 means of proving his pupils, and of teaching 
 most carefully and fully these things which the 
 pupil failed properly to grasp. The result should 
 be an adequate and equal arrangement of the 
 facts of knowledge in the student's soul. His 
 education may then be said to develop harmo- 
 niously all the powers of the soul. 
 
 Socrates was the wisest teacher of ancient 
 Greece. His method was unequaled among all 
 his countrymen. His pupils were as loyal, as 
 devoted, as enthusiastic, as one could wish for. 
 He was brave enough to die for his beliefs, and 
 he was skilful enough to impress his beliefs 
 indelibly upon his pupils. How did he teach? 
 Under direct questioning the teacher assumes 
 that by study the pupil acquires the answer to 
 the question. Socrates assumed 
 Question " C tnat a ^ trutn is inherent in each 
 soul. But the individual is not 
 aware of the content of his soul. The vital func- 
 tion of education is to make each soul aware 
 of its own content. How is that to be done ? By 
 such a judicious use of questions as to lead each 
 unknown element of knowledge in the soul to 
 reveal its identity and its relation to all other 
 elements of knowledge in the soul. Thus with- 
 out education we know not what is innately in 
 
STIMULATING SOUL-ACTIVITY 1 99 
 
 the soul. Education is the process of self-com- 
 prehension. " Know thyself " was his motto. 
 He uses the question as a potent means of attain- 
 ing the end indicated. But his presupposition is 
 wrong. We no longer think or believe that all 
 knowledge is innately set in each soul by some 
 power not ourselves. We believe that knowledge 
 arises in the soul by reason of the presentation of 
 objects from without, through sensation to con- 
 sciousness. The soul God gives. Its capacities 
 he sets. Its content we build. 
 
 Jesus used the direct question, as we all do 
 when we desire to test the fidelity of preparation 
 in our pupils. But he used a type of question 
 unique in teaching. He assumes that primary 
 knowledge in the soul arises from presenting 
 things to the senses. That these varied sense- 
 presentations are often vague and apparently con- 
 tradicting, and hence confusing, he also assumed. 
 He uses the question to break up 
 
 ^dbTjesur va S ue > confusing, and uncertain 
 knowledge, and to set in its place 
 clear, distinct, and certain knowledge. 
 
 In the north country, beyond the Sea of Gali- 
 lee, Jesus sat with a chosen group of his dis- 
 ciples. He asked them a question : " Whom do 
 men say that I am ? " The disciples gave in reply 
 the conjectures of the people. Some said Moses, 
 some Elias, some Jeremias, and some one of the 
 
200 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 prophets. Then into this group of guesses he sets 
 a second question : " But whom say ye that I 
 am ? " This question dispelled all doubt. It 
 crystallized conviction. It established clear 
 knowledge. Thus the wise teacher understood 
 how important it is to call up in the mind of the 
 learner every possible explanation, and then, 
 when the mind is balancing the issues, to put for- 
 ward a question whose answer lifts the learner 
 to a declaration of an opinion and the formula- 
 tion of a conviction never again to be subject to 
 revision. To drive a soul to the final and con- 
 clusive statement of truth is always of moment 
 in the teaching process. 
 
 To question wisely is to catch glimpses of the 
 inner life, the secret thoughts, the vital forces of 
 a soul. It must be done in a spirit of loving con- 
 cern for the pupil. The more intimately the life 
 of the pupil is known, the more sacred becomes 
 the office of teacher. Kinship of spirit is the best 
 warrant to teach. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 What reasons do you have for teaching carefully the 
 meaning of words ? 
 
 Should religious truth be set in more vague terms 
 than other truth? 
 
STIMULATING SOUL-ACTIVITY 201 
 
 May religious truth be taught as clearly as secular 
 truth? 
 
 Why is the unanswered question a source of concern? 
 
 If the delay in finding answer to a question is pro- 
 longed, how does this delay affect the learner? 
 
 Explain clearly the value of the right activity of the 
 mental process. 
 
 What are you doing to aid your pupil to clear views? 
 
 Some questions are pertinent, some are impertinent. 
 Explain and illustrate. 
 
 Enumerate the values of the question as a form of 
 teaching. 
 
 What types of questions are wise? Why? 
 
 Study your own motive in questioning your pupil. 
 
 What is the relative value of the question for the 
 class and the question for the individual? 
 
 Explain the Socratic question. 
 
 Discuss the effect upon the pupils of unwise ques- 
 tions. 
 
 Frame ten wholly wise questions upon the subject- 
 matter of this chapter. 
 
XVII 
 
 THE TEACHER'S PERSONAL EQUIPMENT 
 
 \X7"E HAVE to this point been considering 
 the opening of a soul into full bloom. We 
 have seen it bud and grow and blossom. What 
 shall the fruitage be? That will depend upon 
 the nutrition and upon the pruning. The nutri- 
 tion is the Word of God. The pruning is the 
 act of the teacher. 
 
 This act is of so great importance that I have 
 thought it wise at this point to consider the 
 
 teacher in his relation to the 
 T priKrtn°' PUP' 1 ' especially in his relation 
 
 to the product of the teaching 
 process as it is bodied forth in conduct. No 
 religious instruction is worth the name that does 
 not condition conduct. It is one thing to know 
 the right. It is another thing to do the right. It 
 is not enough that our pupils should know the 
 right. They must do it. We live in deeds. The 
 Sunday-school is to be judged by the life of its 
 pupil. The teacher is to be justified by the 
 manner of the pupil's living acquired under his 
 guidance. If you entertain any other view of 
 your function, throw it away. 
 
THE TEACHER'S PERSONAL EQUIPMENT 2O3 
 
 We are met at the outset with the cry that 
 teachers are born, not made ; that some can teach 
 and some cannot; and that any attempt to train 
 teachers is essentially impossible. Let us be sure 
 
 we are justified before we take 
 Are B ^** c ^ ers such a position. I have seen 
 
 thousands of teachers at work. 
 I have known them as pupils and as individuals. 
 I am frank to admit that some people are so 
 finely organized that they instinctively teach well. 
 This number is not large. I know that most of 
 the successful teachers of to-day are made, not 
 born. Here, as in almost every sphere of activity 
 that calls for skilled efforts, honest and sustained 
 effort is sure to accomplish a worthy result. 
 Lawyers, doctors, and clergymen are made over 
 under professional discipline and study. Why, 
 then, may we not assert the same of the teacher? 
 We have many excellent teachers in our public 
 schools because they have been trained to teach 
 in some of our many excellent training schools. 
 We shall accomplish equally important advances 
 in our Sunday-school teaching when we accept 
 this truth and act upon it. 
 
 Why do we hesitate to enter heart and soul 
 upon a campaign of teacher-training? Is it 
 because we are indifferent to the cause? Is it 
 because we are unwilling to put forth an honest 
 effort to achieve skill? Is it simply because we 
 
204 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 do not ? How I wish I had the power to stir the 
 indifferent, the lazy, the negligent ones ! I have 
 in mind a large group of teachers who are 
 anxious to do the best things, who are busy with 
 a thousand cares, who turn to every possible 
 guidance that offers promise of help, and who 
 carry upon their consciences their responsibilities. 
 For these my heart warms. For these I am will- 
 ing to try, in the best way I 
 
 Th Q" up fl " know ' t0 afford help - This 
 group will teach far better to- 
 morrow than they do to-day. These are the hope 
 of our children, our Sunday-school, our church. 
 For these I have a few suggestions. 
 
 You may feel that temperamentally you are 
 not suited to teach. You may be hasty, and at 
 times cross. You may be unsympathetic and 
 cold. You may be impulsive and rash. You may 
 be unnatural and foolish. You may be these and 
 other things equally objectionable in the teacher. 
 You may feel your limitations in scholarship, in 
 methods, and in skill in teaching. What of it? 
 These are limitations that you should remove, 
 regardless of your position of teacher. If, then, 
 teaching will aid you all the more surely to re- 
 move them, why not teach? 
 
 We all have our limitations. It is our business 
 to remove them. To train as a teacher is a most 
 direct manner of securing mastery over our own 
 
THE TEACHER'S PERSONAL EQUIPMENT 205 
 
 selves. Do you find it difficult to control your 
 class? Concentrate your effort to win this bat- 
 tle. Control is essential to 
 Limitations teaching. Why should any boy 
 or girl act in Sunday-school in a 
 manner which he or she knows would not be tol- 
 erated in a public school? Why? Isn't it as 
 much a part of one's religious training to be 
 orderly as it is part of one's secular training? 
 Are you afraid you will lose a pupil if you 
 demand order ? You need not be. Settle it now 
 and for all time that you will have order in your 
 class. Teach nothing until you have it. Stop 
 teaching the moment you lose it. Do not go on 
 with the lesson until you are master of the con- 
 duct of your class. This is your first test. Control 
 is worth securing. Respect for you is essen- 
 tial to your ability to teach. How can you 
 achieve this condition of respect when the pupils 
 know that they, not you, set the standard of con- 
 duct in your class? A boy will respect you all 
 the more if you have the courage to assert your- 
 self in behalf of what is right and reasonable. 
 Do not hesitate one moment to exact respectful 
 attention. The only thing you need to consider 
 is the manner of securing it. Be firmly kind, but 
 also be kindly firm. 
 
 Be patient. Time wins many victories. What 
 cannot be done with a rush may be done in due 
 
206 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 time. It is always unwise to create excitement in 
 
 the class. I am not averse to bright, snappy 
 
 teaching, the kind that carries 
 
 Bssdntui itself with a swee P and strength ; 
 but I do caution against fussy 
 ways that really defeat the ends sought. On 
 the other hand, it is manifestly impossible to hold 
 the attention of the class when the lesson drags 
 its weary length along. But when a pupil is 
 putting forth his best effort, no matter how poor 
 that effort may be, the teacher should patiently 
 and kindly aid the pupil to his best statement of 
 the facts he is to recite. To scold, to scowl, to 
 frown, to become angry, to be sarcastic, is to lose 
 all the golden opportunity that is the teacher's. 
 Put yourself as fully and as frequently as you can 
 in the place of the pupils. Remember the 
 meager and barren life some of them live. Let 
 infinite love, infinite patience, infinite tact, 
 characterize your work as a teacher. Above 
 all, do not grow discouraged when you 
 do not at once secure the results you long for. 
 You may be, you are if you teach well, accom- 
 plishing more than you know. Think what you 
 want your pupils to be ten, twenty years hence, 
 and labor to set up now the ideals to which, 
 through the years, their souls shall grow. 
 
 Jesus was always patient with the honest 
 learner. Cannot you afford to be the same? In 
 
THE TEACHER'S PERSONAL EQUIPMENT 207 
 
 John 7 we have Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 It was a season of sacred rejoicing in Jerusalem. 
 It was also a time of great excitement. Every- 
 body was crowding to the festal services. No 
 one was in a frame of mind to learn. Jesus 
 wisely waited the right moment before he essayed 
 to present his message. The last, the great day of 
 The the Feast had come. When the 
 
 Psychological day was yet young, when the air 
 '' "" !l!,i was cool, when all the people were 
 
 astir, was not this the time to teach? No. See 
 the crowd converge upon the temple, each bear- 
 ing a Paradise apple in the left hand, branches 
 of trees in the right hand. Hear the sacred 
 music. See the procession of musicians, headed 
 by a priest bearing a golden pitcher. They move 
 to the Fool of Siloam, the golden pitcher is filled, 
 the choral march turns again to the temple. 
 Hear the cheers of the multitude and the sound 
 of cymbals and of trumpets. Surely now is the 
 time to speak. Ah, no. Be patient. Seven 
 times the procession weaves its ecstatic way 
 around the great altar of burnt-offering, upon 
 which rests the sacrifice. Hear the priest chant 
 the solemn words, " O then, now work salvation, 
 Jehovah! O Jehovah, give prosperity." See 
 him pour upon the altar the water from the 
 golden pitcher. Hear the mighty chorus, the 
 great "Hallel" (Psalms 113-118), rising with 
 
208 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the voice of the flute. See the multitude shake 
 the branches toward the altar, while the priests 
 draw the threefold blast from 
 T f:ZZl:l their trumpets. The echoes fill 
 the valleys round about. They 
 reverberate from the hillsides beyond, and then 
 a sacred hush settles over the vast multitude of 
 worshipers. The service ceases. A great silence 
 like a beauteous benediction nestles over the 
 sacred scene. And now, clear over the awed 
 multitude, like the voice of an' angel, rang the 
 words, " If any man thirst, let him come unto 
 me and drink." Who has spoken? Who has 
 seized the supremest moment to say the suprem- 
 est thing ? Let the officers answer. " Never man 
 so spake.'' Let us comprehend the patience that 
 knew the divine moment to speak. Let us seize, 
 as did he, the right moment to teach human souls. 
 Let us teach in the manner that he so splendidly 
 set! Here we have exemplified control and 
 patience worthy of the Son of God. 
 
 Do you love to teach ? Do you love children ? 
 
 You answer, in a perfunctory way, " Certainly I 
 
 do." But do you love them as Jesus loved them? 
 
 Do you love them well enough 
 
 Love Essential to suffer for them? If so, you 
 
 can teach. Love your pupils for 
 
 what you want them to become. Love them on 
 
 the ideal side. I know how difficult it is to accept 
 
THE TEACHER S PERSONAL EQUIPMENT 200. 
 
 this guidance. But I also know how great is the 
 value of this discipline to the teacher. At the 
 very last, Jesus gave the most searching exam- 
 ination to Peter before he was commissioned to 
 feed the lambs and the sheep in Jesus' fold. 
 What was the nature of that examination ? What 
 momentous questions were propounded? What 
 range of subjects was covered? Oh, teacher, 
 read John 21, and learn! Jesus asks of you one 
 great, overmastering, all-embracing question, 
 " Do you love me more than you love all else ? " 
 If so, you are divinely anointed to teach. The 
 best feeder is the greatest lover. The measure 
 of one's ability to feed his flock is the measure 
 of one's love for the Shepherd. No love, no 
 teaching. No matter what equipment you may 
 possess, what wealth of material, what compre- 
 hension of educational processes, you cannot 
 touch the life of a child until you have interfused 
 all that you have and all that you are with an 
 almighty love in your soul for Him, and for his 
 little ones. 
 
 This does not in any way depreciate the value 
 of one's scholarship. There is virtue for the 
 teacher in knowing clearly and adequately the 
 subject he is to teach. But love puts fire, spirit, 
 life, power, into one's knowledge. I wish to com- 
 mend a wise and comprehensive grasp of knowl- 
 edge. Next to knowing the normal processes of 
 
2IO THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 a soul's development, I count scholarship the 
 best intellectual equipment of the teacher. I 
 
 do not mean that masses of 
 What Love Does memory-products constitute the 
 
 best stock of knowledge; but 
 rather the inter-relation of these products one 
 with another. Knowledge for the teacher should 
 be organic. Each part should fit into each other, 
 as do the units of a mosaic. This is the result 
 of reflection, not of acquisition. We need, more 
 than any other one quality of mind, the habitual 
 tendency to ponder the significance of our sepa- 
 rate elements of knowledge. When we secure 
 the attention of our class, we should be able to 
 lead the pupils, step by step, into wide vistas of 
 related knowledge. We can do this only as we 
 ourselves understand these broad groups of rela- 
 tions. What confidence comes to the teacher 
 who is conscious that his grasp of the lesson is 
 sufficient to enable him to answer questions, to 
 add specific guidance, to be at home in thought 
 before his class ! 
 
 The universal experience of teachers is that 
 no number of devices and lesson-plans will avail 
 if there is not back of all this a sane and sensible 
 and broad grasp of the whole field of religious 
 truth. This will not come to the teacher by 
 longing for it. It will not come by deploring its 
 absence. But it will come as the result of effort. 
 
THE TEACHERS PERSONAL EQUIPMENT 211 
 
 Plain, every-day, and continued study, an hour 
 now and an hour then; this counts. Let us 
 resolve, both for our own satisfaction and use- 
 fulness, and for the satisfaction 
 
 What Effort j j: 1 j: -1 
 
 Will Do an " usefulness of our pupils, 
 
 that we will, by all the ability 
 and time God gives us, grasp widely and fully 
 our problems. Then we shall always impress 
 upon our pupils the conviction that we are sin- 
 cere, and sincerity is a virtue of character, and 
 character is the great moral and religious light 
 whose radiations guide and direct more than do 
 our words. Character is God's currency. It is 
 never subject to depreciation. Its owner may 
 purchase souls for the kingdom when his beg- 
 garly dole of knowledge remains useless and 
 worthless on the threshold of a soul. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 What is the part played by the teacher in the building 
 of a soul's content? 
 
 What would you say is the supreme test of good 
 teaching in the Sunday-school? 
 
 Discuss the statement " Teachers are born, not made." 
 
 If we really believe in the training of a teacher, what 
 is our personal duty in the matter? 
 
 Have you studied your own temperament? What 
 limitations, if any, does this study reveal? 
 
212 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Why is control said to be so important? Do you con- 
 trol each pupil in your class? 
 
 What will one's ability to control his own spirit be 
 worth in the class? 
 
 In what way does a wise teacher use the virtue of 
 patience? Cite examples. 
 
 What is the supreme test of one's fitness to teach for 
 God? 
 
 What is the value of daily devotion to study? 
 
 Back of all devices must be a sincere spirit. Prove 
 this. 
 
 What do you consider the psychological moment in 
 teaching? 
 
 Name all the values of scholarship to the teacher. 
 
 What are you doing now, what more can you do, to 
 fit yourself to teach? Will you do it? 
 
XVIII 
 
 QUALITIES THAT MAKE THE TEACHER A 
 GOOD GOVERNOR 
 
 A/TATTHEW ARNOLD declares, " Conduct 
 is three-fourths of life." Education is not 
 to be regarded as a function of society through 
 which knowledge alone is acquired. Teaching 
 embraces both instruction and discipline. Disci- 
 pline has as its end the training of pupils for the 
 duties, obligations, and responsibilities of life. 
 It follows that right conduct is secured only by 
 the formation of right character in early life. 
 The basic element in conduct is self-control and 
 self-guidance. Until the youth has acquired the 
 power of self-control and of self-guidance he 
 must be controlled and guided by some agent 
 acting for him. This agent usually is the teacher. 
 The function of the teacher as disciplinarian ends 
 as soon as this power of self-regulation is devel- 
 oped. Here the teacher needs 
 T Trust ° ( t0 l earn a great lesson, — trust 
 the pupil, believe in him, as 
 Jesus believed in mankind. We shall never make 
 our pupils self-regulating by suspecting, doubting, 
 watching, and spying upon them. It is generally 
 
 213 
 
214 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 admitted now that juvenile criminals are most 
 speedily reformed by putting them upon their 
 honor. The fact that somebody believes in a 
 boy is the surest stimulus to his standing stanch 
 and strong for the things that some one believes 
 him capable of doing. 
 
 When Jesus said to those he helped, " Go, sin 
 no more," he placed confidence in them, gave 
 them to understand that they could do the right, 
 and that he was willing to accept their own life 
 determinants after they had been properly taught. 
 It is not easy to describe the quality I have in 
 mind, but the thoughtful teacher will understand 
 that truth, taught in a way that impresses the 
 pupil with the fact that the teacher believes in 
 the pupil's ability to live it out in his daily life, 
 is most likely to find such a result is attained 
 by the pupil. Jesus told the people what he knew 
 they could do, and then left them to do it, under 
 the constant conviction that he expected no other 
 issue in conduct. 
 
 To control the pupil in class in such a way as 
 to lead him to live under self-guidance later on 
 in life the teacher must possess 
 "control HS certain well-defined qualifica- 
 tions. The first of these is clear 
 knowledge. Of this quality in the teacher I 
 have already written. The basis of cheerful obedi- 
 ence on the part of the pupil is confidence, and 
 
THE TEACHER A GOOD GOVERNOR 215 
 
 the clear knowledge displayed by the teacher is 
 a potent means of securing this confidence. The 
 teacher whose grasp of the subject-matter of in- 
 struction is clear always teaches with confidence. 
 Note, on the other hand, with what subterfuge 
 the unprepared teacher seeks to deceive the 
 pupils. To be conscious of inadequate knowledge 
 is to defeat the real purposes of instruction. I 
 have known teachers whose halting, hesitating, 
 qualifying ways of putting things made anything 
 like successful effort impossible. What wins 
 confidence is the clear, specific statement of fact ; 
 the direct, unostentatious reply to questions; the 
 cool, deliberate manner that conveys more than 
 language. So, too, fresh knowledge is of 
 moment. One must go over the lesson thought- 
 fully just before it is to be taught. To have the 
 lesson fresh in mind, its different parts clearly 
 thought out, its applications drawn from current 
 incidents, and it's whole presentation full of that 
 warmth and fervor that come only with fresh 
 contact with truth, — this is to possess an element 
 of control of far-reaching significance. 
 
 Fresh knowledge is knowledge made over 
 
 again in the soul by steady and 
 Knowledge frequent review of the same. It 
 
 will not do to let knowledge 
 lie unused for any length of time, and then 
 expect to use it as teaching material. It will lack 
 
2l6 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 something, and that something is the very flavor 
 which makes it of use as teaching material. 
 
 In addition to scholarship as a basis of control, 
 
 the teacher should possess skill, both in teaching 
 
 and in managing a class. Knowing how to do 
 
 things is always an element of power. The 
 
 teacher who is unskilled, awk- 
 
 skiii as Control ward, hesitating, uncertain, shift- 
 ing, indifferent, will not control 
 well. The admiration of a boy goes to the man 
 who knows how to do things. The skilful player, 
 the skilful skater, the skilful hunter, the skilful 
 general, the skilful anything, appeals and con- 
 trols. How may this skill be acquired? Only 
 by intelligent and persistent practise. It cannot 
 be had in a day. It cannot be had from books. 
 It can be had only by a study of one's own ways 
 of doing things, and the constant determination 
 to do things better every time they are done. 
 
 The third element that makes for control is 
 
 love. Of this I have written in the. preceding 
 
 chapter. The essential quality of that love is its 
 
 willingness to sacrifice, to suffer for the pupil. 
 
 The young woman teacher who 
 
 Love as control a few years ago in Dakota was 
 obliged to close her school for 
 the day when a blizzard swept the prairie, exem- 
 plified this quality of love. Realizing that it was 
 equally impossible to remain in the schoolhouse, 
 
THE TEACHER A GOOD GOVERNOR 2\"J 
 
 or to turn the children out to perish alone in the 
 storm, she resorted to heroic means to save their 
 lives. Tearing her skirts into shreds, and bind- 
 ing with these shreds all the pupils into one 
 group with herself in the lead, she led the little 
 group out into the pitiless storm. Far into the 
 night, under her courageous leadership, they 
 fought their way in the blinding blizzard. 
 Finally, almost exhausted and cruelly frozen, she 
 led every one safely to a farm-house and to 
 warmth and to shelter. Her loving devotion had 
 enabled her to fight the demon of death and to 
 win. 
 
