System
The ability to have order and system in school work will go a great way toward making the work easier and more effective. Method and order are great time savers. A teacher is an architect. For every task there must be a plan. Each lesson must have its place. Each step its reason. A teacher who formulates and plans his work will accomplish much more than the teacher who relies upon circumstances to point out to him his method of procedure. To be careless, haphazard and aimless means to fail.
A teacher can learn a valuable lesson from studying any great factory where labor and time saving devices are employed. In addition to these, every means of system and order are used to secure the greatest effectiveness of energy put forth. Many an individual has acquired an education in spare moments, by putting system into his work, and thus saved time and energy which could be expended in securing an education. Unsystematic school work is a waste of energy. The teacher should have a time for everything, as well as a place for everything. Begin school on time, close on time. Regularity will bring good results. The slogan of many advertisers is, “Do it now.” Time lost can rarely ever be regained.
The prudent teacher will use studied methods—methods that apply to the lesson and class at hand. He who uses correct methods in the school-room will doubtless use right methods in his study, and further will practice regular habits in his life outside of the school-room. The regular habits of a teacher in all of his activities will always be reproduced in the work of his pupils.
It is true, that there are scores of “method books” claiming to give needed “directions” for every detail of school work. It is foolish for a teacher to rely upon such advice. Every so-called method is needful and helpful, but a teacher must study his class and his lessons and apply just such methods as his experience teaches him will secure the best and most lasting results. How often can one visit certain schools and note the effect of the weekly or monthly advent of the teacher’s paper. Such teachers have no tried methods of their own but each week or month they try out methods only to find many of them unsuited to their needs. Such procedures prevent continuous progress. They are like a ship without a rudder; they will finally run upon the rocks of failure.
It is easy for a teacher to develop a narrowness in his tastes that forbids him to seek proper variation in his work. The more devoted a teacher is the more he needs diversions quite disconnected from his professional duties. The freshness of mind gained by digressions from school routine is as necessary as the preparation of lesson material itself.