Honesty
Honesty is commonly thought of as trustworthiness in the conduct of business dealings, as opposed to fraud and cheating. It is all that and much more. It implies sincerity, uprightness, truth, honor, integrity, justice, chastity, decency, propriety, virtue and frankness. The word honesty implies much, and there is too great danger that the teacher practice it in its common meaning only, forgetting that its application is broad. It is very essential that he should not overlook any of its implications. A teacher cannot be said to be honest when he merely returns a dollar’s worth of service for a dollar. That does not exactly constitute honesty, though it may seem to do so. The teacher who shirks a duty, which he should do, because he finds it is not in his province is like the man who did not pay his street car fare because the conductor forgot to call upon him for his ticket. He argued that it was the conductor’s duty to call for it but honesty demands that he should have paid it.
A teacher should be sincere; he should do nothing for effect. All his actions should be genuine, arising from true motives. The term upright is indeed vague. In its usual meaning it signifies an adherence to moral principles. It can be easily understood and applied, if the teacher will remember to admonish his pupils not to do anything which he would not do himself. If the teacher undertakes to teach a moral principle, he must first live it himself and then he will have weight in his arguments for righteousness.
Honor is that trait of character which holds one to the practice of all the laws of the strictest moral code. The teacher whose integrity cannot be questioned is the teacher who has fulfilled, in his life, all those demands that are set forth in the laws of the Master Teacher. He has lived up to the Golden Rule. Justice demands that all shall be given their rights. The teacher can do no better than to be just to all. When one has decided notions of right and wrong upon the basis of results in the lives of his fellows, he has reached the exact idea of propriety. Virtue is a broad term, but a word that is significant. That life is virtuous whose every deed promotes the common good.
A teacher should not practice Sunday honesty—that kind of honesty which works under certain conditions and lapses at intervals. Everyone, no doubt, is inclined to reach high water marks of absolute truthfulness, and must beware of lapses into error, even falling below the ordinary standards of every day life. The honesty that is commendable is clean, out-in-the-open honesty that is always active, not simply when great issues are at stake. No other profession demands honesty more than that of the teacher. His attitude here must be real, not affected. If there is pretence or sham, the first to become aware of it will be the pupil; and the effect upon him is that he loses confidence in the teacher who should be his model.
Temper
The question of temper should not be omitted from a full discussion of a teacher’s moral code. How often has a teacher boasted to a friend or fellow-teacher that he indulged himself in a frenzy of temper before his school, thereby “scaring the wits out of the pupils” and remarked further that the pupils feared him thereafter for a week. Such an action on the part of a teacher is almost criminal. A teacher cannot afford to lower his dignity by such methods. While no attempt is being made to discuss methods at this point, for they will be discussed in following chapters, yet it is the aim to point out those immoral actions from which a teacher should be free. It is foolish for anyone to allow his temper to get away from his control. A teacher should cultivate an amiable disposition. It is never necessary to permit one’s temper to override his common sense.
“When I taught school, there were many times when the indifference, stupidity, flippancy, or silliness of the class brought me to such a pitch of rage, that I dared not trust myself to speak. I would clutch the arms of my chair, and swallow foam until I felt complete self-command; then I would speak with quiet gravity. The boys all saw what was the matter with me, and learned something not in the book.” (Phelps.)[[5]]
[5]. Bagley, op. cit. p. 42.