 Some years ago, in Natchitoches Parish, 
 Louisiana, I met a young woman whose record 
 as a teacher had won for her the commendation 
 of her superintendent. She was a most interested 
 member of a teachers' institute held in that par- 
 ish. The next year, on my return, I missed her. 
 Inquiry developed the fact that this young 
 woman was dead. The cause of her death was 
 told me by one who loved her. She taught a 
 rural school, far back in the pine woods. Her 
 schoolhouse had neither door nor windows. The 
 
 children sat on cross-sections of 
 A Pine Example trees set on end. The teacher 
 
 had no chair, no stove, no pro- 
 tection from the inclement weather. One day 
 in February a severe gulf-storm, damp and cold 
 
21 8 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 and penetrating, swept over the state. Her half- 
 clothed children suffered from the cold. With- 
 out a moment's hesitation, she stood in the open 
 doorway, her face to her pupils, her back to the 
 cruel cold, that she might in some degree shelter 
 her pupils. Her love for them cost her life. 
 Pneumonia was that day contracted, and in less 
 than a week she was laid to rest in a bower of 
 roses carried by those that loved her, and for 
 whom she had given the highest expression of 
 love — her life. 
 
 This consecrated love involves, among its 
 minor qualities, the willingness of the teacher to 
 be present every Sunday, and on time. It also 
 involves concern for the pupil that is sick ; for the 
 pupil that is irregular in attendance ; for the pupil 
 that comes late ; for the pupil who is for any rea- 
 son out of joint with things. The teacher who has 
 the right quality of heart will be concerned for 
 this one and will be willing to sacrifice, if need 
 be, to bring him again to the fold, as Jesus was 
 willing to go out at night into the mountains to 
 recover the lost one. 
 
 Some teachers find it easy to love certain types 
 of children, and equally easy to hate other types. 
 The difficulty is that their love is selfish and 
 they expect to receive more than they are willing 
 to give. For that reason they make their heart 
 associations profitable things to themselves. They 
 
THE TEACHER A GOOD GOVERNOR 2IQ 
 
 rob the child, and when the child has nothing 
 worth taking the teacher has nothing to give. 
 
 The remedy for all this is to love 
 The ideal Side the child on its ideal side, 
 
 to love it for what you want 
 it to be rather than what it is, and remem- 
 ber that a small amount of regard and interest 
 and love to one that needs it most is larger love 
 than a great amount bestowed upon one who 
 needs it least. Jesus was all the while searching 
 out those who had fewest friends and least affec- 
 tion, and, therefore, the most meager lives were 
 those that attracted him. Witness especially the 
 poor cripple at the pool, who gave utterance 
 to one of the saddest of all human expres- 
 sions recorded when he said, " Sir, I have no 
 man." 
 
 A very dear friend of mine declares that, so far 
 as he has power to do so, he means to let some 
 sunshine into those lives that need it most. I 
 commend his resolution. Consider most of all 
 the child whose home-life is cheerless, empty, 
 and forbidding. Pray for grace to be considerate 
 of this one. A small amount of concern for this 
 
 child will be like bread cast 
 
 The Loveless upon ^ ^^ ^ & j^ 
 
 leaven in a barrel of meal. 
 There are children in your class whose life-lines 
 are seldom crossed by the rays of cheer, and 
 
220 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 kindness, and unselfish concern. Let your spirit 
 move lovingly to them. Remember how much 
 they need you. Remember how much joy is in 
 the soul of the teacher who redeems such ones 
 to a Christian life enriched by faith, and hope, 
 and love. 
 
 The fourth element that makes for control is 
 
 resolution, firmness, power of will. It stands 
 
 opposed to spasmodic control. It encourages 
 
 silence on the part of the teacher. It avoids the 
 
 show of force, and in an unob- 
 
 wiii as Control trusive way exhibits itself be- 
 fore the boys as backbone — the 
 quality which stands for certain principles and 
 will not see these principles violated, nor suffer 
 them, when violated, to go unnoted. Here the 
 teacher will, if not continually on the alert, com- 
 nit grave errors in building character. Some 
 teachers allow disorder and inattention to flour- 
 ish until these become intolerable. Then with a 
 show of force and a regimen that is unworthy 
 the name, they coerce the pupils temporarily into 
 order, and force attention. Good control is 
 always equable. Home control, like teacher con- 
 trol, is too often figured in the following words 
 from the pen of Jean Paul Richter : 
 
 " If the secret variances of a large class of 
 ordinary fathers were brought to light, and laid 
 down as a plan of studies and reading catalogued 
 
THE TEACHER A GOOD GOVERNOR 221 
 
 for a moral education, they would run somewhat 
 after this fashion : In the first hour ' pure mor- 
 ality must be read to the child, either by myself 
 or the tutor ; ' in the second, ' mixed morality, 
 or that which may be applied to one's own ad- 
 vantage ; ' in the third, ' do you not see that your 
 father does so and so ? ' in the fourth, ' you are 
 little, and this is only fit for grown-up people ; ' 
 
 in the fifth, ' the chief matter is 
 J Rtchte"' t ^ iat y° u should succeed in the 
 
 world, and become something in 
 the state ; ' in the sixth, ' not the temporary, but 
 the eternal, determines the worth of a man ; ' in 
 the seventh, ' therefore rather suffer injustice, 
 and be kind;' in the eighth, 'but defend your- 
 self bravely if any one attack you ; ' in the ninth, 
 ' do not make a noise, dear child ; ' in the 
 tenth, ' a boy must not sit so quiet ' ; in the 
 eleventh, ' you must obey your parents better ; ' 
 in the twelfth, ' and educate yourself.' So by 
 the hourly change of his principles, the father 
 conceals their untenableness and one-sidedness. 
 As for his wife, she is neither like him, nor yet 
 like that harlequin who came on to the stage 
 with a bundle of papers under each arm, and 
 answered to the inquiry, what he had under his 
 right arm, ' orders,' and to what he had under 
 his left arm,, ' counter-orders.' But the mother 
 might be much better compared to a giant 
 
222 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Briareus who had a hundred arms, and a 
 bundle of papers under each." 
 
 A fifth quality that makes for control is alert- 
 ness, which is akin to interest. The teacher's eye 
 is a great governor; it should rest in the right 
 place and seek out, without 
 ^control** 8 seeming to do so, every possible 
 disorder. Unless a thing is of 
 such moment as to make it a matter of attention, 
 it is better not to see it ; that is to say, the teacher 
 seeing it should not see it, or hearing it should 
 not hear it. This alertness anticipates trouble, 
 nips it in the bud, kills the egg before the trouble 
 is hatched, and is, in general, the preventive 
 quality in control. 
 
 The sixth element that makes for control is 
 common sense, by which I mean sane judgment 
 about common things. It is the ability to dis- 
 tinguish between a matter which is of little or 
 no moment and a matter which is of great mo- 
 ment. It involves putting per- 
 CO rc o"„t S r e o" 8e s P e <*ve into discipline. It is 
 the quality that enables the 
 teacher to pass by the accidental quality and note 
 the essential tendency. Most teachers defeat 
 the very ends they most desire to accomplish be- 
 cause they lay tremendous emphasis upon unim- 
 portant matters. They have, therefore, nothing 
 left as a resource with which to impress the 
 
THE TEACHER A GOOD GOVERNOR 223 
 
 weightier matters of the law. They lose the 
 whole value of good discipline to a soul because 
 they have spent themselves over things which the 
 pupils know are of little moment, and the pupils 
 soon come to understand how irrational such 
 control is. 
 
 The last of these elements that make for con- 
 trol is personal character, — the sum of what one 
 is, the spirit with which one does things, the 
 quality of head and of heart which make attrac- 
 tive the things that are right, and unattractive 
 the things that are wrong. We teach more by 
 what we are than by what we know. No other 
 equipment is comparable to per- 
 
 Ch Co a n C tr e oi aS sonal worth - The teacher whose 
 own conduct is regulated by the 
 high qualities of an ideal Christian life will, by 
 the force of his own personality, best aid his 
 pupils to regulate their conduct by the same 
 exalted standards. 
 
 Emphasis is placed upon this matter of con- 
 trol because it is fundamental in building char- 
 acter. We must see plainly three steps in the 
 process of building a charactered soul. At the 
 first, the pupils need external 
 ^Essentia? guidance. This the teacher fur- 
 nishes. The above analysis of 
 the teacher's equipment is to indicate how he 
 may wisely administer this guidance. Then fol- 
 
224 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 lows a transitional period, during which the 
 pupils are able in part to guide their own con- 
 duct, but are obliged in part to depend upon the 
 wiser and steadier guidance of the teacher. 
 Finally, the pupil is able to stand erect, to act 
 upon his own initiative. He is free from exter- 
 nal guidance. He has set up in his own soul a 
 regal guidance that is his own. His soul is free. 
 It acts as it should because it wills so to act. All 
 restraint is gone. Truth guides its decrees and 
 conditions its actions. Thus the saying of Jesus 
 becomes the goal of the teacher's effort, — " Ye 
 shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
 you free." 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Just what is embraced in the education of a people? 
 
 What limits, if any, would you place upon the saying, 
 " Trust the pupil " ? 
 
 In case your trust is betrayed, what would you do? 
 
 What educational value attaches to securing the con- 
 fidence of the pupil? 
 
 Distinguish between fresh knowledge and stale knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 Discuss the value and the means of securing skill in 
 teaching. 
 
 Cite instances of sacrificing love on the part of 
 teachers for their pupils. 
 
THE TEACHER A GOOD GOVERNOR 225 
 
 Do you know what it means to suffer for your pupils ? 
 
 What reward have you if you love only the loving? 
 If you love the loveless? 
 
 Point out the evils of spasmodic control. 
 
 In what way may the saying, " The eye of the mas- 
 ter is worth both his hands," apply to the Sunday- 
 school teacher? 
 
 If the end of control is freedom through what means 
 do you seek to achieve this end? 
 
 Compare the relative worth of the seven elements of 
 control here presented, and determine in which of these 
 elements you are weak and in which you are strong ; then 
 answer the question, What are you going to do about 
 it? 
 
XIX 
 CONCERNING THE COURSE OF STUDY 
 
 \I7£ HAVE considered some of the aspects 
 of soul growth and some of the elements 
 in teacher equipment. We have seen so far what 
 a teacher should know of the child and what he 
 should be. What next is to be considered ? We 
 have not yet recognized an element of teacher- 
 training that seems to hold commanding place 
 in the thought of many. That element is the 
 knowledge of the subject-matter. What of that? 
 Should not the teacher know his subject? We 
 have already stated why scholarship is an aid 
 in the control of the class. Has it no other use ? 
 Let us see. 
 
 There are three parts to the problem of 
 teacher-training : ( i ) there is a young and grow- 
 ing soul to be instructed and trained; (2) there 
 
 is a world of religious truth to 
 Problem ^ known and presented to this 
 
 young and growing soul; and 
 (3) there is an intermediate agency — a living, 
 disciplined, and equipped teacher — whose func- 
 tion it is to interpret this world of religious truth 
 to the young and growing soul. There are 
 things of the spirit, spiritual; and there are 
 226 
 
CONCERNING THE COURSE OF STUDY 227 
 
 things of the earth, earthy. The spiritual things 
 are subjective and intangible. The things of the 
 earth are objective and tangible. The teacher 
 must translate this objective world into terms 
 of the spirit. How can he do this if he is unfa- 
 miliar with this objective world? How can he 
 cause to arise in another soul knowledge that has 
 never crossed the bounds of his own? Surely he 
 can give only as he possesses. It is evident then 
 that a knowledge of the subject-matter to be 
 taught is an essential equipment of the teacher. 
 But his knowledge of the subject-matter makes 
 him only a scholar. To understand how to trans- 
 mute this scholarship into terms of nutrition for 
 another soul, and to know also how to fit it to the 
 precise needs of the learner, adds to his scholarly 
 
 Scholarship abilit y the abiHt y t0 teach - T ° 
 
 Makes Only a pause at scholarship is to defeat 
 ! " ' the ends of teaching. Thus many 
 
 good-intentioned persons fail to teach. They as- 
 sume that when one knows a thing he can teach 
 it. This is pedagogic heresy. I have known great 
 scholars who were miserable teachers. I recall 
 now an authority of world-wide renown in a 
 certain science whose attempts to teach were piti- 
 ful. He frankly confessed that he did not know 
 how to present his knowledge to the pupil. He 
 usually sat upon the teacher's desk and requested 
 his pupils to ply him with questions. He was a 
 
228 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 veritable encyclopedia of information in his 
 chosen field, but he was not in any sense a real 
 teacher. I recall also a teacher of mine, years 
 ago, whose alert eye caught the first sign of in- 
 difference in any pupil. I have 
 a Contrast known her to stop one pupil in 
 the middle of a sentence, and 
 ask another pupil to conclude the sentence and 
 proceed with the recitation. She was cruelly ex- 
 act, but she was a teacher. We learned things 
 in her classes. She knew how to hold the whole 
 class absolutely under the domination of her own 
 purpose. 
 
 The Sunday-school teacher has turned of late 
 to a study of the many excellent outlines of the 
 subject-matter of religious instruction. He has 
 been led to think that the mastery of some course 
 in Bible history, Bible geography, and Bible ma- 
 terials generally, will give him the guidance and 
 equipment necessary to teach successfully. He 
 knows, if he knows - enough to 
 ""Ateied"* know his own procedure, that 
 his guidance and equipment are 
 by no means adequate. He does not get the re- 
 sults he longs for, labors for, prays for. Why? 
 He has been misled. Mere familiarity with the 
 subject-matter is but one of the three elements 
 of his equipment. He must master all these ele- 
 ments before he is a real teacher. 
 
CONCERNING THE COURSE OF STUDY 229 
 
 An old gentleman in my native village, whose 
 occupation was that of carpenter, frequently said 
 to us, " Boys, you must not play with sharp tools. 
 Only trained mechanics should handle them. 
 Play, if you like, with the dull ones." Do you 
 agree with the opinion of the old carpenter? He 
 was a man of such kindly sympathy and fair 
 judgment that we all loved and 
 
 An illustration respected him. He was a mod- 
 ern John Pounds. As he drove 
 nails into furniture he also drove many a help- 
 ful thought into the souls of the group of curious 
 boys that crowded his shop. I incline to accept 
 his opinion and to follow his advice. The dis- 
 cerning old man was wise enough to accept a 
 great truth. Fine tools for skilled workmen. I 
 recall also that my father never allowed me to 
 drive the spirited horse, but interposed no ob- 
 jection to my using an old family horse that was 
 so docile that he never did shy, back, kick, or 
 run. As a child these restrictions annoyed me. 
 I can see now that these men were wise with 
 years of actual experience. They understood 
 that the finest agents alone are fit to handle the 
 finest agencies, — that, in short, these are com- 
 plementary compensations in the economy of 
 things. 
 
 We are admonished not to cast our pearls be- 
 fore swine. A good reason is given. The swine 
 
23O THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 cannot comprehend the utility of pearls any more 
 than a novice can comprehend the exquisite skill 
 of a professional man. As long as we had 
 teachers whose conception of their work was 
 
 summed up in the three R's or in 
 The Three r's " lickin' and larnin', " there was 
 
 little use to think of refined 
 methods and adjusted materials of instruction. 
 The fact is that we had to develop a new concept 
 of the teacher's function before we could train 
 teachers in normal and other professional schools 
 for professional service. And the trained teacher 
 had to be developed before the curriculum could 
 be modified. When the trained teacher arose, the 
 materials of education naturally and inevitably 
 received modification. We developed the artist, 
 and the artist found for himself suitable tools 
 to carve his ideals into realities. 
 
 Some are clamoring for graded courses of 
 study. Unquestionably the subject-matter, both 
 in kind and in amount, should be adapted to the 
 capacity of the learner. No one would for a 
 moment question the value of refined and peda- 
 gogically organized material. The best is none 
 
 too good in the building of a 
 Dr. white soul, but the real question is 
 
 more fundamental than that of 
 the curriculum. Dr. E. E. White wisely remarks : 
 "Teachers are building their hopes of success 
 
CONCERNING THE COURSE OF STUDY 23 I 
 
 on new plans and devices, or, to use a much 
 abused term, on method. This, too, without duly 
 appreciating, if seeing, the fact that the efficiency 
 of a device or method depends primarily on what 
 the teacher puts into it, and especially the deeper 
 fact that a teacher cannot put into a method 
 what he has not within himself." 
 
 This is precisely what seems to me to be true 
 in our Sunday-school agitation over graded 
 courses of study. We are not content with the 
 results attained. We are casting about for some 
 agency that shall be made to carry the burden 
 of blame. We have singled out the uniform 
 lesson as our scapegoat. Upon it we have placed 
 
 the burden of blame for inade- 
 ZtTZZl quate results. But is this right? 
 
 Is it reasonable? Have we 
 found the right victim? The one thing that in- 
 sists upon expression here is the fact that the first 
 and foremost need is properly qualified teachers. 
 Before we refine our materials of instruction, we 
 must refine our teachers. The vital need of the 
 Sunday-school to-day is not graded courses of 
 study, but teacher-training. Seek first to secure 
 efficient teachers, and the graded course of study 
 will in due time be added. It will come as soon 
 as we have teachers to use it. Sharp tools are 
 for trained mechanics. The vital factor is the 
 teacher. To quote Dr. White again : " The 
 
232 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 teacher is cause; all else is only condition and 
 result." 
 
 Let us do some honest thinking right here. Let 
 us also do some earnest praying. It is so easy 
 to censure, so difficult to receive censure. It is 
 relatively easy to size up others, so difficult to 
 judge ourselves. We complacently put the blame 
 upon the materials given us. Why not fairly 
 face the possibility that it is more a matter of 
 the teacher than it is a matter of the course of 
 study? A teacher once whipped a boy. The 
 boy laughed. The teacher, angered, whipped the 
 boy more severely. The boy laughed all the 
 more boisterously. In amazement, the teacher 
 said : " What in the world are you laughing 
 about ? " The boy recovered himself, and said 
 in reply, " Why, teacher, you are whipping the 
 wrong fellow ! " In a liberal paraphrase of 
 Shakespeare, we may perhaps see the problem 
 as it is. " The fault, dear teacher, lies not with 
 our course of study, but with ourselves that we 
 are unsuccessful." 
 
 In saying this, two matters of moment must 
 be borne in mind: (1) Teachers are not prima- 
 rily to be blamed for the condi- 
 W °Things a " tions that prevail. Just where 
 the responsibility rests is a 
 matter that merits investigation. Let us en- 
 deavor to find the cause. I suspect that even 
 
CONCERNING THE COURSE OF STUDY 233 
 
 the pastor will not rashly disclaim responsibility. 
 But it is manifest that teachers who have been 
 willing to learn how to teach, and have had no 
 opportunity to do so, are not primarily at fault. 
 The time has come for a demand for greater ap- 
 preciation of the dignity and the worth of the 
 teacher, for better provisions for his training, 
 for a more skilful and close supervision of his 
 preparation and of his class exercises, and, 
 for a more enlightened comprehension of 
 the importance of the service the Sunday- 
 school may and should render to the church. (2) 
 We face a condition, not a theory. Those that 
 agitate for a reorganization of the subject- 
 matter are prone to overlook the fact that a 
 graded course of study implies, as a prerequisite 
 to its successful use, a professionally equipped 
 teacher. I assume that those who insist upon 
 immediate substitution of graded for uniform 
 lessons are either pure theorists, or they are rea- 
 soning from the secular to the Sunday-school 
 without considering what the graded course of 
 study signifies in the equipment of the secular 
 school teacher. Upon my desk is a plan of 
 teacher-training based upon a visit to the public 
 schools of a great city. The author found cer- 
 tain processes in vogue there. He assumes that 
 these should be used in the Sunday-school. His 
 assumption is wholly gratuitous. It is this sort 
 
234 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 of guidance that produces confusion worse con- 
 founded. 
 
 Let us understand definitely that the secular 
 school has no final word to give as guidance in 
 this matter. Like the Sunday-school, it is search- 
 ing for the best things. It has 
 
 Th Lh e o c o u i lar not found them - To c °py its 
 
 present plans would be of little 
 use in the final solution of our problem. It is 
 evident to me that the real answer in all this 
 can come only from an inductive study of our 
 conditions as they are. There should be a com- 
 mission named by the most competent Sunday- 
 school organization in the world. This commis- 
 sion should have the means at its command to 
 secure exact data of the present status of the 
 Sunday-schools, and upon this basis of fact, for- 
 mulate a report of our needs. Such a commis- 
 sion would be an epoch-making body in our 
 advance. Some patriotic lover of the cause may 
 find in this a suggestion of a service of far-' 
 reaching importance. 
 
 The discontent with present results in moral 
 and religious training is not confined to the 
 Sunday-school. It is universal. We are passing 
 through a period of inquiry and of unrest. 
 We have taken account of our stock and we 
 realize our need. We must find a way to impress 
 moral and religious truth upon our children be- 
 
CONCERNING THE COURSE OF STUDY 235 
 
 fore they reach maturity. It is the growing soul 
 in a growing body that calls for nutrition. We 
 must come to a quickened sense of this need if 
 
 we are to touch the whole life 
 Universal'* °* t ^ le c ^ild and of the race with 
 
 the influences that are holy and 
 enduring. My conviction is that at the heart of 
 this reform is the teacher. We teach vastly more 
 by what we are than by what we know. The 
 hope of our children is the life of the teacher, 
 and, of course, the life of the parent. Life molds 
 life. Let us center our thought upon the problem 
 of producing in the teacher all the qualities of 
 life that God would have in the soul of his chil- 
 dren. Then we shall easily, speedily, surely, gain 
 all the lesser conditions that make for success 
 in this supreme responsibility — the responsibility 
 of fitting life to achieve its full development here 
 and its triumphant glories hereafter. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Name the parts of the problem of teacher-training 
 and discuss their relative importance. 
 
 Point out clearly the difference between a teacher 
 and a scholar. 
 
 Do you know of persons whose scholarship is much 
 better than is their teaching power? 
 
 Is a graded course of more moment than teacher- 
 training ? 
 
236 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Which should come first, better teachers or better 
 materials? Why? 
 
 Suppose you had improved lesson- material and the 
 same teacher, would you surely improve the teaching? 
 
 If you had the task of reorganizing our whole Sunday- 
 school work, what would you do first? 
 
 What could a commission of trained and consecrated 
 leaders do for the Sunday-school? 
 
 Do you favor such a commission? Why? What will 
 you do to secure it? 
 
 What, in your judgment, are the difficulties to be 
 overcome in the matter of securing thoroughly-equipped 
 teachers for our Sunday-schools ? 
 
XX 
 
 CONCERNING THE RECITATION 
 
 A N OBJECT of study is a lesson assigned to 
 "^ be recited by the pupil. A subject of study 
 is a group of objects of study that are related one 
 to another, and, when taken together and organ- 
 ized, constitute a special line of investigation, as 
 the subject of history, the subject of arithmetic, 
 the subject of Bible geography, etc. A course of 
 study is a group of subjects of study so organ- 
 ized as to comprehend the entire 
 Terms Defined range of knowledge to be pre- 
 sented to the child in school; 
 thus a course of study is made up of subjects of 
 study, and each subject of study is made up of 
 objects of study, and these objects of study are 
 the lessons which the pupil must prepare from 
 time to time. 
 
 The lesson assigned becomes the basis of the 
 recitation at the next stated period when the 
 class meets. Here is an important matter for the 
 Sunday-school teacher. You cannot have a 
 good recitation without proper preparation. 
 Work must be assigned in advance of the time 
 when it is to be recited, and some study should 
 
 237 
 
238 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 be given to the lesson before the class meets to 
 recite, — this is fundamental in all good teaching. 
 
 Nobody thinks, who thinks 
 Preparation wisely, of calling pupils to a 
 
 recitation without previously 
 assigning definite work to be prepared by them; 
 except, of course, when the age of the pupils is 
 such that it is impossible for them to do any 
 outside study. But the child that can read intelli- 
 gently is prepared to study in advance of the 
 recitation, and should do so. 
 
 I notice generally that Sunday-school pupils 
 come to class without the least idea of what the 
 lesson is. The result is poor recitation, wasted 
 time, unprepared minds, futile effort and alto- 
 gether an unfortunate exercise. I see no reason 
 why a teacher of a Sunday-school class should 
 not assign the work a week in advance. It is 
 not enough to say that the lesson next Sunday 
 will be found in such and such a place in the 
 Bible. That is not assigning a lesson, nor is it 
 a proper preparation for a recitation. Suppose 
 we have thirty minutes in which to teach a lesson. 
 A wise teacher will consider eight minutes of 
 that time well spent if spent in assigning the 
 work of the week to come. I believe that in this 
 one matter a great reform could be carried out 
 in our Sunday-school teaching. We have a right 
 to expect pupils to prepare their work, and it is 
 
CONCERNING THE RECITATIQN 239 
 
 our duty as their teachers to have that work 
 properly prepared. 
 
 What should be the nature of this assignment 
 of work? In general, the teacher should point 
 out the leading things in the lesson that are 
 to be considered at the next recitation. It would 
 be well to have the pupils jot these down on a 
 sheet of paper. All pbints in a lesson are not 
 
 equally important. The pupils do 
 Assignment not know what are the important 
 
 things. They need to be guided 
 in their study, and the purpose of this assign- 
 ment is to show where the emphasis should be 
 placed, what should be wrought out with care, 
 and what should be carried as merely incidental 
 to these dominant and vital things. In particular, 
 the assignment should also lay upon each pupil 
 the obligation of reporting upon some special 
 thing. This special thing may be common to all 
 the class, or each may have a definite special task. 
 But I hear an objection to this. Teachers con- 
 sider only the lesson that is next to be taught, 
 and the truth is the teacher himself is usually 
 ignorant of what the second lesson is to be until 
 the first one is taught, all of which proves that 
 our present method of conducting training 
 classes, so-called, is bad. There is no pedagogi- 
 cal justification whatever for such narrow 
 preparation. It is bound to result in the inade- 
 
24O THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 quate and unsatisfactory conditions that now so 
 
 generally prevail. The leader of a training-class 
 
 should point out to the teachers 
 
 A a u"S° in his g rou P a whole quarter of 
 lessons, showing how one is re- 
 lated to another, for it is impossible to construct 
 a system of truth unless each lesson is taught as 
 part of all the lessons. We would not think of 
 allowing a teacher of arithmetic to present a part 
 of that subject, and at the same time be ignorant 
 of the other part. Why should we allow a 
 Sunday-school teacher to present one lesson, and 
 be entirely ignorant of what the next lesson is? 
 Are we not actually producing intellectual hash 
 for these children, and feeding them scrappy stuff 
 when they ought to have a well-organized, con- 
 nected, and properly related group of nutritions? 
 The recitation is the teacher's opportunity pre- 
 eminent to sit down with a small group of chil- 
 dren to consider with them a lesson, to look into 
 their faces, to question, to guide their thinking, 
 to lead them out of the mists 
 
 The Recitation d shadows f doubt d raise 
 
 an Opportunity 
 
 them up into the broad table- 
 lands and the light of truth. It is unquestionably 
 a glorious and a holy opportunity. Prize the 
 recitation hour as the opportunity of your life 
 to do something, to do it well; an opportunity 
 that a soul should long for, pray for, prepare for. 
 
CONCERNING THE RECITATION 24I 
 
 The function of the recitation is primarily to 
 test the knowledge of the pupils, and knowledge 
 needs to be tested. By testing the knowledge I 
 mean proving it, putting it on trial, submitting 
 it to rigid cross-questioning in order to determine 
 whether or not it is good knowl- 
 
 F "ecit a n t i °on he ed g e ° r bad knowledge, clear 
 knowledge or confused knowl- 
 edge. This test should be, therefore, thorough, 
 searching, and inspiring. Avoid superficial, 
 haphazard recitations. They produce careless- 
 ness, indifference, and superficiality in the pupil. 
 The recitation is not likely to be of a higher order, 
 than the requirement set by the teacher. 
 
 In testing a pupil's knowledge the recitation 
 must require full and accurate expression. In 
 no other way can the teacher determine what 
 the pupil knows, and in no other way should he 
 undertake to determine it. He must assume ab- 
 solutely nothing. Prove all things; hold fast to 
 that which is good. The recita- 
 
 E Re7it S ation' n tion sh ° uld ^ f fee • the P U P ils 
 
 should be permitted to say in 
 their own way what they understand to be the 
 truth. Of course, the wise teacher will not allow 
 one pupil to talk all the time, nor will he allow 
 any pupil to remain entirely silent throughout 
 the recitation. It is while the pupil states his 
 views and forms his thoughts and expresses 
 
242 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 his opinions that the teacher has a look into his 
 soul. This look will reveal to the teacher his 
 duty and his obligation. 
 
 As a second end in the recitation I would 
 name the test of the mental power of the pupil. 
 This will reveal itself to the thoughtful, observ- 
 ant teacher, as the pupil gradually moves away 
 from the technical knowledge of the book into 
 the freer knowledge of his own spirit, and also 
 as the pupil increasingly turns to his own experi- 
 ences and his own observations to fortify and 
 illustrate his opinions. The whole purpose here 
 is to ascertain whether or not the pupil is com- 
 ing into possession of increased mental insight, 
 and as he comes into the possession of this in- 
 creased power he is really acquiring the best 
 equipment for subsequent study, and also for 
 guidance in conduct. 
 
 A third end is to test the pupil's skill. Skill 
 is a difficult quality to define or to measure. It 
 is more evasive, more uncertain, more unequal 
 in different pupils than is knowledge, and yet it 
 is a matter that may be noted 
 Recitation ^ lat P u P n s do become increas- 
 ingly proficient in their ability to 
 give expression to thought. They phrase their 
 sentences better, they organize their whole physi- 
 cal relation to thought better, and they think with 
 greater depth and rapidity as they take on skill. 
 
CONCERNING THE RECITATION 243 
 
 There are two methods of conducting the reci- 
 tation that claim our attention. The first of these 
 is the question method. The second is the topic 
 method. The question method is first of all 
 thorough. It enables the teacher to press the mat- 
 ter close and to find where there 
 Method" are depths of thought, and also 
 to discern where there are shal- 
 lows and weak places. A skilful questioner is 
 the despair of improper preparation. It is also 
 the power that makes clear to the pupil his limi- 
 tations. A pupil whose language is fluent may 
 talk glibly with a very superficial knowledge of 
 the subject, but the keen questions of the teacher 
 reveal the weakness of the pupil and prepare the 
 way for more definite and concerted processes. 
 
 By a wise use of the question the teacher may 
 unfold the subject under consideration syste- 
 matically. He controls the order of the topics, 
 and can give proper emphasis to important mat- 
 ters, as all good teaching should. It also enables 
 the teacher to give incidental instruction under 
 the most favorable conditions. Sometimes the 
 question reveals the fact that a little side remark, 
 turning to the blackboard to make a diagram, 
 the introduction of concrete incidents, or the re- 
 statement of a forgotten fact, will help the pupil 
 to move on through a subject to clear conclusions. 
 
 Under no other form of teaching is this pos- 
 
244 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 sible with so little effort. All of this points to 
 the fact that the question should be clear, con- 
 cise, and definite. A question that is not clear 
 is a bad question. A question that is not con- 
 cise is a confusing question. A question that is 
 not definite is a useless question. As a rule the 
 teacher should organize ques- 
 Ouestion tions in such an order as to un- 
 fold the subject of the lesson in 
 a logical order. Beginning at some definite point 
 the question should follow a connected sequence 
 leading step by step to the most important and 
 ultimate issues. Of course questions that can 
 be answered" by " Yes " and " No " are generally 
 poor questions, and questions that convey to the 
 mind of the pupil the answer are also poor ques- 
 tions. The teacher, too, by his manner of asking 
 the question may predispose the child to answer 
 it in a manner to please the teacher rather than 
 to give an opinion or exercise his own best 
 thought. This question method has at least two 
 defects. It is liable to abuse, because pupils may 
 'fall into the habit of answering in a few broken 
 phrases instead of answering in connected and 
 coherent sentences. This weakness, however, 
 may be overcome by the firmness of the teacher 
 in insisting upon getting right forms of expres- 
 sion from the pupil. 
 
 An objection to the question method is its 
 
CONCERNING THE RECITATION 245 
 
 failure to compel systematic thought. The order 
 of the questions, as they are presented by the 
 teacher, relieves the pupil of the need of organiz- 
 ing his thought into a system. He follows the 
 
 system set by the teacher. When 
 Qu^tlonMethod the questions are printed in a 
 
 book, and the children are only 
 to make answers to these questions, there is 
 bound to result fragmentary thinking. The reci- 
 tation is to cultivate the power to classify or 
 arrange systems of thought, and should not pre- 
 sent classified and systematized thought to the 
 pupil. The question method is a fine method of 
 teaching, but it requires a finer teacher to use it 
 wisely. In the hands of an inexperienced or 
 untrained teacher it is liable to degenerate into 
 a very superficial, mechanical, and unsatisfac- 
 tory form of teaching. In general it may be said 
 that this method of teaching should not be pur- 
 sued until the pupils have reached the power to 
 think systematically, and this power comes rela- 
 tively late in the development of the pupil's mind. 
 The second method of conducting the recita- 
 tion is the topic method. Its cardinal virtue lies 
 
 in the fact that it is a good test 
 T Met T h°od IC of expression. It compels the 
 
 pupil to state a series of con- 
 nected thoughts, and throws upon the pupil the 
 responsibility of organizing this thought into a 
 
246 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 system, and giving to it an expression which 
 necessitates systematic thought. For that reason 
 it is best suited to the more mature pupils. A 
 skilful teacher is required to guide this method 
 of teaching in order to avoid the possibility of 
 the recitation falling into a mere talking exer- 
 cise, in which no proper regard is given to im- 
 portant things, and in which no emphasis is 
 placed upon the vital thoughts of the lesson. It 
 is perhaps wise to combine these two methods, 
 using one and then the other, but always keeping 
 in mind the fact that no matter what the method 
 is, the aim is to test thoroughly what the pupil 
 knows, and what he is able to state concerning 
 what he knows. 
 
 There are three ways of calling upon pupils to 
 recite. The first of these is the consecutive 
 method. By this process the teacher begins at 
 one place in the class, and calls upon the pupils 
 in order from the first to the last. This enables 
 the teacher to accomplish a very great deal in a 
 short space of time, but it amounts to little more 
 than individual instruction, since the only pupil 
 that gives close attention is the 
 
 Reciting one w ^° 1S at ^ e ^ me reciting 
 
 and the one who is next to be 
 called upon. The pupils should not know in 
 advance the order in which they are to be called 
 upon to recite. The second method, then, cor- 
 
CONCERNING THE RECITATION 247 
 
 rects this error, and may be called the promiscu- 
 ous method. By this method the teacher calls 
 upon the pupils in no fixed order. The same 
 pupil may be called upon twice in succession, 
 and this promiscuous treatment of the pupils re- 
 quires that each one shall give close attention and 
 be prepared to recite. Here, of course, whether 
 a question is asked or a topic assigned, the pupil 
 who is to recite should not be told of it until the 
 question is asked or the topic announced. 
 
 The third method calls upon all the pupils to 
 recite simultaneously. It is called the concert 
 method, and is generally very poor. The few 
 pupils who are prepared lead in the answer and 
 the others chime in. The teacher has no means 
 of knowing who is talking. In this way the in- 
 different pupils conceal their inadequate prepa- 
 ration behind the others. The only purpose for 
 which I would advise the concert method is to 
 secure expression from certain timid pupils who 
 
 might otherwise not gain enough 
 concert method confidence to speak. I have 
 
 known shy pupils who were 
 afraid of their own voices, and who would not, 
 therefore, recite if they thought others were lis- 
 tening. To encourage these to speak the concert 
 recitation has some merit. The wise teacher will 
 soon understand when to drop the plan and lead 
 the timid pupil to speak alone and courageously. 
 
248 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 We have not yet reached the point in the de- 
 velopment of our Sunday-school work when it 
 is possible to submit the pupils at the end of a 
 year, or of a half year, to a rigid written exam- 
 ination, and yet such an examination is a part 
 of the full teaching process and should receive 
 the attention of Sunday-school teachers every- 
 where. We ought to be asking 
 Exaction ourselves whether we have any 
 means now. of proving our work, 
 and if we have no such means we should be 
 asking ourselves the question, What can be done 
 in order to accomplish this result ? At this point 
 I wish to say that the need of the examination is 
 conditioned upon the inadequate training of the 
 teacher. The better equipped on the professional 
 side the teacher is the less need there will be for 
 examination. If we may fairly assume that our 
 teaching processes are not what they should be, 
 it follows as a pedagogical necessity that the 
 examination should in some way be used to sup- 
 plement what our teachers are now doing. The 
 significance of the examination will gradually 
 decline as the professional spirit of the teacher 
 rises, and I for one long for the 
 The Better Way day when we shall see more 
 clearly than we now do the great 
 value to the childhood of the church of trained 
 and consecrated teachers. The more I ponder 
 
CONCERNING THE RECITATION 249 
 
 upon the problem the more fully am I con- 
 vinced that only through the proper training of 
 the teacher may we hope for ideal conditions in 
 the Sunday-school. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Note the relation between a lesson, a branch of learn- 
 ing, and a curriculum. 
 
 What part does the preparation play in the recitation? 
 Do we now utilize this part as we should? As we 
 could? 
 
 The recitation is the focus of the teacher's effort. Why 
 is this so? 
 
 What is embraced in a proper assignment of a lesson ? 
 
 Answer the objections that may be urged against as- 
 signment of the lesson in advance. 
 
 What are the functions of the recitation? 
 
 How much of the whole time of the Sunday-school 
 should be given to the lesson? 
 
 What methods of conducting the recitation do you 
 use? 
 
 Point out the values and the dangers of the question 
 method. 
 
 What ways of calling upon the pupils are to be 
 studied? Which one is the best? Why? 
 
XXI 
 
 PHASES OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING 
 
 T N THE training of a soul in moral and re- 
 ligious truth, certain guiding principles 
 should be taken account of and should direct the 
 processes of the teacher. At the outset let us 
 agree upon one guiding principle that is far- 
 reaching in its significance. The mind must be 
 trained in the formation of right judgments be- 
 fore it can adequately deal with 
 
 A Fundamental t * * . xi t^i i i_ 
 
 Law religious truth. Ihe soul, by 
 
 training, becomes a keen instru- 
 ment of thought. It acquires the power to 
 separate and to combine, to analyze and to 
 synthesize the data furnished by the senses 
 and also the data furnished by its own activities. 
 This training is a prerequisite to the proper use 
 of religious truth. But this training can come 
 only by the proper exercise of the thought- 
 powers of the soul. I would so have it that this 
 training should be secured by judicious exercise 
 in secular truth and in the more elementary as- 
 pects of religious truth. 
 
 To make this training effective the teacher 
 must multiply incidents that occasion right judg- 
 250 
 
PHASES OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING 25 I 
 
 ment. Test your class frequently upon common 
 incidents in human life. These incidents should 
 aim to figure to the mind some moral or religious 
 truth, such as conscientiousness, truthfulness, 
 humility, etc. Make these tests at first very 
 simple, and let them become increasingly com- 
 plex. Note always how the 
 H i 8 W E Je h rci 8 tr emotional aspects of the case 
 condition the judgment of the 
 pupil. Your work is not well done until the 
 pupil has the power to discern between the deci- 
 sion that judgment enforces and the decision that 
 the feelings suggest. Note, too, how readily the 
 pupil at first is led astray in his judgment by con- 
 fusing real elements with accidental elements of 
 the problem. The young lady, fresh from school, 
 who was unable to compute the cost of thirteen 
 pounds of meat at nine cents a pound, provided 
 one-third of the meat was fat, is not the only 
 person whose mind goes astray on " the fat." 
 
 John was twelve years old. One morning his 
 mother called him at seven-thirty. John sprang 
 out of bed, dressed promptly, and presented him- 
 self on time at the breakfast table. While eating 
 his breakfast his mother said : " John, before 
 you go to school I want you to go on an errand 
 for me." " All right, mother dear," said John. 
 After breakfast John went out and played with 
 his comrades until school-time. At nine precisely 
 
252 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 he was lined up, cheerful, and serenely happy at 
 school. He was industrious, polite, and orderly 
 all the morning in school. At noon he went 
 home. His mother said : " John, why did you 
 fail to go on that errand for me this morning? " 
 John looked his mother in the 
 
 A a*?"* e y e and said: "I forgot." At 
 one-thirty he was in school 
 again on time. During the afternoon, as a boy 
 in the next grade below passed John's desk, in 
 some way John's foot tripped the smaller boy. 
 There was some confusion, and the teacher 
 turned to John and said : " John, how did you 
 happen to do that ? " John answered promptly : 
 " It was an accident, teacher." Evidently the 
 teacher was of a different mind. She said to 
 him : " You may remain after school ; I want 
 to see you." John remained. He reached home 
 half an hour late. " Why, John, you are late ; 
 what is the cause ? " asked his mother. " Oh, I 
 was talking to the teacher," said John. What do 
 you think of John? 
 
 As you read this over did you notice the change 
 in your opinion sentence after sentence? Read 
 it again and note at what places in the story you 
 approved, and at what places you did not ap- 
 prove, of John's conduct. What was your final 
 judgment based upon? Did you count up all the 
 commendable things John did, and also count 
 
-PHASES OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING 253 
 
 up all the non-commendable things John did, 
 and then strike a balance? What really did de- 
 termine your final judgment? Did you take into 
 account all his acts, or did you judge him for 
 his last remark to his mother? How should we 
 arrive at a conclusion in a case like this? 
 
 You will notice . that the story ends with an 
 appeal to judgment. This seems to me to be a 
 most important thing to keep in 
 AppelT mind. It is what the soul does 
 as a result of bringing a group 
 of related ideas into consciousness that is sig- 
 nificant. All of these ideas should be weighed, 
 their relative significance and importance de- 
 termined, and the judgment at the end should 
 announce the verdict of the soul upon the facts 
 in evidence. A training to this end is most im- 
 portant. It stands opposed to those excessive 
 memory efforts which we have heretofore seen 
 are at war with all good teaching. It also stands 
 opposed to hasty generalizations, — the tendency, 
 all too common, of leaping to conclusions with- 
 out a proper consideration of the facts that 
 determine what the conclusion should be. I be- 
 lieve that Sunday-school teach- 
 
 WI Oppos e es aW erS are Ver y mUch °P en t0 this 
 
 criticism. They state a fact or 
 two and then expect the pupils, on this meager 
 basis of concrete material, to arrive at a uniform 
 
254 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 law governing religious conduct. Nothing is 
 gained by such processes, and much is lost. This 
 training stands opposed also to a form of reason- 
 ing which is capable of much mischief. I refer 
 to the form of reasoning called reasoning by 
 analogy. Some object of the physical world is 
 made to represent some object of the spiritual 
 world, and what is true of the object in the phy- 
 sical world is by analogy said to be true of some 
 object in the spiritual world. 
 
 I once heard a minister preach a sermon on 
 the admonition, " Be ye therefore wise as ser- 
 pents, and harmless as doves." He discussed 
 snakes to perfection, and then turned all the 
 detailed statement concerning snakes into de- 
 tailed spiritual guidance. He did the same thing 
 with the doves, and when the doves and the 
 snakes did not quite behave as he 
 ^method thought a Christian ought to be- 
 
 have, he pointed out the fact 
 that perhaps if we knew the serpent and the 
 dove well enough, we should find that they 
 actually did behave in such a way as to become 
 perfect models for religious guidance ! What I 
 wish you to see here is that a lot of gratuitous 
 information was read into the text, and the im- 
 pression left on the mind of the hearer was any- 
 thing but helpful or wholesome or inspiring. 
 I think that we are inclined to strain Bible 
 
PHASES OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING 255 
 
 language as if somehow it were capable of in- 
 definite expansion. We read into the text things 
 which we want there, whether they actually are 
 there or not. For the child it would seem to me 
 only fair that the language of the Bible should 
 have only such meanings attached to it as legiti- 
 mately inhere therein, and as fall within the 
 grasp of the child. There is no 
 Tendency' reason why an exhaustive treat- 
 ment of the text should be given 
 to the child, and certainly no reason why there 
 should be forced and fanciful relations estab- 
 lished to impress the child with the marvelous 
 breadth and suggestiveness of the Word of 
 Truth. 
 
 Here again I wish to emphasize the important 
 fact that the concrete material should be pre- 
 sented first ; that speedily we should lift the pupil 
 out of this concrete material into forms of judg- 
 ment and reason. A teacher of eight-year-old 
 pupils said, " Children, you must always be kind 
 to animals ; God made them, and 
 
 Pre. r e d ntatL he WantS y 0U t0 treat them 
 
 kindly. Remember this lesson." 
 Another teacher, having the same grade of pupils, 
 said to them : " Children, one day, when Abra- 
 ham Lincoln and a party of friends were riding 
 over the plains of Illinois, they passed through 
 a thicket of wild plum trees. They stopped at a 
 
2$6 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 stream to water their horses, and then traveled 
 on. They had gone but a short distance when 
 they noticed that Lincoln was not with the party. 
 One said to another, ' Where is Lincoln ? ' An- 
 other one replied, ' The last I saw of Lincoln he 
 had caught two young birds which the wind had 
 blown out of the nest, and he was hunting for 
 the nest, that he might put them back into it.' 
 In a little while Lincoln came riding up to the 
 party, and some of them laughed at him, and 
 jokingly remarked that he must be tremendously 
 interested in young birds to waste his time on 
 
 them. Lincoln simply answered, 
 Lincoln's Act ' Gentlemen, I could not have 
 
 slept to-night if I had not re- 
 stored those little birds to their nest and to their 
 mother.' Children, what led Lincoln to do what 
 he did and to say what he said, and what do 
 you think of his conduct and his words ? " Which 
 of these teachers taught the lesson? 
 
 About two years ago, in conversation with a 
 friend on a question of religious instruction in 
 the public schools, he said that in his judgment 
 the Bible should be taught to every child in the 
 American public schools, because of its splendid 
 moral precepts and because of its exquisite Eng- 
 lish, if for no other reasons. As we were dis- 
 cussing this matter we were walking into the 
 state capitol at Springfield, Illinois. Before en- 
 
PHASES OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING 25/ 
 
 tering the door we paused to say a word about 
 Lincoln and his great work for the nation, when 
 my friend said, " Here, under the shadows of this 
 great building, I want to tell you a true story 
 concerning Lincoln. When he was a candidate 
 for Congress, he was anxious to know how the 
 ministers would vote. He asked a friend to find 
 out. His friend reported that the ministers were 
 divided on the question; some would vote for 
 him, some would vote against him. Lincoln 
 quietly drew from his coat 
 
 L the°Bible d P° cl<et a litt,e Bible > and fold- 
 
 ing it in his hand, he said, ' If I 
 read this book right, every preacher ought to be 
 with me in this contest.' " The story illustrates 
 the point. Put the concrete material into the 
 soul. It will stir there emotional elements of 
 tremendous value in moving the will to action. 
 In the next place conduct should be regulated 
 in harmony with moral ideas and the sentiment 
 of duty. The training of the judgment is im- 
 portant; it formulates the creed. The training 
 of the will is more important ; it formulates con- 
 duct and builds character. A pupil should un- 
 derstand from day to day that 
 
 Cr co d ndurt U8 the thin S s he does are either in 
 harmony with important laws 
 
 that are essential to his well-being, or that his 
 
 conduct is in violation of these laws, and that any 
 
258 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 violation of an important law works disaster to 
 the offender. So important has this law become 
 in the minds of thoughtful men that they have 
 builded around it a doctrine of punishments of 
 far-reaching significance. The best statement of 
 this doctrine is in the chapter on " Moral Edu- 
 cation " in Herbert Spencer's " Education." Mr. 
 Spencer points out the fact that punishment 
 should be natural ; in other words, that the pun- 
 ishment should have some relation to the offense 
 committed. He calls this the doctrine of natural 
 consequences. It has received much attention 
 and wide acceptance. Beyond two important 
 limitations I wish to commend it. These limita- 
 tions, however, are vital in the acceptance of 
 the theory. The first of these is that natural law 
 
 takes no note of motive. It 
 SP o e « n pu r l D h m C enr Pushes all alike.-the teacher 
 
 should not. Some pupils do 
 wrong deliberately, others accidentally. There 
 should be a very marked distinction in the treat- 
 ment of the two cases, and this consideration of 
 motive is a distinct limitation of the general 
 doctrine of natural consequences. 
 
 The second of these limitations lies in the fact 
 that the business of the teacher is to anticipate 
 wrong-doing for the purpose of preventing its 
 commission. It is not the function of the re- 
 ligious teacher simply to punish the wrong-doer. 
 
PHASES OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING 2 $9 
 
 He must wound the inclination to do the wrong 
 thing. He must make wrong-doing impossible 
 
 Limitations of to the extent of his ability. It is 
 Spencer's this ability to anticipate trouble, 
 the power to foresee wrong 
 tendencies, that makes the preventive qualities of 
 moral teaching of great significance. We aim 
 to fit the child when he is a child to overcome the 
 tendency to do wrong before the act is committed. 
 We should aim, by appeals to his feeling as well 
 as his thought, to construct a system of moral 
 and religious truth within which his soul is pro- 
 tected from wrong-doing. It should be the 
 purpose of the teacher to make it hard for the 
 pupil to do wrong. For that reason another 
 important matter must be considered. 
 
 The soul must be instructed in moral ideals 
 and their spiritual significance. The child needs 
 to be led to an understanding of what a moral 
 ideal is. He needs also to be shown the value that 
 comes to him in the possession of such ideals, 
 and he needs further to be helped in applying 
 the moral ideals in concrete cases. I would there- 
 fore commend the following 
 Moral ideals order in presenting moral and 
 religious truth to the mind of 
 the pupil. First, the story, rich in concrete de- 
 tail, should stir the emotional life of the child to 
 quicken his vision and intensify his appreciation. 
 
260 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Second, in order to heighten the effect of the 
 story, follow it with poetical selections that re- 
 enforce the ideas contained in the story. Third, 
 further intensify the story by the singing of such 
 songs as bear directly upon the incidents of the 
 story, and, in the fourth place, building out of 
 all this concrete threefold, presentative knowl- 
 edge, clear judgments in the form of maxims, 
 principles, rules, law of conduct. To put this 
 into a sentence, the thought is, — tell it, rhyme it, 
 sing it, formulate it. I believe the day will come 
 when we shall study the four things which are 
 indicated, and group our materials in harmony 
 with this classification. Then we may with some 
 degree of confidence lay our nutritional elements 
 upon the soul, confident that its fruitage in con- 
 duct will surely follow. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Why should the mind be trained to form correct 
 judgments, and what is the significance of this in re- 
 ligious training? 
 
 Make a list of what you consider to be fundamental 
 moral qualities. 
 
 Do you see clearly the difference between a decision 
 by the judgment and a decision colored by feeling? 
 
 Why should accidental qualities be fully set aside in 
 forming correct judgments? 
 
PHASES OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING 26 1 
 
 What is your opinion of John at 9 A. M. ? at noon ? 
 at 4.30 P. M. ? 
 
 Write a diary of a day in some boy's life, and study it 
 in the manner indicated in the exercise in this chapter? 
 
 Why should the story end with an appeal to judg- 
 ment? 
 
 Should this appeal be used with children under the 
 age of ten? 
 
 What things stand opposed to clear judgment? 
 
 What weakness may be discerned in Sunday-school 
 teaching as a means of training judgment? 
 
 If concrete material should be presented first, what 
 should it lead to? 
 
 What is more important than the training of the judg- 
 ment ? Why ? 
 
 Discuss the doctrine of natural consequences, and 
 point out its limitations. 
 
 What makes a moral idea spiritually significant? 
 
 In what way do the rhyme and the song enforce the 
 story? 
 
XXII 
 
 JESUS THE IDEAL TEACHER 
 
 T T SEEMS fitting that this discussion should 
 
 include the presentation of some of the 
 
 salient characteristics of the principles and 
 
 methods of teaching used by Jesus. In its last 
 
 analysis the true training of the teacher for the 
 
 Sunday-school must be a training that fits him 
 
 to follow in some degree the perfect example 
 
 of the greatest teacher that ever stirred the 
 
 heart and stimulated the mind of a pupil. In 
 
 measuring the worth of any 
 
 T g* a ° l "p* t teacher three things must be 
 
 considered; (i) the purpose or 
 
 end which the teacher aims to accomplish, (2) 
 
 the equipment of the teacher, (3) the material 
 
 employed to achieve the end. 
 
 All great teachers have set before them a 
 definite end. This end is the goal of all effort, 
 and when the pupil attains it, it is his good. In 
 what, then, may this good be said to consist? 
 Buddha makes it consist in the complete suppres- 
 sion of self. Plato makes it consist in the vision 
 of eternal ideas. Aristotle makes it consist in the 
 exercise of man's highest faculty, — his reason. 
 262 
 
JESUS THE IDEAL TEACHER 263 
 
 Zeno makes it consist in a life according to na- 
 ture. Epicurus makes it consist in the enjoyment 
 
 of calm, abiding pleasure. Dante 
 Jesus 6 ' Teaching makes it consist in the vision and 
 
 enjoyment of God. Goethe and 
 others make it consist in devotion to the well- 
 being of humanity. Kant makes it consist in a 
 good will. Hegel makes it consist in conscious 
 freedom. Others make it consist in a preparation 
 for complete living, while still others define it as 
 consisting of a harmonious development of all 
 the powers of the soul. Jesus is no exception to 
 this rule. He declared that the end of the edu- 
 cation of the human soul is to fit it to live in har- 
 mony with the will of God. This will of the 
 Father is to be realized best in the kingdom which 
 Jesus established on earth, and which he so fre- 
 quently referred to as the kingdom of heaven. 
 The whole purpose of his teaching was to bring 
 men into right relations with the divine will, to 
 show them how to live in harmony with the 
 divine power, and at last to unite them with the 
 -divine personality. Thus, too, he anticipates the 
 best statement of modern pedagogy by demand- 
 ing ideal perfection, — perfection after God's 
 standards, — as the end of education. 
 
 What was the equipment of Jesus for this im- 
 portant work ? We have only a few glances into 
 the rich life that he lived to the age of thirty, but 
 
264 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 all of these are significant, and indicate that he 
 was steadily pursuing a definite purpose and 
 fitting himself for a specific service. If now we 
 consider what he did after the age of thirty, we 
 are led to the conclusion that all these earlier 
 years were spent in study, in meditation, in 
 prayer, in direct communion with the Father. 
 There may have been times when he became im- 
 patient over the long delay of the time when he 
 should come forth and teach. If this were the 
 case, we have no hint of it in anything that he 
 
 said or did. On the contrary, 
 Jesus' Equipment it seems reasonable to assume 
 
 that he willingly spent thirty 
 years preparing himself to teach for three years. 
 How significant this is ! What a flood of light 
 it throws upon the relative significance of prepa- 
 ration and of performance of life service ! Most 
 of us would reverse the order, and undertake 
 after three years of preparation to render thirty 
 years of service to mankind, and even then we 
 would demand a pension for the remainder of our 
 days as additional compensation for our three 
 years of preparation and our thirty years of ser- 
 vice. How unlike Jesus this would be ! He un- 
 derstood what all of us must come to understand 
 more fully, that we must pay the price in effort 
 and time if we are to reach the point where we 
 can render large and efficient service to the race. 
 
JESUS THE IDEAL TEACHER 265 
 
 Because his preparation was so unusual his 
 teaching likewise is unusual. He was never con- 
 fused in a controversy. He never lacked for 
 methods to teach. He never failed to grasp the 
 right conditions under which to teach. He taught 
 with power because he was thoroughly prepared 
 to teach. 
 
 Usually, when we come to measure the power 
 of a teacher, we ask ourselves, what equipment 
 did he possess? In what school was he trained? 
 What courses did he study? What special lines 
 of research did he pursue? From what higher 
 institution of learning did he graduate ? In what 
 positions did he teach? and other kindred ques- 
 tions. How little Jesus seems to care for any 
 of these! Note well the fact that nobody has 
 ever applied to him the phrase — a great scholar. 
 Knowledge was to him a means, not an end. 
 Scholarship, therefore, was not a final interest of 
 his life. On the other hand, he is everywhere 
 recognized as a great teacher, who used his 
 
 scholarship not to make others 
 Things He Knew learned, but to teach others how 
 
 to live. He evidently read many 
 books. He was thoroughly conversant with the 
 Old Testament Scriptures. He quoted from 
 these freely and at will. The ability to do this 
 implies long years of faithful study in the quiet 
 and seclusion of his home at Nazareth, and at 
 
266 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 intervals in his carpenter-shop or on the bluff 
 overlooking the plain beyond. He filled his spirit 
 with the rich nutrition of the words of God, and 
 his soul was afire with all the inspired sayings 
 of the men who, in days before, had walked close 
 enough to God to catch some hint of his majesty 
 and glory. 
 
 He opened no school. He announced no course 
 
 of study. He is himself the great university of 
 
 mankind. Every hungry soul becomes his pupil 
 
 by the very fact of its hunger. He assigns no 
 
 limited time for study, but re- 
 
 ^niversity* q uires of each enlistment for life 
 in service under the will of the 
 Father. He puts between that service and each 
 one of us no extended curriculum. He makes it 
 possible for the humblest and the weakest to be- 
 gin at once and to continue for all time in the 
 service of the Master. He does not discourage 
 scholarship. But he steadfastly insists that what- 
 ever our gifts and attainments may be, these are 
 only agencies to be used in a life of service to 
 our fellows in harmony with the divine will. 
 
 As to his method, he is not only unique, but he 
 is supreme. His appeal always is to the will of 
 his pupils. While the Greek teacher appealed to 
 the reason, and the Roman teacher to the emo- 
 tional life, Jesus centered his appeal upon the 
 will. He laid, therefore, upon himself the most 
 
JESUS THE IDEAL TEACHER 267 
 
 exacting test that any teacher could possibly as- 
 sume. In effect he said : " Judge me by what my 
 pupils do. Measure my power 
 win by the life that my disciples 
 
 live. Comprehend my purposes 
 and my skill and my ability by the life that my 
 followers live.'' How many of us are willing to 
 be judged by such a high standard? We are 
 generally content if we can impart intellectual 
 gifts. We long for the power that will enable 
 us to direct the conduct of our pupils, but Jesus, 
 with an insight that was rare and refined, under- 
 stood the supremely significant fact that high 
 teaching must produce high action in the learner. 
 
 There is a fine illustration of this in the closing 
 part of the Sermon on the Mount. Those that 
 hear his word and do it are wise. Those that 
 hear his word and do it not are foolish. The 
 whole emphasis rests upon the conduct of the 
 hearer. Jesus, therefore, stands out as the one 
 great teacher of the world who deliberately set 
 aside every other purpose and concentrated his 
 efforts in the production of Christian character. 
 In order to give strength to his teaching he al- 
 ways lived in harmony with the will of God. In 
 the very last trial, when his soul was agonized, 
 he prayed : " Not my will, but thine, be done." 
 
 Here then is our problem. To teach as Jesus 
 taught, to bring every human will into harmony 
 
268 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 with the divine will. This is not the abridgment 
 of individual power, it is the enlargement of 
 
 individual power. The divine 
 our Problem will is so much broader, freer, 
 
 saner than ours that when we 
 rise into harmony with it we rise into freedom ; 
 truth alone makes us free. 
 
 When we consider how high a standard Jesus 
 thus set for his own attainment one begins to 
 realize how perfectly competent he must have 
 been to do the thing which he undertook to do. 
 And when he reinforces this by his own splendid 
 example, his power as a teacher lifts him above 
 all competitors, and entitles him to be considered 
 the ideal teacher. A striking example of this is 
 found in Matthew u. We have here a scene 
 in which Jesus figures with unusual suggestive- 
 ness. As he stands somewhere in the midst of 
 the multitude teaching, there is a commotion in 
 his audience. Two men are seen to push through 
 
 the crowd and hastily make their 
 aoh'nTS.es way directly to him. All eyes 
 
 are turned for the moment upon 
 this apparent intrusion. The discourse is inter- 
 rupted, and Jesus turns his attention to these 
 two men. They tell him that they have come 
 from John, that John is in prison, and that his 
 heart is heavy with the burden of suffering im- 
 posed upon him, that he is willing to endure 
 
JESUS THE IDEAL TEACHER 269 
 
 provided only that he is sure he is right, and to 
 confirm him John sends these two to ask Jesus, 
 "Art thou he that cometh, or look we for an- 
 other?" Study the conditions, — the interrupted 
 discourse, the multitude curious to know what 
 would happen, the two messengers waiting for 
 the word that John's soul craved to receive, the 
 teacher no doubt anxious to continue the dis- 
 course to the multitude. What, under these cir- 
 cumstances, is the wise thing to do? How shall 
 John be satisfied, the multitude taught, and Jesus 
 vindicated? An impatient teacher might have 
 said, " Step aside, I will see you later. You must 
 not interrupt me now." The ordinary teacher 
 might have said, " Tell John it is all right, he 
 shall not worry, I am the Christ." But the great 
 teacher understood that now is the time, and 
 here is the opportunity, to impress a great truth. 
 He sent back no word to John, but said, "Go 
 and tell John the things which ye hear and see : 
 the blind receive their sight, and 
 
 The Te S P t eme the lame walk ' the le P ers are 
 cleansed, and the deaf hear, and 
 
 the dead are raised up, and the poor have good 
 
 tidings preached to them." See the significance 
 
 of this reply. Answer John by telling him what 
 
 you see me do. Let John judge me not by what 
 
 I say, but by what I do. Here is a teacher that 
 
 points to a record of service, of large gifts of 
 
27O THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 help and hope and healing, and says, in effect, 
 let my record be my answer. 
 
 They tell the story of Giotto, the Florentine 
 artist, that one day Pope Boniface sent a mes- 
 senger to Giotto informing him that the Pope 
 wished some frescoes painted on the walls of St. 
 Peter's, and that the different artists, including 
 himself, were to submit samples of their work. 
 Giotto seized a brush, dipped it into red paint, 
 and with one sweep of his hand 
 Giotto's Example drew a perfect circle on the can- 
 vas, and handed this to the mes- 
 senger, saying, " Here is my drawing." The 
 messenger in amazement said, "Am I not to have 
 anything more than this ? " The artist replied, 
 " That is enough and to spare." The Pope, 
 pleased with this superb but simple expression of 
 ability, immediately called on Giotto to perform 
 the work. 
 
 So it seems to me that when John's disciples 
 came to Jesus, instead of sending testimonials 
 and recommendations and declarations of what 
 he was, Jesus, with the superb skill of a great 
 teacher, sent back the disciples to John simply 
 with the evidence of things done. But the inci- 
 dent is not closed. What of the multitude that 
 heard and saw all this? Jesus turns to them, 
 and with three questions of tremendous signi- 
 ficance and power shows them that this John who 
 
JESUS THE IDEAL TEACHER 27 1 
 
 is now in prison was the power under God that 
 drew them out of the city into the wilderness. 
 And then, with a loyalty and a devotion that 
 beggar all 'description, Jesus stood before the 
 multitude and announced his allegiance to John. 
 John is in prison; he is waiting the day of his 
 death; he seems to be shorn of all his power; 
 his influence seems to be gone, and but one act 
 remains in the tragedy of his career ; and yet 
 Jesus stood up for him with a courage and a 
 conviction that challenges the admiration of every 
 honest spirit. What of this John who, by false 
 process, is condemned to prison and to death? 
 
 " Verily, I say unto you, Among 
 L °FMend° * them that are born of women 
 
 there hath .not arisen a greater 
 than John the Baptist ; " and yet to this motley 
 multitude Jesus is a messenger of hope and of 
 help. Least of all those that step out of the king- 
 dom of sin into the kingdom of heaven is greater 
 than John. There is not in all literature an illus- 
 tration of an interruption of a great teacher 
 handled with such consummate skill as this. And 
 in the night, when you sit alone pondering over 
 the source of power, of strength, and of guid- 
 ance in your work as a teacher, call up this 
 splendid scene time and time again until some- 
 thing of its majesty and of its worth becomes the 
 possession of your own spirit. 
 
272 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Why is a study of the teaching processes of Jesus of 
 greater significance than a study of the teaching pro- 
 cesses of Plato or Quintilian or Varro or Aristotle? 
 
 What do you conceive to be the end of the education 
 of a soul? 
 
 Criticise the different ends set forth by the various 
 authorities cited. 
 
 Why must one have an end in view in order to teach 
 well? 
 
 Do you think Jesus ever attended school with other 
 youths? If so, what sort of a pupil do you conceive 
 him to have been ? 
 
 How much time did Jesus give to his preparation for 
 teaching? How much are you willing to give? 
 
 What are the entrance requirements to the school of 
 Jesus? 
 
 What importance attaches to the will as the soul power 
 to be trained? 
 
 What test did he impose upon himself as a teacher? 
 
 Why is he called a great teacher rather than a great 
 scholar? 
 
 To live under the divine will is to live under restric- 
 tions. Is this true? 
 
XXIII 
 
 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES USED BY 
 JESUS 
 
 T TPON the laws of the soul rest the laws of 
 teaching. We are limited in our teaching 
 processes by the possibilities of development that 
 God has set in each soul. To know these limits 
 is the first problem. These limits we have con- 
 sidered. What guidance may we now formulate 
 in harmony with the facts already set forth? 
 When we have answered this 
 The Question question we ought to know both 
 how and why we teach. The 
 mastery of educational law is not complete until 
 it influences potentially our actual processes. The 
 aim, then, is to help you to teach better than you 
 now do, — to teach more nearly as did Jesus. 
 
 We can give only what we have. " Bring your 
 health and your strength to the weak and sickly, 
 and so you will be of use to them. Give them 
 not your weakness, but your 
 The Answer energy, — so you will revive and 
 lift them up. Life alone can re- 
 kindle- life. What others claim from us is not 
 our thirst and our hunger, but our bread and our 
 
 273 
 
274 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 gourd." Initial energy is always lessened by use. 
 We never teach quite all we are capable of teach- 
 ing. Our equipment must exceed our pupils' 
 needs. There is an appreciable loss in its use. 
 Be sure you know more about your lessons than 
 your pupils can use. Better be over-stocked than 
 under-stocked with materials and powers of in- 
 struction. In its last analysis, is it not true that 
 power to teach is measurable only in quality of 
 soul ? It is not what we take on from others, but 
 what we actually are as the result of our own 
 activities, that best equips us to teach. Pay the 
 price of power. Put yourself daily to the test. 
 Keep some great problem constantly before you. 
 We grow slowly but surely into the quality of 
 soul we most steadfastly strive to secure. Chal- 
 lenge things. Interrogate things. Dean John 
 Donne was accustomed to say, " Naturally I 
 doubt and stick, and do not say quickly, good. I 
 censure much and tax." 
 
 There is nothing quite so hopeless as a putty- 
 and-paste mind. To be passively receptive is to 
 be useless. Hence I urge the constant exercise 
 of your soul's powers upon important themes. 
 Its growth is conditioned by its legitimate use. 
 In John 4 :3i the disciples say, "Master, eat." 
 They were justified in saying this because the 
 disciples had gone up into the city to buy meat. 
 Tesus had remained at the well because he 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES USED BY JESUS 275 
 
 was weary, and no doubt, as they thought, hun- 
 gry. Did Jesus eat of the food which the dis- 
 ciples brought from the city? 
 Soul Activity Answer the question instantly, 
 Yes or No, then turn to the 
 narrative itself and ascertain whether your an- 
 swer is correct. Have you in the narrative all 
 the facts necessary to form a proper conclusion, 
 — a satisfactory conclusion? We have no war- 
 rant whatever in attempting to compel children 
 to form conclusions without first having the 
 facts, and enough of the facts, to justify the con- 
 clusion. If we cannot give or direct the pupil to get 
 the facts, we should not expect a conclusion. The 
 powers of the soul cannot operate upon nothing. 
 They deal with materials that are as real to them 
 as marbles and tops and dolls are to children. 
 
 Reason moves in two directions. It may start 
 with individual or particular notions, and arrive 
 at general or universal notions, broadening its 
 range of knowledge at every step in this advance, 
 or it may reverse this process. These two forms 
 of reason are called induction and deduction. 
 We reason inductively when we 
 
 " , Ded Ct u i c°t".n nd start with a Particular or indi- 
 vidual notion and arrive at last 
 at a general or universal notion. We reason de- 
 ductively when we proceed in a reverse order. 
 Most of the teaching of Jesus is inductive. He 
 
276 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 states a concrete fact that falls within the ex- 
 perience of his hearers, and then leads them to 
 the general or universal notion with which it is 
 related. There is another activity here that the 
 teacher needs to keep in mind. A general notion 
 may be given, and then separated into its essen- 
 tial attributes or marks, in which case the pro- 
 cess is analytic, or it may start with a concrete, 
 specific notion, and, gathering others to it, arrive 
 at last at the general notion. This process is 
 synthetic. I would advise you 
 
 A SX." d to tura to an y g° od book on 
 
 teaching, and make a study of 
 these four forms of reasoning, — analytic, syn- 
 thetic, inductive, and deductive. When we dis- 
 regard these methods of teaching we become 
 dogmatic, by which one is to understand that 
 we force the child to accept conclusions which 
 he does not yet understand. This dogmatic ma- 
 terial is so much unassimilated matter in the 
 mind. The memory is stuffed with it. It is life- 
 less. It does not energize conduct. It affords no 
 insight. It has no effect upon character. The 
 consequence is that after a while the child, from 
 some other source, gets an inkling into the right 
 method of dealing with truth, and then in a fit 
 of despair he rejects all this dogmatic material, 
 and as a result comes to discredit a most im- 
 portant religious guidance. 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES USED BY JESUS 277 
 
 You will not read in the sixth chapter of Mat- 
 thew, "Ye have heard it hath been said," but " I 
 say." You will read the plain, direct statement 
 of a far-seeing and wise Guide who knew. Hav- 
 ing disabused the minds of his disciples of an)' 
 doubt concerning his relation to 
 " 1 Say " the law, Jesus turns to teach the 
 things that are worth while, and, 
 in doing that, he takes up three matters. 
 
 The first is in the first verse, " Your alms ; " 
 
 the second one is in the fifth verse, " When thou 
 
 prayest ; " the third one is found in the sixteenth 
 
 verse, " Moreover when ye fast." 
 
 what He Says I undertake to point out part 
 of the significance of these three. 
 Let us, as we read from this sixth chapter, see 
 clearly what Jesus visions before him. He is 
 thinking of people such as we are, living just as 
 we are living, surrounded just as we are sur- 
 rounded with social and other environments. He 
 is thinking of his disciples just as common folk, 
 living simple lives, in ordinary circumstances. 
 There is no great, marvelous mystery here at all, 
 but a direct guidance for the multitude of people 
 in their every-day affairs. 
 
 He does not say that we are not to " give our 
 alms." He assumes that we will. He takes that 
 for granted, and tells us how to do the thing that 
 we are going to do anyhow. He does not say 
 
278 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 pray, but he says, " When thou prayest." He 
 assumes that you will pray. He tells you how to 
 do it. He does not say that " you shall fast," 
 but " when ye fast." He assumes that you will 
 
 do it. He is trying to tell you 
 He Teiis How how. Oh, see the power of that ! 
 
 He takes you as you are in the 
 plain performance of simple duty, accepts your 
 acts as you are accustomed to doing them. He 
 tells you how to guide your life as you never 
 knew for yourself, and as you never would know 
 if he had not spoken. Consider these three ; this 
 almsgiving, this praying, this fasting. Why does 
 he not put some of the other things that concern 
 people here ? He says : " Consider your alms- 
 giving, so that you do that in the right way ; " 
 "Consider your praying, so that you do that in 
 the right way ; " " Consider your fasting, so that 
 you do that in the right way." Then he is done. 
 Why done? Because your alms-giving repre- 
 sents your relation to your fellow-men ; your 
 praying represents your relation to God himself ; 
 and your fasting represents your relation to your 
 own self. My neighbor, my God, myself, — there 
 is no more ! How shall I treat my neighbor, my 
 God, myself? There is no more to be asked. 
 Human destiny comprehended and epitomized in 
 one sentence ! What a teacher he was ! 
 
 Jesus seeks always to put the largest possible 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES USED BY JESUS 279 
 
 meaning in the fewest words. In doing this, 
 one must avoid the danger of generalizing 
 the statement to such an extent as to render it 
 practically useless. There must always be in the 
 statement something which the mind can grasp, 
 and around which it can group many other re- 
 lated facts. Simple elimination 
 a Caution is not concentration. It does not 
 do to say one of twenty things 
 with the thought that because you are brief you 
 are therefore successful. The thing to do is to 
 catch some general statement which visions the 
 whole field of related thought. 
 
 Good teaching is generous giving. No one can 
 teach well who is not perfectly willing to devote 
 his best energies and all his energies to the work. 
 I see so much listless, careless, half-hearted, in- 
 different teaching that I some- 
 
 T^aching !!. timeS wish ! had the P° wer t0 
 
 regenerate the spirit of some 
 teachers. They ought to be taken and shaken 
 and awakened to a realization of their true obli- 
 gations and opportunities. We cannot teach 
 without giving something of our own vital en- 
 ergy to the process. No great power will come 
 to the learner unless there is the giving of power 
 by the teacher. 
 
 One day in the thick of the multitude, as Jesus 
 stood teaching, a woman pushed her way through 
 
280 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the crowd to the Master. She was an invalid. 
 She had suffered for years. To her life was a 
 sorry burden, but to her life was sweet, and to 
 feel its full, rich thrill in every tissue of her 
 body was the dream and hope of her spirit. She 
 believed that Jesus could help her. Without ask- 
 ing permission, and without regarding the cu- 
 rious eyes of the multitude, she 
 
 An illustration thrust forth her hand and 
 touched the hem of his garment. 
 It was enough. She was, in answer to her faith, 
 what she longed to be. The Teacher, turning, 
 said, "Who touched me?" and the curious mul- 
 titude, in surprise, asked, " How do you know 
 that you were touched ? " How little they un- 
 derstood the secret power of the Great Teacher. 
 The Master knew because, as he said, " I per- 
 ceived that virtue had gone out of me." Here his 
 teaching is the test. What the pupil gains you 
 lose. What the pupil gets you give. What the 
 pupil becomes you must be. The touch of the 
 hungry heart and the thirsty spirit gives comfort, 
 healing, health, to the learner, only when the 
 spirit of the teacher overflows with these gener- 
 ous endowments. 
 
 When I was a teacher in a country school, I 
 endeavored to do my work in harmony with the 
 best light I had. Sixty-seven pupils touched me 
 every hour of the day, and in the evening when 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES USED BY JESUS 28 1 
 
 I took my dinner-pail in hand to return to my 
 home a mile away, I felt the exhaustion of the 
 day's work. There were times when I _ could 
 have thrown myself in a fence-corner on the 
 roadside, and counted it sweet rest. It costs some- 
 thing to do something, but there 
 
 emulation is a blessed compensation. He 
 giveth his beloved sleep, and in 
 the hours of recuperation he gives back not only 
 what he gave to his children, but more ; for he 
 comes not with a measure of justice, but with a 
 measure of love. And so we return to the work 
 day after day, renewed in spirit, enriched in soul, 
 because we have worked for him. 
 
 In the life of Pestalozzi one has a striking ex- 
 ample of the influence of a great purpose and the 
 results of a great love for children. When he 
 gathered his orphan children at Stanz, and de- 
 voted his whole life to their welfare, he made 
 report of his work to a friend in a letter contain- 
 ing the following words : " First of all I had to 
 arouse in my pupils pure, moral, 
 PeS stanz i St and noble feelings, so that after- 
 wards, in external things, I 
 might be sure of their ready attention, activity, 
 and obedience. I had, in short, to follow the 
 high precepts of Jesus Christ, ' Cleanse first that 
 which is within, that the outside may be clean 
 also ; ' and if ever the truth of this precept was 
 
282 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 made manifest, it was made manifest then." Un- 
 der the influence of this noble impulse Pestalozzi 
 spent his days and his nights in perfecting a sys- 
 tem of education which touched not only the little 
 group whom he educated, but touched all Europe. 
 When his master production came to the hands 
 of Queen Louisa of Prussia she recorded in her 
 private diary : " I am reading Leonard and Ger- 
 trude, and enjoy transporting myself to this 
 Swiss village. If I were my own mistress I should 
 
 at once go to Switzerland and 
 Queen Louisa see Pestalozzi. Would that I 
 
 could take his hand, and that he 
 might read my gratitude in my eyes. With what 
 kindness and ardor he works for the good of his 
 fellow-men. Yes, in the name of humanity, I 
 thank him with my whole heart." 
 
 This queenly woman never saw the great edu- 
 cator. He had no time to visit royalty. He spent 
 his days teaching children whom the ravages of 
 war had left homeless and parentless. He spent 
 his evenings begging food to nourish their bodies. 
 He spent his nights while they slept patching their 
 tattered garments and washing their single bits 
 of clothing. He did all this because he learned 
 from the Master what it meant to love children. 
 He won the proud distinction of living like a 
 beggar that he might teach beggars to live like 
 men. Over his grave in the little village of Birr, 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES USED BY JESUS 283 
 
 near the site of his first educational experiment, 
 and over his sleeping remains, is placed a monu- 
 ment in harmony with his own wish, " a rough, 
 unhewn stone, such as I myself have always 
 been." His grateful countrymen inserted on the 
 tablet the following tribute to his 
 
 A ™buu Ul S reat work: "Saviour of the 
 poor at Neuhof, at Stanz the 
 father of orphans, at Burgdorf and Munchen- 
 buchsee founder of the popular school, at 
 Yverdun the educator of humanity; man, Chris- 
 tian, and citizen. All for others, nothing for him- 
 self. Peace to his ashes. 
 
 To our Father Pestalozzi 
 Grateful Aargau." 
 
 This is an example of what teachers may do 
 when they understand their exalted privileges, and 
 work in harmony with their divine prototype. 
 
 In the early years children need a great deal of 
 specific guidance, of directive activity, of au- 
 thoritative expression. When this authority is 
 once expressed, see to it that the act of the child 
 conforms thereto. You defeat 
 
 ^eK-Contro" 8 the ver y beSt thin £ S y 0U are 
 
 trying to accomplish if you do 
 not do this. In the later years of the child's life 
 in the Sunday-school he is to do more of these 
 things for himself. Control by the teacher will 
 
284 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 gradually yield to self-control. Do not undertake 
 to treat boys of sixteen as you would treat boys 
 of six. You should expect different and better 
 things of the older pupils, and you make a great 
 mistake if you do not recognize the fact that these 
 young people have learned to do some things tor 
 themselves. Give them the responsibility. Ex- 
 pect of them the results. Recognize what they 
 have achieved in the years of their unfolding. 
 Meet them where they are. Teach them in har- 
 mony with their capability. 
 
 Jesus understood the importance of making 
 teaching an exchange of opinions. He encour- 
 aged his hearers to speak ; gave due considera- 
 tion to what they said. He never rebuked them 
 for expressing their understanding of thought, 
 or for asking questions to gain clearer knowl- 
 edge. I think of him as he sat with little groups of 
 
 people, engaged in quiet conver- 
 Taik" P " sation, listening to their remarks, 
 
 answering their questions, put- 
 ting them perfectly at their ease, but waiting 
 for the right moment to crystallize the whole dis- 
 cussion into some great guidance. How far we 
 are from the mark when we take all the time 
 of the recitation to tell the children what we 
 know and what we think ! How much better it 
 is to place the recitation on a conversational 
 plane ! In t^iis way the pupil is part of the pro- 
 
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES USED BY JESUS 285 
 
 cess by which he is taught. He enters into the 
 whole activity through which he builds his spirit 
 into greater power and clearer thought. 
 
 Be always yourself in the presence of your 
 class. Do not undertake to play a part. Avoid 
 all affectation and unnatural and forced attitudes 
 of mind and of body. Children soon find out 
 any element of insincerity in the make-up of the 
 teacher. Avoid unnatural and harsh and high- 
 pitched tones of voice. Sometimes teachers yell 
 at their pupils. They think that intensity and 
 
 earnestness are expressed by in- 
 Be Natural creased pitch of voice. Nothing 
 
 quite so much upsets a class and 
 breaks in upon the serenity of the thought and 
 interferes with the purpose of the recitation as a 
 teacher whose voice is out of harmony with the 
 situation. 
 
 I recall now a teacher who taught with such 
 a high and unnatural voice that the children were 
 in a constant state of nervous excitement border- 
 ing on frenzy. I speak strictly within the truth 
 when I say that as I approached the room where 
 this teacher taught I heard his voice far out on 
 
 the campus. I recall another 
 Poor Teaching teacher who had this same habit. 
 
 One day a friend called him 
 from the class-room and said, " My dear friend, 
 I have just had a telephone message from a 
 
286 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 gentleman six miles away, saying that his wife 
 was ill, and begging me to request you to speak 
 to your class in a little lower tone, in order not 
 to disturb her ! " He saw the point. He laughed, 
 but he did not need that suggestion again. 
 
 Sometimes we talk too rapidly. Our words 
 run together like the streakings of falling stars 
 across the sky. The result in the mind of the 
 child is confusing. If the things you say are 
 worth anything to the child, — and they ought to 
 be, — time yourself in such a manner as to give 
 force and purpose to your teaching. The most 
 impressive prayer I ever heard was spoken most 
 deliberately. It seemed as if every word was 
 pointed and purposeful. It burned in conscious- 
 
 The Fine Art of ness ^e a star * n ^e darkness 
 Knowing of the night. There was an 
 ominous pause, as if somehow 
 each word had been sent on a long voyage, and 
 we were waiting for the signal from the other 
 side before another was launched. When the 
 prayer was ended it seemed as if we could not lift 
 our heads and open our eyes until we felt the 
 echo of the Amen straight from the throne. Do 
 we realize how much of all that is powerful in 
 the things that we do depends on the way we 
 do them ? Let us fashion our way after the man- 
 ner of our great Example. Let us endeavor, so 
 far as in us lies, to teach as Jesus taught. 
 
educational principles used by jesus 287 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 When may an educational law be said to be honored 
 by the teacher? 
 
 Can we give to the child what we do not possess as 
 teachers ? 
 
 What important conclusions do you draw from your 
 answer to this question? 
 
 Should the teacher know more than the pupil is to 
 receive ? Why ? 
 
 Is it important that a teacher should be constantly 
 learning? 
 
 Why should a pupil be given the facts before he is 
 asked to formulate a judgment? 
 
 What two prominent forms of reasoned activity should 
 the teacher understand? 
 
 Did Jesus teach inductively or deductively? Prove 
 your answer. 
 
 What is the real difference between analytic teaching 
 and synthetic teaching? 
 
 What danger grows out of undertaking to put too 
 many things into a few words? 
 
 Explain the statement — "Good teaching is generous 
 giving." 
 
 What did Pestalozzi give to his pupils? What did 
 Jesus give? What are you giving? 
 
 What is the value of the interchange of thought be- 
 tween teacher and pupil? 
 
 What significance attaches to the tone of the voice in 
 teaching? 
 
 Formulate a brief outline of educational guidance from 
 the statements made in this chapter. 
 
XXIV 
 EDUCATIONAL METHODS USED BY JESUS 
 
 JESUS taught with infinite patience. He never 
 was in a hurry. He had no time to be in a 
 hurry, but he always had time to do a thing that 
 should be done. Here is an example worth much 
 to every teacher. How hard it is for us to under- 
 stand that our best teaching is not always pos- 
 sible; that conditions determine results. A wise 
 
 Conditions in teacher wiU alwa y S lab ° f t0 P re ' 
 
 ciass and dispose the learner to receive the 
 best instruction. In the entire 
 round of the recitation there may be but one 
 minute when all the conditions make possible 
 fine teaching. It is the business of the teacher 
 to mold the conditions and bring to pass this 
 sublime moment and then teach as Jesus taught. 
 At the opening of Matthew 5, we have a strik- 
 ing illustration of the deliberate quality of this 
 teacher. He sees the multitude. He then goes 
 up into a mountain. Then he sat 
 
 N Teac a Mng n d ° Wn > and after tllat his dis_ 
 
 ciples came unto him, and he 
 opened his mouth and spoke unto them. Notice 
 with what deliberation he predisposes the disciples 
 288 
 
EDUCATIONAL METHODS USED BY JESUS 289 
 
 to receive this great message. There is no sign of 
 haste. There is no evidence of impatience. There 
 is no attempt to hurry the conditions, but, with a 
 masterful control of himself, he predisposes the 
 conditions for favorable teaching. I have no 
 doubt his sayings went all the more deeply into 
 the conscience, and fastened themselves more 
 securely within the soul of the disciples, because 
 of this deliberate treatment of them. In a pre- 
 ceding chapter I called attention to this same 
 quality when Jesus was at the Feast of the Taber- 
 nacles in Jerusalem. It will amply reward you 
 to go through the Gospels and make a personal 
 study of this same quality as it appears again 
 and again in his teaching. 
 
 Another quality in the teaching of Jesus that 
 stands out with marvelous clearness is his treat- 
 ment of common things to figure the mysteries of 
 the kingdom of heaven. We have an educational 
 law of great value which may be 
 
 USe Th?nTs m ° n formulated in some such way as 
 this : In teaching proceed from 
 the simple to the complex, from the concrete to 
 the abstract, from the individual to the universal. 
 This law was never better honored or more stead- 
 fastly adhered to by any great teacher than by 
 Jesus. It was his definite purpose to bring plainly 
 to the understanding of his disciples and the mul- 
 titude the significance of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
290 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 With what fine skill he linked the kingdom of 
 heaven with all the common objects in the every- 
 day life of his hearers. It seems as if everything 
 that God had set in his universe became with this 
 teacher the type and symbol of the one great, 
 supreme truth that he came to teach. Let us 
 pray devoutly and study steadfastly to catch 
 something of his supreme power in the use of the 
 multitudinous materials so ready at hand as 
 teaching agencies. 
 
 In John 3, Jesus gives us an additional illus- 
 tration of his power to use familiar things im- 
 mediately present to the senses in enforcing a 
 great truth. A great scholar comes to him in 
 the night. Nicodemus, in fear of his associates, 
 slips through the shadows of the streets to the 
 place where the great teacher abides. He hastily 
 opens and closes the door, shuts himself from the 
 world, and opens himself to the great Teacher. 
 As these two sit conversing upon 
 N fcodem"us tne mysteries of birth into the 
 kingdom, Nicodemus is puzzled, 
 perplexed, confused, and finds himself unable to 
 follow the great teacher's thought. The Teacher, 
 realizing this, says, " Marvel not," and then fol- 
 lows a fine illustration of the use of the concrete. 
 Through the room in which they sat swept the 
 night wind, and Jesus said, " Nicodemus, listen ; 
 the wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest 
 
EDUCATIONAL METHODS USED BY JESUS 29 1 
 
 the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
 cometh and whither it goeth : so is every one that 
 is born of the Spirit." Here Jesus shows again 
 his mastery over common things as a basis of 
 approach to the greater things which he desired 
 to present to the spirit of this learned man. 
 
 In the next chapter we have a finer illus- 
 tration of this great power. Jesus sat at a 
 well, and a woman of Samaria came to draw 
 water. He did an unusual thing, in saying to a 
 stranger-woman, " Give me a drink." On the 
 basis of this request, step by step, with skill and 
 patience and insight, he built into the spirit of 
 
 Jesus and the this WOman the S reat leSSOn that 
 
 Samaritan God is a Spirit, and that he that 
 Woman spake unto her is the Christ. So 
 
 incident after incident reveals skill in the use of 
 the concrete to help the learner comprehend the 
 abstract and the general truth. Note also the fact 
 that Jesus used the same method whether he 
 taught an ignorant woman or a learned doctor 
 of the law. He had no need to grade his mate- 
 rials, but he saw in everything sufficient material 
 to nourish every grade of mind that came to him 
 to learn. So, I take it, it would be with us if 
 we, like him, knew how to teach ; and once again 
 I must impress the fact that it is the power of 
 the teacher more than the grading of the material 
 that makes success possible in the training of a 
 
292 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 human soul. Give the children teachers first. 
 Graded materials of instruction will inevitably 
 follow in due time. 
 
 Another marked characteristic of the teaching 
 of Jesus is found in the fact that he changed the 
 basis of instruction from one of negation to one 
 of assertion. He upturned all the negative forms 
 of thought that ran riot with the development of 
 the human spirit, and substituted 
 Teaching positive guidance in all right 
 living. Over and over again, in 
 the Sermon on the Mount, he reminded his 
 disciples that the law is " Thou shalt not," but 
 his teaching is " Thou shalt." There is a world- 
 wide difference between negative instruction and 
 positive instruction. These negative rules and 
 forms of thought have but one virtue. They 
 keep us from doing the thing that we ought not 
 to do. They fail to tell us what we should do; 
 and the world needs guidance in right doing more 
 than it needs negations. 
 
 I sometimes think that if the old schoolhouses 
 could speak out the one word that they have 
 heard most frequently repeated within their 
 walls, they would send forth with a shout the 
 word " Don't ! " I am quite sure that in many 
 homes most of the moral teaching of the child 
 consists in telling him what he ought not to do. 
 From daylight to twilight it is one incessant 
 
EDUCATIONAL METHODS USED BY JESUS 293 
 
 round of don't do this, and don't do that, and 
 
 don't do the other thing, until the wearied spirit 
 
 of the child in despair calls out, 
 
 Don't " What may I do? " Jesus comes 
 
 as a protest against this pro- 
 
 scriptive teaching, and deliberately sets about to 
 
 tell the world what it must do to be saved. He 
 
 builds a positive and a constructive code of ethics, 
 
 and this product has been the guidance of the 
 
 human race in all the years that have intervened. 
 
 We know no better saying of what duty should 
 consist, we have no wiser statement of what 
 conduct should be, than the simple sayings of 
 the majestic Teacher. Let us consider thought- 
 fully the great value of this teaching of Jesus. 
 He tells us what we shall do. He knows what 
 conduct should be. He has the courage as well 
 as the ability to urge men everywhere to do 
 things because he knows the things that are right. 
 Some of us are not so clear in these matters. 
 We are able generally to issue a negative com- 
 mand, to halt wrong-doing, to stop evil tend- 
 encies ; but when we are asked to say, on the other 
 hand, what the child should do, we are helpless. 
 Our words fail to furnish guidance, and bur best 
 thought is impetuous and useless. 
 
 I remember that the great laws written on the 
 tables of stone, and given to Moses when he was 
 in the mountain in the morning alone with God, 
 
294 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 are couched in negative form. I appreciate all 
 
 that that means. I understand how necessary it 
 
 is that law should formulate its 
 
 jesus and the decree in that way, for law is the 
 
 Mosaic Law J 
 
 arrest of wrong-doing. Jesus 
 Christ came to fulfil the law by showing the bet- 
 ter way. Instead of halting the human race 
 in the mad rush to ruin, he turns them face about, 
 and points them to the everlasting kingdom of 
 the Father, and says, with an appeal that is over- 
 mastering, " Come unto me." Perhaps nothing 
 in all the sayings of Jesus has been so potential 
 in confirming his divinity in the souls of his fol- 
 lowers as this specific guidance in right-doing. 
 We turn to him in the confident conviction that 
 he knows the way that we should tread. We 
 know that he knows, and for that reason we wor- 
 ship him. Is it necessary, then, to emphasize 
 more than has already been done the importance 
 of telling children always and everywhere the 
 things that they should do. The Sunday-school 
 should be the constructive agency, pointing chil- 
 dren steadily to those lines of thought and con- 
 duct that are in harmony with the divine law. 
 
 In harmony with this thought I wish to make 
 a suggestion to those earnest people who think 
 it their duty to fortify the minds of children 
 against all possible forms of evil by telling them 
 years in advance of the time what things they 
 
EDUCATIONAL METHODSUSED BY JESUS 295 
 
 shall be sure not to do. There was a time when 
 the public school teacher felt that he should an- 
 nounce at the opening of his school a long list of 
 
 rules telling children what they 
 The New Way should not do, but experience 
 
 soon taught that no number of 
 rules could possibly cover all the difficulties that 
 would arise in the school. For that reason this 
 plan was long since abandoned, and to-day we 
 put before the children no formal and extended 
 list of " Thou shalt nots ; " but instead, we ap- 
 peal to the common element of justice and equity 
 which is everywhere innate in the soul, and which 
 the pupil is just as likely to know as the teacher. 
 One teacher who thought he would avoid any 
 possible wrong-doing on the part of his pupils 
 noticed in a school-yard a wood-shed. Thereupon 
 he announced to the children that they must not 
 play on the roof of that wood-shed. It had not 
 entered the minds of the children that that was a 
 good place to play t but at the suggestion of the 
 teacher they soon found out that that roof was 
 
 the only spot on earth that would 
 
 m^lTgwJ afford ade( i uate P leasure - Some - 
 
 times as many as seventeen were 
 found upon it! A very well-disposed mother, 
 but not wise, on leaving her home one day, said 
 to the older children, " Now be sure to put no 
 beans in the baby's ears." The children had 
 
296 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 never thought of such a thing, but when she re- 
 turned the baby's ears were well filled with beans ! 
 Over against this sort of thing, and in harmony 
 with the example of Jesus, the better way is to 
 tell the child plainly just what he should do. 
 
 May I safely assume that, as a result of our 
 ordinary method of teaching, we make the child 
 more familiar with the evil to be avoided than 
 with the good to be performed? Is this wise? 
 Some negative teaching is undoubtedly neces- 
 sary. It has a preventive value. But my notion 
 is that the best teaching is that which gives to 
 our boys and girls guidance in the things to be 
 done. We no longer lay emphasis upon false 
 syntax to teach correct English. We no longer 
 make the misspelled word the most prominent 
 one. We lay the burden of our effort upon se- 
 curing correct forms of words and sentences. 
 
 We should commend the good 
 The Christ way more than we condemn the evil. 
 
 This builds usable ethical and 
 religious concepts in the soul. The effect of this 
 is significant. How often the Christian leaders 
 denounce evil things with merciless energy ! How 
 seldom do they know how to give wise guidance 
 in reforming the world ! Let us pray for power 
 to guide the world to the right things, to the 
 Great Teacher, to the Father-soul. 
 
EDUCATIONAL METHODS USED BY JESUS 297 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 What values attach to the quality of patience in teach- 
 ing? 
 
 Have you ever become angry with your pupils ? What 
 was the net result ? 
 
 Make a list of common obj ects that you can readily use 
 to illustrate great religious truths. 
 
 Did Nicodemus get information or inspiration from 
 Jesus? Which is worth the more? 
 
 What is the value of individual teaching? Of class 
 teaching ? 
 
 How did Jesus change his method in teaching different 
 persons ? 
 
 Point out just the difference between positive and 
 negative guidance. 
 
 In teaching, do you use don't or do most frequently ? 
 
 How did Jesus modify the form of moral and religious 
 instruction ? 
 
 Is it wise to tell children everything they are not to 
 do? 
 
 A great reformer always has a positive remedy for evil. 
 Measure Jesus by this standard. 
 
XXV 
 
 SOME ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING 
 
 l[ AM a believer in personal interviews. I think 
 a Sunday-school teacher should in some way 
 plan to have a brief talk with each member of his 
 class, at irregular intervals, as occasion opens 
 the way. In these talks there should be no at- 
 tempt to criticize or to scold or to find fault, but 
 a very honest attempt, and a 
 
 Interviews frank 0ne > t0 P oint 0Ut t0 the 
 
 child certain things which, in 
 years that are to come, he will find to be of some 
 use to him. I recall some such interviews as that 
 between good men who were my teachers and 
 myself, and the power of those interviews has 
 rested upon me in all the years that have fol- 
 lowed. It is a well-known fact that a child is 
 more impressed in a personal interview than by 
 any amount of class instruction. It is this per- 
 sonal concern for the child, this willingness to 
 act as friend and adviser, this deep-seated con- 
 cern which reveals itself in the personal quality 
 of interest and help, that sobers the child's 
 thought, steadies his conduct, and stimulates his 
 regard for the things that are sweet and clean 
 298 
 
SOME ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING 299 
 
 and right. There is much warrant for this in 
 the example of Jesus. How often he had per- 
 sonal interviews that are recorded in the Gospels, 
 and how many more he probably did have that 
 are not recorded! The burden of the whole 
 world was upon him, and yet he had time to 
 turn aside from the multitude and give to one 
 soul personal help and comfort and guidance. 
 
 In a preceding chapter I called attention to 
 the fact that scholarship was not an end with 
 Jesus. I wish now to say that this is no evidence 
 that he himself was not a scholar. He was not only 
 familiar with the law of his own people, but he 
 knew the law of the Roman conquerors, and he 
 knew the customs, habits, and modes of life of 
 all the different peoples that thronged the great 
 
 cosmopolitan city of Jerusalem. 
 scTdrship With his scholarship, therefore, 
 
 he was able to command respect, 
 but he did not obtrude this quality of his equip- 
 ment as a teacher upon his hearers. It was sim- 
 ply used to answer those who came to him to 
 confuse him, and to instruct those who came 
 to him to be guided of him. This seems to me to 
 be an ideal use of knowledge. When a teacher 
 is more anxious to impress a pupil with what 
 he knows than he is to incite his pupil to right 
 living, — when, in other words, the emphasis of 
 his thought and effort is directed to himself in- 
 
300 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 stead of his pupils, he is not only a vain man, 
 but a poor teacher. 
 
 Another matter impresses itself upon my mind. 
 Teachers are sometimes over-critical with their 
 pupils. They demand statements in just one cer- 
 tain order of words. There are, of course, some 
 things that should be said just so, but the great 
 majority of things should be known clearly, and 
 then expressed freely in the language of the 
 learner. If the teacher finds a pupil stating a 
 great truth in language that adequately conveys 
 that truth, the teacher should appreciate the pu- 
 pil's effort, and not insist upon a restatement and 
 another restatement until the thing is said in just 
 the way the teacher wants it 
 
 Th Exp g re t ss V i e .n U8 said. The result of this insist- 
 ence is that the pupil becomes 
 impressed with the finicky, fussy quality of the 
 teacher, and at last loses interest in the truth it- 
 self. If, however, the truth in the mind of the 
 child is not clear, the teacher should hold to the 
 discussion and ask for a restatement, a reorgani- 
 zation of the thought, again and again and again, 
 if need be, until the thing is clearly understood. 
 The emphasis of the teacher's concern should be 
 upon what the child thinks, and freedom should 
 be given to the child to formulate his thought in 
 language of his own spirit. 
 
 In order to help the pupil to right expression, 
 
SOME ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING 3OI 
 
 the teacher should constantly point out the beauty, 
 the simplicity, and the strength of the English 
 
 of the Bible; hold it up as a 
 Th tt.e n BMe° f model; encourage the child to 
 
 state things in the same splendid 
 English in which the truth of God comes to him 
 in his English Bible. 
 
 More and more, writers are recognizing that 
 the purest English to be found anywhere is in the 
 Bible. Many of the Psalms are models of strong 
 and yet simple English. Of this English in the 
 Bible a noted divine, Dr. Faber, says : " It lives 
 
 on the ear, like a music that can 
 Dr. Faber never be forgotten, like the 
 
 sound of church bells, which the 
 convert hardly knows how he can forego. Its 
 felicities often seem to be almost things rather 
 than mere words. It is part of the national mind, 
 and the anchor of national seriousness. The 
 memory of the dead passes into it. The potent 
 traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its 
 verses. The power of all the griefs and trials 
 of a man is hidden beneath its words. It is the 
 representative of his best moments, and all that 
 there has been about him of soft and gentle and 
 pure and penitent and good speaks to him forever 
 out of his English Bible. It is his sacred thing, 
 which doubt has never dimmed and controversy 
 never soiled. In the length and breadth of the 
 
302 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 land there is not a Protestant with one spark of 
 religiousness about him whose spiritual biogra- 
 phy is not in his Saxon Bible." 
 
 How did Jesus impress his pupils? We are 
 told in Matthew 7 : 28 that the multitudes were 
 astonished at his doctrine. The source of this 
 astonishment is easily discovered. He did not 
 teach as others taught. There was something 
 in the quality of his instruction that lifted it out 
 of the class of man's effort. People who went 
 to hear him did not go away with the feeling 
 that they had the old things repeated to them in 
 
 pretty much the same manner as 
 . mp "° s Ied e otL s they had been accustomed to 
 
 hear them from year to year. 
 Here was a teacher with a new method as well 
 as a new message. Their astonishment was due 
 not only to the original material that he pre- 
 sented, but also to the original manner that he 
 used. There was an earnestness and a directness 
 and a power in this teacher that differentiated 
 him from his contemporaries, and that still dif- 
 ferentiates him from all other teachers. This 
 peculiar and distinctive quality of his teaching 
 is explained in the next verse. 
 
 He taught them as one having authority. There 
 is a world-wide difference, even among men, be- 
 tween an author of a subject and an expounder 
 of a subject. For a man to teach with authority 
 
SOME ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING 303 
 
 implies authorship, original power, knowledge 
 at first hand, direct personal contact with the 
 
 truth. Most of us must remain 
 Authority always the expounders of things 
 
 thought out and wrought out by 
 others. It is only the rare mind that can claim 
 authorship, and that therefore can speak with 
 authority. Jesus as a teacher had more than the 
 power of a religious investigator. He knew 
 things at first hand. He is the truth. It was 
 this quality in his teaching that impressed his 
 hearers over and over again. 
 
 No man can teach as Christ taught ; but there 
 is a lesson that we teachers may learn even from 
 this divine " authority " that is Christ's alone. 
 We may strive to give authority to our own 
 teaching. When a man makes discovery of a 
 new scientific law his name is heralded through- 
 out the civilized world. He is at once lifted out 
 of the common group and placed in that select 
 and limited circle of truly great benefactors of 
 the race. There are not many of these. One 
 can almost count them over on the fingers of 
 two hands, and yet they are the great lights that 
 
 illumine the pathway of the mul- 
 a comparison titude. And we must recognize 
 
 Jesus as the only divine and per- 
 fect type of the original discoverer, of the 
 man with a message. He has given to us 
 
304 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the largest personal gift that the race has ever 
 received, and deserves, as does no one else, to be 
 called the master of those that teach. I do not 
 say this in any burst of enthusiasm or religious 
 fervor, but as a result of a cool, deliberate judg- 
 ment after years of study of his own teaching 
 and its influence, and the teaching and influence 
 of every great educator in the past three thousand 
 years. 
 
 What joy, then, must come to him who, in a 
 sense, teaches with authority, who is himself the 
 discoverer of the truth that he announces ! Most 
 of us have a few little things that we have worked 
 out in some way that gives us an impression that 
 they are peculiarly our own. How we like to tell 
 these things ! How we like to work them into 
 our discussion, and with what satisfaction we 
 regard their acceptance by others ! When Galileo 
 discovered the movement of the earth around the 
 
 sun, it is said that he was so 
 Discovery overcome with emotion that it 
 
 hastened his death; and in his 
 dying hours he clasped in his hands the wet 
 proofs of his book announcing his great discov- 
 ery to the world. When Kepler made his great 
 discovery that the planets moved in elliptical or- 
 bits, it is said that his hand trembled with emotion, 
 and that he was unable to complete his calcula- 
 tions for some time. When at last the full proof 
 
SOME ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING 305 
 
 of the theory was before him, he exclaimed: 
 "Great God, I think thy thoughts after thee!" 
 These are but examples of the supreme ecstasy of 
 the spirit that moves out into new and untrodden 
 paths, and finds there the rich treasures of God. 
 What must have been the ecstasy of the Great 
 Teacher as he unfolded the mysteries of his 
 Father to the astonished multitude. A weak 
 teacher would have been swept from his moor- 
 ings and carried away on the tides of enthusiasm 
 his teaching produced, but Jesus was always su- 
 premely himself. There is no finer tribute to 
 his great power than his ability to preserve his 
 poise under all circumstances. 
 
 I wish to urge upon each teacher the great 
 importance of taking up some one thing, and 
 studying it until it is mastered, of investigating it 
 until its full significance is grasped, of pondering 
 upon it until it illumines all the ranges of one's 
 thought. It has been my privilege from time 
 
 to time to enjoy unusual ex- 
 MaSt o e f r p w S e r UrCe Periences, to do some little 
 
 things that were not done before, 
 and I know in part the intense rapture of the 
 spirit when it comes into the possession of an 
 experience that is unique, of a truth that has not 
 been discerned. I find that these experiences are 
 the most fruitful ones, and that they become the 
 richest teaching material that I possess. 
 
306 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 It is a good thing to use those rich and rare 
 personal experiences that come to us from time 
 to time as we touch human life and come to un- 
 derstand human need. How often I have seen 
 a listless class stirred to interest by the teacher's 
 skill in presenting at the right moment some 
 personal experience bearing upon the point at 
 issue. It means something to 
 
 Autobiography 0thef P e0 P Ie t0 haVe S l0 ° k ifl 
 
 upon the life of another. We 
 read the autobiographies of men with great in- 
 terest, and even when they have left no such 
 record, we naturally delight to construct in our 
 own minds a picture of their lives. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 What is your experience as to the value of personal 
 interviews with your pupils? 
 
 Make a list of the persons with whom Jesus had 
 personal interviews. 
 
 What do you consider to be the true function of 
 knowledge ? 
 
 How exact should the pupils' statements be in order 
 to meet the approval of the teacher? 
 
 What difference would you make between clear think- 
 ing and clear language? 
 
 Give some reasons for the matchless English of the 
 Bible? 
 
SOME ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING T>°7 
 
 Was Jesus concerned primarily in pleasing his pupils? 
 If not, what was his first concern? 
 
 Should a teacher aim primarily to satisfy his pupils or 
 to make them hungry ? 
 
 Point out clearly the significance of teaching with 
 authority. 
 
 What relation exists between the personal experience 
 and the statements of a teacher? 
 
 In what respect is biography the best material in teach- 
 ing? 
 
 Make a list of great biographies that have in them 
 the flash of divinity. 
 
XXVI 
 
 SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE SUNDAY- 
 SCHOOL TEACHER 
 
 *\7" OU will naturally study the lives of great 
 ■*• teachers in order to find the guidance you 
 need, and in order to discover if possible the 
 secret of the service they rendered. Such study is 
 always stimulating and helpful. As we come to 
 know what they did, under what conditions they 
 wrought, against what limitations they were 
 obliged to struggle, there arises in us a desire and 
 a resolution to make our own teaching count for 
 high and worthy ends. " Biography is history 
 teaching by example." Autobiography is the 
 most stimulating of all history teaching. To see 
 a man's life as he knew it is a rare inspiration. 
 
 I commend to you the interesting and val- 
 uable study of the life of Jesus, and would 
 count it of great value to you if you were to 
 conceive what Jesus might have written concern- 
 ing himself from time to time, as he moved 
 An among men and taught them. 
 
 Autobiography No such record is left to us, but 
 some such record we might at- 
 tempt to construct. I should like to know what 
 he thought after he had concluded the marvelous' 
 308 
 
SOME SUGGESTIONS 309 
 
 Sermon on the Mount; what he thought when 
 Nicodemus left him; what he thought after the 
 visit to the house of Mary and Martha, and what 
 he thought after he left Jacob's Well; in 
 short, what he thought each time after he had 
 taught the multitude, or his disciples, or some 
 one person. I wonder whether we go from our 
 teaching sobered and thoughtful. Do we take our 
 pupils before the Father in prayer, and ask of 
 him the question, " Have I done the best things 
 to-day that I could have done?" It is this. kind 
 of personal criticism that makes growth possible 
 in the teacher. 
 
 Jesus sympathized with every condition of 
 
 human life. No man was so poor but that Jesus 
 
 was willing to help him. No man was so low 
 
 but that Jesus had a word of guidance and help. 
 
 No man was so far removed 
 
 s"Z"Z from what he 0U S ht t0 be but 
 that Jesus was willing to see 
 
 him, to teach him, to help him. His sympathies 
 
 were as broad as the human family, and he 
 
 seemed to love those most that needed it most, 
 
 and to extend the largest measure of help to those 
 
 that were most helpless. We are sometimes told 
 
 that we should treat all our pupils alike. This is 
 
 both true and false, depending entirely upon how 
 
 we interpret the maxim. Let the emphasis of 
 
 your interest and guidance rest upon the child 
 
3IO THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 that seems most to need it. Remember the poor 
 child that comes to the Sunday-school; remem- 
 ber those that have no proper home, and to the 
 extent of your ability lay the emphasis of your 
 concern and of your suggestions upon those. It 
 is comparatively easy for us to be interested in 
 the interesting children, in those that are bright 
 and clean and well-dressed and well-mannered, 
 and yet, if we are to understand the full force of 
 the teaching of Jesus, we must not allow our 
 personal feelings to carry us away from the ob- 
 ligation that we owe to the more unfortunate 
 little ones, to whom the kind word and the sym- 
 pathetic concern of the teacher is perhaps the 
 only bright spot in their dreary lives. 
 
 Sometimes children are slow to grasp the truth. 
 Their every-day experience is such as to give 
 them little that will aid in the interpretation of 
 religious thought. They come to the Sunday- 
 school, and do not respond with that alertness 
 and interest which we so much desire to secure 
 
 from our pupils. Remember 
 Environment that this may not be due to the 
 
 fact that the child is essentially 
 stupid, nor to the fact that the teacher is neces- 
 sarily weak. If the child lives the entire week 
 in an atmosphere that provides little or no re- 
 ligious nutrition, how in reason can we expect 
 anything like satisfactory results from a thirty 
 
SOME SUGGESTIONS 3 1 1 
 
 minutes' recitation once a week ? Sometimes you 
 may incline to censure the pupil for lack of 
 progress and of interest in the lessons you labor 
 to fix in his spirit. Do not forget to reckon up 
 the many influences in his life that are at war 
 with your purposes. When he moves your way, 
 even the slightest degree, you will not forget 
 what a struggle this may represent in his soul. 
 This is only another way of saying that the 
 child who is thus unfortunately homed deserves 
 consideration and care and patience at the hands 
 of the teacher. Be patient! Be patient! And 
 evermore be patient! 
 
 There is a certain group of pupils that come to 
 the Sunday-school through force of habit. It 
 has been a family experience, perhaps for genera- 
 tions. The Sunday-school is one of the regular 
 items in the life of the child. No argument is nec- 
 essary, no command is needed. 
 
 A EnWron C m"nt S no unnecessary provisions need 
 be made, — the child simply 
 comes. The habit is fixed. His presence in the 
 Sunday-school is regular, and, for the most part, 
 satisfactory. Frequently, but not always, this 
 group belong to Christian homes. The influence 
 of a family altar upon the religious training of a 
 child cannot well be overestimated. To gather, 
 in the evening quiet, about the family Bible, to 
 hear its soul-satisfying words read by a pious 
 
312 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 father, to kneel by the side of a good mother, to 
 repeat with brother and sister and parents the 
 Lord's Prayer, to worship God at home, this is 
 to build character after the best models and this 
 is to put upon the young soul an impress that 
 neither time nor eternity can remove. Happy 
 the teacher whose pupils are thus predisposed to 
 receive from him the words of light and of love 
 and of life ! 
 
 There is another group of children that come 
 to the Sunday-school because their companions, 
 playmates, and friends attend the Sunday- 
 school, and they are thus drawn into the group. 
 There is nothing in the home-life of these chil- 
 dren to dispose them to attend or to prevent 
 them from attending. They are 
 
 WhB Done y Be simply caught in the community 
 spirit, and carried into the 
 Sunday-school. Most Sunday-schools encourage 
 their regular pupils to bring in other pupils, and, 
 I believe, in many cases give prizes or premiums 
 as a form of recognition to those pupils who 
 bring in the largest group of new pupils. 
 
 There is another group that come to the 
 Sunday-school upon parental command, and in 
 part, it may be, to atone for the parents' own lack 
 of religious concern. The parents do not go to 
 the Sunday-school. They perhaps do not go to 
 church, yet they feel that some sort of religious 
 
SOME SUGGESTIONS 3I3 
 
 activity ought to be going on in the family, and, 
 in order to quiet their consciences and show at 
 
 least a form of religious con- 
 Attendance 1 cern ^ey sen d tne h- children to 
 
 Sunday-school, hoping thereby 
 to poultice their own consciences and thus per- 
 haps keep themselves above the community criti- 
 cism. 
 
 There is another group that come to the 
 Sunday-school just because they come. There 
 is no habit to bring them there ; no co-operation 
 of pupils to bring them ; there is no stress of the 
 home to bring them ; they just drop in. 
 
 These types of Sunday-school pupils are to be 
 found everywhere, and many other types might 
 be pointed out. I have said enough to indicate 
 to you this significant thing; namely, that chil- 
 dren come with varied motives and equipment to 
 the Sunday-school. Do you know enough about 
 your own pupils to sort them out into such groups 
 
 as these? Have you ever asked 
 A Mom t e e n"t° f yourself the question, "How 
 ' shall each one of these groups be 
 regarded and taught ? " Think over these mat- 
 ters. Make a little investigation of the condi- 
 tions under which you teach. Study your stock 
 in trade. See what you have to build upon. It 
 will, perhaps, help you to see your problem from 
 a new point of view. 
 
314 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Ideally the home should be so organized that 
 every member of it is uneasy with the stress of 
 concern for the right education of each member 
 in religious things. It is the business of the 
 home to make easy the pathway of the child 
 through the Sunday-school — which is the church 
 — to the Father. The Sunday- 
 
 Th th B e U Hom S e S ° f Sch0Gl teacher and the P ast0r 
 
 should both alike co-operate 
 with the home in securing this direct approach 
 on the part of each child to the great things of 
 life. We must not put obstacles in the way. Let 
 us try ourselves by this test : what am I doing 
 personally to make easy the growth of each of 
 my pupils into higher spiritual insight and use- 
 fulness ? 
 
 At this point I wish also to call attention to the 
 Sunday-school literature which has been made 
 the butt of ridicule, of criticism, and of jests, 
 everywhere in this country. The general notion 
 seems to be that Sunday-school literature is bad ; 
 that children ought not to read it because its 
 ideals are not true to life, and one hears, until 
 he is weary of it, the ordinary statement that 
 Sunday-school books always emphasize the fact 
 that the good die early and the bad hang on 
 endlessly. 
 
 I believe a vast amount of this criticism is 
 wholly unwarranted. I am quite sure that the 
 
SOME SUGGESTIONS 315 
 
 literature in the Sunday-school is not as bad as 
 most people would seem to indicate that it is, and 
 
 yet I am far from being an 
 Our Literature apologist for that literature. 
 
 Fundamentally I want children 
 to read. They should read the Bible, of course, but 
 they should read such other material, based upon 
 concrete every-day life, as will help them to come 
 into a vital understanding of what religious life 
 means. No doubt many of our books, written 
 by people whose intentions were better than their 
 achievements, ought not to be within the reach 
 of the child. No book should go into a Sunday- 
 school until some competent person has read it 
 and indicated his approval of it. There should 
 be in every Sunday-school a critic of literature, 
 to whom the purchase of all books should be re- 
 ferred. This may be the librarian, or it may be 
 somebody else, designated by the superintendent, 
 whose business it shall be to answer to the 
 Sunday-school for the quality of material which 
 is laid before the children. The test of a book 
 should be rigorously insisted upon. How shall 
 we decide when a book is of the right sort? 
 
 In harmony with the general educational 
 thought underlying these chapters, the first mark 
 of a suitable book is its power to interest the 
 reader. It must have that quality, otherwise it 
 will not be taken from the library, or, if taken, it 
 
316 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 will not be read. But the book must be more than 
 
 interesting. Mere interest means little to the 
 
 child. Some of the most perni- 
 
 How to Test j books j n th j d en _ 
 
 a Book 
 
 trancingly interesting to a child. 
 The second mark, then, of a book is its power 
 to make the reader think. Does it stimulate 
 thought? Does it crystallize interest into judg- 
 ments? Does it exercise the higher powers of 
 thought? If not, throw it aside. It is useless, 
 and may be worse than useless. The third mark 
 of a good book is its power to make the reader 
 live a better life. Can the lessons of the book be 
 applied in every-day life? Does it teach con- 
 duct? Does it mold character? Does it influence 
 will ? Is it a book that makes life richer by mak- 
 ing action truer ? Not one of these tests, but all 
 of them, must be applied to every book. If the 
 book fails, as many will, to pass this threefold 
 test, exclude it from the library. 
 
 I pity a Sunday-school whose only boast con- 
 cerning its library is in the large number of 
 books which it has on its shelves. It is not the 
 quantity, but the quality, that is to be considered. 
 
 It is not necessary for the child 
 A £ ew ^,°° ks to be an omnivorous reader, but 
 
 Essential ' 
 
 he does need to be an inter- 
 ested, thoughtful, and transformed reader. There 
 are a few books of such supreme value to child- 
 
SOME SUGGESTIONS 3I7 
 
 hood that it is almost a crime to allow a child 
 to grow up ignorant of them. There is an irre- 
 parable loss to the child that has not read " Pil- 
 grim's Progress," " Robinson Crusoe," " The 
 King of the Golden River," " Aesop's Fables," 
 " Water Babies," and kindred works that con- 
 tain the very elements out of which is woven 
 the fabric of a fine character. Books are teachers, 
 and they must accomplish what other teachers 
 should accomplish, or they are to be laid aside as 
 falling below the needs of the Sunday-school. 
 
 A wise teacher of a child will know what books 
 that child reads. A wise teacher in a Sunday- 
 school will know what books his pupils are read- 
 ing week by week. Why should not the child 
 report to the teacher in a few sentences what 
 each book meant to him? -Would it not be well, 
 especially on review days, to have from each 
 child an expression of the best thoughts and the 
 best guidance which the reading of the quarter 
 affords ? I cannot reconcile myself to the fact that 
 a teacher should go on from 
 
 PupU-fReldlng Week t0 Week with a & r0U P ° f 
 
 children, ignorant of the read- 
 ing material with which they are nourishing their 
 spirits, framing their thoughts, and in part at 
 least modifying their conduct. Unless a book has 
 a specific value to a child, the child should not 
 read it. If it has a specific value, the teacher 
 
318 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 should make note of that, and utilize it in giving 
 unity and force and purpose to the whole teach- 
 ing activity. I shall not, of course, undertake 
 to say what books are good and what books are 
 bad. I do not know enough about the matter 
 in detail to judge books, but I have indicated here 
 the test by which every thoughtful and earnest 
 teacher will be able to settle this matter for him- 
 self. 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 What is the special value of the autobiographic 
 sketch ? 
 
 In what way does the life of a writer or teacher help 
 to explain his service? 
 
 What is your opinion of the statement that the teacher 
 should treat all pupils alike? 
 
 Discuss the reasons for the different rate of pro- 
 gress made by pupils. 
 
 How does the home life influence the quality of in- 
 struction in the Sunday-school? 
 
 Classify the members of your class on some such 
 basis as is indicated in this article. 
 
 What should the home do to promote the efficiency of 
 Sunday-school instruction ? 
 
 Write a description of a horn; life that would best 
 promote your success as a Sunday-school teacher. 
 
 Should children study the Sunday-school lesson at 
 home? 
 
 What books do the pupils of your class read? 
 
SOME SUGGESTIONS 319 
 
 Are these the best books they could be induced to 
 read? 
 
 What guidance is afforded to the children in choosing 
 reading matter from the Sunday-school? 
 
 What would you set down as the marks of a proper 
 book for a child? 
 
 Make a list of books that you are willing to commend 
 to your pupils. 
 
 Why should a teacher know what books his pupils 
 read? 
 
 Should the books read by a child be counted a part 
 of the influence that educates the child? If so, what 
 use should be made of this material by the teacher? 
 
XXVII 
 
 SOME THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCA- 
 TION 
 
 /"* HRISTIAN religion was scarcely four 
 ^■** hundred years old when its schools sup- 
 planted the schools of the Roman Empire. From 
 that time on through fourteen centuries, with 
 varying success, education remained a function 
 of the church. For the most part the teachers 
 were the ministers of the church or some or- 
 ganized body specifically trained and set aside 
 for teaching purposes. Even when the great 
 
 upheaval came in the Protestant 
 chru«r h S choo.s Reformation it did not affect the 
 
 relation of the church to the ed- 
 ucation of the people. Almost immediately after 
 the Reformation there sprang up in the Roman 
 church the Society of Jesus, one of the greatest 
 teaching bodies known in the religious world. 
 It was not until the close of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury that the state took charge of the education 
 of the masses. When education did become secu- 
 lar, the Sunday-school arose to supplement the 
 work of the state schools and to continue the 
 religious instruction of the child. 
 
 The Sunday-school became the legitimate in- 
 320 
 
THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 32 1 
 
 heritor of the central activities of education by 
 
 the church. The church did not comprehend fully; 
 
 The coming ' ts obligation to childhood until 
 
 of the ' the state itself took up in a seri- 
 
 sunday-schoo! oug way the problem of univer- 
 sal intelligence. If children require a secular 
 education in order to fit them for the service of 
 the state, surely they need also a religious educa- 
 tion to fit them for the service of the church and 
 of the higher life. 
 
 For one hundred years now we have had this 
 dual aspect of education. The state educates 
 for this life ; the church educates for the. life to 
 come. But the church cannot properly educate 
 for the life to come without educating for the 
 better things of the life that is. The state pro- 
 vides education for children for at least twelve 
 years. It maintains schools for upwards of eight 
 months in each of these years. It provides edu- 
 cation five days of each week 
 
 What D t oe e s St " te aIld five h0UrS ° f each 0f theSe 
 
 days. It is therefore easy to 
 compute the amount of time which the state de- 
 votes to the education of the child. Compare 
 this with the meager time set aside by the church 
 for the education of the child in religious things. 
 One does not regard the contrast with compla- 
 cency, and the wonder is that the results are not 
 less meager than they are. 
 
322 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 The state has not reached the limit of its edu- 
 cational concern. There are evidences on every 
 side that additional provisions should be made and 
 a more extended training provided. The amount 
 of money expended in public education increases 
 annually. This increase is not 
 
 A s G ys°tTm 2 due alone t0 the fact that the 
 number of children to be edu- 
 cated is increasing, but is due to the fact that the 
 people believe enough in education to expend 
 each year more money per capita for the educa- 
 tion of each child. The system of state educa- 
 tion is a growing system. For example, in the 
 United States the expenditure per capita of pop- 
 ulation for public schools in 1870 was $1.75; in 
 1880, $1.97; in 1890, $2.31; in 1900, $2.94; in 
 1902, about $3.15. 
 
 The same may be said, of course, of 
 the Sunday-school, but its growth is not so 
 marked nor so steady as is that of the secular 
 school. The state wisely provides for the proper 
 training of the teachers who are to direct the 
 educational activity of the secular school. The 
 church is not acting with anything like the intel- 
 ligence that characterizes the 
 What is Needed state in this particular. Ought 
 we not also to make provisions 
 for the training of men and women to teach in 
 the Sunday-school? When you reach this ques- 
 
THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 323 
 
 tion, and before you formulate your reply, ask 
 yourself the personal question, What has the 
 church done to help me teach in the Sunday- 
 school? Ask also the question, What should the 
 church do to help me teach? Then ask yourself 
 the great question, What should I do to fit myself 
 to teach in the Sunday-school? The future of 
 the Sunday-school depends upon our answer. 
 
 Statistics show some interesting facts. Lan- 
 caster found that out of 598 young people 518 
 had some form of religious awakening between 
 the ages of twelve and twenty. According to 
 Drew, 573 out of 756 were converted between 
 
 the same ages. Gulic states that 
 Ad*™ 430 out of 536 were converted 
 
 between these ages. Ayres 
 gives 1,953 out °f 2,672. Starbuck, 79 out of 
 100. These statistics refer to boys. The statis- 
 tics for girls would probably be even more con- 
 firmatory. If the greatest gain in numbers to 
 the church comes in these years, one can readily 
 see how tremendously important the activity of 
 the Sunday-school is in its soul-winning oppor- 
 tunity. It is also a well-known fact that the 
 crimes common to youth increase at a very rapid 
 rate at the age of twelve, and continue to increase 
 for three or four years, and then gradually de- 
 crease. For example, out of a total of 964 cases 
 of larceny committed by children under the age 
 
324 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 of twenty-one, 85 were at the age of twelve, 116 
 at the age of thirteen, 154 at the age of fourteen, 
 155 at the age of fifteen, 167 at the age of six- 
 teen, 105 at the age of seventeen, 57 at the age 
 of eighteen, 34 at the age of nineteen, 14 at the 
 age of twenty, 3 at the age of twenty-one. Sub- 
 stantially the same order of facts 
 
 A C do™ s e cence a PP lies to incorrigibility, to va- 
 grancy, to burglary, disorderly 
 conduct, assaults of all sorts, public intoxication, 
 and other misdemeanors of childhood. I do not 
 mean to say, and nobody would be justified in 
 saying, that the Sunday-school is responsible for 
 these crimes, but we must necessarily feel that 
 the Sunday-school should be one of the agencies 
 that ought actively to combat the tendencies to 
 these offenses, and that ought to make them a 
 decreasing activity. 
 
 We are face to face with the fact that our 
 secular schools cannot, in the very nature of the 
 case, give the religious training which the child 
 needs. All attempts to put upon the public school 
 this responsibility must necessarily be failures. 
 Some religious instruction is given in the secular 
 schools. More may be given in 
 State Eduction the future than at present. Tend- 
 encies in that direction manifest 
 themselves from time to time in our discussions, 
 and perhaps at no time has this matter received 
 
THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 325 
 
 more thought than it is receiving to-day. There 
 are certain things of the religious life that can 
 safely and properly be taught without offense in 
 all secular schools, but when they have done 
 the best that they can do, and have reached ideal 
 conditions within their limitations, there will still 
 remain a large and important work for the 
 Sunday-school. 
 
 It will be seen from the statistics given in this 
 chapter that the vital years of training continue 
 through the age of adolescence. I have not at 
 all undertaken to present the problems peculiar 
 to this age. The time to do this has not yet come. 
 We need more facts and less hypotheses before 
 we can organize guidance. But enough is known 
 to warrant the statement that the Sunday-school 
 must retain its influence over our boys and girls 
 until they are fully matured. We must develop 
 means of making the Sunday- 
 
 A p?ob S iem ed sch ° o1 worth while t0 y° nn S 
 men and women. This must not 
 
 be done at the expense of the primary and of 
 the intermediate grades, but it must be done by 
 additional provisions for advanced pupils. 
 
 I hope no one will misinterpret my purpose 
 when I say that too often these young men and 
 women are literally frozen out of the Sunday- 
 school. Many of them have not yet made a pro- 
 fession of the better life, and some one is put 
 
326 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 in charge of them who conceives it to be his 
 solemn duty to lecture them every Sunday upon 
 their sinful ways. Now, scolding is never teach- 
 ing, and young people are not in 
 
 S Tlach!ng 0t thiS ^ W ° n t0 * e kin g d0m - 
 
 What they really need is a warm- 
 hearted, sane minded, enthusiastic teacher, whose 
 energetic and zealous and capable teaching will 
 arouse and interest the class, and stimulate a love 
 for the religious life. Many young people be- 
 come disgusted when they are constantly lectured 
 and nagged and held up as " an awful example." 
 What shall be said of that Sunday-school that 
 puts in charge of these young people a teacher 
 who is no longer fit to teach the younger grades, 
 and who is given this advanced group solely to 
 get rid of him in some other place in which he 
 was a confessed failure? 
 
 These young men and women need wisest 
 guidance. For years they were children. They 
 lived with their faces cradle-ward. They are 
 now living with their faces turned to the future. 
 Life in a new and very real way is calling to 
 them. They are facing sun-ward. They need 
 
 help. They should have a 
 "youths ° teacher whose whole spirit is in 
 
 full sympathy with their hopes, 
 their aspirations, their yearnings. This is the 
 time for discussions. Let the members of the 
 
THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 327 
 
 class formulate opinions and discuss great ques- 
 tions. Let their minds be active and expressive. 
 I have known teachers to suppress every free im- 
 pulse of a pupil. I have known others who knew 
 how carefully a young man states a hypothetic 
 case, when in fact he is really stating his own 
 case. The latter teacher will always use these 
 discussions to guide the inquirer in the right lines 
 of thought and of effort. 
 
 Build in the souls of your pupils a wholesome 
 and abiding love for the Bible — for all of it, 
 from Genesis to Revelation. Dr. Nott once said, 
 
 " Men cannot be well educated 
 Dr. Nott without the Bible. It ought, 
 
 therefore, to hold the chief 
 place in every institution of learning throughout 
 Christendom." Franklin calls the Bible, the 
 newspaper, and the school, the principal support 
 
 of virtue, morality, and civil 
 
 Franklin and liberty Scottj Qn h j s death-bed, 
 
 called for the Bible, saying, 
 " There is only one book." Sir William Jones 
 said, " The Bible contains more true sublimity, 
 more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, 
 more important history, and 
 Sir jon i e" a,n finer strains of poetry and elo- 
 quence, than can be collected 
 from all other books, in whatever age or lan- 
 guage they have been written." 
 
328 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 And, if one could summon to his side all the 
 really great souls that have, in dying, made other 
 lives richer, they would invariably testify to its 
 worth and its power. So I say, with Dr. Holland, 
 "Let us stick to our Bible. It is our all — the 
 one regenerative, redemptive agency in the 
 world — the only word that even sounds as if it 
 came from the other side of the wave. If we 
 lose it, we are lost.'' 
 
 To put the Bible into the hands of all children, 
 and its precepts into their hearts, is a holy mis- 
 sion. When one counts over the services that 
 are really worth while, will it not invariably be 
 found that what one does to guide the timid foot- 
 steps to the Father is in the last analysis the best 
 service God gives him to do in this life ? An old 
 teacher, whose many, many years of faithful ser- 
 vice had left him at last poor and alone, was one 
 day visited by a former pupil, 
 
 the Teacher now a man °^ influence and of 
 character. They discussed to- 
 gether at length the earlier days when this man 
 was a boy in the teacher's school. They recalled 
 many interesting incidents. The gratitude of the 
 man touched the heart of the poor old teacher. 
 The man invited the old teacher to the village inn 
 to dine with him. The old teacher begged to be 
 excused, saying, " I am too old, my hands 
 tremble, my clothes are not fit." But the former 
 
THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 329 
 
 pupil insisted. The old teacher yielded. They 
 both enjoyed the meal: the man, because he was 
 honoring his teacher ; the teacher, because he was 
 honored by his pupil. When they parted at the 
 railway station the man pushed his gold-headed 
 cane into the trembling hand of his dear old 
 teacher, saying, " Now, dear teacher, good-by 
 till we meet again." 
 
 The old teacher was so overcome by this act of 
 kindness that his eyes grew dim, and his voice 
 trembled even more than before. He protested 
 that he did not deserve this generous gift. The 
 man thought he did. He said so, and springing 
 upon the train called out again, " Good-by till 
 we meet again." The old teacher, his finger 
 pointing to the heavens, answered, " Yes, till we 
 meet again — up there." 
 
 Blessed is that teacher whose words and influ- 
 ence are such that at the last he can point with 
 gratitude to the Father's house and say to his 
 pupils, " Let us meet again — up there." 
 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher- Training Classes. 
 
 What led to the separation of school and church? 
 
 Enumerate the gains and the losses resulting from the 
 establishment of secular schools. 
 
 Why did the modern Sunday-school come so late in 
 the history of the church? 
 
3$0 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 Are we giving time enough to religious education? 
 
 What marked tendencies of a religious character as- 
 sert themselves at the age of adolescence? 
 
 Why should adolescent pupils remain in the Sunday- 
 school ? What are you doing to keep them there ? 
 
 May we complacently resign our children to the 
 secular school and demand of it their complete educa- 
 tion? 
 
 What reasons may be assigned for the relatively small 
 number of young men and women in the Sunday-school ? 
 
 Do you try — really, earnestly try — to impress upon 
 your pupils the full value of a knowledge of the Bible ? 
 
 Write a list of services you know the Bible has been 
 to you, to civilization. 
 
 What is the best service man can render to God 
 through teaching? 
 
XXVIII 
 THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 JOHN RUSKIN once said that there were but 
 three questions that concerned the human 
 soul ; that if the human soul could propound to 
 itself these three questions, and answer them, it 
 had justified its right to be. The first of these 
 questions is this : How did I get into this world? 
 The second : How am I going to get out of this 
 world ? And third : What had I 
 T « r .!.,t!™ t best do under the circumstances ? 
 
 Questions 
 
 In other words, the three great 
 concerns of life center themselves around the 
 thoughts of our origin, our destiny and our duty, 
 and we have scarcely approached the problem of 
 duty until we see that problem in the light of our 
 destiny, and in the light of our origin ; for unless 
 we understand that with which we are endowed, 
 and that for which we have been endowed, we 
 will scarcely be able to make a rational use of 
 our lives. We may safely leave the question 
 of our origin and of our destiny to God. The 
 question of our duty we must face. What had 
 we best do under the circumstances? 
 
 When one comes to a consideration of the 
 
 331 
 
332 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 moral life, the life which sets before itself the 
 standard of living up to its best thought, one has 
 
 at once a heroic conception of 
 The Moral Life the human soul. If, to-day, we 
 
 had an appreciable group of peo- 
 ple who were heroic enough always to do the 
 things which they know are best to do, we would 
 at once have a most wholesome leaven in our 
 civilization. 
 
 If, to the thought that one is to live up to his 
 best knowledge, is added the additional fact that 
 where one's knowledge fails to give guidance one 
 must trust a higher and diviner guidance, so that 
 the life begins with thought and ends with faith, 
 
 one has the real conception of 
 The Religious ^ religious character. I take 
 
 it that the child in the home lives 
 heroically when it lives up to all that it has been 
 taught, and, in the absence of guidance from that 
 side, lives up, in the next place, to the example 
 of its parents, its teachers, and those who stand 
 above it in years and experience, as examples of 
 what should be best in life. And so, in all the 
 years of our growth we need, not merely the 
 heroic moral quality, that makes us do the best 
 things we know, but also' the higher religious 
 quality that makes us willing to be led in the 
 hours when our own thought and our own guid- 
 ance fail to give us direction. If to the moral 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 333 
 
 conception of life's duty we add the acceptance 
 of a divine personality, revealed to mankind in 
 some form, and apprehended as God, we have 
 the religious life of the race. 
 
 There are three great virtues in civilization. 
 There are three great qualities in life to which 
 every one of us should be dedicated. There are 
 three virtues of the human soul that every indi- 
 vidual should strive to achieve. And to the ex- 
 tent that we manifest these, live them in the 
 midst of our fellows, to that extent may we be 
 said to live truly, and to live nobly. 
 
 There is, first of all, the virtue of civilization, 
 with which every soul should be invested. The 
 virtue of civilization is politeness. Not that sur- 
 face politeness that makes a man act a part in 
 society, but that genuine polite- 
 
 cTvliizati'on ness °* ^ e sou ^ wmc ^ makes 
 each one treat each other as if 
 each were a perfect human being; for the very 
 genius of politeness lies in the fact that we act 
 to every man as if he were perfect: that makes 
 our action as perfect as we can make it. And 
 there is always in society the need for this. We 
 are altogether too gruff, altogether too harsh, 
 altogether too uncivil — due to the many influ- 
 ences at work upon our lives ; and we need con- 
 scientiously, not only in our childhood, but in 
 our maturer years, to be taught that a part of the 
 
334 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 real virtue of life is in the politeness with which 
 we meet one another, and in the courtesy 
 with which we come in touch with fellow-beings 
 in the world. No system of education that has 
 in mind the development of the higher virtues 
 of the religious life can possibly ignore this 
 fundamental need of civilization to the individ- 
 ual; for, in a very appreciable way, the objective 
 measure of civilization may be found in the 
 changed way with which we deal with one an- 
 other. The rude savage knows none of the 
 courtesies of life. His code is harsh; his doc- 
 trine is destructive; his activity is selfish. But, 
 in our later civilization, we have overcome in 
 part, and we need to overcome in a larger way, 
 all those qualities of the barbaric spirit, and we 
 need to incorporate into each one civilization's 
 best gift to us, the courtesy, the kindly good 
 will, that should characterize enlightened human 
 life. 
 
 The second of the great virtues of the human 
 soul is the virtue of morality, which is con- 
 scientiousness, as contrasted with the virtue of 
 civilization, which is politeness. It means a great 
 deal to you, and it means a great 
 
 Morality ^^ t0 me > t0 ^ ave aroun d US 
 
 everywhere people who are liv- 
 ing conscientiously ; that is to say, who put their 
 best conscience, their most honest endeavor, into 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 335 
 
 every service that life places upon them. To be 
 dependable in this world is a great power; and 
 the very strength and fabric of our modern life 
 rests upon the fact that we must depend one 
 upon another, and the very shame and ignoble- 
 ness of our modern life is that, all too frequently, 
 we do not find in our fellow-men that conscien- 
 tiousness which enables us, with confidence, to 
 rely upon them. The subordinate is not always 
 true to his superior, and the superior is not 
 always true to his subordinate. And so, in all 
 our industrial life, there are frictions, and diffi- 
 culties, and turmoils, because the virtue of 
 morality has not been incorporated into the life 
 of each one, and we have not learned that a part 
 of the regal business of the soul is to be con- 
 scientious in every phase of life, and in the per- 
 formance of every duty in life. 
 
 " In the elder days of Art, 
 
 Builders wrought with greatest care 
 Each minute and unseen part; 
 For the Gods see everywhere.'' 
 
 One's conscience ought to be such that he will 
 do every service of life, whether it is seen of his 
 fellow-men or seen only of his own conscience, 
 with the greatest care, knowing that his own 
 peace of mind, his own self-respect, his own 
 manhood, can never grow under deceit, or under 
 
336 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the pretense of being, in the appearances, what 
 he is not in the reality of things. What we 
 
 need as the very basis of 
 c^nc? friendship in life is that ah- 
 
 solute truthfulness of character 
 that rings sincere to the very core. If 
 we have a friend that we love, we place in that 
 friend absolute confidence, and that confidence 
 depends upon the conscientiousness with which 
 our friend receives all our kindly offices and 
 friendly aid. The broad moral activity of the 
 race is figured in the simple words, conscientious 
 devotion to service, and the performance of duty 
 — truthfulness in all the relations of life. For 
 the childhood of the race, above all the intellec- 
 tual gifts of the sciences and the arts, there is this 
 supremely significant thing ; for it is better that 
 our children, under our educational system, 
 should be trained to be thoroughly conscientious, 
 rather than to be thoroughly bright and smart. 
 
 The third of the great virtues of the human 
 soul is the virtue of the religious life, which ex- 
 presses itself in the word humility. No one can 
 
 be truly noble, heroic, helpful, 
 Reiigton ™ tn ^ s world, who does not have 
 
 a humble spirit, who has not 
 risen, in the study of his own limitations, to the 
 comprehension of the fact that all holy service 
 in the world is performed by the soul that is 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 337 
 
 imbued with the very spirit of humility. The 
 loud, the blatant, the arrogant man is always 
 the superficial, the never-to-be-trusted man. It 
 is the quiet doing of helpful things, so that one's 
 right hand is not informed of what one's left 
 hand doeth, that makes for the larger and better 
 services of life. The best things that we do are 
 not paraded in the newspapers; they are not 
 written on the bill-board of the theaters; they 
 are not displayed in the public advertisements on 
 the walls of tumble-down buildings ; but they are 
 the quiet, humble services of the undiscoverable 
 heart that finds its joy and comfort in the thought 
 that it is helpful and useful to another in this 
 world. 
 
 A child, coming up through our systems of 
 training to-day, needs to be endowed with these 
 great virtues of the human soul, to the end that, 
 when he walks into his place in life, he shall find 
 this place demanding of him the exercise of these 
 great qualities of the human soul. And now, if 
 the essence of human greatness is in some way 
 contained in the thought of a humble and contrite 
 spirit, that is willing to question all things, to 
 learn from all sources, to analyze all problems, 
 and face heroically all questions of duty with a 
 humble spirit, then one is prepared to study, 
 with some degree of detail, just what the scope 
 of such a training is. 
 
338 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 I should like to present it to you under three 
 
 aspects : First of all, the theoretical training in the 
 
 religious life. Second, the practical training in 
 
 the religious life. And, third, the 
 
 Scope of & ' 
 
 Religious absolute training in the religious 
 Education Hfe _ F or t h eS e three seem to me 
 to be distinct, and they seem to be comprehensive. 
 By the theoretical training in religious thought 
 and conduct, I mean the informing of the intel- 
 lect with all that sum of principles that shall give 
 us intellectual guidance for the performance of 
 
 Theoreticai dut y- l mean the training of 
 Training the intellect until it shall know 
 the difference between the right 
 and the wrong, the true and the false, the noble 
 and the ignoble things, until there is established 
 within each one a clear and definite theory of 
 conduct and duty, so that one has at least a ra- 
 tional basis for the acts of his life. Now, this 
 theoretical informing of the intellect in religious 
 things is again a matter which passes, in the 
 training of the child, through three distinct 
 epochs. 
 
 First in the theoretical training of the intel- 
 lect in religious things, is the nutrition of the 
 feeling-life of the child — the feeling of all that 
 keen interest of childhood, with literature as the 
 great material : the stories of heroic deeds, of 
 domestic, of civic and of social virtues — to the end 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 339 
 
 that the child shall come to believe in the great 
 heroes of life. The biographical quality of our 
 
 early religious teaching is of 
 First Epoch tremendous significance. It is a 
 
 great time in the life of a child 
 when it erects in its soul a great character, and 
 tries to build its own emotions and its own acts 
 in harmony therewith. 
 
 You know that our own George Washington 
 has been, perhaps, above every other man, a 
 great inspiration to the childhood of the country ; 
 and what a marvelous thing that has been to the 
 childhood of this race ! How many boys have 
 tried to be like that great boy, and how we have 
 idolized and glorified Washington's character, in 
 
 order that it might build itself 
 ^nnuTn'r' 8 up in the soul of the boy! And 
 
 so, in the life of a child, it needs 
 to have set in its spirit clearly defined characters 
 that it shall come to admire and strive to emu- 
 late. 
 
 The very earliest ideals that a child emulates 
 are found in the characters of the father and 
 mother. It is a marvelous thing to contemplate 
 to what extent all that you and I become in this 
 life may be traced directly to the early imitative 
 activities of our lives, when we believed our par- 
 ents and our school-teacher, perhaps, to be the 
 embodiment of all that we cared to be. 
 
340 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 I know a child in Philadelphia that has reached 
 the point in his school career when the views of 
 the teacher have become the guidance of that 
 life; and, now and then, when the parents say- 
 something, the child says, " Now, that cannot be 
 so, for Miss So-and-So, my teacher, says it is the 
 other way." There, you see, the child is moving 
 out to a new hero. And it is a 
 
 ^Example* - '* a ^ tt ^ e embarrassing, sometimes, 
 for a father to be called tO' ac- 
 count by his own child, to see the teacher en- 
 throned in the child's spirit; and yet it is most 
 natural. It is the sign of a great teacher when 
 that power has most been wrought in the life of 
 a child. It is also the sign of a great responsi- 
 bility, for, when the child tries to live after you, 
 be sure that you are living in the light, or you 
 will lead the child out of the light. 
 
 We shall add light with the fairy story and 
 moral tale. The Bible, and all the legendary lore 
 which nourishes the feelings of a child, enter the 
 field on the religious side. But this should not 
 be the end of the training of the mind, for, if so, 
 the mind rests in mysticism. There is no power 
 to organize that right feeling, and stir it into a 
 definite code of conduct. 
 
 The second of these intellectual disciplines is 
 the nutrition of definition, just as the first is the 
 nutrition of feeling. By the nutrition of defini- 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EPUCATION 34I 
 
 tion I mean the training of the imagination to 
 
 define its feelings — put bounds and limits to 
 
 them. In the larger religious life 
 
 second Epoch of the race, that activity has al- 
 ways been at work, and its ob- 
 jectivity has shown itself in the great art works 
 of the religious life of the race. Now, if the 
 spirit stops with the mere definition of its feelings, 
 the mind rests in idolatry. The ancient civiliza- 
 tions of the world have never gone beyond the 
 nutrition of definition, and their idolatrous peo- 
 ple worshiped the images in which they objecti- 
 fied their own religious feeling, and have rested 
 content with wood and stone, instead of pushing 
 beyond into vital contact with a high principle. 
 
 Above the nutrition of definition, and beyond 
 it, in the theoretical training of a child in reli- 
 gious things, is the nutrition of insight, by means 
 of which, through the rational mind, we see back 
 of the mere imagery which our minds have cre- 
 ated, and come into close and vital touch with the 
 reality which stands behind all 
 Third Epoch imagery, and which is in spirit 
 what these in broken parts are 
 but the material representation of. To realize 
 unity with God is the perfection of the individual. 
 
 The nutrition of feeling is the function of the 
 home and the primary school ; the nutrition of 
 definition is the function of the grammar school; 
 
342 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 and the nutrition of insight is the function of the 
 high-school, the college and the university. When 
 our feelings have been trained, our imagination 
 disciplined, and our reasoning power cultured, 
 we have completed the cycle of theoretical equip- 
 ment in religious things. The great problem 
 now is, how to build that splendid intellectual 
 possession into terms of conduct, how to make 
 all that the mind comprehends as duty figure 
 itself in deeds of helpfulness, in deeds of con- 
 sistent conduct. The grades of the Sunday- 
 school must also follow this order of soul growth. 
 That brings one to the discussion of the second, 
 or the practical, phase of religious training, by 
 which I mean the informing of the will, so that 
 Practical **• sna H work out in daily ser- 
 Training vice, in daily deeds, in daily 
 conduct, a code of activities in 
 harmony with all this theoretical training of the 
 race, and of the mind. To the Greek we owe 
 the fact that a rational basis for conduct was 
 established for the human race. If we have 
 nothing more than a rational basis for conduct, 
 we are theoretical teachers and theoretical peo- 
 ple, but if we can convert all that rational 
 thought, all that intellectual discernment of duty 
 into terms of conduct, then we have moved into 
 the will's domain, and we are doing that which 
 we know we should do. 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 343 
 
 We have a strangely significant fact in our 
 public school system to-day, which is largely an 
 intellectualized system of education, and which, 
 in its inception and quality, is secular through 
 and through, and increasingly so, I regret to say. 
 We have omitted the serious discipline of the 
 will of the child for the perform- 
 
 Wm Essentfcl atKe ° f hi g h m0ral and h[ S h re ' 
 
 ligious service. We seem to be 
 content, as a nation, when our children have 
 mastered a certain curriculum of intellectual 
 truth, and have passed a reasonable examination 
 thereupon. As if, somehow, the informing of the 
 mind with truth was all that we needed for right 
 living in our modern civilization ; when all of us 
 know, if we have but a moment's sane reflection 
 upon the problem, that the vital need is not the 
 informing of the mind with truth, but the in- 
 forming of the will with motive, so that we shall 
 be constrained to do, when we know what to do. 
 When human life stops short with intellectual, 
 instead of will, problems, that moment the race 
 ceases to become effective in its service to the 
 future, and in its duty to its children. 
 
 For almost two thousand years education was 
 under the control of the church, which was a 
 highly developed dogmatic and religious institu- 
 tion. It laid upon the conscience of the child the 
 axioms of the church, the tenets and doctrines of 
 
344 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 the faith. From the time that the Roman 
 schools were closed, under Theodosius II, at the 
 beginning of the fifth century, until the latter 
 half of the eighteenth century, education was 
 dominantly and continuously under the control 
 of religious agencies of some form or other. But 
 when the state, under the theory of paternal gov- 
 ernment, took the little child 
 ^urch* 1 fr° m ^ e church, and made it 
 an object of concern from the 
 state's point of view, instead of from the church's 
 point of view, we lost in the higher and broader 
 side of the discipline of the child's will. To com- 
 pensate for that, have been substituted Sunday- 
 schools, as a complementary activity, to do, side 
 by side with the secular school, that part of the 
 discipline of the child which the secular school, 
 under the control of the state, has failed to do. 
 
 If we consider for a minute, we shall see that 
 this is true. We had no Sunday-schools until we 
 had state systems of education. The Sunday- 
 school is scarce a hundred years old in its present 
 organization. Robert Raikes lived only a little 
 over a hundred years ago — he who first practi- 
 cally set in operation the 
 Robert Raikes Sunday-school movement. It 
 came about the time of the 
 American Revolution and the French Revolution 
 — about the time of the great unrest, and the 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 345 
 
 dawn of democracy among the nations of the 
 earth. Our great problem to-day in civilization 
 is to compel action, and not merely to acquire the 
 knowledge of what is best to do. 
 
 There are also three phases in the training of 
 the will in practical religious conduct. First, the. 
 consecration of self to these intellectual ideals 
 that we have acquired. I do not believe that any 
 one is religiously, ethically, or even morally, 
 right; I do not believe that any soul lives right 
 in this world to-day from any 
 First Phase plane that you choose to meas- 
 ure from, who is not willing to 
 consecrate all of himself to the things that he 
 believes with his whole soul. Whatever we be- 
 lieve, that must be the thing to which all our 
 energies must be consecrated. If we believe it is 
 our duty to visit the sick and minister to the 
 poor, no inclemency of the weather, and no ex- 
 cuse of any sort, no palliation of conditions, will 
 break our heroic determination to do the thing 
 which we know we ought to do. And all through 
 one's life, the first great vital quality of religious 
 conduct lies in the fact that a man consecrates 
 himself through and through to the things that 
 he believes, and is living well up to the standards 
 of the best that is in him. Unless we teach our 
 children to believe in these great truths of the 
 race, and instruct them daily to achieve them in 
 
346 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 life, we have fallen short in the discipline of the 
 will, and, therefore, in preparation for the actual 
 religious conditions of life. 
 
 The second of these great duties that comes 
 
 from the will, in the development of the religious 
 
 training of the child, is the reconciliation of the 
 
 individual with his lot. I do not mean quietism, 
 
 which makes a man go into the 
 
 Second Phase cloister, or the convent, or the 
 hermit's cell, away from the 
 world, but I mean that resolution which brings 
 peace to a man's mind amidst all the turmoil and 
 the strife of a busy daily experience. For it 
 seems to me that we need so to discipline our 
 souls that, wherever we work, in the midst of 
 what untoward conditions we find ourselves, we 
 can work with the heroism born of the con- 
 sciousness that we are right, and, thus, have 
 peace within. 
 
 This is a great doctrine for the human soul to 
 consider. But it does not mean that we shall be 
 doggedly content; it does not stand opposed to 
 high aspiration, to the bettering of one's lot, the 
 widening of one's usefulness, the intensifying of 
 one's activities ; but it means that, in whatever 
 place we find ourselves in this world, we can 
 reconcile ourselves to that place, and work there. 
 
 A teacher, not long since, said to me : " Oh, 
 if I were only teaching in the University ! Then 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 347 
 
 I should be happy. But I am teaching out here 
 in the country, where I am not appreciated, 
 where I do not have access to libraries, where 
 I am divorced from all contact with intellectual 
 people, and where I have not the stimulation and 
 companionship of bright minds. Oh, if I were 
 only in the city, in the University, then I should 
 be happy." But it matters not whether we teach 
 
 in the country or in the city, 
 The Vital Fact whether we are employed in the 
 
 shop, or the forge, or the fac- 
 tory; the vital thing is that we never labor well 
 until we are content to labor there with all our 
 souls, and thus fit ourselves to labor in a larger 
 place. No soul grows into larger usefulness by 
 fretting against his lot and the work he finds 
 himself called upon to perform. Whatever our 
 present duty may be, the best proof that we are 
 fitted to perform a larger service is that we are 
 performing our present task with infinite skill 
 and success. We need to put before our chil- 
 dren the gospel of doing daily service well ; not 
 half-heartedly, and therefore imperfectly. 
 
 The third of these trainings of the will consists 
 in giving to the child the power, and in exercis- 
 ing the power, of selecting, out of the many con- 
 flicting doctrines and teachings of the race, that 
 which is best for him, and erecting it into a doc- 
 trine and bond of belief which shall be his view- 
 
348 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 point in life. For none of us can live our best 
 unless we live consistently, and we cannot live 
 consistently until we have settled 
 Third Phase with ourselves the things we be- 
 lieve, and standing firmly upon 
 these, live right but from them, along the plain, 
 straight, unchanging course which is given to us, 
 because we have settled in our own souls certain 
 fundamental things. So long as we are wander- 
 ing, so long as we are shifting, so long as we 
 are changing, so long as we are uncertain, and 
 willing to be shaken and molded and modified by 
 every influence at work upon our lives, we have 
 not reached the point where we can hope for any 
 large growth or wide usefulness in our lives. 
 This means that Jesus was supremely wise in the 
 parable of the shepherd and that one cannot 
 realize his full life without joining a religious 
 organization. For us this means the Christian 
 church. 
 
 We come, finally, to consider our third point, 
 the absolute process in religious culture. That 
 begins, as I have hinted in the theoretical process, 
 in accordance with natural law; it is the modi- 
 
 Absoiute f y in S of the human soul as it 
 Training finds itself in touch with natural 
 things: it is conformity to law. 
 Herbert Spencer characterizes it as the adjust- 
 ment of the human being to his scientific en- 
 
THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 349 
 
 vironment. It begins with yielding obedience and 
 respect to the inevitable laws fixed in things, 
 and against which it is foolishness to protest. Life 
 cannot be religiously lived save 
 First Need as it is lived in obedience to law 
 as set by Divine Wisdom. 
 In the second place, it consists in studying all 
 the codes and creeds and doctrines of history ; it 
 is the investigation of all that the 
 Second Need race has done in its efforts to 
 build itself up into a higher life. 
 It means a study of the historic forms of religious 
 life and training. In its full realization it re- 
 quires a systematic investigation of the growth 
 of religious ideals in the race. 
 
 And, in the third place, it means picking out 
 
 of all these, here and there, the things that are 
 
 best religiously; separating the false from the 
 
 true, weighing all the evidence, all the facts 
 
 which have any bearing, from the wisdom of all 
 
 the great souls of all peoples, 
 
 Final Need and forming all that accepted 
 
 truth into a bond of doctrine 
 
 which shall become the creed of the soul, so that 
 
 it shall live and die, by reason of its conviction, 
 
 in the righteousness of that creed. 
 
 When once we reach that point, the training is 
 done, whether intellectual, or moral, or ethical, or 
 religious, or whatever it may be. So you will 
 
350 THE MAKING OF A TEACHER 
 
 see, if you have followed the discussion, that it 
 terminates in one thing. There was first the dis- 
 cipline of the intellect in theoretical training-; 
 then the discipline of the will for practical ser- 
 vice, and, finally, the discipline 
 
 T serv?ce iS of the soul to absolute stand- 
 ards of life, and then the appli- 
 cation of all this to service — for we have not 
 reached, to any appreciable degree, the end of all 
 high training until we have learned that we live 
 best when we live least for ourselves and most 
 for others. That man is richest in soul who has 
 given most to enrich other souls ; that man is a 
 beggar in his spirit who has never done kindly 
 ministrations to his fellow-men. 
 
 As I said not long since to a group of boys, 
 you have all the opportunity of being heroes. A 
 boy who will run all day over the hills of Penn- 
 sylvania to shoot a rabbit, and then sit down and 
 eat it in greedy selfishness, is not a good boy. 
 The boy I like will shoulder his gun when his 
 neighbor is sick, and bring back to the one in 
 distress the food and comfort that his body and 
 spirit need. It is the service we render, the 
 kindly spirit, the thoughtful concern for the wel- 
 fare of another soul, the giving of the cup of 
 water, in His name, that makes life rich and the 
 soul strong. 
 
the scope of religious education 35 1 
 Questions and Suggestions. 
 
 For testing one's grasp of the subject, and 
 for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. 
 
 Has Ruskin stated the great problems of life correctly? 
 
 What constitutes moral activity? 
 
 How does moral character differ from religious char- 
 acter ? 
 
 What are the three great virtues of life ? 
 
 Discuss at length the significance of politeness, con- 
 scientiousness, and humility. 
 
 What are the different aspects of the training necessary 
 for the religious life? 
 
 In what way may a course of study be formulated upon 
 the theoretic training here set forth? 
 
 Construct on the basis of your answer to these ques- 
 tions three necessary departments in a school of religious 
 instruction. 
 
 In practical religious training what three purposes 
 should be sought? 
 
 When may the child be said to have completed his 
 training in religious things? 
 
 How in this discussion do you find justification for the 
 quality in human souls which makes martyrs ? 
 
 Does this discussion justify the conclusion that life 
 is service and that service is holy? 
 
 THE END.